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Valve and Xi3 announce Steam-based mini-PC

Hawk269

Hawk269

Member
Atomski said:
PC gamers build their own.. its easy as snapping some pieces together.

The only people who buy premade Desktops just either have to much money to waste or are technologically impaired.

One of the great things about PC gaming is knowing also how to get inside the system and take care of it. Unlike consoles that just collect enough dust till they burn up.. and we dont have an option to stop it without voiding the lovely warranty.
Click to expand...

They just don't know any better. I think when some people hear "build it yourself", they think of having to be electrical proficient and knowing how to do really techie stuff. Before I got into building myself, I bought pre-made, then a friend said he could build one and I watched him build it and I was all like "WTF..that's it???". It is pretty damn easy.

I went from afraid of doing it myself to doing a full on water cooling setup all within a year. Some people just think that it is way too hard, but watching a friend or even watching a youtube video of one being built shows how easy it is.
 
F

Felix Lighter

Member
Sean! said:
Another question that makes me want to bump mine...
I'm sorry to interrupt the specs discussion but I am trying to relieve confusion.
Click to expand...

There are nothing but questions at this point. We know that this is a Valve supported piece of hardware designed to run Steam and Big Picture Mode. We have chassis and a set of ports that are subject to change and specs from similar models by the same manufacturer. Whether this is the Steam Box or there are other pieces of hardware out there waiting to be revealed, I don't think anything is clear right now.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Fugu said:
Yes, you have to build it yourself. Fortunately, this is a very easy and valuable skill; I've been doing it since I was in the single digits, and it's gotten a lot easier since then. If you're not interested in building it yourself (even though it's pretty easy) then you're probably just not all that interested in what PC gaming has to offer seeing as there is a particular bent towards tweaking and troubleshooting that many find attractive about the platform.

The motherboard omission was probably a mistake. Add $50 for some generic motherboard. These don't matter unless you're looking for very specific features; I bought a micro ATX motherboard manufactured by a company that no longer exists a few years ago and my friend is still using it.

As for the keyboard and the controller, it's pretty reasonable to assume that if you desire a controller, you probably already have one; there are also keyboards everywhere, and I suspect that you probably own at least one. Rubber dome technology literally hasn't gotten any better in the last decade or so, so nearly anything will do.
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so now I have to build it myself or I am not interested in PC gaming?

Go back to his build. Add another $20 for a case as the cases I saw were $40, $50 for a motherboard, and $100 for Windows 8 and suddenly his "sub $500 build" is back up to price of a prebuilt X51. The X51 is also a nice looking machine for something that will live int he center of my living room. :)
 
C

Can Crusher

Banned
Not to mention that cheaps as hell case will be a cheap as hell case. Not saying consoles are better, but how can anybody settle for a cheap as hell case.
 
H

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
Felix Lighter said:
There are nothing but questions at this point. We know that this is a Valve supported piece of hardware designed to run Steam and Big Picture Mode. We have chassis and a set of ports that are subject to change and specs from similar models by the same manufacturer. Whether this is the Steam Box or there are other pieces of hardware out there waiting to be revealed, I don't think anything is clear right now.
Click to expand...

I am not one to get disappointed when something does not go exactly how I hoped it would,

but for some reason I was expecting this to be released with the Source update, and other rumored things. This whole thread feels weird.
 
K

KingKong

Member
I really think people are overestimating Valves money, staff and experience.

They're just not players on the level of Microsoft or Sony (and even they had to sell their consoles at a loss), I don't see how Valve can possibly ship millions of units of whatever thing they make
 
F

Felix Lighter

Member
beast786 said:
that's BS , and I have a very high end PC which I upgrade personally .

building PC is not "snapping some pieces Together ". Hardest part is to make sure crap is compatible and doing research prior. hell, adding water coolest to my CPU, GPU and RAM took hours of reading and making sure I won't screw my whole system. Clocking my CPU/GPU was also tedious as hell.

I love my PC but it was a lot of freaking work
Click to expand...

