Valve's Steam Box

[Steve]

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/the...rently-at-ces/

After rumours, speculation, confirmation, and then yet more rumours, we finally have a glimpse at a real-life, working Steam Box. It’s code-named ‘Piston’ and it’s being made by a company called Xi3 Corporation, in whom Valve has plunked a load of dosh. Oh, and it’s tiny.

Xi3 is a micro-PC specialist, and it’s using its own X7A system as the basis for the Piston. Apparently the fully-finished Steam Box will pack a quad-core chip and 1TB of storage. Other specs are in short supply, but it’ll come packing HDMI out and more USB ports than you can shake a stick at, plus it’ll be upgradable, because the motherboard is said to be modular. Not that you’ll fit regular PC components in that small a box, but at least you won’t have to junk the whole thing, should Steam games demand more specs.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-know-so-far/#

Early details suggest the system is codenamed 'Piston' and will be coloured in the familiar charcoal grey associated with Valve's software. Valve's Steam, specifically its Big Picture Mode for TVs, will likely be pre-installed onto the Linux based operating system.

Manufacturer Xi3 is a specialist in developing micro-size modular computing without performance tradeoffs. Its systems are typically four-inch cubes, barely larger than a Rubik's Cube, and also allow for relatively straightforward swapping and upgrading of components.

Xi3 chief marketing officer David Politis told games site Polygon that Piston will offer up to one terabyte of internal storage, eight USB ports (half of them using the significantly faster USB 3.0 standard) and a HDMI output for 1080p TV display.

Politis added that the Steam Box is based on the company's X7A system, so while the final Steam Box PC specs are unknown, it could carry:

Between 4 and 8 gigabytes of DDR3 RAM
A quad-core 64-bit, x86-based 32nm processor running at up to 3.2GHz (with 4MB of Level2 Cache)
An integrated graphics card containing up to 384 programmable cores

The X7A starts at $999, so Valve will likely want to reduce the RRP in line with its own specifications. The entry-level X5A, which uses Linux, starts at $499.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ox90oXq8c



http://kotaku.com/5973986/here-we-go...wn-off-tonight

[Scott]

Nice, but the price is a little high and I really don't understand who is going to line up to buy one. It's not a console, it's not a PC. What is it?

[SilentTrigger]

At that price i'd rather by a PC where you can upgrade with standard parts. But it is interesting, thats for sure!

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Scott

What is it?

maybe it's the missing link, pc functionality with console ease of use? valve recently launched the "big picture" feature that transforms steam allowing you to easily use it with xbox controller on your large screen/tv. you can now choose games on steam based on full controller support, partial controller support and no controller support.

[atholon]

Originally Posted by Scott

Nice, but the price is a little high and I really don't understand who is going to line up to buy one. It's not a console, it's not a PC. What is it?

I agree.

[Guest001]

You'd need to screw it down or put it in a bracket, the risk of yanking it off the desk or where ever would be high.

Can't see it running BF3 or such high end games unless they have a one up on Nvidia or AMD, embedded or CPU based graphics are not there yet.

It's like mobile phones have had to get bigger (they were smaller and smaller at first) then they became impractical to use.

They need to offer more because as stated earlier Xbox PS3/4 have it nailed down tight.

Totally wireless would be a must overall to make it practical and safe to use.

Nice idea but, for now - Fail