Update: Xi3 Opens "Piston" Steam Box Pre-Orders
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
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They are also far more reliable than solid state drives. I'd take reliability, low cost, and more storage over an (marginal) improvement of data transfer speed any day.Evil Smurf said:
I can buy a more powerful PC for less. I can also do a lot more with that 1k PC than this Steam Box. Case in point
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227444 (It just might explode on you or be the wrong computer entirely, or be put together wrong, or anything else really, but shit, what do you want for 700 bucks?)
I do like the name though. It's powered by Steam and is called Piston, that's just perfect.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227444 (It just might explode on you or be the wrong computer entirely, or be put together wrong, or anything else really, but shit, what do you want for 700 bucks?)
I do like the name though. It's powered by Steam and is called Piston, that's just perfect.
I think in this case it is the size of the object.Ironman126 said:
As SSD are smaller and if you are designing the SSD yourself, as there are no moving parts, you could make it fit diffidently on your mini computer.
Also Judging by the back of this thing they fully expect people to hook an external up to it.
Actually that the opposite, an SSD is more reliable since it got no mechanical part, SSD tend to die very early or at their maximum write durability, HD just tend to fail randomly. So basically just put an SSD into test reliability for a week or two to check if can be integrated. With HD there no point beyond a double pass check, has anything beyond a bad unit is just random.Ironman126 said:
What a hard drive got is more endurance, has an SSD got a limited number of write possible, while a HD is pretty much unlimited until the mechanical part fail or degrade beyond usability. But that usually beyond the care of consumer, has most don't have enough disk and/or a high enough I/O to disk for endurance to be a buying point.
Everyone should keep in mind, that these are 'early adopter' prices. Like all releases in technology, prices will get more reasonable for your average consumer as popularity increases. Remember how much an LCD TV cost you back in the day?
I see a large amount of potential on a pre-built, Valve-supported turnkey PC. If they can eventually bring in down to console prices, a single, predictable architecture would be a much better way to develop games.
I see a large amount of potential on a pre-built, Valve-supported turnkey PC. If they can eventually bring in down to console prices, a single, predictable architecture would be a much better way to develop games.
So this and Steambox are just computers for your living room specialized for gaming but can be modified and upgraded like a PC. Makes sense to me. Would be cool if it just ran steam without a need for windows and all the usual requirements of games through windows were somehow intact.
I understand why. It's because there's nothing worse than plunking down your $400 Steambox and finding out a fifth of the games are too intense for it. Remember, this is Steam, which sells PC versions, which are not well-optimized.
But still, $1000? Tough sell, indeed. Looks like this is the downside of what looked to be a bit of a Holy Grail in console/PC crossover.
But still, $1000? Tough sell, indeed. Looks like this is the downside of what looked to be a bit of a Holy Grail in console/PC crossover.
The difference is hardly "marginal". A clean, fresh computer on SSD vs. HDD is something like eight seconds boot versus twenty eight seconds boot.Evil Smurf said:
Source: Personal experience, hardware class I'm acing
Also, the 15,000 RPM drive is not very stable and just as expensive as a standard SSD, and SSD is getting exponentially more stable.
This is a computer. It does have all the functions of a computer.Legion said:
It's built specifically with Steam in mind, but you can still use it as a regular old micro-PC.
OK, I think people are missing the point here. Yes, I too have a PC that is more powerful than this and cost less and probably got more functionality. Then again I can't carry my PC in one hand. It is actually quite big and thus giving me some problems to balance in one hand.
Now I often have to spend a few months away from my computer and it's too big to bring with me. I see this one having a major advantage because I can actually bring it with me. Still this is a bit too expensive for my taste seeing as I already have a PC.
Now I often have to spend a few months away from my computer and it's too big to bring with me. I see this one having a major advantage because I can actually bring it with me. Still this is a bit too expensive for my taste seeing as I already have a PC.
I don't see the advantage of one of these over a laptop. Unless you're playing the very newest games at their maximum settings you can easily get a laptop for these prices. My five year old laptop runs the Batman games smooth as silk on nearly the highest settings. On top of that it isn't all that portable. Sure it's small but you still need a screen and something to control it with so unless you're just going from hotel room to hotel room where there are televisions, than a laptop is superior. I can bring my laptop on the train, plane, or bus and bring it to school to do work but I can't do that with this thing.
I'm sorry to break it for Xi3,but I'l go Pachter on this and predict the future:
Piston will be a commercial failure. The biggest downside it has is that it uses laptop/tablet type of hardware,which might make individual hardware parts smaller,but at the same time they are also weaker than desktop parts,and more expensive.
The processor it has is R464. That's an embed AMD APU. In fact its of the weakest processors from AMD.
It's not anywhere near as fast as a Bulldozer FX chip,it's actually even less faster than Phenom II cores.
The embed gpu of the R464 is an HD 7660.
They tried to demo Tomb Raider on it,and the game lagged awfully. I wonder why they decided to demo the machine with this game,as the machine obviously has a very low frame rate on that game.
But then they also demoed a Call of Duty game,that the machine could play with a decent frame rate:
A seasoned PC gamer,or even console gamers who happen to visit forums and read threads like this, won't give it a thought to buy this the moment they check the specs.
So who is this machine targeting ? Is it the casual crowd that just wants something that can play some games and fits under a big TV,but aren't excited enough to research ?
Then I'm sorry to say it,but this target group is going to focus its interest on OUYA.
The console that will cost 99$ and already has 500 games listed for its launch.
Piston will be a commercial failure. The biggest downside it has is that it uses laptop/tablet type of hardware,which might make individual hardware parts smaller,but at the same time they are also weaker than desktop parts,and more expensive.
The processor it has is R464. That's an embed AMD APU. In fact its of the weakest processors from AMD.
It's not anywhere near as fast as a Bulldozer FX chip,it's actually even less faster than Phenom II cores.
The embed gpu of the R464 is an HD 7660.
They tried to demo Tomb Raider on it,and the game lagged awfully. I wonder why they decided to demo the machine with this game,as the machine obviously has a very low frame rate on that game.
But then they also demoed a Call of Duty game,that the machine could play with a decent frame rate:
A seasoned PC gamer,or even console gamers who happen to visit forums and read threads like this, won't give it a thought to buy this the moment they check the specs.
So who is this machine targeting ? Is it the casual crowd that just wants something that can play some games and fits under a big TV,but aren't excited enough to research ?
Then I'm sorry to say it,but this target group is going to focus its interest on OUYA.
The console that will cost 99$ and already has 500 games listed for its launch.
Is this thing gonna be a PC or just a machine to play games? $1000 is not worth it just to play games.
I don't quite understand the point of this, anybody that owns an HD television in their living room should be able to connect their computer to it. I feel the size of a computer case is a distinct advantage because it means there is practically no limit on how far you can upgrade the system, provided the motherboards have the same anchor points.
As good a system that is, I wouldn't pick the K series processor unless you were gonna throw a in a better cpu cooler later and overclock.Tar Palantir said:CPU: 3570K 220$
Mobo: Z77MA-G45 116$
GPU: Gigabyte HD 7950 300$
HD: WD Blue 1TB 80$
SSD: Samsung Pro 840 128GB 134$
RAM: Corsair Low Profile 8GB 1600mhz 59$
CASE: HAF 912 PLUS 70$
979$
Until they can beat this, I'll stick to custom building, thank you
Back on topic, I can see the appeal of a tiny, yet powerful PC. I mean, it would be an awesome LAN box because you can still use a keyboard and mouse. Just a bit costly for a PC.
