GAMING PC from CORSAIR - Is it "The One?"
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,516 words · ~7 min read
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there's a new Challenger in the trash can shaped PC market oh and this is also
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Corsair's first time ever building a
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complete computer system so have they
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done their homework from the looks of
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things yes yes they have
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browse privately and securely with TunnelBear the simple VPN app try tunnel
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bear for free at the link in the video description despite this being Corsair's
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first ever complete PC they went
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straight for the Enthusiast and high-end
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gaming segment though given their pedigree that probably shouldn't come as
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much of a surprise but what they have
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done in what may be a little surprising is that in my opinion they've managed to
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do this without being tacky about it
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there's a fine line between boring
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business computer and over-the-top gamer
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and I feel like the way that Corsair made functional elements also look
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appealing is something that eludes most
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PC industrial design teams even corsairs
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breaking with what has become a standard operating procedure at
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46221 Landing Parkway Fremont they opted
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to not include RGB lighting saying that
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it doesn't go with the Quiet ethos of
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the system and as big an RGB fan as I am
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personally I do have to say that their soft blue lighting scheme which can be
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even disabled outright looks very clean
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and very modern and it's not just Skin
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Deep overall I've got to commend Corsair
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for the topnotch build quality of the one the sound of running your
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fingers along the top of the radiator
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looking metal Grill is satisfying and so
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is running your hands down the uh Tastefully perforated aluminum side
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panels under which you will find a shocking amount of cooling given the
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ones diin ative size the single fan at
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the top of the machine draws air through two water cooling radiators in the one
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meaning that the CPU and GPU each get
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their own slim custom 240 mm rad
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ensuring that you'll get the best possible performance out of even
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top-of-the-line components ours is equipped with a core i7
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7700k that really seems to love hitting its full Turbo at 4.5 GHz and a GTX 1080
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that was able to overclock well over 2.1
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GHz more on performance in a moment the
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I/O is pretty typical desktop grade maybe a little light you'll find a
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single USB type A on the front along with an HDMI 2.0 if VR is your kind of
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thing then around back is PS2 for your model m keyboard enough USBS and
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everything that you'd need for a home theater PC use case as well as a hint
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that the video card installation is a little unusual some additions I would
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have liked to see are front panel audio we don't all have USB headsets Corsair
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and Thunderbolt 3 at the back to test
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thermals we loaded up ITA 64 and furmark
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at the same time and the results were very impressive after an entire hour of
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torture testing the GPU reached a mere
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57° C with the CPU peaking at 80 and
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while I realize 80° might sound a little hot you have to remember that was under
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full synthetic load on the entire system
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at max turbo for a freaking hour it actually takes quite a while to get up
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that high and the great thermals became
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even more apparent when compared to our aircooled test bench with an EVGA
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classified 1080 and a decent if unexceptional knct to nd9 l cooler on
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our equivalent core i7 to get thermal readings we ran each Benchmark seven
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times and recorded the maximum GPU and CPU tempts achieved The Benchmark
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results were almost identical across the board between these two systems but what
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wasn't identical were the temperatures at factory speeds the CPU on the one was
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5 to 10° cooler not that the games were
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really stressing it out that much and the GPU was a chilly 20°
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cooler while maintaining those temperatures the one also stayed
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virtually silent at idol Nick eating green beans on the other side of the
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room was louder than the one sitting right beside me and under load the one
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becomes audible but the pitch of the
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fans makes the machine very easy to tune
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out so then it's all great news right go
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buy a one by two well no ignoring the
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overplayed one name in spite of
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Corsair's long Enthusiast history the one is not officially user upgradeable
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and when talking to Corsair about
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disassembly they basically said like they discouraged end users from doing it
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to avoid voiding their warranty and damaging it and as for us well in short
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guys we put a lot of love into the Corsair one please don't break it
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so of course we took it apart to find out just how complicated it was and of
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course we did break it but just a little
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bit the one is actually very easy to open removing just two screws on either
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side of the top allows you to access the graphics card or the motherboard and CPU
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and reveals a few fun and noteworthy things the video card uses extension
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cables to reach the front and and back
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and features an extra fan to take care of vrm cooling while the radiator is
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responsible for only the GPU core the
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mere 400 watt power supply uses thinner
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gauge custom cables in order to minimize cable clutter and while Corsair did
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include an m.2 slot on the miniitx MSI
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branded motherboard it's actually on the back of the board and they don't offer
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them from the factory so you'll pretty much be stuck with SATA 3 an odd move
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though at least that and RAM are
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relatively easy to get at so bottom line
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then although literally everything in the system is possible to upgrade so A+
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Corsair for using standard components I
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can only recommend removing their cooling solution if you don't care about
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your warranty and you know what you were are doing there are a lot of subtle but
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important bits of engineering that they put into this to make the product work
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as well as it does I mean thankfully for us the lead product designer was able to
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figure out the dumb stuff we had done and get us back up and running in a few
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minutes but since we can't tell our whole audience to call Jimmy from
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Corsair at8 424
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4622 our recommendation for most folks who would buy a pre-built is to air on
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the safe side and let them or an authorized service Center take care of
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it for you but should you buy one how
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much does it cost well ignoring of
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course that this is a very high-end build and therefore doesn't come with a
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Bargain Basement price tag they've actually done a pretty good job of
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keeping the price reasonable building an identically specked system on new EG
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came in about $200 less than the one but
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that machine used a lesser case it obviously doesn't include assembly
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service and any warranty issues will need to be addressed with individual
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component manufacturers leading me then to say this thing is pretty darn sweet
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if you're willing to make the usual expandability compromises that come with
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compact gaming Rigs and you want something that is screaming fast with
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I'd say pretty reasonable wife appeal the Corsair one is an
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outstanding option and you know what else is a great
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option freshbooks if you're a small business owner or a freelancer and you
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want a cloud accounting software you might not even know you want to
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cloudcounting software okay so if you want to get more organized be able to
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send professional invoices in seconds be
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able to accept payment through your accounting platform be able to take
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deposits be able to see when your
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clients have looked at your invoices and
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just generally be able to keep your life from turning into a disorganized
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shambles you can track your expenses you can track your hours you can basically
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just make it so you can spend your time doing your work instead of spending
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spending spend your time doing your work
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instead of spending your time documenting your work in complicated
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software so try it out for free head
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over to freshbooks.com techtips and enter lineus Tech tips in the how you've
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