HP Builds One Desktop PC Around a Speaker, Another Modular PC In Slices (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Ars Technica: HP has announced today two new desktop PCs: HP Elite Slice and Pavilion Wave. The HP Elite Slice is a modular machine, with USB Type-C for power and I/O. The base unit contains all the core guts of the PC -- up to a 35W Core i7-6700T processor, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 512GB NVMe storage, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and several ports. The top cover of the main unit is modular, while the bottom of the unit contains a special connector that can allow for additional modules to be stacked. HP has an audio module that includes speakers and a microphone array, and an optical drive module. It should be available later this month, starting at $699. The Pavilion Wave on the other hand combines a PC and a speaker in a 10.3 inch tall triangular box. As for specs, it features a 35W processor, up to an i7 processor, up to 16GB RAM, with up to 1TB SSD or 2TB HDD. An AMD R9 M470 is optional. In addition to the speaker, the Wave features a microphone array for Cortana support.

Comments

Well, USB C until

[johnsmithperson123]

Somebody uses a dodgy cable and the power supply explodes. That's the current issue with USB-C.

Re:Well, USB C until

[wonkey_monkey]

That's the current issue with USB-C.

Hah.

I might be interested...

[unixisc]

...in something like this that comes pre-installed w/ SteamOS

Re:I might be interested...

[alvinrod]

Unless you're going to only play older games one ones that aren't very graphically intensive at low resolutions, I don't think this would work well unless they also sell a module with a discreet GPU. Otherwise you'll just be using the integrated Intel graphics, which aren't going to cut it for a lot of games. It would still make a nice HTPC box though as it's got an HDMI port on it according to HP's site.

Re:I might be interested...

[110010001000]

Is a discreet GPU a GPU that won't tell your wife if you watch porn?

Oh, what a brilliant idea

[drinkypoo]

Just what I need, another vibration source inside my PC.

I like the modular stack idea, but it's completely and totally worthless to me if it's not an industry standard. That in turn is going to limit the hardware to having a rectangular footprint.

Re:Oh, what a brilliant idea

[drinkypoo]

so? buy it once and keep it for years until the next computer. i have a 6 year old macbook pro that works just fine and the only thing i put in there was new RAM and new hard drive which is pretty standard across all computers.

So why does my PC need to be modular if I'm not going to be messing with it? It's just a way to make a SFF system more complicated, expensive, and failure-prone.

Re:A modular PC? That's an amazing new idea...

[danbob999]

a regular PC is already modular. Hard drive, power supply, motherboards (ATX), optical drives all have standard sizes and can be easily replaced.

Broad functionality instead of "just the latest"

[fyngyrz]

Know what I'd like to have?

A computer with a full-bore group of legacy-to-modern interfaces. Video, VGA, displayport, Serial, ethernet, parallel, firewire, USB of every flavor, 8" and 5" floppy controller and bays, stiffies, all sizes of hard drive bays, various card slot types, and so on. Something I could plug damn near anything into and pull up legacy data, operate legacy devices, etc.

Not going to get it, of course -- it'd be expensive, and the market would be minimal... but that's what I'd like to have.