Remember when KFC Gaming posted a video on Twitter this June claiming it was creating a 4K 120fps capable video game console? Most of us had brushed that aside as a joke, but as it turns out, KFC's vision is very much real. And thanks to a partnership with manufacturer Cooler Master, it'll be arriving soon.
Dubbed the KFConsole, the gaming rig will be housed in a custom Cooler Master CN100 and is powered by an Intel NUC 9. It will also feature an Asus RTX graphics card and 1TB of Seagate NVME SSD storage.
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The exact processor and GPU of the KFConsole is uncertain, but its main claim to fame will not be its purported resolution and frame rate output. Instead, there will be a chicken warmer built into the console to keep your tenders nice and hot as you play Among Us.
The console wars are 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓.Introducing the KFConsole. #PowerYourHunger pic.twitter.com/k7AM6g61IpDecember 22, 2020
The console was originally set to launch on Nov. 12, but much like the rest of the gaming industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into Colonel Sanders' plans. According to a Twitter post last month, KFC was aiming for a December launch, but given that Christmas is fast approaching, it'll likely be pushed to 2021. And yes, KFC was making a cheeky jab at Cyberpunk 2077's October Twitter post announcing the game's delay.
The system is being designed by professional PC modder Tim "Timpelay" Malmborg, who is a part of Cooler Master's CMODX team. It seems that KFC made a rendering of the unit before consulting with designers as Malmborg had to spend a considerable amount of time ensuring that both the Intel NUC 9 and the chicken warmer all fit in comfortably.
“The hardest part was definitely figuring out the entire internal layout to get it as compact as possible and still have sufficient cooling for the hardware,” Malmborg said to our sister-site Tom's Hardware. “The cylindrical bucket design and the chicken bay [are] two separate features that by themselves [are] challenging to work with. And then combined with a high-performance PC, well, I had to spend days creating the 3D model for it.”
Interestingly, the Nuc 9 and the chicken warmer aren't two separate devices that have been sandwiched together. Instead, heat from the NUC 9 will go toward helping chicken stay warm. The innovative design will need good seals, as any oil or grease seeping through the walls down to the NUC 9 cannot be good for PC components.
“The feedback from the KFC fans was too great not to make the console come to life,” said Steve James, global PR and influencer manager at Cooler Master in a statement to Tom's Hardware. “We met up with the team and exchanged some ideas and went on from there really.”
So, to an extent, it does seem that it started off as a joke from KFC, which became a real product thanks to tremendous online interest. Interestingly, KFC and Cooler Master are aiming to pack this system with competitive hardware to rival the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
"We like to think we’ve built a competitive system with the specs we have in it," said James.
Price and availability of the KFConsole has not been announced. Hopefully it won't be anything near like PS5 shortages.
