Is this the official SteamBox? No. Is this a Valve-backed SteamBox? Yes. But if you want one, you better be ready to fork over some serious dough. The starting price is going to be $1000 USD.
Why yes, that is a lot of money.
Inside the Xi3 Piston is 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a Radeon 700-series GPU, and a 3.2Ghz AMD Trinity Quad Core (R464) processor, as well as three different SSD models available: 128GB, 256GB, and 512 GB.
While the piston will provide PC power in the compact size of a console, I can’t help but feel that this thing is overpriced. Tech-savvy gamers can probably budget a PC with better horsepower for just as much money, while console gamers may balk at the steep entry fee. Plus, again, this isn’t Valve’s SteamBox. Personally, I’d wait for that to come out.