Valve, Xi3 Show Off Mini Linux Gaming PC "Console"

[AJSB]

That prototype with a black case with a silver frontend is using a ANTEC ISK-310-150 case.

[Adarion]

Hmm, that little box looks cute. But it's so highly integrated... I wonder if one can repair anything, add anything and if the heat will still be dealt with. He said it will be modular, but probably it is a proprietary socket / slot and they'll be the only ones offering new addon/upgrade boards for the device. Still, it looks cute and has lots of interfaces. Lacks RS232 though.

[r1348]

That's just a photoshopped PS3.

[stiiixy]

Hmm, that little box looks cute. But it's so highly integrated... I wonder if one can repair anything, add anything and if the heat will still be dealt with. He said it will be modular, but probably it is a proprietary socket / slot and they'll be the only ones offering new addon/upgrade boards for the device. Still, it looks cute and has lots of interfaces. Lacks RS232 though.

It looks built quite simply but done properly for cooling; front-to-back cooling in one continuous channel for air to flow freely along the relatively huge unidirectional heatsink and, an arched bottom to allow heat to escape from underneath, unlike laptops which quite often require you buy an additional stand when using juice.

[johnc]

"We’ll come out with our own and we’ll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That’ll be a Linux box, [and] if you want to install Windows you can. We’re not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination. We also think that a controller that has higher precision and lower latency is another interesting thing to have." -- Gabe

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/385...ture-of-gaming

[j2723]

That's just a photoshopped PS3.

Yep, made using Gimp .

[Krysto]

While this seems based on AMD, I think Valve's "real" Steam box will be based on Nvidia's GPU's and I guess Intel CPU's. I think that since both Sony and MS are going with AMD in their consoles, they want a bit of differentiation against them, and there are probably other reasons, too. I think it's smart of them. I think they will use a Maxwell GPU.

Wouldn't it be great if the Steam box would be ARM-native and based on Project Denver? It's unlikely, and the fact that it will be based on Linux offers them enough limitations, and they probably don't want to take on the ARM one, too (all the porting, etc). At least I'm glad they went with Linux, as that will help even more game developers decide on OpenGL for their games, as both Steam box and PS4 will use it. And they can also use the games on tablets.

[johnc]

While this seems based on AMD, I think Valve's "real" Steam box will be based on Nvidia's GPU's and I guess Intel CPU's. I think that since both Sony and MS are going with AMD in their consoles, they want a bit of differentiation against them, and there are probably other reasons, too. I think it's smart of them. I think they will use a Maxwell GPU.

Wouldn't it be great if the Steam box would be ARM-native and based on Project Denver? It's unlikely, and the fact that it will be based on Linux offers them enough limitations, and they probably don't want to take on the ARM one, too (all the porting, etc). At least I'm glad they went with Linux, as that will help even more game developers decide on OpenGL for their games, as both Steam box and PS4 will use it. And they can also use the games on tablets.

Yeah you'd have to port all the games over to ARM which would be difficult for all the publishers. It's interesting that Intel claims to have an ARM binary translation layer for their x86 CPU. Too bad the reverse can't be had.

But it does seem like Maxwell is in play and might be used for other things:

The Steam Box will also be a server. Any PC can serve multiple monitors, so over time, the next-generation (post-Kepler) you can have one GPU that’s serving up eight simultaeneous game calls. So you could have one PC and eight televisions and eight controllers and everybody getting great performance out of it. We’re used to having one monitor, or two monitors — now we’re saying let's expand that a little bit.

[gamerk2]

Wouldn't it be great if the Steam box would be ARM-native and based on Project Denver? It's unlikely, and the fact that it will be based on Linux offers them enough limitations, and they probably don't want to take on the ARM one, too (all the porting, etc). At least I'm glad they went with Linux, as that will help even more game developers decide on OpenGL for their games, as both Steam box and PS4 will use it. And they can also use the games on tablets.

The PS3 had OGL too (PSGL was essentially OpenGL ES 2.0), but devs don't use it because its too slow. They typically used the native libgcm library instead. I don't expect the PS4 to be any different in this regard.

[benmoran]

While this seems based on AMD, I think Valve's "real" Steam box will be based on Nvidia's GPU's and I guess Intel CPU's. .....

I dunno, I think the AMD APUs would be a perfect match for both third party and Valve's own Steam box. I own the current best, the a10-5800K, and it's at least on par (or arguably much better due to OpenGL 4.2) with the current generation consoles. This is if you run it at 720p or slightly less, like all current consoles do. If the next generation APUs that come out this year are a big enough jump in performance, I think that there is a high possibility that Valve would go with them. The reasons are simply cost and size constraints. Having a single CPU/GPU is a huge plus for simplicity, power usage, and cost. Everything can be smaller and cheaper.

Gabe already said that they will likely have multiple versions: a "good", "better" and "best" version. The APUs make perfect sense in the lower end versions for sure. Not needing space for a graphics card is a huge plus. I guess it all depends on if AMD can manage to produce a powerful enough chip, that people will be happy with performance wise.