Razer's Project Christine

[nicholaswillems]

Technically, a PC is already fully modular.

 

Yeah, and everyone with no interest in it looks at it and says "rocket science!" while it definitely is not.

[MasterJV]

Do people even see the source/video on this forum? I reccomend seeing it and it will explain most of your questions if you pay attention and move your Razer Hatred aside.

Back on Topic:

Really nice concept. I'm not a fan of the design. I prefer a more simple design without LED Lights everywhere.Will probably be expensive seeing that its Oil cooled and has to be pre built and all that stuff. I see this taking off in a few years for people who are afraid of shorting out a circuit or spilling oil on the components.

[Kamina]

Looks dumb.

[atrash]

I actually like the design. That pcie connector for the gpu looks somewhat like the ones in the new Mac Pro. Do want.. :wub:

 

Owh and it is also mineral oil cooled. That quick disconnect ports are awesome! 

[NamelessTed]

I will say right away that I totally understand why a company would want to make a product like this, and I can understand the initial excitement for a totally modular and very easily upgradable PC. This will obviously be considerably more expensive than the current "traditional" PC form factor. I am just not sure the simplicity and the performance increases one would get via upgrading would be worth how much I imagine something like this would actually cost. You have to wonder what the target audience for something like this is. It reminds me of the ideas floating around to have a modular smart phone, which I believe is equally doomed to fail.

 

From a mainstream perspective, most electronics or "disposable" in that you buy a device and use it until it doesn't work or isn't "good enough" anymore. That might be something like 2 years for a cell phone or tablet, 2-5 years for a laptop, or 5+ years for a desktop PC. By the time a device feels too slow or stops working it often just doesn't make sense to replace parts or upgrade bits and pieces to get a little bit more life out of it, buying a whole new system is often the smarter choice in terms of price per performance. Upgrading to an SSD, increasing RAM, or even installing a fancy new GPU might be smart upgrades depending on specs, but a lot of the mass market people this would be too advanced. They would likely require somebody else to do it for them. In this instance I understand that the ease of just plugging a new block in would be great for them. But would this same market be interested in spending potentially double the money upfront? The more price conscious option would be to spend half as much on a PC now, and then the same amount of money on a PC in 3-5 years time.

 

A fully modular PC like this clearly isn't for the PC enthusiast that already knows how to build a system on their own. Those people will realize that it will be way more cost effective to build their own machines.

 

So maybe the current market for something like this would have to be people that have lots of money, but don't want/can't build their own systems. It would target the audience of the boutique PC market. People that play games or simulators and want a super high end rig, and want it to look cool as fuck and be able to run anything you throw at it. But even with those people, would they necessarily be interested in purchasing something that they could upgrade themselves? If they had a $4k rig built for them wouldn't they just pay somebody to upgrade it for them if they ever needed it?

 

So maybe something like this would be really useful for production or enterprise use. Maybe a small studio has a computer that they 3D render or do video editing on. I guess I could see how it would be useful to be able to just slap another GPU into a rig and get more performance out of it. If you had 100 office computers the task of going through every one and upgrading something like a CPU or GPU or whatever would be quite daunting. I guess even with maintenance it isn't a huge deal when you are just at home but if you have to maintain many PCs it would become a much simpler task of just pulling one out and popping a new one in without having to open up a case and deal with any sort of cables or screws or anything. I think if a more modular design became affordable it would be great for those enterprise scenarios.

 

At the end of the day, the major issue for me is open vs proprietary. Linus talks about this a bit in his video. If Razer tries to keep this proprietary then it is totally dead in the water. Absolute waste of time. However, IF all the companies could get together and have an open standard then it could become useful.

 

I think I had a much more negative view of the idea project Christine before writing this post. I still think it is likely pie in the sky, and would be too expensive. But, I think it is a step in the direction of things to come. Maybe we could have something intermediary where certain things like mobo, CPU, and RAM are all locked in place but the GPU, HDD/SSD, and front I/O are easily upgradable in a fashion similar to what Razer is showing.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Looks cool but is really impractical. Where is all the cooling for the components. Also it will cost too much. The connectors are proprietary though probably because the connectors needed don't exist. 

[PuNkPoEtS]

i wonder if @Slick is going to get one of these to add to his collection of mineral oil cooled systems

[Wingingchase]

Are you guys kidding me? I agree it may be overprice but it looks sexy I definitely wouldn't mind having this in my house/office now the hardware specs might leave something to be desired but still looks amazing in my opinion. Then again it might just be that I'm a Razer fan.

[ThorBuildingLegos]

I have a couple of problems with this...

