desktop pcs are already modular you can swap out everything from the CPU
to the flippin RGB strips so why did razer and Intel just show up to ces with
something they're calling the first truly modular desktop system like
yeah i have one of those right now well they're not just reinventing the
wheel here more like polishing it because the razer tomahawk
gaming desktop which we took a look at earlier is a kind of evolution of the
project christine modular pc concept the company showed way back at ces 2014
but why wait six years to bring the concept back
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so the innovation that project christine brought to the table wasn't in making
pcs modular they were already modular it
was in making that modularity accessible to people who don't necessarily enjoy
things like bending their own custom water cooling pipes the original design
had a central aluminum backbone and you could connect these discrete mineral oil
cooled modules that either contained a CPU and RAM or a GPU or storage or io
there was no need to route cables through three different holes in a
chassis or awkwardly bend your wrist to tighten a screw just plug the thing in
and you're done the whole thing was extremely ambitious and also
just a concept it never came to market partially because in order to make it
razer would have to have some partners completely on board with the idea well
razer finally found one such partner Intel at ces this year they're showing
off the nuk 9 extreme compute element a
PCIe card that is essentially a whole computer it runs 9th gen processors up
to a core i9 now they're h-series variants so think high-grade laptops
with up to 64 gigs of RAM in the card sodium slots and two m.2 ports for
storage there's a healthy amount of io too with two Thunderbolt 3 ports 4 usb
3.1 type a ports dual Ethernet jacks and
an HDMI port powered by the CPU's integrated graphics but this card is
nothing more than an interesting doohickey without something to plug it
into that is where razer comes in the
tomahawk gaming desktop is a tiny 10 liter box with a slide out module
holding a daughter board with two PCIe x16 slots there's also an extra m.2 slot
for even more storage the idea is you plug your nuk compute element into one
of those PCIe slots a full size desktop
graphics card into the other one and slide that whole thing inside the n1
chassis a beautiful 10 liter aluminum case with tempered glass side panels and
dual 120 millimeter fans on the top for ventilation it's a completely tool-less
setup you just have to release the sled with a lever on the back to remove it
and the only actual cables you have to deal with are the plugs that connect the
compute element and graphics card to the built-in sfx power supply the whole
process is dare i say almost smoother than you'll look when
you wear sick threads from lttestore.com
and this is what razer and Intel mean when they say truly modular because if
you have to unscrew things and wipe off thermal paste and reroute cables
i mean that's more like rewiring your vacuum than it is clipping on the carpet
attachment and yeah some of us like that whole process of tinkering with the guts
of the machine stop stop stop stop stop stop stopping i'm stopping uh there's a
really big leak but others want the ability to upgrade parts without having
to take off an entire side panel and get in there with a screwdriver now
obviously in exchange for that ease of use you are giving up some benefits of a
full desktop pc the CPU and RAM as i said are high-end laptop parts and
you'll lose some PCIe bandwidth if you choose to fully populate the three
available m.2 slots in the system but for a certain segment of the pc gaming
population this could be a much more accessible entry point while still
allowing easy upgrades later on the tomahawk doesn't have a price right now
heck the case doesn't even have a power button or front-facing i o yet razer is
making it clear that right now this is a prototype definitely one that's closer
to fruition than project christine was but still all they said is that they're
targeting released sometime in the first half of 2020. we might actually get
Intel's homegrown nuck extreme kit before then it's like a similar but less
refined version of the tomahawk that's supposed to launch in march but if Intel
and razer's bet pays off we might see a ton of boxes just like this one popping
up in stores and on the desks of those less technically inclined pc enthusiasts
speaking of which it's time for a message from everyone's favorite technically inclined sandal person Linus
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and your business thanks for watching guys love you so much
see you later