Water cooling and overclocking are not even close to required steps to building a gaming PC. Part compatibility is about as simple as making sure you buy the right controller for the right console. Choose a CPU, buy a motherboard with a matching socket, buy the type of ram for your motherboard which is ridiculously apparent.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
KingKong said:
I really think people are overestimating Valves money, staff and experience.

They're just not players on the level of Microsoft or Sony (and even they had to sell their consoles at a loss), I don't see how Valve can possibly ship millions of units of whatever thing they make
Click to expand...

I don't think Valve intends to sell millions of "steamboxes." I think they have more modest ambitions to start.
 
C

CountAntonius

Member
If its not 400 it wont be competing with next gen consoles at all and I think they are gonna completely miss the console market they seem to be wanting to go after. Perhaps we were all wrong and all they wanted to go after was the PC user who wants a plug and play for their living room and will pay the high price for it. =/

Just make the OS a free download for all and all is not lost(for me).
 
C

CountAntonius

Member
epmode said:
Linux is already free.

Anyway, this isn't exactly the Steambox so I'm curious to see how Valve's version will differ.
Click to expand...

Not talking about linux. These "steamboxes" made it seem like it would run a custom Steam Big Picture Mode OS based on linux. I'm still hoping for that.

As for this thing being branded The Piston and being shown off and invested in by Valve this may just be the Steambox.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
CountAntonius said:
Not talking about linux. These "steamboxes" made it seem like it would run a custom Steam Big Picture Mode OS based on linux. I'm still hoping for that.

As for this thing being branded The Piston and being shown off and invested in by Valve this may just be the Steambox.
Click to expand...

I think they may their version of a "Nexus" gaming PC. I am sure that valve would be glad to certify other machines as "steamboxes"
 
T

TheGreyHulk

Member
zoku88 said:
I think it's Yamcha.
Click to expand...
More like Yajirobe

Yajirobe4.JPG
 
J

Jafku

Member
CountAntonius said:
Not talking about linux. These "steamboxes" made it seem like it would run a custom Steam Big Picture Mode OS based on linux. I'm still hoping for that.

As for this thing being branded The Piston and being shown off and invested in by Valve this may just be the Steambox.
Click to expand...

Me too :(
 
F

Fugu

Member
outunderthestars said:
so now I have to build it myself or I am not interested in PC gaming?

Go back to his build. Add another $20 for a case as the cases I saw were $40, $50 for a motherboard, and $100 for Windows 8 and suddenly his "sub $500 build" is back up to price of a prebuilt X51. The X51 is also a nice looking machine for something that will live int he center of my living room. :)
Click to expand...
The computer that he built you will obliterate the comparison PC that they provide. If you step up to an i5 instead of an i3 (which I would for the sake of future-proofing, but it doesn't really matter much for gaming), the performance gap gets even larger.

If you're alright with the performance that a prebuilt PC offers, the advantages of PC gaming probably won't be all that compelling to you. Many people game on the PC due to the freedom and control over the experience that it allows and the increased fidelity that can result.

beast786 said:
that's BS , and I have a very high end PC which I upgrade personally .

building PC is not "snapping some pieces Together ". Hardest part is to make sure crap is compatible and doing research prior. hell, adding water coolest to my CPU, GPU and RAM took hours of reading and making sure I won't screw my whole system. Clocking my CPU/GPU was also tedious as hell.

I love my PC but it was a lot of freaking work
Click to expand...
I would say the hardest part of physically building a PC is installing coolers (stock or otherwise; more esoteric arrangements are obviously more difficult than stock) but that is mostly because it can feel like you're bending or applying pressure to components that don't look or feel like they can withstand it. This, in itself, is still not all that difficult, especially since modern CPUs literally cannot be inserted incorrectly anymore and come with thermal paste already applied.

The rest? Literally just snapping things into place. No component will allow you to plug it in the wrong way any more, and ports are so visually distinct that you can pretty easily extrapolate where to put them. There are no more jumpers involved (unless you need a legacy PATA arrangement or have fucked up your motherboard configuration so badly that you can't turn your computer on) and the less clear elements of connecting things to other things -- such as the four-pin CPU connector or connecting the case to the motherboard -- are easily explained by a tutorial if reading the labels on the motherboard itself don't adequately explain what to do. People describe it as really easy because it is.