1. To big a form factor. Machines are getting smaller, so 3/5ths its current size would be a nicer measurement
2. It's (currently) proprietary. If they standardized the inner workings of the machine and the modules, sell module cases and parts to manufacturers for cheap and allow other manufacturers to come up with new case concepts using these standards it could very well be the future PC standard
3. Razer is making it alone without anyone else, meaning it might stay proprietary and highly priced as an enthusiast product.

Buuut...

 

If they make a standard interface that lasts an entire PCIe generation, with universal connectors for CPUs and GPUs, allowing easy switching and upgrading for lamen PC users, ensuring that no crucial parts are harmed due to ignorance, opens up a huge market for PC and PC parts manufacturers. Gone are the days of unscrewing case doors, making sure wires are disconnected and that you're not touching something you're not supposed to touch. Nope! Click clack, replace, click clack, done. New CPU with entirely new socket? Click-clack: DONE! Whats that? You need to replace your liquid mineral oil coo-CLICK-CLACK: !!!!DONE!!!!

 

And, if they are smart enough, they will biuld modules (complete with mineral oil cooling built in to it) that can be opened and modified by enthusiasts. This would make it so nothing would virtually change... except ofc the whole PC case modding culture, showing off the inside of your case and all the trouble you went through, picking the right hardware with the right color scheme, the right wires, and suddenly it's all out the window because of this new fancy dangled "no-peeky-peeky-on-the-inside-needed" PC standard (if... it eventually evolved in to a PC standard)... yeah...

 

This will spark interest and fear. The interest of something innovative or the fear of change. But I for one think it's awesome and a natural step in the right direction. Just... could we perhaps... make it a wee bit smaller...?

Edited January 8, 2014 by ThorBuildingLegos

[L0rd Log1c]

The things that make me dislike this:

- It's Razer.

- Proprietary connectors.

- PC's are already modular.

You literally screw in the PSU and motherboard, lay the CPU in a specially designed hole with arrows that line up and pull a little lever. Then you push in the GPU and RAM into the motherboard until it clicks (they only fit one way around), some more screws for the HDD/SSD then plug PSU connectors in the right slots and you are done. IKEA furniture is more difficult to build than a computer... Closed loop watercooling also requires like 8 screws, the thermal paste even comes pre-applied... GPU's should overclock as well on air as they would on this weird, non cooled, liquid. So you are paying extravagant fees for silent performance vs resonably silent performance.

- Liquid cooling without an obvious way to cool the liquid.

- Pre-builds and custom systems are a thing as are building services (buy components, pay 50 bucks for assembly).

- It's big.

- It's ugly (personal opinion)

 

Linus was against the modular phone because "Why would Samsung sell components at a small mark up when they can sell an entire phone at a huge mark-up?" But now Asus and the like would love to make modules for this in stead of selling pre-builds and motherboards every CPU socket cycle...

 

But whatever, lazy and/or stupid people tax has been around for a long time. Personally I wouldn't be caught dead with the thing...

[applebook]

This puts a severe limitation on choices and is something out of Apple's philosophy. 

 

If you want to upgrade your GPU or PSU, you no longer have 100s of alternatives...just a few from Razer.  <_<

[Wingingchase]

That looks so fucking retarded, why would you spend the extra m,oney on that? you can't even use high end hardware there is no ventilation!

if you will notice the power supply has an integrated radiator/reservoir I've noticed holes on the parts that look like liquid connectors with the main liquid routing going through the main tower I don't work for Razer so that is my guess.

[JLCitadel]

I sure fucking did, that little mesh on the small sides is the ventilation? what kinda tiny fans are gonna fit in there?!? and fully modular? computers are already fully modular! All you're paying for is extra money to have your parts locked in to a very expensive case! It's stupid!

he final product will literally look nothing like this. The ONLY thing similar will be; made by razor, modular design, mineral cooling.

It's a CONCEPT made too look pretty not real. Listen to what he says in the video like 7 times. CONCEPT. CONCEPT. CONCEPT. I MUST STRESS ITS A CONCEPT.

There's a difference between watching a video and paying attention as well as learning from it.

[JayD]

This is silly because computers are already modular and all this is doing is locking them down into a proprietary and likely expensive format for no reason. Boo for closed standards.

[L0rd Log1c]

he final product will literally look nothing like this. The ONLY thing similar will be; made by razor, modular design, mineral cooling.

It's a CONCEPT made too look pretty not real. Listen to what he says in the video like 7 times. CONCEPT. CONCEPT. CONCEPT. I MUST STRESS ITS A CONCEPT.

There's a difference between watching a video and paying attention as well as learning from it.

Lol, I have a cardboard box here, it's my concept of a time machine. The final product will be nothing like this. The ONLY thing similar will be; made by a human, flat sides, hard edges, stuff will be able to fit inside.

