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Razer's Project Christine: modular PC that anyone can upgrade.

Z

zephervack

Member
Looks awesome, now they need to make sure you can make it half as tall if you are not using too many peripherals and you have a small steam box going.

I would never buy this thing but I know many people would at the right price, hell as I get older and time gets more valuable, I might even buy one now that I think about it.
 
L

Levyne

Banned
It took me a couple hours to put together my pc but that's because I had to make an emergency trip to buy a motherboard actually compatible with my cpu (I assumed 3770k and 47770k would be the same) and had to open a lot of it up again and reseat the cpu after finishing it once. I also has some issues with the mobo standoffs. But 2 hours even if you make a lot of mistakes like I did.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
kanuuna said:
I'm not sure I'd like to pay a 15% premium to get a component in Razer's proprietary ezSwap-tube form.
I'm also not really sure who this is for when people who'd rather pay the premium fee than slap a PC together themselves are served by the likes of Alienware and Origin. I would also imagine those shops would be glad to help you with upgrading the PC you've previously purchased from them if budged.

Oh, do the right thing and bribe me with your products if you intend to trademark my made-up marketing term for swappable parts.
Click to expand...

There is a middle ground though as shown in other markets. People like paddle shifters and manualmatic modes in their automatic corollas.
 
C

Crunch2600

Neo Member
I don't know what the benefit is since I don't imagine these components will be cheaper than their normal counterparts. It doesn't seem that much more convenient than a regular PC, and most people aren't really switching out components that often. Perhaps for like, LAN party events at like, BlizzCon or something, where exchanging parts on a lot of PCs can be an issue?
 
F

Fularu

Banned
chickdigger802 said:
20mins?

I guess if you have a magnetic power screwdriver and this isn't your first build with the specific case and mobo. And probably one of the more expensive cases that have most things use those plastic things instead of screws.

And I haven't found a 3rd party cpu cooler solution that isn't confusing as hell to stick on without watching a yt video.

40- 1 hr seems about right.
Click to expand...

Nowadays this is what happens when you build up a PC :

- Open case, screw motherboard screw holders
- Open motherboard box, take out CPU cache, plug in CPU (can't make a mistake, it only fits in one direction)
- Screw the motherboard to the case
- Connect all cables except alimentation
- Plug in your Ram
- Plug in your video card
- Place your harddrives, connect them
- Connect alimentation
- Connect whichever cooling solution you decided upon (OEM or custom)
- Start your computer.

You no longer have to :

- Connect USB ports cards
- Connect Modem/Ethernet cards
- Connect serial/parrallel cards
- Guess the proper direction of your ATA cable when you connect it on the mother board
- Wonder which is the master and which is the slave disc on your setup(s)
- Guess which cable is power on, reset, hdd lights and so on
- Connect a sound card, change your PCI slot because for some reason it was conflicting with your Ethernet card
- Wonder if the memory you're trying to pair will work together (to an extent it still exists but has almost disapeared)
- Connect your floppy disc drive
- Spend 5 hours in the bios trying to get everything properly recognized. Restart the whole process because you swapped yours lave disc with the CD-Rom drive and nothing works anymore
- Etc...
 
D

DedValve

Banned
This is great, I'm looking into building a PC myself and the most daunting task (other than figuring out the best CPU/GPU for gaming) is figuring out how to put it all together then install windows 8 on it.
 
U

ukas

Member
Mesoian said:
Very true.

Though the thermalake 10 case is still sexy as hell. I'd definitely pick one up if I could be bothered to spend 300 bucks on a case.
Click to expand...

When I bought the original Level 10 it was $1000. Price aside, If I had a chance to do it again I wouldn't. Yeah, it's cool looking and all but, it was the biggest pain in the ass to get it all together. And the fact that it weighs a ton doesn't help.
 