In terms of component compatibility, this, too, is essentially dead.
There is one GPU socket and every motherboard has at least one of them. Compatibility is universal.
While you can probably still technically buy processors that use DDR-2, none have been released in years.
SATA has eliminated virtually every other option for connecting a hard drive outside of server implementations.
Cooling solutions are becoming more and more universal with adjustable brackets; most are compatible with every processor released in the past five years.
PCI is slowly being replaced by PCI-E 1/4x but most motherboards will generally include at least one of each. This takes some basic reading comprehension, but the fact is that most people -- even gamers -- will never use a PCI slot.
The ATX standard has made it so that anything will fit in your case so long as it's an ATX case.
CPU sockets are probably the most complex element, but it's simply a matter of reading the socket type of the CPU you plan to buy and reading the socket type of the motherboards you're looking at.

I would really like to know the things that people find difficult about building a PC. Please tell me them.
 
W

Whiteshirt

Member
The only thing remotely annoying is connecting the front panel connectors. That's it: everything fits into logical locations, everything that isn't meant to fit doesn't fit, everything is plug and play. A lot of coolers aren't even hard to install, the Intel stock cooler has an extremely easy to understand picture instructions, etc.

The reason why people find it hard is because they're constantly stressing over fucking it up and blowing the computer up. Which is basically impossible for the above reasons.
 
Z

Zia

Member
Looks nice. Still don't understand Valve's involvement with Xi3, and why they hired Jeri Ellsworth. It feels like there's a lot yet to be revealed hardware-wise, even if this solution does end up technically being "Valve's" version of the Steambox.
 
F

Fugu

Member
Whiteshirt said:
The only thing remotely annoying is connecting the front panel connectors. That's it: everything fits into logical locations, everything that isn't meant to fit doesn't fit, everything is plug and play. A lot of coolers aren't even hard to install, the Intel stock cooler has an extremely easy to understand picture instructions, etc.

The reason why people find it hard is because they're constantly stressing over fucking it up and blowing the computer up. Which is basically impossible for the above reasons.
Click to expand...
At least one of my computers just doesn't have the back panel cover installed because we lost it.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Zia said:
Looks nice. Still don't understand Valve's involvement with Xi3, and why they hired Jeri Ellsworth. It feels like there's a lot yet to be revealed hardware-wise, even if this solution does end up technically being "Valve's" version of the Steambox.
Click to expand...

Well there is still the matter of getting Steam's catalog working on Linux.
 
O

Orayn

Member
Zia said:
Looks nice. Still don't understand Valve's involvement with Xi3, and why they hired Jeri Ellsworth. It feels like there's a lot yet to be revealed hardware-wise, even if this solution does end up technically being "Valve's" version of the Steambox.
Click to expand...

Definitely. There's been talk of VR, controllers, biometric, and even holograms for Clispaeth's sake. I'm sure Steamboxes tie into that stuff, since they'd be an ideal place to bundle that hardware and get it into lots of peoples' hands right from the start of their Steam experience.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
I can't see this being cheap enough for me to be interested. I know I could save a ton of money in Steam sales, but I mostly play cheap old games anyways, so the balancing effect would be minimal.
 
O

Orayn

Member
Phat Michael said:
The meltdowns are glorious! i love when people get all riled up over a half finished project that people dont know anything about!
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Meltdowns and jeering at meltdowns are both premature at this stage, since there's no reason to believe this is the only Steambox project Valve was working on or what the engineer was talking about earlier.
 
D

dragonelite

Member
Phat Michael said:
The meltdowns are glorious! i love when people get all riled up over a half finished project that people dont know anything about!
Click to expand...

Form factor bro small how much performance can you get from cooling such a small area, wouldn't be surprised if it has something like a Arm based chip in it like odroidX.
 
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