Corsair One A100 Compact Gaming Pc

Corsair's One has get something of a legend amidst small-form-factor gaming desktops, packing tiptop-shelf operation into an incredibly compact, cavalcade-shaped case that generates piddling to no noise. The new One a100 (starts at $2,999; $3,999 as tested) is the kickoff AMD-based One and is aimed squarely at gamers, though it could easily pull double duty as a content-cosmos powerhouse. In fact, my test unit'southward xvi-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X processor is overpowered for pure gaming, though its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti does the trick for 4K fragging. The base model's combo of a Ryzen 9 3900X and a GeForce RTX 2080 Super is arguably a better value combo, but no affair the configuration, the 1 a100 earns our top recommendation for a loftier-end, pocket-sized-grade-cistron gaming PC that gets almost nothing wrong.

Corsair'south Almost Potent One

The addition of AMD's monster Ryzen 9 3950X makes the Ane a100 the fastest model in Corsair's 1 lineup, ahead of fifty-fifty the workstation-focused, Intel X299-based I Pro i200. Coupled with Nvidia's flagship 11GB GeForce RTX 2080 Ti plus 32GB of RAM, at that place's no game (or conceivable task, for that affair) that the 1 a100 can't handle.

The Ryzen 9 3950X is overkill for gaming unless you plan to do some serious multitasking on the side. Corsair plans to offer the I a100 with an likewise-overkill 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X, all else the aforementioned every bit my review unit, for $3,499, plus a $2,999 base model that further drops to an 8GB RTX 2080 Super and halves the solid-country bulldoze infinite to 500GB. Even that configuration is upper chaff in the gaming desktop marketplace; I'd similar to see Corsair offer Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 chips that would offer gamers an even better value.

My One a100's other specifications include a 1TB SSD with Windows 10 Home. The drive is a Corsair Force MP600(Opens in a new window) that, thank you to the AMD Ryzen chip, uses the new PCI Express 4.0 interface for higher throughput. (It'due south doubtful most users would notice a departure versus a leading PCIe 3.0 SSD, simply at least Corsair is making employ of the latest and greatest that AMD's platform has to offer.) There's besides a 2TB mechanical hard drive for extra storage. The 1 a100 is backed by a two-yr warranty, which is certainly better than just a year, but three years of coverage would be squeamish at this cost.

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Oh, So Compact

I've reviewed several Corsair One series PCs and all the same marvel at their meaty dimensions—just 7.ix by half dozen.9 by xv inches for a volume of only 12 liters—and completely liquid-cooled internals. It's bright applied science; its merely real shortcoming is that it'southward not upgrade-friendly, as only the memory and storage tin can realistically be upgraded. (So once again, it'due south doubtful the height-shelf components in any of the One a100 models would need upgrading someday soon.)

The I a100'southward all-metallic, all-black outsides are accented by a pair of lightning-bolt-like RGB LED strips down the front with viii individual lighting zones (four each) that can be controlled by the preinstalled Corsair iCUE software.

The power button sits between the strips while a user-friendly array of ports goes along the bottom edge:

The option downwardly here includes an audio philharmonic jack, a pair of USB 3.1 Type-A ports, and an HDMI 2.0 port for virtual reality headsets. There's no media card reader.

The remaining connectivity is on the back side. The AMD X570-based motherboard has four USB 3.2 Gen one Type-A ports, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen ii Type-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, and audio jacks (line in, line out, and microphone). What you won't find here is Thunderbolt 3, support for which continues to be exceedingly rare on AMD platforms. That said, the One a100's USB 3.2 Gen two ports provide up to 10Gbps of throughput, so it's not lacking for high-speed information transfer options. (Thunderbolt 3 tops out at 40Gbps in a best-case scenario.)

The wireless antennas y'all meet in the photos must exist continued for the One a100'southward Intel AX200 wireless card to have meaningful range. Information technology supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard and Bluetooth 5.

Only beneath, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti offers three DisplayPort one.4 video outputs. It lacks the VirtualLink (USB-C) connector which is present on the standard desktop card, though it's hard to formally complain; despite the fact it has been around since late 2018, back up for it in the virtual reality headset market has been next to nil.

The internal power supply is a Corsair SF600(Opens in a new window), a specialized SFX-format model designed for compact PCs like this. Information technology supplies a respectable 600 watts of power and carries an fourscore Plus Gold certification.

All Liquid Cooling

I'd unremarkably bear witness a picture show of the interior for desktop reviews, only there's no peachy way to become inside the I a100. Peeking through the slotted metal acme reveals the arrangement'south master cooling fan, a 140mm Corsair ML140.

Its large bore means it doesn't take to spin at a high RPM to movement a lot of air. Information technology was nearly silent under any kind of workload I threw at this PC.

The fan draws air upward through the tower's perforated sides, which are lined with liquid cooling radiators for the processor and graphics carte. The latter has an boosted 80mm fan and there'south as well a 92mm fan in the ability supply.

It'south possible for the Ane a100 to run completely silent if temperatures are low plenty; all the fans accept a cipher RPM style that volition automatically engage. But fifty-fifty with the fans running, as I noted, this PC'due south noise level is hardly noticeable. Compact towers oft accept noisy cooling systems, but that couldn't be farther from the truth with this Corsair.

