Joel: Because i like computer games and computers and playing around with graphics -
and technology in general -
it seemed natural that i would go into the way of electronic music production.
On my days off from making music, I'm still at the same computer playing a video game.
You know, it's just this like all-encompassing thing.
I would spend my free time there; I would do my work there, and I would play games on it.
So, you know, computers have just been at the very core of my life. [Laughs]
Jules: The PC design project is centered around innovation in technology,
and what we can get our computers to do.
We're looking to partner with all kinds of creative innovators -
that can take what we make and infuse it in their projects to push it to the next level.
Kris: I've always been a fan of deadmau5 and his music,
and one day I was browsing through Twitter
and I came across a photo of Joel playing Project CARS on this little 24-inch screen and a small steering wheel.
I looked at that and I thought, "He and we can do way better."
So I reached out to Joel via Twitter and we started talking through this project,
which was initially just to build him this cool computer so that he could livestream for his fans,
and this quickly evolved into something much more.
Jules: deadmau5 from the beginning has been a hardcore gamer.
You can see by the tattoos on his arms.
Joel: If you like popping bubble wrap,
picking at scabs,
or the smell of gas,
you will love Diablo.
Right now I'm working my way up to a greater rift level 60.
Doing that is not going to pay for the game.
It's not going to give me back the 7,000 hours I've put into this game since the start of [Laughs] the launch of the game
and that's a true story.
Jules: That was the primary start of our relationship,
was you love gaming; we love gaming.
We're both heavy into pushing technology
and letting it drive our creativity.
Kris: When you go see a deadmau5 show, you're not just hearing his music.
You're seeing visuals that he's created and put together,
and that love for design is translating right over to this project.
Joel: Art -- art -- I like art.
I like toys that are artful -- arty toys.
This is a suit of armor.
It's actually wearable.
I really want to get in it one day, but that's like a whole day.
Kris: The goal of this project is to create an amazing, five-PC,
livestreaming studio that he can use to create content for his fans.
Joel: If you're going to have five boxes for a stream lab,
and you're going to play games on them and stuff like that,
really the most sensible thing to do is just get five
Labello Blanco boxes and just put them down there,
Have some monitors and stuff like that.
But we plus-oned it, to the point
"Hey, let's have some fun with it and come up with some really wacky designs, and like showcase them."
Kris: Joel's a huge automotive enthusiast,
and over the last couple of years he's been collecting a range of custom vehicles and super cars.
Joel: I'm doing a bit of training. I'm a bit of a car nut, as you may or may not know.
There's a track nearby, about an hour away, that's a pretty popular track,
so I kind of use this contraption to hone my lines and breakpoints, and shifting and all that stuff
as not to destroy a really good car on a track, much less kill myself.
Jules: So we wanted to take the personality of his cars and turn them into PCs.
Joel: I've got a lot of kooky cars, and I like standing out.
Kris: We decided that we wanted to create five beautiful PCs.
Four of them are themed after his cars, and one of them is just going to be crazy.
The art director on this project, Jules, has done an awesome job of pulling really key elements from each
vehicle and bringing them together into a really cohesive design.
Jules: Well, we wanted to give him multiple range, because he has so many cars.
We picked his four most iconic cars.
One is this new Rubicon.
There were two final elements that were really going to set this PC off.
One was this huge LED light, which spans the entire top of the roof.
It's also got this really cool red leather interior which offsets the black and white and gray camo.
So the idea was to make the inside of the PC the red leather, the outside the digital camo.
Joel: So I wake up and get down -- I'm like, Whoa, where did my computer go? [Laughter]
Yeah, I'm sold on that one.
Jules: Cool
Joel: This is a no-brainer - this one, eh?
Jules: Well [Laughter]
Another great one is the Lamborghini Puracán.
In itself it's an iconic car, iconic design, has great, really angular, aggressive lines.
All right, the Mono -
So going into the design phase we definitely wanted to make sure we hit all the details
and we were a little nervous, because we know he knows cars.
He knows the details. He's spec'd them. He's designed them. And it went great.
He had a lot of good feedback. He even called us on a few things that we didn't quite have right.
Joel: Yeah, that's a Lexus LFA, that's the rear end of one but yeah, yeah.
Jules: He knew exactly "Oh, that tailpipe is from a Lexus, not a BAC Mono,"
and, you know, of course we counter-corrected for that.
All right, so the last one we've got is the McLaren,
this design ended up to be a little bit more curvy and roundy, because this car's got those shapes.
Joel: Kind of what I was thinking though was like
if we could have each machine kind of like the same form factor,
so that way when you're putting them side-by-side,
you have this like same product, different color kind of vibe.
Jules: Should we put them all on wheels?
Joel: No, I wouldn't. [Laughter]
Jules: Give them rims and everything. [Laughter]
Joel: Rims /Facepalm
With Spinners, right?
Jules: Yeah, right. Give you a remote control.
Joel: So when you push it, it looks like it's going a whole lot faster than it actually is.
That's amazing.
Jules: And then the fifth case is the NVIDIA case that we're going to show you next time,
so that's going to incorporate --
Joel: The MCP?
Jules: That's right. [Laughter]
We wanted to really,
that's going to be a beacon of both what NVIDIA can do combined with,
you know, the kind of horsepower and what you want to use it for for your system at home.
Kris: We had some great meetings with Joel.
We have final designs in hand,
and we're really excited to see how this project takes form.
It's time to make some computers.