Razer’s small-format Tomahawk gaming desktop is finally available for sale – mostly. The main appeal of the PC, in addition to its size, is that you only need to worry about two parts: the NUC and the video card. Razer has a list for a version that comes only with NUC, which would allow users to fit a video card they already have, but it appears to be marked as out of stock. The version that is available for sale today comes with an extremely difficult to obtain RTX 3080 Founder’s Edition.
If you have $ 3,199.99 to spend on the 3080 version, today’s launch looks real – you can add it to your cart, and the Razer website says it will ship the next business day. As for the NUC-only version, it is still listed as out of stock, just as the two versions were when (more or less, maybe not actually) they became available for pre-sale in December. We contacted Razer about the availability of the NUC only version, but did not receive a response.
The computer uses Intel’s NUC, or Next Unit of Computing, as its brain, which means that the real part of the PC is just a card that fits next to the GPU. It looks like there is only one version of the Tomahawk so far and it has some decent specs:
- An eight-core Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU
- One 512 GB NVME SSD and 2.5 TB 2 TB HDD
- 16 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM
- RGB, clear
At the price point, however, a CPU that is two generations out of date is a little difficult, but it is probably Intel’s fault. So far, Intel has not released a NUC Extreme Compute Element, as the Tomahawk uses, with its new 11th generation processors. And because of the design, you cannot update the CPU alone, although it is important to note that RAM and storage can be exchanged.
Still, it’s important to emphasize how small this PC is and how full of features it is – it fits Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and four USB-A ports inside a 10-liter case. But if you are thinking of buying it, make sure you are happy with the way it looks today: the video card can be upgraded, but the NUC will remain the same unless Intel launches a new one. However, if you don’t mind the NUC element, Razer sells a similar Tomahawk-branded Mini-ITX case that fits standard PC hardware for $ 229.99 – but it will probably be difficult to find a CPU and GPU for put in it.