Benchmarking the One

Let's practise a sanity bank check on the Corsair One a100's value side by side to competing small-form-gene machines. I configured the Omen Obelisk (Tardily 2019) on HP'southward website for $3,121, though with a much less powerful Intel Core i9-9900K processor. I also built a Falcon Northwest Tiki for $four,362 with a Ryzen 9 3950X; it doesn't have a secondary difficult drive at that price, though it does carry a three-year warranty. Final, I congenital an Origin PC Chronos for $3,639, though it tops out with a Ryzen 9 3900X. The One a100, all told, seems to exist priced right where it should based solely on its hardware.

Now we'll put that hardware to the test in our benchmarks, where the Ane will get caput to head with the desktops in the chart beneath.

All pack serious performance, but the AMD-based desktops, including the One a100 and the Alienware Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition, hold the edge in CPU grunt. That said, the HP and specially the Falcon Northwest were able to keep upward in several benchmarks where the CPU wasn't a bottleneck as I'll explain beneath.

Our first test is UL'due south PCMark 10, a holistic performance suite that simulates unlike real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use information technology to assess overall system performance for part-centric tasks such every bit word processing, spreadsheeting, Web browsing, and videoconferencing. PCMark eight, meanwhile, has a storage subtest that we use to appraise the speed of the organisation's kicking drive. Both tests yield a proprietary numeric score; higher numbers are improve.

The Ane a100'south astronomical 7,541-point showing in PCMark 10 is almost double our iv,000-point target for high-performance PCs. Its PCI Limited four.0 SSD, on the other manus, didn't distinguish information technology in PCMark 8 Storage, just that'due south an older exam that doesn't allow information technology stretch its legs. No harm, no foul.

Side by side up are two CPU-crunching tests: Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-infinitesimal 4K video down to 1080p.

The One a100 and the Alienware both scored as expected for their Ryzen nine 3950X chips in Cinebench R15, making the Velocity Micro something of an overachiever. The Handbrake results followed the aforementioned pattern. Information technology goes implied that those three are in an entirely dissimilar league than the Core i9 9900K-powered Falcon Northwest and HP, though the Ryzen fries are absolutely much more expensive.

The final exam in this section is photo editing. We apply an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply ten complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and calculation upwardly the totals. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, retention, and GPU into play.

Though the Corsair didn't top this chart, all the scores are shut. None of these PCs would cramp at advanced Photoshop tasks.

Graphics Tests

We use 2 benchmark suites to guess the gaming performance potential of a PC. In the beginning, UL's 3DMark, we run 2 DirectX eleven-driven subtests, the mainstream Heaven Diver and Fire Strike, which is more suited to gaming rigs. Our other graphics benchmark is Unigine Corp.'southward Superposition, which uses a unlike rendering engine to produce a circuitous 3D scene.

The top spot in 3DMark Fire Strike went to the One a100, if by the narrowest of margins over the Alienware and Falcon Northwest towers, all three of which utilize a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. As I mentioned earlier, the Ryzen ix 3950X chip is complete overkill for gaming; the Falcon Northwest tower drives this signal home past performing just likewise (or even slightly better) in both sets of benchmarks with its Cadre i9-9900K.

Last simply perchance most important, we'll test some existent games. Nosotros use the built-in benchmarks in Far Cry five (at its Ultra preset) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (at its Very High preset) at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K/UHD resolutions. Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, while we flip Rise of the Tomb Raider to DirectX 12. The results are measured in frames per second (fps); we look for at to the lowest degree 60 for smooth playability.

The One a100 showed exemplary numbers, but at that place are some noteworthy takeaways here. As in 3DMark and Superposition, the Falcon Northwest desktop was equally capable with its lesser CPU.

The other of import point for value-seeking shoppers is that the Velocity Micro's RTX 2080 Super performed very closely with the RTX 2080 Ti machines at 1080p and 1440p, only taking a backseat at 4K where the Ti'due south actress video memory is helpful. This makes the least expensive One a100 configuration (with the RTX 2080 Super) a highly attractive "downgrade."

Can a PC Be Too Powerful?

The only real complaint I can society near the Corsair One a100 is that the Ryzen nine 3950X model I reviewed isn't the best value for a pure gaming system. For $ane,000 less, the "entry-level" (if you tin can telephone call it that) One a100 and its RTX 2080 Super will deliver comparable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p resolutions; 4K gamers might want to step upward to the $iii,499 model that keeps the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

Regardless of configuration, the Ane a100 continues to do what the One series has always washed well, blending top-shelf performance into a wonderfully compact and serenity tower. Its proprietary nature limits its upgrade potential, though it's not probable to need upgrading anytime before long. It earns our top accolades for a high-end, small-form-factor gaming PC. The Corsair is, quite literally, the one to beat.

The Bottom Line

Corsair's One a100 desktop delivers incredible functioning from its 16-core AMD processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in a petite, nearly silent blueprint. Just scout that price tag.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/corsair-one-a100

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