C

chickdigger802

Banned
Fularu said:
Nowadays this is what happens when you build up a PC :

- Open case, screw motherboard screw holders
- Open motherboard box, take out CPU cache, plug in CPU (can't make a mistake, it only fits in one direction)
- Screw the motherboard to the case
- Connect all cables except alimentation
- Plug in your Ram
- Plug in your video card
- Place your harddrives, connect them
- Connect alimentation
- Connect whichever cooling solution you decided upon (OEM or custom)
- Start your computer.

You no longer have to :

- Connect USB ports cards
- Connect Modem/Ethernet cards
- Connect serial/parrallel cards
- Guess the proper direction of your ATA cable when you connect it on the mother board
- Wonder which is the master and which is the slave disc on your setup(s)
- Guess which cable is power on, reset, hdd lights and so on
- Connect a sound card, change your PCI slot because for some reason it was conflicting with your Ethernet card
- Wonder if the memory you're trying to pair will work together (to an extent it still exists but has almost disapeared)
- Connect your floppy disc drive
- Spend 5 hours in the bios trying to get everything properly recognized. Restart the whole process because you swapped yours lave disc with the CD-Rom drive and nothing works anymore
- Etc...
Click to expand...

indeed. still 20min is not 'average joe' speeds ;)

Debugging is still a pain though. Happened a few times in my life where something is just broke and you have to do the slow ass process of taking shit out and testing shit to see which part you needa rma.

For something like this, all it takes is say the RAM cart light starts flashing, oh ok that's broke.

or, that's what i'd imagine :/
 
H

HariKari

Member
The modules are sealed and will have to be proprietary. Why would anyone pay 2-3x more for the same thing when they can build it themselves? If you actually sit down to build a computer you realize everything is color coded, connectors mostly go only one place, and it's really not challenging at all.
 
B

Burt

Member
I actually like the idea and overall look, but these companies have to stop putting these ridiculous highlight colors and lights on everything they do. Pure black, please.

Modern PCs aren't difficult to work with, but true plug-and-play would be phenomenal. I got a wireless HDMI transmitter over the holidays specifically because it was worth not having to deal with both handling wires and their physical presence when hooking my computer up to my TV, and it's magic. Not exactly analogous, and PC components are generally switched a tiny amount compared to how often I go from monitor to TV, but there's something to be said about absolute ease.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
HariKari said:
The modules are sealed and will have to be proprietary. Why would anyone pay 2-3x more for the same thing when they can build it themselves? If you actually sit down to build a computer you realize everything is color coded, connectors mostly go only one place, and it's really not challenging at all.
Click to expand...

If you really want a silent, mineral oil cooled PC and you don't want to bother with that part of the build. Liquid cooling is still non-trivial.
 
H

HariKari

Member
Dr.Acula said:
If you really want a silent, mineral oil cooled PC and you don't want to bother with that part of the build. Liquid cooling is still non-trivial.
Click to expand...

Waterblocking GPUs is $$$$ enthusiast level stuff. If you want liquid cooling for your CPU, there are lots of nice sealed systems available that are no different in installation than your average CPU cooler.

If they get it truly silent or close to it, and execute the modular side well, I could see people buying it. But it's still going to be much more expensive than DIY, and DIY is not all that hard to begin with. Seems like it's filling a nice niche, but in the wrong way.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
I've been building PCs since I was 10...

Not "Yeah I helped my dad build PCs since I was 10."

Literally I was 10 years old, wanted to build a PC, saved up money, bought parts, and assembled the PC, jumpers and all, by hand. And this was 17 years ago when you still had to do proper jumpers.

If you can't put part A into socket A and part B into slot B, this new system won't help at all.
 
DietRob

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
I feel like we are so far behind on ease of use with PC components. I'm glad something like this is being worked on but quite frankly if you would have asked me 10 years ago I would have thought something like this would have already existed by now.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Its a concept and an innovative one at that. It's great, but obviously is a bit expensive sounding. As long as they keep it as something that is open enough for other people to build for, it could go somewhere
 
B

Bert

Member
I'm torn.

