Razer Project Christine - Modular PC

Concept Project Christine

Very interesting concept. Plug and play any combination of CPU, GPU, Storage, etc. Not sure how well it will work in reality, but I like it.

 

its a good project, a very good idea. actually love the everything cooled by oil and silent part

 

Yeah I saw that one earlier. Great concept.
Looks very easy to upgrade hardware and the silent cooling is a huge plus.

If this catches on, Razer will have a ton of work ahead of them. They said they will build the modules themselves out of the hardware available on the market. Which means they will have to rebuild a lot of hardware.
I guess it takes a little fun out of the DYI systems builders love, plus the hardware options might not be as great as traditional desktops.

But really cool design. Bold move if it becomes reality

 

If Razer sells the modules themselves exclusively then it is going to be very costly to do upgrades on this

 

It's an interesting concept but I don't see it gaining any real steam.

 

We have a modular system, it's called a motherboard.

 

But its ugly as hell compared.

 

Interesting. Its looks great but I'm sure its a whole lot of proprietary hardware. If it allows user upgrades without needing to visit their store then I'm all for it.

 

I can't see anyone else selling these required modules... everything will come through Razer I'm sure. Would be interesting if they sold empty modules that you could put in whatever part you wanted, but highly doubt that happening.

I kind of agree with Meaker, hard to beat the freedom we currently have to do whatever you would like in a build... not to mention I can only imagine how expensive this will be compared to a traditional build.

Looks slick though!

 

Yup they said Razer would build the modules themselves. So one should assume some hefty premium on those parts as well.
But if they are cooled by oil, that was already expected from the beginning

 

Oil cooled is quite... interesting. They must have a working prototype already then. Does this mean when you plug it into the main unit that the oil will be shared among all the units or will each one have its own individual oil and compressor?

 

A shared oil loop would be... interesting. Especially after a few haphazard engagements/disengagements. Gloop

I doubt this'll get past a concept. But I'd certainly look at one if it does come out. And you know, if like they actually bother to sell it this side of the Atlantic.

 

Conceptually it is a great idea, but as a business decision it probably won't see the light of day.

 

If they sell this an an empty case where you can just put in all of your parts yourself, then I would definitely buy it.... but I'm just wondering, how would you upgrade the motherboard? By the looks of it this looks like it would have a custom made modular motherboard made by Razer... even so, buying the empty case with the motherboard is fine by me.

 

This is fine for the average consumer. It's like the Phonebloks concept.

 

Awesome concept and design but since Razer is making it, i can totally see the GPU leak coolant down to the rest of the parts and the whole thing catches on fire.

 

But, but, if 'the ultimate arbiter of quality as far as the not-susceptible-to-marketing-at-all-of-course tech press people go' does it, then surely it's meant to happen?

 

What's with the attitude? Changing wiper blades, turn signal lights, etc, or changing an air filter in the furnace, removing a door off it's hinge, etc is akin to swapping out a CPU. It requires turning a few screws and having a basic understanding how a computer works. Many people aren't "stupid" they're just not comfortable. I've helped some highly educated people like doctors and lawyers and engineers that are not comfortable doing it. So I guess that makes them stupid?

Let's hope it's not named Christine after the Richard Bachman (Steven King) novel/movie about the possessed car, because it's doomed from the start!

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Plus you can forget about timely availability of new tech (e.g. gpu's), then again, this might save some people frustration being early adopters as you may find out you don't want a new gpu by the time Razor gets it done for you.

I think it's beautiful and imaginary, but impractical for most. Gamers and general techies with huge wallets will buy it, I just don't know if they will be enough for it to become a reality for long.

 

Being (what? never!) the devil's advocate, one could argue that it makes them non-pliable, and therefore not that intelligent as such and their 's/he must be clever' career is based more on rote qualification and hard work, which might be mistaken for intelligence.

 

This looks interesting but I don't think it will ever see the light of day past prototype stage, just seems you get too handcuffed if you ever wan't to upgrade by buying modules from Razer.

 

I can change my oil, but I paid someone to do it today.
I can clean my house, but I paid a maid to do it last week (she comes once every other month)
I can actually draw my own blood, properly use a centrifuge, and make a semi decent analysis of the results, but I leave that to my doctor and the cute nurse.

I'm in the market for a new desktop, and I'm either going to pay someone to build it for me or get it from one of the boutique shops. Know why? Because as much as I love gaming and computer technology in general, I actually don't like putting stuff together. I am a clutz. I've torn keyboard cable ribbons, spilled liquid coolant, and dropped solder on motherboards before. And those were other people's computers! Today's tech makes it really easy to build a computer, but unless you get a good package deal from one place, you have to go through several vendors. So if something goes wrong, enjoy shipping stuff to China. I'm a gainfully employed adult, so I am willing to pay a small premium to have someone assemble things for me and provide warranty support.