 

There's a difference between thinking of a concept and building a non-functioning, apparently non-related thing to spread brand awareness as well as ??? from it.

 

Concept products are great things, concept cars are made all the time, but at least they work as a car is supposed to... This is just stupid. "Look at this thing, it doesn't do anything, but we might release a product in the future that does the things this thing appears to do but it will be nothing like this thing, awesome right?"

[exyia]

the problem is that windows kills the whole "ease of use" part of modularity - making this whole concept half-baked

 

I can easily swap out a ______! bam, done in 3 minutes!!!......................................................but it's not fully plug and play because now I have to deal with uninstalling old drivers and installing new ones....and all the other stuff with installing new hardware. and what about bubbles in the loop? no quick disconnect system is 100%, so I might have to run it a while to bleed out any air bubbles (which for a system as this, I would hope there's a check valve somewhere to do this as it's flowing)

 

if the whole thing isn't plug and play, then it's not much more than just a fancy computer case idea

[BernardoSLR]

the problem is that windows kills the whole "ease of use" part of modularity - making this whole concept half-baked

 

I can easily swap out a ______! bam, done in 3 minutes!!!......................................................but it's not fully plug and play because now I have to deal with uninstalling old drivers and installing new ones....and all the other stuff with installing new hardware. and what about bubbles in the loop? no quick disconnect system is 100%, so I might have to run it a while to bleed out any air bubbles (which for a system as this, I would hope there's a check valve somewhere to do this as it's flowing)

 

if the whole thing isn't plug and play, then it's not much more than just a fancy computer case idea

 

Why are you making up issues where they might not exist? You honestly think Razer engineers are so dumb that they can make a project like this, but can't make a simple software package that will detect the parts you have installed on your system and install the respective drives? I honestly think most of you are badmouthing the project just because it was Razer who came up with it. It will probably be overpriced yes, and it might have compatibility issues as well, but disregarding the project right away for reasons like this it's just plain stupid and ignorant!

[exyia]

Why are you making up issues where they might not exist? You honestly think Razer engineers are so dumb that they can make a project like this, but can't make a simple software package that will detect the parts you have installed on your system and install the respective drives? I honestly think most of you are badmouthing the project just because it was Razer who came up with it. It will probably be overpriced yes, and it might have compatibility issues as well, but disregarding the project right away for reasons like this it's just plain stupid and ignorant!

 

so why hasn't Microsoft....who is how many times bigger than Razer...done this since......idk Windows 2000?

[BernardoSLR]

so why hasn't Microsoft....who is how many times bigger than Razer...done this since......idk Windows 2000?

 

lol Because Microsoft does NOT build PCs and sell them to the consumer... If you pick the parts you're selling, or at least keep track of what you're selling, don't you think it would be much easier to create a database with all the components you've released on the market and it's respective drivers? MS has to deal with tons of hardware manufacturers and, believe it or not, they have improved a lot in the last OS versions, mainly Win7 and 8, but one can only do so much...

[Kirihuna]

Considering how well engineered Razer's laptop was, I have faith.

[shizngiggles]

Interesting concept, but god is it hideous in my opinion. Looks way too much like an old school home radiator

 

 

 

[Phillyphries]

This concept sounds pretty useless to me for PC. Laptop would be more suitable, maybe

[mr moose]

Well, It seems I am one of the few that actually see this as being the first of the future of pc's.  I normally reserve a little displeasure for anything razor (most of there products seem like flashy over priced kids toys) however this has potential. The potential as a powerful processing unit that is quiet and very easy to upgrade has many benefits that current systems lack.   I can understand people not liking the look of it because that's a personal thing, but you'd have to be fairly ignorant to not see the innovation and potential.

[Phillyphries]

Well, It seems I am one of the few that actually see this as being the first of the future of pc's.  I normally reserve a little displeasure for anything razor (most of there products seem like flashy over priced kids toys) however this has potential. The potential as a powerful processing unit that is quiet and very easy to upgrade has many benefits that current systems lack.   I can understand people not liking the look of it because that's a personal thing, but you'd have to be fairly ignorant to not see the innovation and potential.

 

It's innovative if it gets adopted quickly perhaps. Not if it's going to be completely proprietary, so Razr can charge 1.5x the price of a CPU so that you can upgrade it.

[mr moose]

It's innovative if it gets adopted quickly perhaps. Not if it's going to be completely proprietary, so Razr can charge 1.5x the price of a CPU so that you can upgrade it.

 

With any luck they'll do what IBM did, Balance the proliferation with royalties so razor doesn't die in a heap but money is not an obstacle for consumers or manufactures.