The console gamer and gadget geek in me loves the idea of this.

The tech geek in me says more proprietary connectors and more walled gardens in tech are a bad thing.
 
W

wildfire

Banned
KojiKnight said:
I've been building PCs since I was 10...

Not "Yeah I helped my dad build PCs since I was 10."

Literally I was 10 years old, wanted to build a PC, saved up money, bought parts, and assembled the PC, jumpers and all, by hand. And this was 17 years ago when you still had to do proper jumpers.

If you can't put part A into socket A and part B into slot B, this new system won't help at all.
Click to expand...

Don't be pedantic. Everything is labelled better here than the tiny font on a motherboard.
 
M

Miletius

Member
It's a cool idea, especially for the gamer who doesn't know much about building PCs. I know that they are treated like a mythical beast on these forums but there are quite a few out there. Think kids whose parents don't trust them enough to build their own or older 45+ year old's who just didn't grow up with computers.

They might need to cut back on the logo and design for the second group though....
 
S

SneakyStephan

Banned
chickdigger802 said:
indeed. still 20min is not 'average joe' speeds ;)

Debugging is still a pain though. Happened a few times in my life where something is just broke and you have to do the slow ass process of taking shit out and testing shit to see which part you needa rma.

For something like this, all it takes is say the RAM cart light starts flashing, oh ok that's broke.

or, that's what i'd imagine :/
Click to expand...

The fact that you can debug it is a major advantage, my jvc home theater box started returning to standby after a few seconds yesterday which means I have to buy a new one as you can't troubleshoot these things yourself.
Why would this razer thing be any different from a regular pc, there's still normal pc parts inside those modules you 'll still need to troubleshoot just the same

Hell they will HAVE to have the mobo and cpu in a single module so if there's a problem with the mobo you'll be forced to replace/rma the entire module instead of just picking up a cheap spare mobo
they call it modular but it'll be a lot less modular than a regular PC (which is a very bad thing)
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
The only issue I see with this is that it absolutely has to be some kind of open standard for it to gain any traction, but what would Razer gain out of that other than satisfaction of creating some new form factor?
 
M

Mlatador

Banned
Looks really cool. Only downside is, you will probably need to buy razer-branded upgrade modules. Other than that, I think the idea is brilliant.
 
O

Ogimachi

Member
Sounds just as stupid as the "Phonebloks". I like the built-in liquid cooling and noise cancellation, but I hate the idea that components would have to be built with this form factor in mind to be compatible, or that "modules" will surely cost more than components alone and would have to be sold by Razer and its partners.
 
H

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
If this comes to exist, and there's any viable way to buy components off the shelf, or at least a variety of manufacturers' stuff, I'm interested and will quite likely simply buy some version of it as my next PC. I honestly love the aesthetic and the concept is worth a fair bit to me.

If it's all proprietary Razer start to finish, I will sigh wistfully at what could have been and build/customize my next PC in the traditional boring manner.
sirfairfax said:
Sounds just as stupid as the "Phonebloks"
Click to expand...
Had never heard of this, just looked it up, and allow me to assure you that no it damn well doesn't.
 
M

mr2xxx

Banned
RealityExists said:
what a genius way to idiot proof pc building.

offer a range of prices on the individual modules so folks can go high or low on this and you will be golden.
Click to expand...

Problem is there will be no low end, everything will be marked up due to the fact that this is a niche product,
 
M

mnannola

Member
Parts will probably be a crapload more expensive, and behind the curve on this thing.

Instead of getting a new video card when it comes out for $299, you will have to wait for Razer to get it's version up and running, and most likely pay at least $100 more. Probably a much limited selection in available parts as well.

I hate to be negative nancy but I just don't see this being able to work. The only market for this is people with a bunch of money to burn, and would rather have this then just buy a pre-built computer.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
rudieboy77 said:
Jeez PC's aren't that hard to build to begin with.
Click to expand...
yeah, that's not the only interesting thing of this concept, in case someone else missed it.
We are talking about a modular PC that beside being idiot-proof to assemble has every single part in a shell, isolated from dust and cooled with mineral oil.

