Steam Machine spotted with smart custom E-ink front cover displaying CPU and GPU temps

Valve's resurrected Steam Machine continues to fascinate this week, and another smart aspect of this mini PC that aims to rule your living room is custom front covers, with an E-ink solution just coming to light.

Notebookcheck.net noticed (via VideoCardz) that Gamers Nexus talked about the front cover - which attaches magnetically to the cube chassis of the Steam Machine - and how owners will be able to 3D print their own covers.

See the above YouTube video, but the idea is to jazz up the Steam Machine with a striking piece of artwork, or maybe a cover with better airflow, or Valve has even been testing a model which is an E-ink display (with bezel).

This won't be sold, sadly, but it's likely more techy types will make their own similar inventions (and perhaps even sell them). The idea is made all the more nifty as Valve has the display showing HWInfo details like the current GPU and CPU temps, fan speeds and so on- which is (literally) very cool.

We can expect plenty of customization options with the Steam Machine, including a fully-fledged Companion Cube (from Portal) skin which is due out from Dbrand next year. That's a new shell for the entire device, not just a fancy front panel.

All of which should help those who feel that the new Steam Machine looks pretty bland or even boring by default - although there are also gamers who will appreciate a low-profile and unassuming piece of hardware that isn't an eyesore in the living room.

The key question about the Steam Machine remains the pricing, but there's certainly hope that Valve will pull out the stops to make this device an attractive proposition.

We don't want a repeat of the original Steam Machine - which crashed and burned, or rather smouldered over the latter half of the last decade - but the state of play with SteamOS, and Linux game compatibility (though that still has very definite wrinkles), will hopefully ensure this isn't the case.