Piston taking pre-orders

The Xi3 Piston - the unofficial Steam Box - is now available to pre-order, with prices starting at $999.99 USD. That said, there's a range of customisation options available, and it'll be very easy to spend almost double that if you want to up your SSD to 512GB. For those who pre-order before March 17, there'll be $100 discount, which will be pleasing news for early adopters. Head this way for more information.

"Given the amount of awards, media attention and gamer interest the PISTON Console has generated since it was unveiled at CES 2013 in January, we've become seriously concerned that we will not be able to meet the demand for PISTON Consoles this year," said Xi3's Jason A. Sullivan.

He then continued: "That's why we have decided to begin accepting pre-orders on our PISTON Console, beginning today with the start of the SXSW Gaming Expo. Gaming Expo attendees will also get the benefit of being the first to see the PISTON Console in action."

The new console, which will be optimised to operate a Linux variant of Steam Big Picture, is due out on Holiday 2013 (Christmas, then). However, $1,000 (£670) seems like a considerable investment. It'll be interesting to see how many people take the plunge at this early stage.