By Although it isn’t the most powerful gaming PC available, the Corsair One i500 isn’t upgradeable, and in terms of appearance, it’s the kind of device that will elicit strong opinions from people, including myself. Its performance alone makes it a strong candidate for the greatest gaming PC of 2024, and its cost is very reasonable considering the types of gaming setups I’ve seen with Core i9-14900K and RTX 4080 Super or RTX 4090 GPUs.
This isn’t a cheap gaming PC, with a starting price of $3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (roughly $5,220). However, considering the specs, you would typically get a standard black mid-tower PC case with large RGB fans and a tempered glass side that showcases even more RGB trim—and you would still be paying close to $3,500 or more for the privilege.
That is to say, RGB defines the design of most gaming PCs these days to such an extent that ‘style’ isn’t a deciding issue. Whichever PC you choose, the basic design idea of “show off the components’ lit up like a carnival—remains the same. The cases may differ, and some may even feature a wraparound glass panel to showcase the interiors more thoroughly.
Contrarily, the Corsair One i500 lacks even Corsair iCue, the business’s exclusive RGB control software. It does offer RGB, but not as much as other gaming PCs; specifically, it’s confined to the two trim lines that border the wooden front panel of the casing. The Corsair One i500, on the other hand, defines its design with a hardwood front panel, cloth side panels, and an aluminum shell underneath that is available in silver or black.
You will receive a different wooden front panel depending on the color of the case (a walnut color for the black case and a pine color for the silver case). Both are identical in price, so you won’t have to pay more for one over the other. There are more than enough ports on the PC for any accessories you may have, and it also comes with a headphone hanger attachment that can be attached to either side of the casing.
Above all, this PC makes me think of my childhood Atari 2600, which had a wooden panel around the top edge like everything else did in the early 1980s. That soon gave way to hard black plastic in later models, and natural textures were replaced by futuristic flash and forms that are still in use today in consoles and later PCs. The Corsair One i500 feels like something that was dumped out of a flying Delorean into the gaming PC market in this environment. Even after all these years with RGB and an aggressive gaming look, it’s surprising how refreshing something as basic and vintage as a wood panel on the front can seem.
CORSAIR ONE I500: PRICE & AVAILABILITY
The Corsair One i500 is currently priced at $3,599.99 in the US and £3,499.99 in the UK. June is when it will be available in Australia, however, the APAC region’s official price has not yet been disclosed. The launch configurations use an Intel Core i9-1400K processor and 2TB NVMe storage. The base configuration costs $4,699.99 / £4,699.99 and includes an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super and 32GB DDR5 RAM, while the max configuration costs $4,699.99 / £4,699.99 and includes an Nvidia RTX 4090 and 64GB DDR5 RAM.
This costs more than the current Alienware Aurora R16, which retails for $4,049.99 / £3,919 and has a maximum Intel Core i9-14900KF, RTX 4090, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB PCIe NVMe storage. The maximum price for an Intel Core i9-14900KF, Nvidia RTX 4080 Super, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB storage on the Aurora R16 in Australia is AU$5,772.80.
The Corsair One i500 will cost more than its competitors because other gaming PCs such as the Acer Predator Orion 7000 and HP Omen 40L will retail for nearly the same as the Aurora R16. However, the competitors’ designs are similar to those of every other gaming PC released in the last ten years and can be found in Best Buy and Curry’s stores. You may decide whether the Corsair One i500’s design is worth the additional cost, but I firmly think it is based on all the gaming PCs I’ve evaluated over the years.
CORSAIR ONE I500: DESIGN
The main attraction of the Corsair One i500 is its style.
The last wood-paneled gaming system I saw was the Atari 2600, which came out when I was only a little child. I believe that’s enough time for a wood-paneled gadget to become fashionable once more, and seeing anything new is more than just welcome considering the status of PC gaming gear in recent years. Although I doubt the Corsair One i500 will cause a shift in PC gaming culture away from the decade-old Decepticon-inspired PC cases with garish RGB lighting, I do hope it will spark new ideas about what manufacturers might accomplish with a gaming PC. The market is in dire need of it.
According to the design notes, even if it is larger than a device like the Asus ROG G22CH, this is still a small form factor gaming PC. This resembles a game console more than a conventional gaming PC because it is taller than it is wide or deep. This will look great in your living room if you’ve been shopping for a PC for it. You should be able to upgrade to an Nvidia 5000 series graphics card in a few years if you spend this much money on a gaming PC, but the small form factor chassis will restrict the size of GPU you can fit.
Corsair ONE i500 Gaming PC – Liquid Cooled Intel® Core™ i9 14900K CPU – Liquid Cooled NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 Super GPU
Furthermore, the heat dissipation of this unshrouded graphics card is managed by an AIO GPU cooler. Naturally, you could remove the fans and heatsink from any graphics card you purchase in the future and install it on this computer, but this is a very sophisticated GPU modification. In addition to the internals, other unique design elements are hard to come across in other products.
First, a gentle, breathable cloth is used to cover the side panels. This gives the PC a stylish appearance, but after time, the fabric in tech equipment tends to get dirty and discolored, especially if it covers a fan that removes dust from the PC casing.
The fabric panels are still a lovely design element. The tap-to-activate light on the case’s backside, which you can use to illuminate the backports when connecting additional cables and peripherals, is another fantastic feature. It’s a minor detail, but having a simple way to light up the area in question is very helpful because the back of a gaming PC is frequently under shadow.
All in all, the Corsair One i500 is the most stylish prebuilt gaming PC I have ever used, and its departure from the “accepted” gamer design makes it even more amazing. I don’t care that a lot of people won’t like this PC’s design. I give Corsair five stars for taking the chance to create a radically different kind of PC.
PERFORMANCE
Even while the Corsair One i500 has a sleek appearance, its performance is just as important, if not more so, than its looks because this is a gaming PC. You won’t be let down by this PC in this regard. Second only to the optional Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card for the Corsair One i500, its base GPU, the RTX 4080 Super, is among the top 4K graphics cards available. Thus, virtually any game available on the market will support 4K@60FPS on any GPU you choose, particularly if you activate Nvidia’s DLSS 3 in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and any other game that uses ray tracing.
You do, however, have a choice if you’re seeking to play 4K at original resolution since the RTX 4090 is the only graphics card I’ve ever tested that can get you close to 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing maxed up without upscaling.
Though I wouldn’t call this the best workstation PC available, given the hardware, this is still a very capable creative performer, so those who prefer to get some work done will like what’s on offer here. This is a gaming PC first and foremost, and it shines in this capacity.
