iBuyPower Steambox Thoughts and Observations

[iGetComputerized]

Now let me start this off buy saying I am stoked beyond comprehension for the new steamboxes that are coming out soon. I think people will be drawn back to PC once they learn of the advantages of PCs over a gaming console.

 

 

OK so now about the Steambox. iBuyPower previewed it late this year at a convention. The case was a gorgeous white aluminum case with the Steam logo machine pressed into the top panel of the case. Running through the mid section of the case was a bright florescent band that lit up to a user preferred color. The build quality was just what you expect from a company known for custom gaming PCs. But that was not the most intriguing part for me. I was delighted to hear that the system was going to be based off of an AMD platform. The specs were not fully released but iBP did say that it was going to have a multi-core processor, an R9 270, an abundance of RAM, AND.... An SSD. The SSD in my opinion is going to be a killer feature over any gaming console out there not because of the speed, which lets be honest normal users will only notice during boot-up, but because of the fluidity it will bring to the table when opening games, files, multitasking, and level loading in-game. Now the price was rumored to be in the ballpark of $499, which means that somewhere along the lines iBP is going to have to cut corners. Now hopefully they can make those cuts as minimal as possible. So bow that you are more familiar with the product I just want to take a moment to share my thoughts. I personally think as someone who runs a PC gaming YouTube channel and streams often, this is going to make a big difference on how I go about doing my job and how other people go about watching and interacting with me and other PC gamers. With a price point of $499 and a hopefully easy to use OS from steam I think that the PC community will start to rebound because people are going to be drawn to the power and versatility of the Steambox. Does this make PCs become a living room experience? Personally...No. I think many younger people are gonna see this as an opportunity to get a cheap, well built gaming rig. As someone who is a hardcore gamer I dont even own a TV. I have a desk in my living room of my studio apartment where my PC is and my consoles all hooked up to low latency BenQ monitors. Even though it sounds kind of extreme for a setup, It is not uncommon to see Xbones ans PS4s connected to everything but a living room TV. I think the same will go for Steamboxes. Is it the wrong marketing ploy? Not at all because they are still aiming at what the consoles are aiming at... Living room intergration. So the questions I have for you are 1. Will you be buying/building a Steambox 2. where are you going to be putting it in your house?

 

Thanks for reading this post! Hope you enjoyed my thoughts and please leave your thoughts:D 

[beebskadoo]

I No can read. I can has pictures?

[Osmium]

PC gaming's downfall is they simply do not have the marketing that consoles do. There are people who have never heard of it and people who assume it is bad because people don't generally talk about it. The lack of sales of Nvidia Shield is a perfect example. Linus showed it to a friend and they were blown away because they had never seen anything like it, emphasis on the never seen.

 

The way I see it is this will explode in popularity with PC gamers, this will explode in popularity in console gamers, or it will fizzle out into nonexistence. Hopefully Valve go all out and get lots of ads out there to spread the word because I think if people see it they will see that it is better than the "next gen" consoles out right now.

[BigD1970]

I No can read. I can has pictures?

Esay uyay aterlay?

[beebskadoo]

Esay uyay aterlay?

Otallytay. allkay eemay

[theroflcopta]

honestly for the price if it is still upgrade-able there is damn near no reason to own a console other than  console exclusives : /

[xRAGExSounDxRIOTX]

Wall of text. Isn't this in the wrong section?

[beebskadoo]

PC gaming's downfall is they simply do not have the marketing that consoles do. There are people who have never heard of it and people who assume it is bad because people don't generally talk about it. The lack of sales of Nvidia Shield is a perfect example. Linus showed it to a friend and they were blown away because they had never seen anything like it, emphasis on the never seen.

 

The way I see it is this will explode in popularity with PC gamers, this will explode in popularity in console gamers, or it will fizzle out into nonexistence. Hopefully Valve go all out and get lots of ads out there to spread the word because I think if people see it they will see that it is better than the "next gen" consoles out right now.

Android is the console of the future and Linux is the gaming PC of the future. That's how I see it.

[xRAGExSounDxRIOTX]

Android is the console of the future and Linux is the gaming PC of the future. That's how I see it.

Elaborate on why Android is the console of the future. I honestly don't understand why.

[Osiris199]

I would like to see my steambox with the specs listed as above(or even a little below that) since i would only use it to stream from my rig. Especially when I'm upgrading to crossfire non-reference 290's. But I would alter the casing to a black casing with the white band in the middle.But I would like to see the Valve logo (as it is always shown on loading screens and Retail boxes) in a breathing white light. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love Valve and it may be shown in the things I buy from them.

[TopWargamer]

While discussion about iBuyPower's SteamBox is great, this really belongs in either my thread about it or in General Discussion.

[iGetComputerized]

While discussion about iBuyPower's SteamBox is great, this really belongs in either my thread about it or in General Discussion.

I searched multiple times and did not find another article on this so sorry

[Ultimate_PIMP]

This belongs in off topic, or the hardware section. 

You're opinion isn't news.