Potently awesome idea?

[orangecat]

I had this idea all of the sudden to have a modular and upgradable PC that is as simple to use as a console. Basically you would have a box and all the hardware would slide in like a card making it easy for people to upgrade their hardware almost as if you where putting in a memory card. Console gamers would be able to play PC games without needing to know how to build a PC from the ground up. Basically the box would just be a few very basic parts like a motherboard and wires then your parts would just slide in and when you booted your system it would find the hardware and just work. It woudl take a bunch of money to design and take s a few years before people would make the switch but if this became a thing i think game quality would improve.

PS: there would be standards game devs. have to follow. For example...

 

Game 1 can run on GPU upgrade 1 at 720P @30fps

Game 1 can run on GPU 2 upgrade at 720P@60FPS

Game 1 can run on GPU upgrade 3 @ 1080P@60FPS

 

The upgrades wouldn't restrict you form playing cretin games but would enhance your gaming experience if you are willing to put more money into your system you can get better resolutions or better frame rates or better graphics. Its up to the game devs. how they want to handle the upgrades but a game must be able to run at 720P@ 30FPS on the lowest end hardware.

[ScubaChase]

steam box

[Bleedman0xx]

So umm... a PC?

[orangecat]

steam box

Not quite steambox is a PC.

[orangecat]

So umm... a PC?

But with he ease of use of a console. You could upgrade it t improve the system and there would be no where does this wire plug into.

[tp95112]

Not quite steambox is a PC.

To play PC games you need a PC which your sorta describing there

[orangecat]

To play PC games you need a PC which your sorta describing there

But im saying it would almost be like a console but its upgradable and is not a full PC.

[MeltyMoon]

He's saying like a PS3 with upgrade options at your local gamestop or whatever. Or you can do it yourself and not pay a fee, this way the less tech savvy can still enjoy consoles to some degree. I think this is a pretty cool idea, but it'll most likely never be used :(

[tp95112]

But im saying it would almost be like a console but its upgradable and is not a full PC.

Problem with that is its going to be somewhat hard to make games for since you got to do all the porting

[orangecat]

Problem with that is its going to be somewhat hard to make games for since you got to do all the porting

It woudl be a entirely new platform old games console games would not work. A game would have to be designed to run on this system and it would be able to run on that system even after hardware updates similar to how PC games work.

[TheRetiredSlave]

Wouldn't swapping out a card require the power plugs for that card to be unplugged from the old one and then re-plugged into the new one? And then you'd probably need to do a small software install so that the system will recognize and use the new card to it's full potential..

That sounds a lot like swapping a few 6 or 8-pin power cables and installing new drivers when you upgrade your GPU, doesn't it??

 

Wouldn't it be cool to just pull out an old storage drive and slap a new one in whenever you wanted? And then you could have the box automatically download and install your games to the new drive before you could use it..

Doesn't that sound like hot-swap bays, and setting Steam to download and install your games?

 

Upgradeability already exists, and upgrading is getting easier and easier every day.. Everything you've said already exists.

[orangecat]

Wouldn't swapping out a card require the power plugs for that card to be unplugged from the old one and then re-plugged into the new one? And then you'd probably need to do a small software install so that the system will recognize and use the new card to it's full potential..

That sounds a lot like swapping a few 6 or 8-pin power cables and installing new drivers when you upgrade your GPU, doesn't it??

 

Wouldn't it be cool to just pull out an old storage drive and slap a new one in whenever you wanted? And then you could have the box automatically download and install your games to the new drive before you could use it..

Doesn't that sound like hot-swap bays, and setting Steam to download and install your games?

 

Upgradeability already exists, and upgrading is getting easier and easier every day.. Everything you've said already exists.

You know how you plug in laptop battery's? They just clip in and there is a connector inside. The GPU would be a block with a few holes for ventilation and a slot on one side.

[Sundanc3]

*Potentially

[Sovereign]

*Potentially

*Patently

[Chevaishr]

I had this idea all of the sudden to have a modular and upgradable PC that is as simple to use as a console. Basically you would have a box and all the hardware would slide in like a card making it easy for people to upgrade their hardware almost as if you where putting in a memory card. Console gamers would be able to play PC games without needing to know how to build a PC from the ground up. Basically the box would just be a few very basic parts like a motherboard and wires then your parts would just slide in and when you booted your system it would find the hardware and just work. It woudl take a bunch of money to design and take s a few years before people would make the switch but if this became a thing i think game quality would improve.

PS: there would be standards game devs. have to follow. For example...

