More steambox style cases for 2014

cypto · 28 Dec 2013 at 14:37

After the recent release of the steambox beta console and the many teardowns of the machine one thing I want to see more in SFF cases is 90 degree rotated graphics card to keep the height down.

It no way beats a full sized tower for gaming, but as a machine for the living room it would be perfect.

Image below is the guts of a steam box that was sent out by valve.

I know it has also been used on both the Falcon Northwest Tiki and the Alienware systems but it is still a feature I would love to see introduced more.

Anyone agree? or any other thoughts?

Nymins · 28 Dec 2013 at 15:19

Would love to see the valve beta version become available or similar.

Although I've gone with an SG08 and it's pretty small anyway

cypto · 28 Dec 2013 at 17:03

Yea wouldn't mind that either, the SG08 case is great it's just the height that kills it for me. It won't fit in the cabinet under the TV with the Skybox and Amplifier they are all wide and short.

Relentless81 · 28 Dec 2013 at 17:10

cypto said:
Image below is the guts of a steam box that was sent out by valve.

I thought they had AMD GPUs?

cypto · 28 Dec 2013 at 17:17

Nope

The 300 prototype units will ship with the following components:
GPU: some units with NVidia Titan, some GTX780, some GTX760, and some GTX660
CPU: some boxes with Intel i7-4770, some i5-4570, and some i3
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600 (CPU), 3GB GDDR5 (GPU)
Storage: 1TB/8GB Hybrid SSHD
Power Supply: Internal 450w 80Plus Gold
Dimensions: approx. 12 x 12.4 x 2.9 in high

gropingmantis · 28 Dec 2013 at 17:52

AMD + Linux Drivers = No end of bother.

Nvidia may not release their source code but at least their drivers work properly.

Staying on topic. Have you seen the Silverstone cases? There is a new milo case (ML06?) but it only takes a single slot gpu.
Also a new Raven case which is pretty much designed for steamboxes.

Relentless81 · 28 Dec 2013 at 22:33

Obviously I'm not quite as in touch as I thought

lsg1r · 29 Dec 2013 at 16:06

not exactly cheap but the asrock m8 is fairly similar in internal design to the steambox...
http://www.asrock.com/microsite/m8/

krooton · 29 Dec 2013 at 19:20

The Raven steambox looks sweet!

Ajaxx · 29 Dec 2013 at 22:31

lsg1r said:
not exactly cheap but the asrock m8 is fairly similar in internal design to the steambox...
http://www.asrock.com/microsite/m8/

Was just watching Linus review of it and thought of this thread.

http://youtu.be/jGPi5WMr6GE

gropingmantis · 29 Dec 2013 at 22:42

That case looks horrible. More "gamerzzzzz" nonsense. The raven one would be nice if it had a plain aluminium front rather than that plastic monstrosity.

Ryan-3 · 30 Dec 2013 at 08:53

Do the steam boxes actually ship with a 450W with those (higher) GPU's?

gropingmantis · 30 Dec 2013 at 09:44

Ryan-3 said:
Do the steam boxes actually ship with a 450W with those (higher) GPU's?

I would assume so. You can run an i7 and a Titan quite comfortably from 450W...I'll wager that a build with an i7, Titan, one SSD, and one HDD, on an ITX board, never really draws more than 300W unless you overclock and stress test the CPU and GPU at the same time. People always do love to go overkill on PSUs but the truth is modern components are very efficient, 300-450W is enough for everyone other than people with loads of drives, multi-gpu or doing serious overclocking. Add to that that a PSU is at maximum efficiency between 75-90% capacity (depending on the quality of the components) and you begin to realise that over-speccing a psu is a pretty poor choice.

cypto · 30 Dec 2013 at 14:01

M8 doesn't interest me one bit however Linus has just thrown up a very brief look at the raven case. Straight away the plastic everywhere would do my nut in prefer a steel or aluminum case.

Looks like the same plastic they used on the RV04 and you know how poor that was.