Over the weekend a couple very interesting photosets showed up on reddit, unboxing pictures of Valve's new SteamBox. I didn't want to post them all here, so go head over to imagur and check them out. I'll be here when you get back...
Good? Ok, let's talk. That's a PC. I've built plenty of PCs in my day and that is a PC. Looking at that back panel that's a mico-atx motherboard if I've ever seen one. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It certainly looks like it has all the bells and whistles. HDMI and DVI ports (multiple monitors?), co-ax for some reason, eSata for extra storage, lots of sound options, standard keyboard connector, mini-usb ports in the front. It's got the works but it's nothing you can't pick up on NewEgg right now.
The case itself looks slick, especially turned on but it all looks a bit cheap to me. The USB ports on the front aren't 100% square, the controller looks like it's made of cheap plastic and around the back of the box the lid doesn't looks completely flush. But what can you expect from a demo unit? Valve shipped 300 of these out to some eager nerds, I've heard reports that they basically shipped boxes with 3 different sets of specs. The one I've linked to looks like it got the works.
4 cores @ 3.2 GHz, 16 gigs of system RAM, 3 gigs of Video RAM, GeForce GTX 780, those specs are nothing to sneeze at. You might not be set for 4K gaming but as far as pure power goes it blows the doors off the Xbox One and the PS4. A couple things are conspicuously absent. No physical disc drive (sorry Blu-ray fans) and no mention of hard drive space on the system info screen. I mean it has to have some sort of hard drive. I can't imagine the OS is just loaded onto a flash drive and you have to bring your own external drive to the party. I wonder if they went solid state to reduce load times and save space on the inside.
Long story short, looks cool I want one. Developer support will still make or break this thing but I like what I see so far. Now just make with the Half Life 3 valve.
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