 

Game 1 can run on GPU upgrade 1 at 720P @30fps

Game 1 can run on GPU 2 upgrade at 720P@60FPS

Game 1 can run on GPU upgrade 3 @ 1080P@60FPS

 

The upgrades wouldn't restrict you form playing cretin games but would enhance your gaming experience if you are willing to put more money into your system you can get better resolutions or better frame rates or better graphics. Its up to the game devs. how they want to handle the upgrades but a game must be able to run at 720P@ 30FPS on the lowest end hardware.

i had an idea like this ... basically it would be a closed platform just like console except that there are super and ultra expansion modules.so how would this work well the consloe would contain a nice custom solution (custom apu) with an HSA link (that is what i shal call it)  for adding in the expansion packs. on the software side some easy to code for api and for the developers they have to make the game to run adequately on the console alone. now the games developers would have the option to enable certain graphical settings once expansion packs are detected (so high res textures can get enabled  or simply higher fps ). The super and ultra expansion packs would be fixed for a given time  (shorter than the console's life, maybe expansion pack updates every year). this would provide the closed system that gives consoles a great advantage as well as the ability to keep up with times.

 

 

ok so a possible example. lets say u have a game, witcher 3. at stock the game developers were able to get the game running at 1080p with medium res textures, low object count and high details in nearby areas.

The game developer would now have the option to enable some setting once an expansion pack is used. so with the super one installed the textures can be high res and the draw distance can be increased. with the ultra installed the game can run pinned at 60 fps with pc level quality.

 

now in terms of the real bombshell each year a new gen of expansion can be released   which mean there exist possibility of  4k 60 fps later on 

[Chevaishr]

oh btw this idea may be attractive for business as can milk this like crazy ... actually this can be bad cuz EA might have graphically upgrades as a paid DLC  :wacko:   

 

 

also something i can add in about the packs ... the new gen of expansion packs would behave like old gens when used with an older games so that there would be no additional software download and no crashing.

 

now it would be up to the game devs to update the game to recognise and take advantage of the  new gen packs or simply do EA :lol:   

[Sundanc3]

*Patently

Not sure what you are going for, but that doesn't make any sense bro

[Decoy987]

So basically a Xi3 modular computer?

 

http://xi3.com/

[Magic8Ball]

Heh, I remember when the xi3 was all the rage when it was showcased. Has anybody actually used one since then?

[Decoy987]

Heh, I remember when the xi3 was all the rage when it was showcased. Has anybody actually used one since then?

 

Still vaporware at this point, at least I haven't heard much. The last I heard was the piston, their play to become the steam box. 

[ajoy39]

Problem with that is its going to be somewhat hard to make games for since you got to do all the porting

you wouldn't have to port it, it would be like on PC where you have different quality settings. The game engine takes a profile of the system and sets the game quality automatically. Since many PC games already do this, I don't see why it would be so hard to do the same thing on console. 

[EricX2]

A thunderbolt external graphics card connected to a PC would be as easy to use as a console and very easy to upgrade. So something the size of the NUC would be great. If AMD or Nvidia made a custom graphics card in their own enclosure they could even make the cooling better since they wouldn't have to be limited to the PCI-E form factor.

 

I like it. Not for me, but for people who are afraid of opening their cases.

[Slurhn]

But with he ease of use of a console. You could upgrade it t improve the system and there would be no where does this wire plug into.

I don't think it is the difficulty of upgradability which is a problem for most console gamers.

The problem is with marketing and companies... as in they would find some aspect that would "Wow!" every non-techsavy buyer.

Just like 13 Mpix on your phone which you definetly need <_<.

 

And we would rage about it, just like we rage about that kind of stuff now :angry:.

 

Unless...

It could be OpenSource in a similar fashion to

The Phantom: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Phantom (sorry, keyboard reference)

Or maybe something like the Arduino, as long as it is not suscept to a company's "Revenue Force of Destruction"

[orangecat]

i had an idea like this ... basically it would be a closed platform just like console except that there are super and ultra expansion modules.so how would this work well the consloe would contain a nice custom solution (custom apu) with an HSA link (that is what i shal call it)  for adding in the expansion packs. on the software side some easy to code for api and for the developers they have to make the game to run adequately on the console alone. now the games developers would have the option to enable certain graphical settings once expansion packs are detected (so high res textures can get enabled  or simply higher fps ). The super and ultra expansion packs would be fixed for a given time  (shorter than the console's life, maybe expansion pack updates every year). this would provide the closed system that gives consoles a great advantage as well as the ability to keep up with times.

 

 

ok so a possible example. lets say u have a game, witcher 3. at stock the game developers were able to get the game running at 1080p with medium res textures, low object count and high details in nearby areas.

The game developer would now have the option to enable some setting once an expansion pack is used. so with the super one installed the textures can be high res and the draw distance can be increased. with the ultra installed the game can run pinned at 60 fps with pc level quality.

 

now in terms of the real bombshell each year a new gen of expansion can be released   which mean there exist possibility of  4k 60 fps later on 

Thats exactly what i was trying to say it woudl be very locked down but upgrades would be avaliable.

[Salmiakbal]

Whoops double post