J. Hans
We were hesitant to drop this much on a pre-built PC knowing how much we could save building it ourselves. What made this one exciting is the design and engineering that went into it. Even describing the cooling system to people was interesting to me. What ultimately tipped us over the edge was the high price of video cards. At the time of purchase, a 1080 TI would have added ~$1000 to any self-build we would have done. The Corsair ONE was still more expensive than self-building, even with that taken into consideration. But it is virtually impossible to replicate this thing on our own. Fitting everything into this size of a case, and keeping it cooled is a feat in and of itself. Youre paying extra because you cant get this anywhere else. Most pre-built PCs can be replicated, not this one. I also took into consideration how long a build is. I just finished building my upgrade, and while I took longer than I could have, it was at least a 3 hour process. And if time is money, then you should add that into the equation. All said, this was "only" $500 or so more than what it would have taken to build our own and we wouldnt have had the special engineering and design. Performance has been good. Check benchmarks for the parts you are ordering and thats pretty much what youll get. For the games we play, it wasnt enough to run max settings at 4k, which was a little disappointing, but either going down to 2k or else reducing a couple heavy hitting settings instead of Max/Ultra and it easily gets 75+ FPS. In Monster Hunter World, this is getting 50% more fps than my own PC, which still has a 1060 as the only major difference. Its pretty quiet, the only time youll hear it is under heavy (read as: hot) loads and the fan has to kick in. Things like the CPU or GPU working hard such as during boot or gaming. And even then its nothing unexpected. The only reason you notice more than a normal PC is because its usually much closer to you than a traditional PC due to its size. Should you buy it? GPU prices are dropping, so its probably not as reasonable as it was for us - unless Corsair lowers their pricing with GPU pricing. So I would recommend this to anyone who does not want to self-build for whatever reason, and/or wants a very stylish, well engineered case that you cant build on your own, or someone who wants a very very small gaming PC. I could see it as a good gift for a gamer who wants a "cool" PC but cant build their own. Itll be a talking point for anyone who can appreciate the engineering, youll get compliments on the style "Thats a cool looking speaker." (Um, actually...). Its well-built with high standards, it "feels" like a high-performance machine when you touch or carry it. You wont feel like you overpaid, at least we dont.
