Razer reveals Tomahawk modular gaming PC based on Intel’s new Ghost Canyon NUC 9

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With CES 2020 coming to a close, Razer has just announced its new ‘Razer Tomahawk Gaming Desktop’ – A compact gaming PC with modular components and upgrades.

What does this mean? Well it means you don’t have to be the most tech-savvy to build your very own dream PC. No more cables and wires or unscrewing; the new compact gaming PC has a ‘lock-and-slide’ mechanism which allows for easy access to the computer’s chassis and even easier upgrading of internal components.

This is probably all sounding a bit Groundhog Day for those of you who lived through Razer’s ill-fated Project Christine. Razer has a strong track record for announcing wild ideas at CES that never actually come to fruition, replaced instead by another green gleaming RGB mouse named after something which could probably kill you very quickly indeed. Feel the edge. But, the Razer Tomahawk is a little different because this thing’s actually going to be available this year. 

Razer able to achieve the modular and compact design by using Intel’s newest NUC – the NUC 9 Extreme Compute Element – which you can buy separately to upgrade yourself, or with specified third-party vendors that are offering compatibility with it. Intel revealed its Ghost Canyon NUC at CES as well, and although it’s the biggest NUC they’ve unveiled to date, it’s much smaller in comparison to most high-end gaming PC’s.

The system itself is being advertised as a housing unit for the most demanding PC components. Perhaps the most interesting of the design is its use of an inverted ATX layout, which helps it to run smoother and more efficiently. In addition it’s liquid cooled using a bespoke design powered by EK Waterblocks.

Another exciting feature is its ‘auto-opening glass top’ which lifts the top panel of the system for additional ventilation using “constant smart monitoring of the inner environment”, essentially turning the PC into how I imagine the first Transformer started.

There are some limitations to the Razer Tomahawk, however. Perhaps most significantly, the compact design of it will limit the types of components you’re allowed to upgrade: meaning you’ll have to buy specific components geared towards this hardware. But Razer ensures that you can upgrade the components up to Intel Core-i9 Processor, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and even Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 2080. In addition the fans, RAM, SSD Modules, GPU and CPU of the NUC system itself can also be upgraded.

You can purchase and begin to upgrade your very own Tomahawk Gaming Desktop within the first half of 2020. No release date has been revealed yet, but keep checking back to stay up-to-date on the latest PC gaming news. In terms of pricing, this is yet to be finalised. However, Razer has said the entry-tier model (with unspecified specs) should start off around $2000. That could be a bitter pill to swallow when you can build your own high-end gaming rig for a fraction of the price.