Razer has a habit of showing up at CES with wild concept hardware that it never releases, but the Tomahawk gaming PC it showed off at last year’s event is becoming a reality. The ultra-compact PC will be available for pre-order this very month with specs including a Core i7 CPU and up to an Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card. Razer’s new PC won’t come cheap, though. Pricing will start at $2,399.
The Tomahawk is even smaller than the mini-ITX computers you’ve probably seen — it has a total volume of just 11.5 liters (8.7 inches by 15.9 inches x 14.3 inches). About half of the internal volume is dedicated to the full-size GPU, of which there will be several options. You can also get the Tomahawk without an included GPU so you can plug in your own.
The computer is so small thanks mostly to Intel’s mini computing platform known as NUC (Next Unit of Computing). These machines use a single-board design that integrates the motherboard, CPU, memory, and SSD in a single module. The Tomahawk will run on a somewhat older Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU, which has a maximum clock speed of 5GHz. It also has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a 2TB spinning hard drive, and a spare M.2 slot for even more super-fast storage.
You can, of course, get a gaming PC with similar specs for a lot less money. However, that hardware will take up a lot more space and it won’t look nearly as nice. So, you’re paying for the form factor here as much as for the specs. In addition, Razer is offering to sell these systems with RTX 3000-series GPUs. You can’t buy those cards directly from retailers right now — resellers have scooped them all up and are selling for several hundred (if you’re lucky) over MSRP. The Tomahawk might be worth buying for some folks just to get the video card without overpaying.
Razer says the Tomahawk will be easy to repair or modify thanks to the tool-free sled design. Just yank it out of the chassis, and all the components are laid bare. While the hardware is ideal for gaming, Razer is also pushing the Tomahawk as an option for PC-loving creators and professionals who want a compact, powerful computer without cobbling together parts on their own. This system packs dual Ethernet, four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Razer has yet to update its website with purchase information for this month’s pre-order, but it won’t be long now. It’ll be interesting to see what configurations Razer offers — the Tomahawk might be your best bet to buy an RTX 3000 GPU without getting fleeced.
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