Pre-orders open for Xi3's 'Piston' PC, $100 off during SXSW

Xi3's Steam-focused PC "console," the Piston, is now available for pre-order, the company announced yesterday.

[aviator189]

Having a good hook-up from my pc to my 50 inch and a ps3/xbox 360...I'm not dropping $1000 for piston.

Then again...I don't think I'm part of the targeted audience.

[fermcr]

Yep. I have a pretty decent PC, don't need a overpriced PC 'Piston', no matter how small it is.
For 600$ a person can build a better PC then this 999$ 'Piston'.

BTW... can it play Simcity ? A lot of PC's out there can't (lol... couldn't resist)

[PeaSFor]

thing is, got myself a small media pc with a i5 2500k, Z68 Motherboard, 8 GB of Ram, Radeon 7930, 3TB hdd. Total cost? $750 and 7 times more powerful.....

anyway, granted this is awesomely tiny....but im pretty sure there's an external powerbrick with that thing, and honestly for the price its simplt a very bad product.

i wonder what what kind of peoples they try to attract with it, probably the same kind of noobish noobs who liked alienwares overpriced and average products.

[pixelsword]

A thousand bucks?

Yeeeeeaaaaah, no.

*crosses it off list*

[papashango]

@pixelsword

this is a 3rd party vendor version of a steambox. There will be many more vendors making these including Valve themselves.

BTW you aren't the intended audience. Steambox is meant for gamers who have always wanted to try in pc gaming but are intimidated by it. Most of N4G are console gamers.

Someone interested in pc gaming but too afraid to try it already knows that $1000 for worry free pc gaming is not too shabby considering how much more you can do.

[pixelsword]

@ shango

I agree, I also am aware that it's not from valve, I just wanted that to be cheaper because it looks nice plus console gamers have a limit; hence the trimming of the PS3 to lower the price. They were backing-off at $600, $1000 may not be the best price.

[ATi_Elite]

Piston is still OVERPRICED CRAP if you ask me! You can build it yourself or pay a friend to build one Better and Cheaper!

I just roll one of my Monster PC's in the Living room when I wanna game on the Big screen at a Level that my HTPC can't handle!

One Power cord, One HDMI cord, friggin how hard is that?

You don't need a PHD in Astro-Physics to do that!

[saoco]

well.... im good.

[BXbomber]

what does the piston do really? srry but i'm misinformed about this product. i have seen it in several posts and article etc. but never bother to read about it. can someone break it down for me what does this box do?

[cyguration]

It's just a PC you hook up to your TV and it's really small. That's it.

[Th4Freak]

It's a high-end modular PC inside a rubik's cube size box, very impressive if you think about it.

[BrianG]

I don't know about High End just do to it's size.

There is no way you are going to fit a GTX 660 or HD7770 type graphics card in that little box. Not to mention those cards are small compared to their bigger brothers.

It's pretty low end spec wise compared to high end PC's out there right now that can be built for the same price.

But then again it's not meant to be that, which is why the price bothers me.

[Th4Freak]

Im just taking the info from their website, if it's true or not we dont know yet and as I said before the price is very acceptable considering they're the only company in the world that could get a modular PC with such specs in a incredibly small size, also remember that everything drops the price after a few months.

[Ju]

Well, it's half the PS4 and twice it's price. High end, then, huh? It's probably a A10-5800k (or probably not even that. The 5800k runs 3.8GHz) on a custom PCB and some detachable IO boards (check their website). Nothing really spectacular. Something I'd go for; but not for $1000.

[overrated44]

I'm all for Valve entering the console space because I love Steam and I love Valve as a company. They're part of a very short list of developers who can make any game and I will buy it day one. That being said, $999 for a non-upgradable pc that just plugs in to my television seems very pricey. I already have my desktop hooked up to my television so it also seems unnecessary...but that price tag is the real killer. I had always assumed they would price the "Steam Box" as a competitor for consoles and not just a slightly cheaper gaming pc....

[Th4Freak]

It is upgradable, it's a modular PC and the X51 was about the same price when it came out, now its $699. Just give it time the price will drop.

[overrated44]

Oh is it? Sorry for the misinformation, due to it's size I had assumed it was non-upgrade-able in the same way a lot of laptops are.

[Th4Freak]

Well that's one of the things that amazes me about this PC.

[Oh_Yeah]

This isn't Valves steambox, it's just a variant.

[refocusedman]

Soooooooo what they are in essence telling me is for the price of $1000 ( in Dr evils voice) I can have a gaming rig that easily hooks up to my tv. Maybe its just me but I would prefer to have both the ps4 and 720 for roughly the same price ( and I know price has not been discussed for either system but, its fair to assume that they may cost within the 400-500 dollar range)

[Ju]

Like I said above. A PS4 is half the price and twice as fast.

