Widescreen Gaming Forum

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

According to sources, the company has been working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of a "Steam Box." The actual devices may be made by a variety of partners, and the software would be readily available to any company that wants to get in the game.

Apparently meetings were held during CES to demo a hand-built version of the device to potential partners. We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up.

I think we are looking at the fantastic or abject failure metric here.

I'm sure it'll be nice for housewives that can't handle a PC, and play those cheesy Popcap-type games.

if it can't play farmville then forget about it

_________________
Asus P8P67 Pro, I7 2600k @ 4.6Ghz, 8gb, 250GB SSD/ 4TB Mechanical, Modded GTX 780TI, 3x AOC 27" IPS 5760x1080

http://www.cultofmac.com/160760/why-apple-ceo-tim-cook-met-with-valve-exclusive/

Many speculated as to why Cook would be visiting Valve, maker of popular game series like Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. Valve also boasts an incredibly robust online PC gaming platform called Steam that operates similarly to Apple’s App Store.

Our sources also say that Apple’s television set will come with an Apple-branded, Kinect-like video game console. The interface will rely heavily on motion and touch controls.

So Shufflepuck Café Kinect?

It doesn't make any sense for them to partner with Apple, they'd want to be running Windows on Steam box, not Mac OS X.. and Apple doesn't make any hardware of their own that's relevant to Steam either (they're an ARM cpu license holder, but you'd want x86 not ARM powering a Steam box).

It does! You know Apple? You know steam?
Its like Ferrari and chevrolet building a car together! Probably sucks Hardcore but you get the double Fanbase!

I wonder about the GPU. Anything lower an gtx660 would suck!
Especially with an i7 and 8gb RAM.
There arent any slow desktop i7! Worst could be the first generation 870 or such! 2600 or 3770 would be awesome.
But hey. Its a "BOX" if they are gonna sell it as Box and not as Computer it should not cost more than 500$!
So gotta be cheap Hardware.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/valve-apple-meeting-didnt-happen-newell-6372487

"We think that our business interests are served best long term by operating in a way that's consistent with open, collaborative approaches with both our customers and our partners," Newell said. "I'd say Nintendo and Apple are a lot closer together than Valve and Apple are. They both have such a strong, clear design ethic, and if you want to go along for the ride, you can. But it'd be hard to see the Steam Workshop coming out in the context of something that Apple does."

Interesting.
Seems they using the AMD APU route to power these things.
Going by the given info about the X7A here http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2 ... i3-Modular

I would speculate that it is using the AMD A10-4600M APU chipset.

_________________
| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

AHhhhhhhh using APU's !

i wondered where they put the GPU in that small box! APU solves that problem. And 35W also seems coolable with that Cooler.

But GPU power's not gonna be enough for 1080p ~.~ hooray, another 720p console.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!