Maximum PC - USA (2022-04)

LET’S NOT MINCE words here: the Corsair
One series is absolutely amazing and
has been since its debut way back in the
heady days of 2018. Is it still the best
compact gaming PC we’ve seen? It sure
is! Does it still pack the latest high-end
components? It sure does! Is the price
point still high enough to make your bank
account start crying? You bet!
Yes, the Corsair One i300 is here, a
hardware refresh for our favorite tiny
powerhouse that comes with an eye-
watering price tag of a shade under
$5,000. This model has the latest Core i9-
12900K processor from Intel, a 16-core
chip with a 5.2GHz overclock, as well as
an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti and a hefty 64GB
of DDR5 RAM. On paper, it’s an excellent
selection of components, and the i300
leverages them all for top-of-the-range
performance across all arenas.
In case you missed our reviews of
previous iterations, the Corsair One’s
big selling point is simple—its unique
vertical design allows it to occupy an
impressively small footprint of just

Updated for

2022 and still

incredible

Corsair

One

i300

9

VERDICT Corsair One i300

VANQUISHER Top-notch

performance; incredibly

compact; runs quietly.

VANQUISHED Can get hot;

upgrading is difficult; wildly expensive.

$4,999, corsair.com

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor Intel Core i9-12900K

Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

RAM 64GB DDR5 @ 4,400MT/s

Motherboard Z690 Custom

Primary Storage 2TB PCIe 4.0 NwVMe M.2

Cooling Solution Liquid cooled CPU/GPU

PSU Corsair 750W SFX 80

PLUS Platinum

Case Corsair One

Warranty Two Year Limited Warranty

7-inches by 8-inches, leaving you plenty of

tabletop real estate to work with, without

sacrificing performance. The One’s

compact nature is achieved thanks to a

flexible PCIe riser for the graphics card

and specially-designed AIO coolers for

the CPU and GPU, connected to a single

exhaust fan at the top of the column.

This clever layout is not without its

drawbacks though. The Corsair One’s

chassis has barely changed since its

introduction (barring the removal of a

front-facing HDMI port in favor of USB-C)

and is predominantly constructed from

metal. With only one exhaust fan to handle

cooling and precious little space for heat

to dissipate inside the case, the i300 gets

seriously hot when running under load.

Performance throttling didn’t seem to be

an issue in our testing, though, and we

have to admit that the i300 is remarkably

quiet for such a powerful machine.

CASE PACKED

One issue that still remains is that

the compact configuration essentially

bars you from making easy piecemeal

upgrades to your system, a major

selling point of many pre-built gaming

PCs. Where the average pre-built rig

from EKWB or Cyberpower (or even

Corsair itself) generally makes it easy

to swap out components when you

want a performance boost or a quick

repair job, the One’s cramped interior

makes replacing any parts challenging.

Swapping out the memory or SSD is

doable but tricky enough; trying to

replace the GPU is a serious undertaking.

Unsurprisingly, the i300 dominates in

gaming performance at 4K thanks to its

powerful RTX 3080 Ti GPU. Even beyond

our listed game benchmarks (soon to

be updated, fear not!), we tested other

games, such as Red Dead Redemption

2 , Total War: Three Kingdoms, and

the punishing RTX-enabled Metro

Exodus benchmark. All stayed stable

above 60fps, even at 4K ultra settings.

Esports titles, including Overwatch and

Valorant, barely tickled the 3080 Ti, with

framerates well into the hundreds.

General performance elsewhere was

also strong, with the i9-12900K blazing

through CPU-bound tasks. The sizable

2TB SSD is stupidly fast, with read times

in excess of 7GB/s ensuring that you’ll

never see lengthy load times in games

again. There are also plenty of rear ports

to supplement the somewhat minimalist

front I/O. While it might be difficult to

upgrade, the i300 is on the cutting edge

of PC hardware, meaning it’s relatively

future-proof and should guarantee great

performance for years to come.

While the sky-high price is going to be

a dealbreaker for many potential buyers,

the Corsair One i300 is undeniably an

incredible choice of gaming PC for

anyone with the cash to spare. While

it’s billed as a gaming system, the i300

has the hardware heft for all manner

of workloads, which combined with its

small form factor makes it the ideal home

PC for creatives and number-crunchers

who like to kick back and game after a

hard day’s work. Frankly, we wish Corsair

would let us keep it. –CHRISTIAN GUYTON

BENCHMARKS

ZERO-

POINT

Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 2,178 3877 (78%)

CrystalDisk QD32

Sequential Read (MB/s) 3,136 7061 (125%)

CrystalDisk QD32

Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,126 5145 (142%)

3DMark: Fire Strike Ultra

(Index) 6,988 12356 (77%)

Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 42 99 (136%)

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (fps) 38 122 (221%)

Metro Exodus (fps) 37 98 (165 %)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Our zero-point consists of an an Intel Core i9-7900X, 32GB G.Skill RipJaws V series DDR4 @ 3,000, an MSI

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X, and a 512GB Samsung 960 Pro PCIe SSD. All tests performed at 4K at the highest

graphical profile. Metro Exodus tested at 4K at High.

APR 2022 MAXIMU MPC 77