Home Gaming Razer’s modular PC is not getting much love

Razer’s modular PC is not getting much love

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razer-christine-gallery-06

Razer is seriously trying to shove its thumb into every pie it can. They have a new Smartband on the way, an increasingly popular line of gaming laptops being churned out and even an idea to make desktop PC’s extremely easy to upgrade. Their modular PC concept, Project Christine, was revealed at CES earlier this year, but it seems like the rather novel idea hasn’t progressed much since then.

The idea behind Project Christine sounds simple enough; each of your PC components is encased in its own, individually cooled “segment” that is easy to remove and replace. This gives PC users the freedom to upgrade their rig without having to stress about wiring, cooling and the general mess that is a desktop tower. The idea was also to introduce an upgrade program that allowed customers to pay a monthly fee in order to receive the most recent hardware from Razer, provided you sent your old parts back to them.

A new way to think about PC gaming, if you will. The problem is that Razer isn’t getting the support they need from hardware manufacturers, and that’s putting the brakes on the entire project.

In a recent interview, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan expressed concern over whether Project Christine would ever see the light of day. According to him, it’s all up to whether hardware manufacturers decide to back it or not.

“The challenge is that it’s not something we’d like to undertake alone. We’ve had conversation’s with OEMs. It’s not entirely promising right now because OEMs are excited about pushing products and not really innovating on that front.”

Despite this, Tan did say that he expects a few announcements to be made during the course of this year, and that Razer is hoping to secure at least three hardware partners for Project Christine. The only bad news is that this means the reality of a modular PC such as Christine is still very far away, especially if hardware partners haven’t even been contractually secured yet.

That said, I shudder to think what something like this will cost if it ever gets released. Just something else to add to the growing list of things I’ll never get to hold up close and hug to death. Like Scarlett Johansson.

Last Updated: July 2, 2014

28 Comments

  1. I am so dreading having to swop out CPU and psu for my new build …. Almost don’t want to

    Reply

  2. Kromas

    July 2, 2014 at 15:06

    I myself prefer to tamper with my pc so I am not sold on the idea. Also I prefer Milla to Scarlet.

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      July 2, 2014 at 15:22

      Don’t worry. No one is perfect.

      Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 2, 2014 at 15:10

    Honestly, who’s their target market for this? And yes, it’ll be hideously overpriced. Seems like a colossal waste of time.

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      July 2, 2014 at 15:15

      But isn’t Hideously Overpriced the Razer motto?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        July 2, 2014 at 15:19

        True dat yo! Even though I still like my Lycosa.

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          July 2, 2014 at 15:19

          Look. my R100 keyboard and R75,00 mouse is still doing a great job…

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 2, 2014 at 15:21

            I wanted a backlit keyboard, and funnily enough it was one of the cheapest when I bought a new one. Not anymore though.

          • Dutch Matrix

            July 2, 2014 at 15:24

            Backlit keyboard? No thank you. Ever since the Doom 3 incident (involving my pants, I must add), I never play in the dark no more.

  4. Rince&pop

    July 2, 2014 at 15:17

    I think the point of owning a PC is that you ENJOY taking it apart and putting it together. I mean I may not have a titan PC but I did put it together, sure, with tape, spit and gum but the elastic bands only need replacing every day and the calculator watch keyboard is fine once you are used to it.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      July 2, 2014 at 15:21

      It’s like buying the best Lego kit ever, and it comes pre-assembled. Yay?

      Reply

      • Rince&pop

        July 2, 2014 at 15:23

        Exactly. It’s like ordering a blow up sex doll only to have a real woman arrive…

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          July 2, 2014 at 15:24

          Talk about disappointing. It’s NOT what I ordered.

          Reply

        • Greylingad

          July 2, 2014 at 15:24

          I’m not… how’s this… where did you get said uhm… peripheral?

          Reply

          • Rince&pop

            July 2, 2014 at 15:27

            HAhaha! Indeed 🙂

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      July 2, 2014 at 15:27

      Messing around with my desktop is honestly one of the scariest experiences. I’m so scared something will die in the process

      Reply

      • Vixremento

        July 2, 2014 at 15:28

        Naaa…it’s never really that bad. Just keep it simple to start off with.

        Reply

      • Rince&pop

        July 2, 2014 at 15:28

        I used one for a year or so with it’s guts exposed to the world. PS. What are you doing with that vibrator in your avatar picture *RUNS

        Reply

        • Vixremento

          July 2, 2014 at 15:30

          lol – you had to make me actually look at the avatar didn’t you? Now I’ll probably end up clicking it to get a bigger picture. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

          Reply

          • Rince&pop

            July 2, 2014 at 15:31

            My work 😉

  5. Anon A Mouse

    July 2, 2014 at 15:20

    I have fond memories of taking apart my brother’s PC while I was still in school. The fact that I was always left with bits and pieces after putting it back together again isn’t so fond to remember.

    Reply

  6. VampyreSquirrel

    July 2, 2014 at 15:26

    I don’t like pre-built or modular PCs… I like building my own PC, I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, and won’t stop until I’m forced to.

    Reply

  7. Greylingad

    July 2, 2014 at 15:30

    This almost sounds like a Season pass scheme… Only worse…”Would you like to buy the latest and greatest PC? Why not subscribe to our service, for a mere 3 Billion dollars a year you get to be awesome! but with limited stock and maybe not such great hardware, ’cause you’ll have to bring us the crappy bits you don’t want at the end of each month…”

    I love building dream machines and funny enough it’s never been a hassle, but I suppose the “posh” gamers don’t want to get their hands dirty…

    Reply

  8. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    July 2, 2014 at 15:34

    Yeah, you see, with gaming we want to own our things and that’s it. Not pay monthly subs. Even if it means we could have the latest hardware all the time. It just isn’t the same because it isn’t “ours”

    Reply

  9. Weanerdog

    July 2, 2014 at 16:04

    I think we can safely say that Christine is not for this community, but it is a cool if expensive way to keep your PC up to date if your are not into DIY. The only problem is that my car was also called Christine and she had a nasty habit of bumping off my buds.

    Reply

  10. Dutch Matrix

    July 2, 2014 at 16:16

    Hey, Alessandro! Did you fail Grade 1 English?
    @lazygamers:disqus fire this illiterate!
    We demand!

    Reply

  11. Consumer of Little Rabbits

    July 2, 2014 at 16:52

    This wont work. No partners onboard, all proprietary hardware offering 0 customisability unless you buy razer products (and theyre not cheap off the bat)

    Poor implementation and poor forethought. This. Will. Fail.

    Reply

  12. Viking Of Science

    July 3, 2014 at 15:15

    You’d never be able to play any Ubisoft game…. Remember thaty Anno situation, where people upgraded their GFX cards (common practice) and the DRM told them they’re installing on a completely new machine and locking up the game…. These modular machines would need “NOT FOR USE WITH UBISOFT SOFTWARE” stickers… 😛

    Reply

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