International Reaction
As Corsair’s first-ever PC, a One is considerable as hell.
This little appurtenance (which starts during $1,800) is fast, beautifully built, and maybe some-more importantly—quiet, too. That’s no tiny attainment for a PC that measures only 15 inches high, 7 inches wide, and 8 inches deep.
According to Corsair a veteran lab totalled a One’s acoustics during idle: 20dB. That’s homogeneous to someone murmur 3 feet from you, says Corsair.
Quiet during idle is one thing. Quiet when a CPU and GPU are during full stifle is utterly another. The One excels on that front, too. It’s distant from wordless (I’ve positively listened quieter—albeit many larger—machines underneath load), though we mostly determine with Corsair’s comment that it would be “unnoticeable” underneath normal gaming conditions.
Gordon Mah UngCorsair’s One gaming PC (right) subsequent to Alienware’s X51 R2 (middle) and a customary exclude receptacle (left). Kidding. That’s Apple’s 1,190-day-old Mac Pro.
That tranquillity is a outcome of a One’s pattern and a glass cooling of both a CPU and GPU. Most small-form-factor rigs out currently regulating a informed micro-tower mold, such as Origin PC’s Chronos or Falcon Northwest’s Tiki, glass cold a CPU though leave a GPU to atmosphere cooling. Despite carrying a incomparable footprint than a One, those boxes only don’t have a room to liquid-cool both components.
Corsair custom-designed a One’s aluminum framework to reason dual low-profile 240mm radiators, one mounted to any interior side of a case. One cools a GeForce GTX 1080 (or 1070 in a lower-end model), while a other keeps a CPU cool. Corsair keeps a One’s form small by foregoing fans on those radiators. Instead, a singular low-RPM, 140mm captivating levitation fan mounted adult tip sucks atmosphere from a system. With a radiators mounted flush with a sides, cooler outward atmosphere is sucked by a intakes afterwards by a radiator. Call it a semi-passive liquid-cooling system.
Gordon Mah UngCorsair’s One facilities glass coolers for both a CPU and GPU
Of course, one fan isn’t adequate to keep a whole complement chill. A second fan mounted on a desktop GTX 1080 cools a card’s RAM and voltage law modules.
Overall it’s utterly clever, though not though a cost (which we’ll get to later).
Gordon Mah UngCorsair uses dongles to track a GPU’s outputs to a behind of a system.
For ports, we get one USB Type-C 10Gbps, 3 USB Type-A 5Gbps, and dual plain USB Type-A 480Mbps, along with dual DisplayPort 1.4, gigabyte ethernet, and a bequest PS/2 port. VR fans will conclude a front-mounted HDMI 2.0 port. Wireless is 802.11ac. Finally, there’s a smoke-stack of a customary analog audio connectors and a SPDIF port.
More critical than a ports are a components inside. Corsair is charity 3 tiers during launch, with a $1,800 base-level One featuring a Core i7 7700, GTX 1070, 240GB SATA SSD, and 1TB tough drive. Step adult to a $2,200 One Pro and we get an unbarred Core i7-7700K, a GTX 1080, and a 480GB SSD and 2TB tough drive. The One Pro you see here is a web store version, that dumps a tough expostulate in preference of a singular 960GB Corsair SSD for $2,300.
Gordon Mah UngThe primary cooling for a Corsair One PC uses a singular 140mm fan to empty atmosphere by this cast-aluminum griddle on top.
All 3 versions use a Z270 MiniITX motherboard pressed with 16GB of Corsair DDR4/2400 RAM, a 400-watt SFX 80 Plus Gold PSU, and Windows 10 Home.
Windows 10 Home is what creates this Corsair’s “first PC” rather than only a box of parts. Many vendors sell bare-bones systems with all though a handling system, since a notation they implement a OS, they’re on a offshoot for all hardware- and software-related issues. Got malware? Problem with a internet? Clouds outward not relocating quick enough? Call a PC maker.
So while we competence not see it as a large understanding that a PC comes finish with OS, know that it’s a large understanding for a association that got a start creation only one PC component.
Most of a One’s tools are top-notch, though if we were to nitpick, a initial aim would be a SSD, a Corsair Force in out-of-date 2.5-inch SATA flavor. Sure, it’s copiousness fast, though with M.2 PCIe NVMe drives charity 3 to even 4 times a performance, it’s tough to settle for SATA. Note, however, there’s room for dual 2.5-inch drives and an M.2 expostulate inside a One.
A 400-watt PSU seems a bit tiny and potentially tying for destiny upgrades, though to be fair, we can’t unequivocally dump a ton of hardware into a One’s frame.
Performance
None of these sum matter if a One can’t keep adult with identical desktops, so we put it by a customary complement tests. The formula were utterly good for a appurtenance so tiny and quiet.
Gordon Mah UngThe Corsair One uses a semi-passive liquid-cooling complement where atmosphere is drawn by a radiators and tired out a top.
3DMark performance
First adult is Futuremark’s 3DMark FireStrike Extreme test. It’s a fake exam (meaning it’s not an tangible prolongation diversion engine), though it’s still useful for measuring a PC’s 3D gaming capability. It’s also generally deliberate to be neutral ground, giveaway from businessman politics. The altogether magnitude reflects a opening of both a CPU and a GPU, though is some-more weighted toward a latter.
You can see a One comes in somewhat faster than a 8-core Origin PC Chronos versed with a Maxwell-era GeForce Titan X. Mind you, we had issues with a Chronos, that ran rather loud.
