CORSAIR ONE vs. CORSAIR ONE i500

The CORSAIR ONE PC has undergone a remarkable evolution since its inception, paving the way in compact, high-performance PCs. Initially launched as an ambitious endeavor to encapsulate top-tier gaming and productivity power within a sleek, small form factor, the CORSAIR ONE has continuously adapted and improved with each iteration.

The latest edition of CORSAIR ONE is the i500, and in this article, we'll go over some of the features the i500 brings in comparison to previous CORSAIR ONE models.

The debate between choosing a compact PC and opting for a traditional, larger setup is ongoing. However, the CORSAIR ONE aims to quiet those discussions by proving that mighty power can indeed come in small packages.

The CORSAIR ONE i500 is slightly larger than the previous CORSAIR ONE with the following dimmensions (HxWxD):

CORSAIR ONE: 381mm x 175mm x 201mm / 15" x 6.9" x 7.9"

CORSAIR ONE i500: 391mm x 185mm x 300mm / 15.3" x 7.6" x 11.8"

This slight increase in footprint amounts to a large increase in internal space. To up things a bit, the i500 transitions from an mITX motherboard to a mATX .

This platform change provides several improvements such as an open PCi expansion slot, four memory slots, and the cooling system is completely redesigned as previous gen had a single fan at the top with an auxiliary fan on some of the GPU configurations. The system had a 140mm radiator for the CPU and a 180mm for the GPU.

The new system has a 240mm radiator for the GPU and a 120mm radiator for the CPU with a total of 5 fans that can be run at lower speeds and increase cooling performance to support more powerful CPUs and GPUs.

New designs are being offered with wood panels on the front and clothe side panels. The front panel is not user changeable as it has the fan and lighting controller and wiring attached to the back of it. Variations available at launch are Black/Walnut (Wood Dark) and Silver/Maple (Wood Bright). Origin PC will offer custom prints on their configurator as well as more memory, storage and PCIe card options.

SSDs and DRAM are upgradeable. Also, the system was designed so that the motherboard can be easily upgraded as newer technologies are launched. CORSAIR will offer the next generation GPUs as an upgrade but those are dependent on unknown options at the moment. There is the option to purchase and do the upgrade yourself and we expect the next gen equivalent NVIDIA GPUs will be available. The system is also OS agnostic so anyone wanting a Linux installation would be able to purchase that from Origin PC.

So there you have it, when comparing the original CORSAIR ONE PC to the new i500 model, the new i500 offers a new design that comes is several variants and is upgradable. Both models however uphold CORSAIR’s reputation for quality and performance, ensuring that whichever you choose, you’re investing in one of the best compact gaming PCs available today.