Piston V mini PC offers Steam Machine alternative for $559

A new mini PC called the Piston V is crowdfunded on Kickstarter as a cheaper, upgradeable alternative to Valve's Steam Machine, offering dual-OS gaming and portability for $559. The device features an AMD AI 365 Zen 5 CPU, 880M RDNA 3.5 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and a 500GB SSD, with support for up to 64GB RAM and 4TB storage. It runs Linux-based Bazzite out of the box but can be replaced with SteamOS for free, enabling pause-and-resume gameplay and access to 18,000 titles. Under 6 inches tall, it includes a 4-inch touchscreen, HDMI 2.1, USB4, OCuLink for external GPUs, and dual Ethernet ports. The campaign has raised over $175,000 from 300 backers, with shipments planned for December 2026, though crowdfunding risks apply.