Just my humble opinion.

 

And most likely going to be expensive and can only resell back to another person who has the system.

Yeap, don't understand why the hate if you would rather have someone else do it for you. If you want to hate then pay for them & hate all you want.

 

Maybe Project Christine is designed to leak to cool down the parts when it overheats. While it is water cooled, I do not see a radiator/fan setup big enough to keep up with the heat its going to create.

So it catches on fire, then it leaks to put it out. Engineering geniuses.

 

I assume, like the Cyanogenmod installer app, this is a compromise for people who see the advantages of the "tech-head DIY" approach but lack the technical knowledge and ability to build their own desktop the old-fashioned way. I absolutely see the practical benefits of choosing the own components for a performance desktop and replacing each individual component as it becomes dated or buggy, but I don't know how to build my own PC from scratch and I lack the time and the natural talent for those sorts of things to learn. I think Project Christine is aimed more at people like me than people like you.

 

I think its one of their targets. The other could be for lazy PC builder like myself, my greatest fear is when something breaks down and I have to take my PC completely part just to replace that part: motherboard. And I hate the fact I need to take everything apart when I'm doing spring cleaning of any dust. Can't use dust can spray since my PC is way too heavy to carry down 2 flights of stairs w/o killing my back.

If this is affordable, I might consider it since replacing parts would be easy and I don't have to take everything a part.

 

Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't it be easier to carry a compressed air can up two flights of stairs than the PC down two flights of stairs?

And yes, it does have limited appeal. In the end it may not be quite as elegant or straight forward, but I'm all for simplicity. Just depends on the final execution, cost, and reliability. One thing I like about Razer is they're not afraid to stretch their legs a little bit and try new things, even if it does have a limited audience.

 

Not when the dust will fly everywhere, I've tried with a vacuum hose and still made a mess, I plan to try again my next spring cleaning but with a better vacuum hose and do it smarter this time around.

Yeap, totally agree with what you said in BOLD. My only concern is because it will be over-priced like all their products.

 

I've never owned a reliable or quality Razer product. DeathAdder quality was pathetic. My Onza TE controller sucks. Vicious demonstrated how terrible their keyboards are. Their Razer Blade notebook is beyond stupid. Won't expect Christine to be anything but low quality, unreliable and dumb.

 

I dunno about you, but regular HOUSE cleaning keeps PC's largely dust free. It's not like I keep hardware around that long, but my last DIY was a bit fuzzy around the NH-D14 fins after 18 months, that was pretty much about it.

 

Not true. Unless you live in a "clean room", dust exists. You can have a spotless home, and guess where all that dust goes when you clean? The air, and swoop, right into your machine. Open your doors and windows? Guess what, tons of dust. Anyone who thinks they have a dust free home are kidding themselves. Ever take an industrial carpet cleaner to your carpet? It's disgusting even if you do it every six months, it's not enough. This is why I have hall hardwood floors in my home. After cleaning carpets and getting thoroughly grossed out, I put in wood floors, or finished the floors underneath the carpet (some were in good shape), a lot easier to sweep and mop weekly than carpet clean.

 

My PC's / House disagrees.

 

Regular house cleaning certainly helps. However, environmental factors play a huge role. While we normally associate dust with dirt ( ie not clean), the amount of particulate present in non-polluted outdoor air is still quite high. Since are machines are electrical components, the very current that provides it's lifeblood seeks to kill it by attracting opposite charged particles which accumulate in our vents.

 

How clean you keep your house has nothing to do with it. It isn't like the dust that settles somewhere is being sucked into your PC. It is the dust in the air that is constantly entering your home and constantly being generated within your home. While it is still floating in the air it gets sucked into the computer and deposited there. However, a big powerful home air purifier next to your computer will do the trick.

 

That those are all factors is not in dispute. However keeping the house clean is the number 1 factor in keeping your computer clean. A lot of people who argue this don't clean their homes well enough.

I know this very well, because I lend / give stuff out and I see how things end up vs how people's homes are, as well as see what goes on in my offices.

 

Just stop it Vogelbung. I sense some serious OCD here. We don't all live like slobs. We have clean homes and live our lives not so our computers don't get a little extra dust in them. Perhaps if you have a $20k high end furnace filter it will help too, but most of us don't concern ourselves with what a $2 can of compressed air can fix vs keeping a totally sterile home just so our computers have less dust.

 

Urge to photoshop rising,
All I could see when I looked was a glowing green stand that you plug various wallets full of money into.