
The “Steam Box” era begins with the Piston, a $1,000 PC-in-a-console - shawndumas
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/the-steam-box-era-begins-with-the-piston-a-1000-pc-in-a-console/
======
Irregardless
Ringing in the new era with a dud.

Why does it need to fit in the palm of your hand when it will most likely sit
on a shelf its entire life? And who thought there was demand for a $1,000 mid-
range gaming console? A cheap, low-performance device could at least be
justified as an emulator/HTPC if it couldn't serve as a dedicated current-gen
gaming console (which the Piston can't do either).

If this is any preview of what's to come from the "Steam Box" lineup, consider
my excitement totally extinguished.

------
amelim
I think it's important to note that this actually isn't the Valve branded
"Steam box", but actually a similar spec hardware platform to the one Valve is
developing internally. It's unfortunate that a lot of the momentum and hype
Valve can leverage with their name is being wasted on this particular platform
which they have nothing to do with.

~~~
corin_
> _they have nothing to do with_

They may not be the ones creating this, but they do have something to do with
it, in that they have officially partnered with Xi3 and call this system a
"third-party prototype" of the Steam Box. Arguably the momentum/hype wouldn't
be "wasted" (subjective term) if Valve hadn't chosen to "waste" (/"use") it on
this product.

~~~
isleyaardvark
Valve just stated that they "began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year,
but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs."

And by "just stated", I mean they just stated it today. I thought they were
still associated as well:

[http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/12/valve-disassociates-
itself...](http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/12/valve-disassociates-itself-from-
xi3/)

------
dublinben
This product is an awful bunch of compromises. The price is far too high for
the performance it delivers. No console owner will be tempted by a $1000 price
tag and limited game catalog. No PC gamer will be tempted by tepid performance
in a small package.

~~~
duaneb
It's a first generation product—nobody in their right mind would buy it
anyway. Setting the price at $1000 means people who buy it probably know what
they are doing and can help valve improve the most—think paying for a beta
test.

At least that's my interpretation.

~~~
jordan0day
I think that's an optimistic interpretation. The "early adopter" tax people
pay for the first version of something works for no-other-options devices
(think the first HDTV's or Blu-Ray players). In this case however, just about
can go to Microcenter and build a better-performing machine for significantly
cheaper. The form factor or power consumption may not be as good, but I'm not
entirely sure how much that matters compared to several hundred dollars of up-
front savings?

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ghshephard
Here is a nice guide for a $500 "Steam Box"

[http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-build-your-
own...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-build-your-own-steam-
box/) Great pictures for assembly - components as follows:

    
    
      Processor: Intel Core i3-3220 ($130)
      Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61M-HD2 Micro-ATX ($55)
      RAM: Kingston Value 4GB DDR3 1066 Low-Profile ($30)
      Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GHz Edition ($115)
      Hard Drive: Western Digital Blue 500GB 7200RPM ($60)
      Power Supply: Antec NEO ECO 400-Watt ($40)
      Case: Antec New Solution VSK-3000 ($30)
      Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII M4 ($30)

~~~
TillE
The GPU is fine, but that build needs more RAM and possibly a better CPU.
Would benefit significantly from an SSD; spend ~$100 on a 128GB SSD and watch
your loading times drop.

~~~
lusr
My machine is always on. Subjectively, having 24GB of RAM made far more of a
performance difference than my Plextor PX-256M3P, presumably because with 24GB
of RAM pretty much everything of importance ends up being cached in RAM sooner
or later.

------
qdog
$1000 seems a little pricey, however, a grapefruit sized, sleek computer has a
lot higher Wife Approval Factor than the "On Sale" computer case with red
flashing LEDs I used for my server. Even at $900, I'm not getting one pre-
sale, but something like this that sits comfortably on top of/beside my stereo
might happen at some point.

The video card is a 7660, so probably the highest end graphics you can get in
something that isn't pulling more wattage.

Something like this might make it into my living room at some point, but I'll
have to see how it performs as an HTPC type of thing before committing. The
SSD doesn't bother me so much, most content is streaming or going to be stored
on a main server for me.

Does it support airplay out of the box?

I don't mind having to ssh in to get things to work right, but there's a lot
to be said for something that "Just seems to work most of the time" for other
household members.

Edit: Looking around, it seems the amd R series is too new to have many
reviews, but the 464 is the top 'APU' in the lineup and seems to be targeted
at some of the i7 line from intel. There aren't many for sale retail, but just
the cpu and a motherboard would run about $450 if my maths are right ($229
retail for the APU, ~175 pounds for a jetway motherboard). So, the form factor
seems to be adding a really large premium. Adding in memory, disk, etc. I can
see it getting to $1000. This is also a 35W system, while I still think $1000
is above my pain threshold, a 35W system doing full-on PC gaming is a little
mind-blowing to those of us who remember when Pentium-based computer was a
synonym for 400W 'space heater'.

------
zalzane
I think it's important to note that this is a 3rd party offering that's
compliant with what we assume to be the "steambox standards", and is not
Valve's first party product.

From the article:

>This is not to be confused with Valve's own Steam Box hardware development
efforts, which should result in a prototype in the next few months.

