Another year, another glistening Corsair One. That's right, the world's coolest small PC is returned, with new internal components and a new price tag that makes us want to cry. The new Corsair One i300 comes in a variety of configurations, the most costly of which being $4,999. (even the cheapest version is only a thousand dollars less expensive).
Fortunately for the pirate PC maker, we've adored the Corsair One since its introduction. Its clever internal design and incredibly small footprint are even more stunning when you think that it can outperform several of the top gaming PCs. The i300 is no exception, although performance will be discussed later. For the time being, let's look at what makes this teeny-tiny system so unique.
Features & Design
The i300 appears to be identical to any prior Corsair One model at first look. That's mostly because it isn't, except from the updated component list. With the same dark gunmetal shell and RGB strips running along either side of the front panel, the chassis is virtually identical to Corsair's very first One. We could live with the word'sexy' being used to describe this PC, despite the fact that it has been over-used in regard to IT devices for decades.
It's a stunningly compact PC for its weight class, measuring just 20cm deep and less than 18cm broad. The One i300 includes perforated side panels and a single big fan at the top of the casing that sucks air in and vents it through the roof, just like its predecessors. Most of the components sit upright inside the frame owing to the slim design, with the GPU hidden away behind the motherboard thanks to a clever flexible PCIe riser.
If it ain't broke, don't repair it, as the saying goes. While such a small configuration has its limitations (the top vent might become a little heated during resource-intensive gaming), the Corsair One chassis gains more points than it loses. There have been a few small tweaks since the original - the 'VR Ready' HDMI output on the front I/O has been replaced with a more usable USB-C connector - but this is still the same One we fell in love with a few years back.
So, what's new this time? Let's start with the graphics card, which is undoubtedly the most critical component of any gaming PC. The i300 has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, which is one of the most powerful and greatest graphics cards on the market right now, with a whopping 12GB of VRAM and much greater memory bandwidth than the original RTX 3080. It's the ideal card for building a 4K gaming system around, and Corsair has done just that. This is a true RTX 3080 PC that can compete with any RTX 3090 PC.
An similarly high-end CPU, the Intel Core i9-12900K, backs up that GPU. This contender for best CPU for gaming is a 16-core processing powerhouse that should easily handle CPU-intensive games and workloads. It's accompanied by 64GB of gleaming new super-fast DDR5 RAM, which is probably more than anyone needs, but hey, this isn't a laptop for bargain hunters.
There isn't a hard drive - as in, an HDD - since it would take up too much room inside the One's chassis. Instead, a 2TB high-speed SSD is directly inserted into the motherboard and serves as our primary storage. This comes pre-installed with Windows 11, so keep that in mind if you want to continue with Windows 10 for the time being (we're sure you have your reasons).
Like prior Corsair One models, you won't be able to update or change anything inside the i300, which is unfortunate for any would-be hardware modders. Everything is tightly stowed inside the case, and even accessing it for a spring cleaning with pressurised air is difficult enough. Everything is properly secured, even the motherboard, which was custom-designed to fit inside the tiny area. In a year or two, you won't be able to upgrade to a new third-party graphics card since it won't fit. Fortunately, the gear on sale here is cutting-edge and will endure for years.
Performance
The Corsair One i300 obliterated our suite of gaming benchmarks, which came as no surprise to us. Even the infamous Metro Exodus RTX test, which used to make Nvidia 2000-series GPUs shiver, was left in the dust with a framerate well above 60 frames per second. Other games using ray-tracing deliver similarly impressive results; Control runs like a dream on the i300 at highest settings.
Everything runs at 60+ frames per second at 4K, the machine's intended resolution, independent of graphical settings. Above 4K super visuals, Metro Exodus provides a 'extreme' setting, which delivered us greater than 80 frames per second. CPU-intensive titles like Total War: Three Kingdoms make excellent use of the i9-12900K processor, resulting in similarly impressive performance.
It's no surprise that this machine is a beast for 4K gaming: if you're using one of the best 4K gaming monitors or even an 8K monitor, it'll clean up at any resolution; however, if you're an esports nut who wants an ultra-high framerate and is willing to trade down to 1440p or 1080p to get ridiculous numbers, it'll do that as well. To take use of this, you'll need a high-refresh-rate panel, such as one from our best gaming monitor guide. In the spirit of esports, we tried Valorant in 4K and were pleasantly surprised to see framerates in excess of 200 fps.
Although this is primarily a gaming computer, it has more than enough physical horsepower to accomplish a wide range of workstation-level applications. Thanks to the strong CPU and a boatload of the greatest RAM for gaming, high-end rendering and video processing operations, as well as number-crunching scientific modelling tools, are no problem. The 2TB solid state drive is also lightning quick, launching games in seconds and handling enormous file transfers with ease.
We did observe that the i9-12900K gets rather hot while under load. The Corsair One's single-fan arrangement means that it will never outperform a more roomy and well-ventilated case in terms of thermal performance, but in several of our tests, CPU temperatures reached 97 degrees Celsius, with visible heat from the top exhaust grille (though no external parts ever became too hot to touch, which was good to see).
Despite the high CPU temperatures, we didn't notice any noticeable performance throttling, and the rest of the system stayed pretty cool. The quietness of the i300 during our testing procedure was perhaps the most striking aspect, with only a little fan hum to alert us that it was under stress. The CPU is cooled by a small all-in-one liquid cooling unit, and we didn't observe any pump whining, which is a typical complaint with AIO-cooled PCs.
Should you buy it in the end?
Yes, if you're looking for a new PC with unrestricted power. However, such power comes at a cost. A $5,000 purchase is not a little sum. However, given the current condition of the industry, constructing your own PC will not be significantly less expensive and will almost certainly be less compact. It's impossible to locate the RTX 3080 Ti alone for less than a grand and a half right now, so buying a pre-built system makes a lot of sense. Wouldn't it be great if we all had access to OEM wholesale prices?
Really, the Corsair One i300 is one of the greatest 4K gaming desktops on the market right now, with top-of-the-line hardware delivering scorching performance in practically every area, and it does it in one of the best-designed chassis we've ever seen holding a pre-built PC. Why meddle with a winning formula? Corsair certainly recognised they were onto something with the One.
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