Yes, the Xi3 was revealed last year, but the Piston model that is being produced in conjunction with Valve is more than likely the "SteamBox." It's the same-size, construction by the same developers, just going to be catered exclusively to the Steam-market of games. Plus, it was just revealed today. Hopefully, as CES goes on will get more details, preferably from Valve themselves.

These boxes are nice & all. However, what I really want to know is if Valve will release their Steam Linux OS to it's (power) users like myself? where I can basically build my own Steambox with off the shelf parts.

Hardware is hardware, and can be purchased in all shapes & sizes and I can easily build something cheaper with high-end specs. What's the most important to me is the software (the OS) and the game engines, that's what I'm more interested in!

Please Valve release your OS to the public!

From what I've read that the Steam boxes will also be able to be used in regular Steam mode not just Big Picture mode, using a regular keyboard & mouse, so you don't necessarily need to use just a gamepad.

The unit will definitely have some sort of graphic card control app made by Nvidia or AMD, so setting your resolution to 720p or 1080p won't be a problem. Keep in mind the reason I say this is, it's common sense, if they are going to have a modular unit, then their has to be a way of upgrading or downgrading your video card through software.

I can always build something cheaper & better. I did it with my Hackintosh box, without having to spend $2000 to $4000 on a Mac desktop. I built a Mac and spent only $800!

Agreed, I expected something a bit bigger, but the tech in there sounds worthy, so I guess it's true that big things can come in small packages.

*check you pants fellas*

:D