Why, Razer, WHY?!?!? Who the HELL wants or needs this? As it stands, upgrading your PC is basically about as complex as playing with expensive Legos that you should probably touch the doorknob to your room first. In the absolute WORST case scenario, you could find yourself needing a small tube of CPU paste to better the connection to the heat sink above it… so what the hell is with THIS monstrosity?
Razer revealed a new machine prototype called “Project Christine” at CES, and the idea behind it is apparently to make your PC even more modular. Rather then a standard chassis that you can open up and change parts around as you see fit, this thing is a large tower of oval docks. Each dock can have a component clicked into place.
I can understand the appeal of the idea for many. It would make upgrades a lot less risky, but upon seeing pictures of this thing (as my sources supply) my first thought was that this is doomed for the failure so many console gamers are predicting for the Steam Machine. First and foremost, this setup would require you to buy your upgrades from Razer only, as they do not use anything even remotely standard for this setup, which means they can jack the price up to whatever they want it to be. Basically it’s a PC with all the trappings of Mac hardware. As if to prove my theory on this, the same article points out that this custom setup puts a custom liquid cooling (read you will spend a shit-ton of cash on the parts) system through the entire device, showing where these plug in as well. And Razer is far from blind to this themselves, already talking about a subscription model to swap parts, offering more power for higher fees… you know, cause they expect people wont want to pay outright.
Seriously, Razer, what the fuck? I’m sorry, but as cool as this thing looks, there is no room in the gaming industry for it. PC gamers will scoff at the price unless you make it comparable to other PC parts, and defaulting to liquid cooling would seem to make that not even a possibility. They will also scoff if you don’t offer all the choices we get when we make our own machines. Console gamers, on the other hand, may find this cool since it takes away even the tiny bit of knowhow currently needed to build, but you are even more likely to get the price argument, as well as their need to be where their score is.
So… who does that leave? Maybe Mac users who want a gaming PC? If they aren’t so hell-bent on being loyal to their Holy Fruitstand (Seriously, the brand loyalty there is strong enough to wonder if a daily prayer is “Our father, who art named Jobs, Hallowed be thy fruit. Thy systems come, Thy gestures done, on Earth since you left for Heaven….” ), you might have a base to work with. But this, I think, is a doomed project.
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