SteamBox got a name : Piston

[Ritsuki]

Staff edit/update - word on the street is Valve may indeed be "licensing" the design and this might just be one of the potential models. More on that development http://gbatemp.net/threads/valve-piston-is-only-one-of-multiple-hardware-prototypes.340769/

​

So, we got some new informations about Valve gaming system. It will be manufactured by Xi3, and should offer 1TB of memory and a 3.2GHz ADM CPU. No information about the GPU. It looks like RAM and CPU will be upgradeable. Piston's performances will be based on Xi3's "X73 model".​

​

More info : Source (Polygon), Xi3 website​

​

My thoughts : Kind of useless for people who are already into PC gaming, but it's still a good opportunity for the others (depending of the price)

 

[KingVamp]

Like Steambox better. Pretty small.

 

[xist]

Oooh, plasticky looking!

 

[ShadowSoldier]

I wonder what the price will be.

 

[Lanlan]

I wonder what the price will be.

Apparently it's gonna be around the specs of the company's X7A thingy, which costs $999

 

[Devin]

Mmmm. Dem ports.

Spoiler

 

[shakirmoledina]

only for playing all games or steam games? if both then it looks like a nice deal if less than $900 for a new tech.

 

[Veho]

"Piston"? This is gonna get more penis jokes than the Wii

 

[Lanlan]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/262476727/xi3-help-us-usher-in-the-post-pc-era
The video here explains what it is pretty well. I was skeptical but now I'm sold. This will be the shit if they can pull it off right.

 

[KingVamp]

"Piston"? This is gonna get more penis jokes than the Wii

It looks like they took a Piston the competition.

 

[DinohScene]

So much for the "PC Masterrace"

 

[EyeZ]

I've just upgraded my PC too, but i'm interested to see what they finally release.

 

[Rydian]

RESPONSES IN ORDER!

1 - Oh come on, that's WAY too small to house a good-and-cheap GPU. :\

2 - 1TB of "space" (secondary storage).

3 - Hey baby, check out my piston. You should see where I stuck my piston. Anybody around here seen my piston lately? Hold on, still polishing my piston.

 

[indask8]

I guess the CPU will be more like an CPU+GPU, so if you can upgrade the CPU, you upgrade the GPU at the same time.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I thought they'd call it "Steam Engine" or something but Piston is good enough.

Also that's quite small.

Still if the price is right this thing would definitely be a console killer for me. It's not meant for people who already have their gaming PCs, it's for people who want an alternative to living room gaming. Hence why they made Big Picture Mode and began integrating more controller support into their games.

 

[jrk190]

Heh, this is one instance where i'd rather be "piston" than pissed off.
No, but in all seriousness, if the price is less than 400 bucks, this'd be great. But at $1000, I can build a gaming rig, with just as good, if not BETTER specs. I've already paid out $800 for a gaming laptop, if this were to be a sale, it'd going to need a good price. Not a car payment.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Heh, this is one instance where i'd rather be "piston" than pissed off.
No, but in all seriousness, if the price is less than 400 bucks, this'd be great. But at $1000, I can build a gaming rig, with just as good, if not BETTER specs. I've already paid out $800 for a gaming laptop, if this were to be a sale, it'd going to need a good price. Not a car payment.

I don't think they'd be foolish enough to charge $800-$1000. I think $600 would be top of the line because, if it it can play every Steam game, it's a steal at $600.

But knowing Valve I wouldn't be surprised if they sell it on a loss. Considering all game sales would go through Steam, it'd be quite easy to fill the profit gap.

 

[Rydian]

I guess the CPU will be more like an CPU+GPU, so if you can upgrade the CPU, you upgrade the GPU at the same time.

It's AMD so it's likely an APU with that size. That has some really strong benefits for a project like this (a lot cheaper, smaller, cooler, and easier on the PSU), but might not be good enough competition.

I mean yeah, it's going up against the consoles and it doesn't take much to top them now, but still.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It's AMD so it's likely an APU with that size. That has some really strong benefits for a project like this (a lot cheaper, smaller, cooler, and easier on the PSU), but might not be good enough competition.

I mean yeah, it's going up against the consoles and it doesn't take much to top them now, but still.

Well in the console sphere, launching a console with already thousands of games via Steam on it would be amazing. It also achieves what console makers have been dreaming for years: having ALL sales go through the console maker. Unless/until this thing is cracked, every game will be bought through Steam, meaning Valve gets a cut of every piece of software. Quite honestly, that's flipping amazing.

I mean this has so much potential, I just hope it doesn't fail. I think Valve knows what they're doing though so I'll stay optimistic.

 

[Rydian]

Well if people can get the motherboard to boot off of external media they can wipe the steam OS and get total control with another Linux distro.
But that'd just be turning it into a PC running Linux and pirating the games and then doing the compatibility troubleshooting yourself...

Anyways I'm curious how many games they're going to offer. They obviously can't port 99% of things themselves, so it's getting devs to port, and/or compatibility layers. Hopefully both. I'd say hopefully the fomer mainly, but... haha, not happening.

EDIT: Typo, post -> port.