Is the price of the first unofficial Steam Box taking the Piston?

If seeing Infinity Ward’s signature Xi3 Steam Box got those juices going then the Xi3 Piston may drop you back to reality.

I have been under the impression that the Valve Steam Box cost around the same as the big consoles, circa £300. My reasoning is that’s what the Steam Box will be up against.

Granted, the official Steam Box from Valve could well hit that price point but those of you that are just too eager to give it a whirl could go for the first unofficial Steam Box, the Xi3 Piston.

The Xi3 Piston has just gone up for pre-order in the states and works out around a flabbergasting £600!

What does that £600 (or $900 in reality) actually get you?

Well, the 900 bucks model is the entry-level box which is equipped with 128GB of SSD storage, an AMD APU that’s packing a 3.2GHz quad-core CPU (normally 2.3GHz but with turbo boost), which is paired with a Radion HD 7660G-like GPU, and 8GB of RAM.

That spec is similar to the PlayStation 4 but will cost you about twice the amount. And, if you’re talking PC gaming then the Piston’s spec would definitely be in the budget realms where its price isn’t.

It doesn’t get any better, either. The $900/£600 price actually includes a $100/£70-ish pre-order discount – which pushes the RRP closer £700, and that’s ultrabook-money or a higher level self-build gaming machine. The Alienware X51 starts at £569 inc VAT, for example.

Xi3 hasn’t said whether or not the Piston PC will come to the UK and there’s no firm announcement as to when to expect Valve’s machine.

I really hope that Valve is more sensible with its pricing because, I for one, would really like to see more gaming PCs making it into the living room.