Corsair One : Is It Really The "ONE" We Needed ?

​In the ever-expanding market of pre-built gaming rigs, Corsair recently debuted with the Corsair One. A high-end mini-itx pre-built gaming rig, which perhaps touches all the sweet spots that a gamer can think of. A compact form-factor? Check. High-end components? Check. VR ready? Check. A sturdy and refined design, with great use of LEDs in the front? Double-check !! So, should one care about having it?

Value For Money

Although, the Corsair One being the company's first ever gaming PC, they did a great job in building it. With just over 13 liters in volume, it is practically a tiny beast. The base model comes packed with a Z270 motherboard, Intel Core-i7 7700 processor, 16 GB of DDR4 memory, a 240 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD, along with a GTX 1070, for just about 1800$, while the highest end gives you a 1080 Ti, and 7700k for 2600$, all that and a 2-year manufacturer's warranty.

That's pretty acceptable for such a device, considering the cost of pre-assembling, and the addition of Corsair's custom liquid-cooling components for the CPU and GPU.

The Body.

The Corsair One's chassis is made of pure steel, and is assembled by Corsair's own engineers. The case has a stunning look, with a combination of sharp lines and steady curves. The designing is very refreshing, and the addition of two LED lit lines in the front adds more to it's charm. The looks of the PC are as great as they are functional. There are vents on the left and right side of the PC for air intake, while there is a 140 mm radiator up top.

For the I/O, it has a typical desktop-like setup. A single USB 2.0 TYPE-A up front, along with an HDMI 2.0 for the VR crazy people, while all the other necessary ports are kept at the back. This includes, a USB 3.1 TYPE-C gen-2, 3 USB 3.1 TYPE-A gen-1, another USB 2.0 TYPE_A, a PS/2 port, and 2 DisplayPorts.

Performance

This is, admittedly, one of the best performing PCs out there. This small PC has enough juice to drive most of he AAA titles out their with plenty of ease. It also supports VR, which by the way, it handles smoothly. Performance for the standard 1080 version is totally off the charts. Games like Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Hitman 2016, and cities skyline delivered well above 50 FPS average, at 4K and the highest presets, while DeusEx Mankind Divided did just fine coming at about 35-40 average FPS.

Surprisingly the temperatures remained pretty cool too. At heavy usage, the CPU was just about 63 celcius while the GPU barely hit 60 at all. And these results read for the over-clocked rig, that is, the 7700K clocked at 4.5 GHz, and the 1080 clocked at a stable 2.1 GHz. However, one could say all this happens without the system uttering any noticeable sound, literally. Virtually, this machine is as quiet as the air. Even when the machine was in load, it rarely managed to make a sound. great job Corsair.

Competition and Drawbacks

On it's first attempt, the company went straight to please the gaming enthusiasts, and please it did. Managing to pack all the latest and greatest stuff in a small box, that delivers unconditional performance, this really could turn out as a game-changer. It would definitely face competition from the likes of MSI, and Acer, yet could manage to hold it's own. Sure it doesn't come in a pocket-friendly price, but what to expect more from a full-on gaming PC.

One could definitely go for it, if he's willing to sacrifice the need to upgrade it, The compactness does come in a price, that is, it makes the setup rather complicated for most of the people who does not know his way through computers. Also, it provides a risk of tampering the components, leading to disavow the company's warranty.

Verdict

The Corsair One, sure is a fine piece of machinery, yet perhaps too delicate in that manner. it is definitely the stuff for a true gamer, only if he/she can afford it. All in all, Corsair's first attempt to manufacture a compact pre-built PC might not get unappreciated. 

Thanks for reading

More from Ask Us Junkies:
Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4+ standard
Essential Home to replace Google Home and Amazon Echo