I do not understand the Bulldog at all. I would much rather build a much better (and smaller and better looking) mini ITX system myself than invest in their mostly pre-built, inflexible offering. Also, they are targeting 40 fps for workable 4K gaming, but since this is supposed to be a gaming HTPC for the living room, aren't most people going to be limited to 30 Hz with their 4K TVs? I havent done much research on 4K hdtvs lately, but I thought that most were not running 60+ Hz.
Also, yes, the Lapdog should be wireless. IMO cutting wires and making for a slicker, less convoluted setup is one of the big selling points of living room pc gaming. Snaking long cables from your couch to your home theater center is extremely outdated. Many newer mobile devices are ditching physical ports (like HDMI) and taking advantage of wireless communication protocols (BT, P2P, Miracast, etc) for the sole purpose of getting rid of physical wires in the living room space. I get that input latency might be a thing (I think it is a bit exaggerated nowadays) and that Corsair wants to give off a hardcore gaming vibe by going wired, but I'd rather have them invest in a high quality wireless part and integrate it into the Lapdog rather than forcing users to deal with 15-foot cables.
Its more or less targetting a specific consumer niche market i.e consolea and full entertainment systems.. Vs appealing to the pc building elite lols.. Its still a fairly okay package id say
glad to see the old corsair sail logo back . i like the internal layout of the mini itx case , externals look a bit showy though...but will definitely check it out when its available...however, I do like my mini itx cases to fit in a backpak ... eg. silverstones raven
Love the wired solution for keyboard has always been one of my biggest gripes with living room gaming. I pointedly avoid cordless to prevent RF pollution (and poor performance) were hit with way to much of it already no reason to add more.
Has the traditional PC with keyboard, mouse and monitor reached max saturation point and they're trying to move into the living room or is this part of the "PC is dead" crowd response so as a last ditch effort they think converting the PC into a console is the way to go?
I know that Valve put forth the Steam Machine concept from feeling threatened by Microsofts Store being built into Windows, somewhat unfounded as long as the desktop is still around though. Personally I'll never use one, even if they were able to get all game developers on board for support. As it is I wouldn't recommend Steam Machine to anyone mainly because of the fractured experience you're going to have. Want to play that new Star Wars game - oh, sorry you can't because it's made by EA. The streaming devices (Steam Link) make a little more sense as long as it's not limited to just a handful of games supported but everything I can play from Windows and is generally inexpensive.
My biggest fear in this new push to turn PC gaming into a couch potato console experience is that it's going to dumb down games not only in their UI design but in their overall gameplay design as well. It's hard enough to get developers to support wider FOV and proper mouse and keyboard support on the PC and this is only reaffirming the decision to port games to the PC without spending any extra time adding in "PC" features.