Xi3's modular Piston pc/console out Nov. 29 for $1000

http://www.gamespot.com/news/xi3s-modular-piston-console-out-nov-29-6415158

Xi3's $1000 modular Piston console will be available for purchase beginning on November 29, 2013. That date lines up with the Black Friday holiday shopping event in the United States.

Those who preordered a Piston console during or before the SXSW 2013 Gaming Expo will receive their system on or before November 15, the company said.

"The Piston console is just Xi3's first step in what we believe will be a transformative technology revolution for the living room," Xi3 founder, president, and CEO Jason A. Sullivan said in a statement.

The Piston console is loaded with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage, though it can be modified to hold up to two 512GB mSATA SSDs. It features a 3.2 GHz AMD Trinity processor and a Radeon 7000-Series GPU.

The system will come pre-loaded with a number of games, though Xi3 did not name any of these.

The Piston console was first revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, with some reports pegging the device as a "Steam Box" after the company disclosed an unspecified investment from Valve for the project.

Valve's Doug Lombardi said in March that the company began "exploratory" work with Xi3 in 2012, but no longer has any involvement with the Piston console or any device from Xi3.

Last week, Valve announced Steam Machines, described as a "powerful new category of living room hardware." Several boxes from multiple manufacturers will be available to the public in 2014. A hardware beta will begin later this year.

128GB storage? 7000 series card and APU?

Doesn't sound well designed or worth $1000 to me.

128GB storage? 7000 series card and APU?

Doesn't sound well designed or worth $1000 to me.

kraken2109

You could build a decent pc for that price....better than those specs I think.

I am interested in this though. If I can use it for games an internet I might consider buying a higher-end model at some point. Still have a lot of questions though....but it looks like upgrading it in the future would be pretty easy.

Super niche.

The only use I can see is for someone who goes to a lot of LAN parties, doesn't like carrying their rig around to every event, and also has a lot of disposable income. It's just like that Fragbox that made headlines a decade(?) ago. Hopefully that niche is profitable enough. If that's their only product, they probably won't last long.