Razer’s project Christine modular PC may emerge later this year

Early this year Razer unveiled project Christine, a design of modular PC that can be upgraded by users who have no experience with PC hardware. In a bid to release Christine to the market Razer either needs to become a supplier of computer parts itself or team up with other makers. So far no hardware vendor has publicly supported the initiative, but Razer remains optimistic and believes that the project Christine may still enter the market this year.

“The challenge is that it is not something we'd like to undertake alone,” said Min-Liang Tan, chief executive officer of Razer, in an interview with TechRadar. “We've had conversations with OEMs. It's not entirely promising right now because OEMs are excited about pushing products and not really innovating on that front.”

The modular PC design called Christine is based on a PCI Express 3.0 backbone that connects various components of the PC, such as graphics processing units, storage devices, audio solutions and other, housed inside special modules. The cable-less design of each sealed module is entirely self-contained and features active liquid cooling and noise cancellation, which allows Razer to factory overclock components without voiding warranties, safely and quietly.

While the Christine looks incredible, it is hard to bring it to the market since this requires Razer to either make all components itself, or persuade third parties to manufacture components compatible with the Christine, which is not even on the market at present. Apparently, there are companies interested in supporting the initiative of modular PCs.

“We've had good conversations,” said Mr. Tan. “We'll have announcements through the end of the year. We're hoping to get two to three OEM partners on board.”

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KitGuru Says: It remains to be seen whether the Christine will be a success with a limited support by hardware makers. If the choice of Christine-compatible hardware is narrow, not a lot of people will be interested in using the Christine.

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