This summer as Sony and Microsoft were talking up their PS5 and Xbox Series X game consoles, something unexpected happened: a fast food company known for fried chicken released a teaser video for its own game console.

Plenty of people figured it was a joke.

And, I mean, it probably is. But KFC has followed through on that joke, and produced a game system shaped like one of the chain’s iconic buckets. It’s called the KFConsole, and it’s a gaming PC with enough horsepower for 4K gaming… and a special feature: a “chicken chamber” that uses the heat from the console to keep your chicken (or other food, I guess) warm while you’re gaming.

Seriously.

So here’s the deal. KFC partnered with PC hardware company Cooler Master and a PC case modder who goes by TimePlay to design the KFConsole.

The system is powered by an Intel NUC 9 Extreme Compute Element (the same computer module that works in Intel’s Ghost Canyon NUC) and it has a hot swappable GPU slot for a graphics card. According to the product website, the KFConsole uses an Asus graphics card. It’s unclear which Asus card, but KFC and Cooler Master say you can expect 4K gaming at up to 240 Hz.

For storage, the computer features two Seagate BarraCude 1TB PCIe NVMe SSDs, and the system has 32GB of RAM.

The chicken chamber is definitely the weirdest thing about the KFConsole (or maybe the fact that KFC designed a gaming PC is the weirdest thing), but in addition to keeping food warm, it’s actually part of the computer’s cooling system, since heat generated by the hardware needs to go somewhere, and in this case instead of just pushing it all out of the computer’s body, it makes a stop in the food chamber.

You can’t actually buy a KFConsole yet… but you might be able to at some point in the future. Tom’s Hardware reports that KFC and Cooler Master actually plan to bring this thing to market in the future. Pricing and availability details aren’t available yet.

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14 replies on “KFC and Cooler Master introduce the KFConsole gaming PC (no, really)”

  1. Well, it’s good to see someone using Intel’s NUC technology at least. The whole idea behind the NUC was to make PCs more console-like and simple. It’s just a shame Valve are dragging their feet when it comes to SteamOS, as that could have been the perfect OS for this.

    1. ….Not really?
      Next Unit of Computing is just a marketing term, not a technology. Most NUCs aren’t marketed to people who play videogames.
      The Compute Element is the technology It’s just used in a few computers that have the NUC label attached.

      1. You’re wrong, because the Razer Tomahawk was shown at CES last year for this same purpose, and was marketed towards gamers. The Intel element housed within a shell that allows for an easily upgradable GPU is easier for console folk to easily get in to PC gaming and upgrade their GPU (and element) when necessary. It’s designed to make the overly modular nature of PCs less intimidating, while offering more flexibility than a laptop.

        1. I said most NUCs weren’t aimed at gamers. This page doesn’t look like gamer marketing to me. Nor did I say that Compute Elements weren’t designed to make having very compact PC with desktop GPUs easier. But the phrase “NUC technology” didn’t make much sense to me because there’s a lot of different computers with the label NUC attached to them.
          Although looking it over, evidently all Compute Elements are NUCs, but not all NUCs are compute elements. But it’s really only the Compute Element subset that enables this sort of thing.

    2. I was initially excited for Steam OS, but I’ve changed my mind about it.
      Windows has a huge advantage over Linux for gaming, and Linux will never surpass Windows in gaming performance. DirectX is a supremely valuable asset for Windows gaming, and Linux will never have anything comparable unless it was closed-source and monetized. Even if games avoid DirectX, Windows will always have more up to date drivers, and better support for everything.

      I’m a longtime GNU/Linux user, but I can’t agree with the idea of a Linux gaming machine. I’m not investing $1500 on a computer that can’t play the games that my friends are playing, and gets 70% of the FPS when it can. I think Valve was smart to cool off on Steam OS.

      If Valve wants to get into that kind of thing, it needs to be far more focused on a single unified hardware spec, like a gaming console. And they would need to invest a ton into building development libraries for game developers. I don’t see this happening because they’d need to compete with PS5 and Xbox, and those products sell their hardware at nearly a loss with the expectation of making money selling licenses to developers. No PC manufacturers are going to play in a race to the bottom.

        1. Proton does work great, but in the end it always plays games at a lower FPS.

      1. I’m assuming you know that Steam Play for Linux (Proton) has been a thing since 2018? Because that’s what DXVK in Proton is for; it helps translates DirectX calls to Vulkan. Lots of games are working fine on Linux, including recent ones, like Cyberpunk 2077.

        But yeah, there are still a lot of drawbacks. Proton has several issues with online games, which use anti-cheat. VR is basically a no-go. And there are lots of other little issues.

        But compared to where it was in 2015, it’s a whole new world. And generally, nowadays most single player games on Steam just work through Proton on Linux, so that’s good.

        And no, they don’t need to do your idea; that’s the thing: they’re almost there with Proton. They just need to commit to the project further.

        See for yourself, all the features/improvements steadily being released for Proton/Steam Play:

        https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/category/Steam_Play

        1. Been using Steam Play/Proton on and off for a while. It works great, in the sense that I’m amazed that it works as well as it does, but its by no means an acceptable way to play games consistently if you have a high end machine that you expect decent performance from.

          For example, my PC in windows can play GTA V on Ultra settings on my 21:9 244hz ultrawide monitor, at 144fps fairly consistently.

          On Proton it can play at medium settings at 1080p at a solid 60fps very impressively, but it takes nearly 50% of my CPU and GPU power to do it. It isn’t capable of playing at an ultrawide resolution, and if I try to play above 60fps, its extremely buggy and usually crashes. Also I find its pointless to play most games on high settings because it often can’t actuality render some of the advanced effects, and you’re just going to generate an artifically high FPS because the game is missing things.

          If your goal is just to try it and say “yup it works”, then proton is great. If you want to enjoy any of the benefits of your gaming hardware (especially a high-refresh monitor), you’re wasting your money.

  2. Something tells me that these won’t actually reach the market, and it will likely just be a few bespoke units built for promotional tie-ins with streamers.

    I’ll be honest, I would have been far more impressed with something simpler and more attainable, like a USB chicken warmer with programmable RGB lighting, and maybe a button connected to your Uber-eats account to order chicken. They could make those for like $25.

  3. It’s a promotional novelty bucket shaped PC with a drawer in it. Since I don’t know anything (that I’m allowed to say) about KFC or how much this costs, it seems like there’s nothing wrong with the object itself and there’s really no need to disparage those who have one…
    …But I know some vloggers will anyway, because taking an attention-getting device like this and aggressively insulting it and those who bought it (especially for the sake of some edgy “my politics/region is better than yours” argument) is a great way to get views.

  4. I was entertained by this article. Thanks. This marketing worked on me. It’s been over a decade since I last had KFC. Maybe I’ll get some KFC this week.

    As for the PC itself, it might do well in China. I have friends in China and they’ve told me how it’s popular to buy stuff that have multiple and sometimes unrelated functions.

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