I like that's it's small and ready made. But it's far to expensive. I'd pay $500 max.

Well, I had a similar config with a HTPC case on my shopping list (which is actually way cheaper than this), but I'll be waiting what AMD comes up with till end of the year. Kaveri, their next APU, should release with GDDR support sometimes in the second half this year. I'd like to see core count and the GPU they'd put in there and will probably go with that (and a PS4).

[profgerbik]

You know they make these things called mini cases for PC's.. Why would I want this? When I could build one for cheaper? So fail.

This thing is going to crash and burn..

[Oschino1907]

So do you also build your own cars and build your own house? And if anything big ever goes wrong with them or you want something newer do you repair and upgrade everything yourself?

Yeah didn't think so...

It might be a hard concept for you to understand but there actually are other people out there in the world who don't think exactly the way you do you do and have other priorities or preferences which may be different then your own.

I know it sounds far fetched but trust me on this one. This time I don't think this was made stritctly to please "profgerbik" or other PC fanboys who have a very limited and narrow minded view on gaming and computers in general.

[KontryBoy706]

meh... my PC is better than this anyways. I'll save for the PS4 instead and keep gaming on my rig. I'd rather upgrade to the GTX 700 series when they come out than get this

[papashango]

pretty dense considering Valve has already said if you have a gaming pc then Steambox is not for you.

[dkgshiz]

So...who is this targeted for? Most PC gamers generally build their own rigs so I really don't see the need for a $1000 paperweight block. Very strange product. I just don't see the need for it.

[Oschino1907]

Not all consumers dwell endlessly over prices. Many just buy what they are looking for and what does it best for their personal needs.

People who would otherwise buy a prebuilt gaming rig

People who already have a nice PC but would like a portable version for moving from tv to tv, work trips, vacations, college, outdoors, in a vehicle, etc...

People who don't want a PC in their living, game, bed, etc. room or cords running all over from other rooms. Just because you can afford a nice tv or pc doesn't mean you want them in the same room together or even connected.

People who want to get into PC gaming from console but want to have a single company backing the product with support and warranties. They may want the option to upgrade down the road but want a solid starting point. They may not have the space or time for a normal PC or building one. They just want to hook something up and know it will work as advertised much like a console provides but with some extra options for those wanting to exploit them.

Does that help you with your question at all?

[animegamingnerd]

BEHOLD THE CONSOLE FOR RICH PEOPLE!!!

[pixelsword]

No kidding; I'm all for Valve's entry into the console business, but this variant is a big mistake: like CD-i/Crystal Dynamics big.

[pennywhyz]

My PC is gangsta no ty.

[B-radical]

Wow thats cool and pricey......i have a question for hardware savy peeps with the ps4 using 8gb of gddr5 and durango using 8gb ddr3 is it possible durango can also use gddr5 running of the gpu alone whilst also using ddr3?

[snowman2149]

In theory you could BUT it would cause major problems for both Microsoft and developers in the short term, Microsoft would have to delay the console to change the overall architecture of the console, and developers would have to start the xbox versions from scratch because of the different architecture. So again, not a good idea unless you want Sony to dominate the next gen console market for at least 6 months.

[B-radical]

Thanks for the reply mate

[BrianG]

It would be possible, but then you would have 8GB DDR3 for the System Memory and 8GB GDDR5 for Graphics Memory.

A typical PC is set up this way, usually with only 2GB to 3GB of GDDR5 memory on the GPU.

But that's not going to happen in a console. Do to their design it is easier to share system and graphics memory from the same pool, which isn't as common on PC.

[B-radical]

Thank you for your answer it would be cool if durango had 2gb of gddr5 on the gpu alone would of made competition. I myself am a pc user and was just curious if it was possible on durango

[esemce]

PissTon ? overpriced and underpowered, Yay! That thing has no future.

[pixelsword]

If thing was moving, I'd record its up and coming crash on youtube.

I was really hoping that it would be reasonable. I can't see this thing being worth a thousand bones on a good day. I'll honestly wait to see it's power/games; but really, it has none compared to contemporary computers.

It's really bad if this represents a viable alternative to the steambox. My list basically shortens to PC, PS4, the next box, and lastly, the Wii U.

C'mon Valve: be better than that.

[aliengmr]

Valve likes to take its time on ventures like this.

Not sure why people keep thinking that they are just going to release a boxed console w/ controller and launch titles on a set date.

The Piston is over-priced and probably won't do well, but Valve is just taking baby-steps.

It will be years before Valve really moves to the living room.

[SonyAddict]

@peasfor. I think it will be aimed at dwarfs and midgets

[landog]

these tards are on drugs, $1000, i could build a WAY better machine for half that...

this is just valve certified to run steam games (probably in medium settings like ps4)