Yeah, I felt similarly that I'd just carry on doing self-builds. I'd be very disappointed if Valve somehow made their system proprietary just to flog Steamboxes.

I remember that about the Piston thing. Didn't Valve work with them then no? I really liked the design and principle of using the VESA mount on the back of your TV/monitor to position it. But I'm still concerned about having enough space for adding expansion cards where needed and maintaining good airflow for power hungry gfx cards.

I'd like to get into Linux. I've only given it about 10 minutes in time playing with it as I couldn't work out how to explore files so abandoned it (Ubuntu).

there seems to be some sort of thing in the gaming industry that assumes everyone sits on a sofa playing games on a big tv, most of the pc gamers dont do that, the steambox is out of place and I predict it will fail.

that small android console is almost certianly going to fail now with the vita tv announced. not all consoles succeed.

I thought they partnered with Xi3 but this article says they didn't

Valve has distanced itself from the Xi3 Piston, dubbed an unofficial Steam Box.

It had been believed that Valve had backed the grapefruit-sized computer ahead of the release of its own Steam Box, but this appears to be false.

Valve's Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer that Valve had some dealings with Xi3 Corporation, the company behind the Piston, but not any more.

"Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs," he said.

It is a really neat PC though. As I do not game on my PC I would like my next build to be a compact, energy efficient system. Doesn't have to be that small but something similar to the MAC Mini perhaps. For gaming though probably better to stick with a bigger case like you said so you don't limit your options.

Ubuntu is really user friendly these days, very simple to install and use and theres loads of how to guides for when you get stuck. But again as you are a PC gamer then not much point as they are almost all for Windows.

So Valve have today announced SteamOS based on Linux, obviously this will run on the Steambox but will also be available to download for free. Article here

According to Valve, "hundreds of great games are already running natively on SteamOS," and announcements "in the coming weeks" will show off "all the AAA titles coming natively to SteamOS in 2014."

Yeah, I was reading about SteamOS at Eurogamer. Sounds too good to be true to be honest, running all your games (well, practically) in SteamOS instead of Windows.

So, will it be truly an open system? Or how open will it actually be in practice? And, will games run smoothly and will their performance jump dramatically from running a (hopefully) much more efficient OS?

Could be good tho. Could be very good indeed if SteamOS ticks all those boxes.

Im sticking with one thing only and its all I'm going to need........Its Called a Playstation 4

EDIT

MAY HAVE SECONDS THOUGHTS

The only draw back i see from this is having to have your PC/MAC on to stream the games to your television.....thats another reason why a bought a NASS system like MYBOOK LIVE to stream media without the need for the Imac to be on.

Edited by time2die (Tue 24-Sep-13 00:32:29)

That little Piston box thing would probably good for someone like you Timey. Just stick it on the back of you tv and you're good to go. Only thing is it's very expensive for what it is I reckon but there are variants of it on the website Trance links to.

You can have small and powerful, and even energy efficient it seems but personally I'd rather have a bit more space for expansion options (larger gfx cards) and improved airflow to keep it cool. But for casual gaming you might be well served with the likes of the Piston box.

whats wrong with a pc?

I dont see many steam users excited about this steambox.

You know me Spook........If i was to buy one of these it would be the top of the range option

I would be truly amazed if they manage to have the majority of Steam games running on SteamOS. That would be a milestone for open source. Anyway I am excited to see how this turns out.