------
MisterBastahrd
For the price? They should have called it the "idiot box."

~~~
jayfuerstenberg
That name was taken by the television.

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rburhum
Sadly, no matter what kind of hardware/specs it has, the price point is too
high. One reason the Wii took over back a huge chunk of the market was the
price point (yes, you can also talk about the novel controllers, games, etc,
but it is hard to argue against the pricing argument). When I was at MS Games
studio, there was a lot of research that backed up the idea of "console sweet
spots". Sadly, those (Gartner?) reports cost a lot of money and are not public
so I can link to them :-(

~~~
crypteasy
This reminds me of the 3D0. It was the first 32 bit video game console on the
market and was well ahead of its time in multiple ways (Internet multiplayer).
However they entered a saturated market at a very steep cost and never fully
took off. This won't take off at a 1000 dollars. Who has that kind of money to
spend on something that doesn't provide more value than alternatives?

~~~
rburhum
Exactly. Remember the Neo Geo? Arcade-quality games... better than any other
console of its time! The price point killed it.

------
corin_
As other people point out you can always build your own cheaper, but if you
want an out of the box solution, the Alienware X51 is surely already here,
with a starting price of $700, a form-factor / size not dissimilar to the Xbox
360, and better (I think, though I'm not great at AMD/Intel AMD/NVIDIA
comparisons) specs?

$699 gets you i3-3220, GT640, 6GB memory - upgradable at multiple price points
up to $1299 for i7-3770, GTX660, 16GB memory.

<http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx>

Disclaimer: I do not work for Dell/Alienware, however I do in some ways work
with them - the above is my personal opinion, my work does not involve
evangelising :)

------
roc
The "Steam Box" era won't/can't begin until Steam is actually delivering the
"all gamepad" experience that living-room users expect.

And that sounds like it's further away than hardware that hits any particular
place on the price/performance/heat/noise spectrum.

~~~
jokermatt999
Actually, I've found a good amount of support for gamepads in Steam already.
When they rolled out the Big Picture mode beta several months ago, games
already started adding in controller support. Games that hadn't updated in
years (Audiosurf) updated to add controller support. It's not completely
universal, but it seems pretty good so far. Additionally, if they build in
something like Joy2Key into the Steam Box hardware, it may be easier than
you'd think.

~~~
roc
Yes, but where gamepads are already supported, it's more the rule than the
exception that you're going to run into menus and things that can't be
negotiated via the gamepad.

(e.g. Windows UAC prompts, menus, pop-ups or text boxes that inexplicably
demand kb/m input, etc. )

So it's not as if one flips the power on and sits on their couch with just a
gamepad and has a console-style experience.

------
jonheller
I agree, price seems way off. I built a Steam Box for around $400 based on a
multitude of guides out there, and every game I've thrown at it so far has run
wonderfully (Tomb Raider, Skyrim, NBA 2k13, etc)

~~~
GuiA
What's the configuration?

~~~
jonheller
Something very similar to this:

1GB XFX Radeon HD 7770 Intel Pentium G850, Socket 1155, Dual Core, 2.90GHz
LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x DVD±R Fractal Design Core 1000 500W Storm Silent
LPJ19-25 MSI H61M-P31 (G3) Motherboard 4GB Corsair Value DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333)
500GB Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm Windows 7 64BIT
Professional

------
xsmasher
There's too many plugs on this thing for a living room box. Way too many. One
USB, one HDMI, that's it. Need a headset? Use bluetooth.

The Mac Mini has fewer ports than this, and it's an honest-to-pete computer.

~~~
grimboy
What are you going to plug all the gamepads into then?

------
jdavid
This is what Asia does, they skip the consumer research and just make stuff
and sell it at a small markup over cost. This is not a new product, a
revolution, or anything other than a tiny PC. Some people will buy it, it
might even be called a platform, but it's not a revolution.

~~~
unwind
Yeah, that's all that continent of 17,212,000 square miles, with a population
of around 4.2 billion people in 48 countries, does.

------
kelvin0
When I see ridiculous stuff like this 'Steam Box' it makes me really glad I
joined the OUYA bandwagon early on ...

OUYA!

------
adamman
I can't wait to get this right after I buy the chrome pixel in 2016.

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jiggy2011
In order to justify that price it needs to things well other than games.

I'm curious as to what the difference is between a "Steam box" and a PC
running Linux or Windows that has steam installed?

~~~
NuZZ
No difference beyond prepackaged software. It's just a PC in a small box,
nothing special.

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z3phyr
What kind of changes can this 'steam-box' generation bring about for
developers as well as consumers?

~~~
stonemetal
If it takes off you will see PC hardware become more console like than it is
now, lengthened hardware cycles for GFX cards etc. Devs get a slower moving
target to aim at, min specs become the current or perhaps previous gen. Steam
box. Consumers get easy compatibility, Game X is compatible with Steam box 2+.

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wmil
I would have kept my old Radeon 7200 if I had known it would be high tech
again.

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binarymax
Anyone know what distro it is meant to support?

~~~
juan_juarez
Currently, Steam is only distributed for Ubuntu.

