The Corsair One Elite is a breathtaking and essentially unique computer. It is among the tiniest systems available, but it is also among the most potent.
The Corsair One’s superb outer design is still present in this iteration, but the internals have seen a significant improvement.
We are about to find out if this little tower can withstand a significant upgrade, despite Corsair’s claim that they are ideal for both work and play.
Pricing and accessibility
With an Intel Coffee Lake Core i7 processor, a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and 32GB of memory for $2,999 (£2,799), the Corsair One Elite we’re reviewing has the most powerful and costly specifications Corsair offers.
Since only creatives actually need the latter specification, the Corsair One Pro Plus is also an option. Although it has the same processor and GPU, the price has been reduced to $2,799 (£2,549) by halving the RAM allocation.
Also, models from last year are still available for a slight discount. A variant of the One Pro with 16GB of memory costs $2,299 (£2,099), while the One Pro with a Core i7-7700K CPU, 32GB of memory, and GTX 1080 graphics costs $2,499 (£2,299).
In Australia, the situation is different. You’re stuck with quad-core i7-7700K processors because Corsair hasn’t updated the One to Coffee Lake yet.
The more expensive laptop costs AU$3,799 and comes with GTX 1080 Ti graphics, 16GB of DDR4, and a 480GB SSD. The less expensive variant, which costs AU$3,399, has a less powerful GTX 1080 card.
Build and design
The most recent Corsair One right away merits the Elite moniker. The outside is made of aircraft-grade aluminum with a matte black finish, so it doesn’t just look great; it also resists fingerprints. On the front, two understated light strips are placed each side of modest branding and a clever power button.
Impressive dimensions go hand in hand with fantastic looks. The One is more compact than even the smallest computers made by any major competitor, measuring 380mm tall and 176mm wide. This system can easily fit behind a monitor or even into a bag due to its 7.4kg weight and lack of goofy protrusions or extra stands.
There are no audio plugs on the front, but there are HDMI and USB ports, which are excellent for VR. There are three USB 3 ports, a Type-C port, two DisplayPort connectors, and an additional HDMI socket in the back. For older peripherals, there has a PS/2 connector, and some of the Ethernet and USB ports have useful lighting.
The Corsair One Elite may be placed next to the television, in a gaming room, or in an office with ease. Also, it is a durable piece of equipment with no movement in the metal and exceptionally strong slats on top of the machine.
The Corsair’s secret lies in those slats. Heat is radiated by the metal, and this component of the computer houses a large 140mm exhaust fan that Corsair claims is virtually frictionless.
Pushing a covert button removes the fan and slatted covering, exposing the Corsair’s clever inner workings.
Performance
Although the exterior design of the Corsair One Elite hasn’t altered, the internals have unquestionably improved. The processing division has undergone the most improvement.
The i7-7700K in the earlier model has been replaced by an i7-8700K. The new chip leverages Coffee Lake, which results in architectural improvements and—most significantly—two additional cores. The six-core i7-8700K operates 12 threads simultaneously, compared to the earlier chip’s eight concurrent threads from four cores.
It greatly facilitates multitasking, so it should come as no surprise that Corsair is targeting both creatives and gamers with this machine. In comparison to its predecessor, the six-core CPU will perform better when it comes to activities like video editing, streaming, and other high-end productivity tasks. There isn’t much that it can’t handle in this area.
Even clock speeds are still competitive. The i7-8700K features a 3.7GHz base speed and a 4.3GHz turbo peak across all six cores and 4.7GHz on one core. The i7-7700turbo K’s speeds increased from 4.4GHz to 4.5GHz after starting at 4.2GHz. Gaming, which benefits from single-threaded speed, and more traditional job apps should do well as a result.
Conclusion
This previously excellent system has been improved by orsair. The GTX 1080 Ti offers 4K and VR gaming capabilities, and Coffee Lake gives work capabilities a significant boost. The Corsair is constantly and stunningly quiet, and the memory and storage are a touch better.
The physical design hasn’t changed, but this machine didn’t require it. It continues to be more quiet, compact, and durable than any rival we’ve tried, making it perfect for LAN events, living rooms, and offices alike. However while having greater power and accessibility available in less priced computers, it is still pricey and difficult to access. Yet those problems won’t matter if you require a PC that delivers significant power quietly. With its recent improvements, the Corsair One certainly merits the title of Elite.