That is in itself incredibly cool.
 
O

Ogimachi

Member
Hawkian said:
If this comes to exist, and there's any viable way to buy components off the shelf, or at least a variety of manufacturers' stuff, I'm interested and will quite likely simply buy some version of it as my next PC. I honestly love the aesthetic and the concept is worth a fair bit to me.

If it's all proprietary Razer start to finish, I will sigh wistfully at what could have been and build/customize my next PC in the traditional boring manner.

Had never heard of this, just looked it up, and allow me to assure you that no it damn well doesn't.
Click to expand...
I think most opinons in this thread are wishful thinking, but who knows, I've seen worse products become very popular.
mnannola said:
Parts will probably be a crapload more expensive, and behind the curve on this thing.

Instead of getting a new video card when it comes out for $299, you will have to wait for Razer to get it's version up and running, and most likely pay at least $100 more. Probably a much limited selection in available parts as well.

I hate to be negative nancy but I just don't see this being able to work. The only market for this is people with a bunch of money to burn, and would rather have this then just buy a pre-built computer.
Click to expand...
People with a lot of money to burn and no interest in paying less on newegg/amazon and taking 15 minutes to build a computer or even search for an online store that does all the work for you.

I'll praise Razer for not taking this to Kickstarter (and for still making left-handed mice), but even though I can't say this won't be a success, I can't see this being a good product at all.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
kamspy said:
Uh, motherboards are pretty much already like that. You literally can't put anything in the wrong slot without breaking it.

Except for motherboard to case jumpers. Those are a bitch. Especially if you get piss poor documentation of what's what.
Click to expand...

Well, for starters you have to unplug and open your Pc than plug it up again. This solve his hurdle :p
 
G

GuitarAtomik

Member
Actually I think this is a pretty awesome different direction for PC building standards in general as it is about as idiot proof as you can get while still keeping customizability. I know a lot fo you want to act like building a PC is so simple but the truth is, it still requires a lot of research and effort on th layman's part. Not to mention those random problems you get when you're brand new PC doesn't boot right "Is it bad RAM?" "Did I underestimate how much voltage I needed in the power supply?" "Why don't I have any sound?" "Did I miss a wire somewhere?". It's still not as easy as you want to think, but this is dumbing it down completely to plug and play parts. The only way you could make it more simple is by buying a pre-built box. Now, I don't have any faith in it being perfect, or even that cost effective since it's coming from Razor, but the fact that the modules could be built/sold by third parties is promising. Definitely a cool and interesting first step.
 
Marc

Marc

Member
I think it is a great idea personally, I would be interested in it for convenience. I can build a PC and have done multiple times but have lately gone for prebuilt stuff that I change things on just to avoid the main pitfalls of building it (i.e. motherboard) and the hassle of waiting for stuff. Had like 3 motherboard failures in a row, had a static strap and everything, in the end it turned out to be a bad batch at the store I bought it from but I had to do all the grunt work instead of it being handed over ready. With it taking weeks to get get resolved. The average joe is not going to go through that.

Also think it is being undervalued as a potential work solution (even by Razer themselves), I know that in the finance industry being able to upgrade a PC on the fly would be hugely beneficial. If they could make this hot swappable, with power suspension when a module is yanked it would be even better. You could have a high volume trader with the best parts on holiday and able to just give it to his colleagues while he is away. Also a 'gaming' PC that is high performance is ideal for that kind of role but mostly HP and Dell dominate the market by default due to their standardization. It would also help in terms of equipment moves, which happen... a lot. Being able to break down a PC into modular parts to box it up in bubble wrap would be ideal. Also things like airflow, hot spots, noise levels etc. would all benefit an office environment. Would be interested in power consumption as well.

The stickler would be cost to a degree, but GPU's wouldn't require high spec stuff, just multi-display which would help the cost.
 
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