Corsair just made a major play in PC gaming by acquiring Origin PC

(Image credit: Corsair)

Corsair on Wednesday announced it has acquired Origin PC, a well-known builder of custom gaming and enthusiast systems. The buyout gives Corsair another avenue to move its components and peripherals, which range from computer memory and storage drives, to gaming headphones and streaming gear.

Origin PC will remain its own brand. One thing that will change, however, is Corsair will leverage the acquisition to preload its iCue software onto desktops and laptops sold by Origin PC.

"Integrating the Corsair iCue software ecosystem into Origin PC’s systems will offer gamers system-wide lighting synchronization and performance monitoring, while the recently announced range of Corsair Hydro X Series custom cooling will soon be found in select Origin PC systems. Further co-operation and integration of Corsair and Origin products will be announced in the near future," Corsair says.

Origin PC was founded 10 years ago by former executives of Alienware, which itself had been acquired by Dell in 2006. In celebration of its 10-year anniversary, Origin PC this week showcased a sweet one-off gaming PC it built with a liquid cooled PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X integrated inside, along with a custom Nintendo Switch dock. It called the system Big-O.

Corsair, meanwhile, has been in business for 25 years. It started off selling memory products, but has since expanded to cover a wide spectrum of parts and peripherals. Around this time last year, Corsair acquired Elgato Gaming, which effectively expanded its reach even further, into the streaming category.

Incidentally, Corsair also builds and sells its own line of gaming desktops, including the Corsair One and Vengeance PC, both of which we consider to be among the best gaming PCs. Corsair says it will continue to offer its own branded range of systems.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).