Nice review, more Steam box Linux machine goodness. The more you test Linux the easier it gets to work out a sound performance metric & use better tools. As for the machine, yea it needs DP1.3, hence a 1080/1070 like you guys said in the review, idc if it can all games at that refresh/resolution but the fact is next year 120hz 4k screens are out and about. DP 1.2 won't cut it.
Since the i5-6400 has an integrated GPU Unit, it would means that it should be possible to do GPU Passthrough with the 980 and use the Intel HD 530/5500 as the host GPU.
The question would be, does the Motherboard support VT-d ? And has anyone tried such a thing on that device ?
Why they didn't make it all sand blasted black alluminum? In my opinion on the aesthetic they got it totally wrong. White, alluminum grey, black plastic and that baby blue mesh in the top...just ugly. Other than that I think the engineering behind such thing is pretty well done in my opinion. Since I don't know how difficult the engineering was I don't know if the price is justifiable or not, but surely it's pretty high. Maybe a watercooled build in a Fractal Nano S, for example, will cost kinda the same price I think (http://pcpartpicker.com/list/jTM4d6)
