Xi3 Piston pre-orders kick off at $900

Xi3 Corporation has officially kicked off pre-orders for its slick little Piston compact gaming PC at a $1,000 price point.

However, Xi3 is offering a $100 discount for any pre-order placed between now and Sunday, March 17, 2013. The manufacturer says it expects the consoles to ship in time for 2013 holiday season. With the $100 discount, the price of the computer actually starts at $900.

Specs? 128 GB of SSD storage, 8 GB of RAM, and 3.2 GHz quad-core processor. If you need more storage, options for 256 GB and 512 GB of SSD storage are available, adding an additional $340 and $750 respectively.

“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 this year,” said Xi3 CEO Jason A. Sullivan.

“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.”

As you may recall, the Piston gaming computer was the first unveiled during CES back in January. We’ve also seen the so computer being used by Valve as a development console for the Steam platform. Inded, the Piston is primarily designed to allow computer gamers to play their favorite games on the big screen in the living room. The device is about the size of a large grapefruit, making it easy to fit into a packed entertainment center.