PCWorld3DMark FireStrike Extreme gives a corner to a Corsair One.
Tomb Raider Performance
Moving on to an tangible game, we ran a comparison though still-fun Tomb Raider on a Ultimate environment during 2560×1600 resolution. Again, a One places in front interjection mostly to a higher-clocked 7th-generation Kaby Lake CPU and a Pascal GeForce card.
PCWorldThe hardware inside a Corsair One schools comparison as good as cheaper components.
CineBench R15
Moving on to pristine CPU performance, we use Maxon’s CineBench R15 to magnitude a system’s ability to describe a 3D scene. This sold exam loves multicore CPUs, and systems with some-more cores generally win.
Although no slump by any means, a One gets left behind by a 8-core Core i7-5960X in a Chronos. It’s value noting, however, that a 8-core chip in a Chronos cost a cold grand in a day, roughly 3 times a cost of an Intel quad-core chip. Still, a upshot from this exam is that if we need a appurtenance for heavy-duty 3D-rendering work, cruise an octo-core. The good news? Maybe one day we’ll see a Ryzen-based One too.
PCWorldThe Corsair One’s liquid-cooled Kaby Lake CPU is fast, though it’s still only a quad-core that pales subsequent to an 8-core chip.
Handbrake Encoding Performance
Rendering 3D frames isn’t something a customary chairman does, though for a broader demeanour during CPU performance, here’s how a One would hoop a some-more common video encode. Up opposite a Core i7-6700K chips in the Gigabyte PC and a Cerise, the One is fastest, though not adequate to matter to many users. Sadly, that’s a universe of incremental upgrades we live in currently with Intel’s quad-core CPUs.
And yes, we again see a Origin PC take all comers by a healthy domain interjection to a 8 cores. Gosh, it’s adequate to make us wish there was an affordable 8-core CPU alternative.
PCWorldIn a video encoding test, a quad-core Kaby Lake and Skylake machines can’t hang with a comparison Haswell-E.
Thermals
To sum adult a One’s performance, it has no problems unresolved with PCs identical (or even larger) in size. There are positively faster machines in existence, though zero this tiny and positively zero this quiet.
Still, we have to consternation if a One’s semi-passive liquid-cooling can unequivocally withstand a complicated thermal load. To find out, we ran a section by 3DMark’s highlight exam for dual hours and saw no signs of GPU or CPU throttling in that time.
PCWorldAfter roughly dual hours of looping 3DMark, we saw no signs of thermal throttling on possibly a CPU or GPU.
The ascent path
Okay, so a Corsair One is small, quiet, and fast. What some-more could we want? Well, how about easy upgrades?
That’s where a cost of miniaturization and a tradition pattern strike we on a knuckles. First, removing into a One isn’t a snap, though it’s positively not impossible.
You initial pull a button, afterwards mislay a cast-aluminum top, afterwards mislay 4 screws to recover a sides temperament a radiators. From there, we can “easily” entrance a RAM, CPU, and a SATA expostulate if we can puncture it out from underneath a cables.
Gordon Mah UngYou can entrance a RAM, CPU, and SATA expostulate once you’ve private one side.
As we mentioned before, a One can reason an M.2 SSD and dual 2.5-inch drives; we consider a M.2 might be mounted behind a motherboard creation entrance vital surgery. Swapping a GPU will need a concordant glass cooler for a upgrade, not to discuss time spent extracting a part.
To be fair, this has always been a cost of miniaturization. In fact, I’m indeed astounded a One is as upgradable as it is, given a distance and acoustics. All of a components, as we can see, are attention standard. There’s no weird-ass mobile GPU or musty tradition motherboard in there. It won’t be fun or easy, though upgrading is possible.
Gordon Mah UngNo, a GPU barter won’t be a five-minute job.
Caveat emptor
Here’s a catch: Corsair says a act of opening adult a One to, say, supplement RAM or a incomparable SSD voids a warranty. Period. Want it upgraded? An certified use core can do it for you.
Why would Corsair do this? Small computers can be wily to work on. Corsair is expected fearful that a awkward consumer will try to open it up, destroy things, and afterwards roar for a guaranty replacement.
Gordon Mah UngRemoving a aluminum griddle on top, gets we only this distant inside a Corsair One though strictly violating your warranty.
That’s a current concern, though I’ll indicate out that Dell, HP, and even Apple concede we to supplement RAM or storage though voiding a guaranty (provided we don’t mangle things).
Granted, determined PC OEMs have hundreds of opposite models and outrageous support mechanisms. First-time PC-maker Corsair has a extremely smaller operation.
To get a many out of your two-year warranty, we fundamentally have to provide a One as a hermetic box. And for many that won’t be a understanding breaker—this volume of energy will simply final dual years. Corsair also says users can overclock though violation a guaranty (yes, a CMOS reset symbol is permitted from outside).
Conclusion
For a initial go during a rodeo, Corsair’s One PC gets many things right. That’s utterly an fulfilment when we consider about all a relocating tools there are to a tradition design, many reduction a finish liquid-cooled PC. Corsair only needs to disencumber adult a guaranty process to make a One truly superb.
Correction: A prior chronicle of this examination settled a Ryzen-version of a One was stirring though Corsair pronounced nothing is designed today. PCWorld regrets a error.
Gordon Mah UngCorsair’s One facilities glass coolers for both a CPU and GPU.
Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3182828/computers/corsair-one-review-small-fast-and-damned-quiet.html
