We first saw Corsair's Bulldog concept back at Computex, but back then it was still a prototype. Since that time, Corsair has been working on the barebones living room PC, addressing the feedback from the community. Now that Pax Prime has come, Corsair is using the opportunity to showcase the production version.
The first thing you'll notice if you look at the production version next to the original prototype is that it looks different. Corsair opted to remove the red accents on the chassis, and moved the feet from the side of the unit to the bottom. Part of the makeover is a new glossy front, which together with the aforementioned changes should make the PC fit in better with the rest of your living room hardware.
Very little changed inside the unit; it will come packed with a Mini-ITX Z170 motherboard, an SF600 600 W SFX power supply, and the H5 SF liquid CPU cooler.
The rest is left to you – you'll be able to pick the remainder of the hardware, which includes a CPU, memory, storage and graphics card. What this means is that Corsair has picked the backbone (er, bare bones?) for your system, and it's up to you to choose the performance-deciding factors.
Although Corsair hasn't specified which motherboard will come in the system, we do know that it will have two DDR4 memory slots, an LGA1151 socket for Intel's 6th generation Core processors, surround sound audio with an optical output, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 support.
For the graphics card, Corsair advises against using a stock air cooler and instead encourages you to use one of its HG10 graphics card brackets so that you can install a liquid cooling loop onto your GPU.
With the Bulldog PC, Corsair is aiming at delivering a living room 4K experience. Of course, not all configurations will make the system ideal for running games at 4K, but with the right hardware, it should work flawlessly.
The Bulldog systems are expected to hit towards the end of 2015, and will be available in two flavors: one with a motherboard, and one without. The unit that comes with a board will cost $399, while the plain version will shave $100 off that price. Considering the price of Mini-ITX boards, unless you plan on moving older hardware into the chassis, you'll likely be best off going for the unit that comes with the Z170 motherboard. Additionally, Corsair will be working with select partners to bring fully configured systems, too.
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