Razer unveiled an exciting new PC concept design at CES, which may not amount to anything, or it may become the future of gaming desktops, if the company plays their cards right. Introducing Project Christine.
The idea for Project Christine is compelling and easy to understand. As Razer claims, only real PC enthusiasts are able to take advantage of the modularity of these machines, because of a lot of FUD and the intimidating learning curve needed to build and upgrade PCs.
Project Christine reduces PC components, such as CPU, GPU, storage, and PSU, down to different modules, allowing users to replace parts on the fly and in any orientation. PCI-Express powers these PCs, so that each module synchronizes automatically. These modules will be self contained and come with their own active liquid cooling and noise cancellation.
PC gamers should understand the appeal immediately, as it makes each PC component literally Plug and Play. I personally have several reservations, front and center of it all being price. It would seem, at least from the start, that if each module had its own noise cancellation and cooling. There would also be design issues surrounding fitting these parts into such modules. For example, I think a company like Nvidia, seeing this, would not be able to adapt their Titan cards into it, but may try to retrofit their mobile chips for said purpose, or build an entirely different class of graphics cards.
Razer’s biggest roadblock, however, would be the willingness of PC component manufacturers to adapt to a new form factor. While it’s not unheard of (see the success of Mini-ITX and Micro-ITX), considering Razer is one company, and not even one in the PC components business, change may not be as forthcoming as we would like it to be.
Of course, I complain because I care, and I would love to see this move from the concept stage into becoming an actual product. It would be an exciting new direction for the stagnating PC market, and a more interesting direction than all this wearable tech that’s being shoved into our mouths. Watch the Project Christine trailer below.
