Desktop of the year: Corsair One

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Compact, powerful, and not terribly pricey.

A longtime player in the component world, this year Corsair released its first foray into the pre-built PC market. The result is the Corsair One, a sleek and impressively small gaming PC. 

One of the most impressive things about the Corsair One is its cooling solution. Both the CPU and GPU are cooled by their own 240mm radiator. But rather than outfitting each of those with their own fans, the entire One is cooled by a single 140mm maglev fan in the top of the chassis that pulls cold air in through the side radiators and exhausts it out the top. The result is a well-cooled system with a minimal footprint that runs whisper quiet. 

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Gear of the Year

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Component-wise, the Corsair One features an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia 10-series GPU, and liquid coolers for both. CPU/GPU power, as well as storage size, varies by tier—the One starts at $1,800 for an i7-7700, GTX 1070, and 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD, and goes up from there. The unit I tested earlier this year featured an i7-7700K, GTX 1080, and 960GB SSD for a retail price of $2,300.

Those are surprisingly competitive prices for a pre-built system—especially one as compact and well-designed as this one—considering that pre-builts are generally known for coming in several hundred dollars more expensive than buying the parts separately and assembling yourself. Overall, the One is a major milestone for Corsair. Having made components and accessories for decades, it's impressive to see what happens when it brings all that expertise together in a single system. 

Bo Moore
Bo Moore

As the former head of PC Gamer's hardware coverage, Bo was in charge of helping readers better understand and use PC hardware. He also headed up the buying guides, picking the best peripherals and components to spend your hard-earned money on. He can usually be found playing Overwatch, Apex Legends, or more likely, with his cats. He is now IGN's resident tech editor and PC hardware expert.