Corsair One Elite

Stunning, small and near-silent, the Corsair One Elite is a superb system

The Corsair One Elite is a stunning PC. It’s not only one of the smallest desktop systems on the market, it’s also one of the most powerful as well.

This version of the Corsair One retains the excellent exterior design that was introduced last year, but the internals have been given a huge boost. Corsair reckons they’re perfect for work and play, and you’re about to find out whether this tiny tower can cope with a serious upgrade.

Price and availability

The One Elite on test is the beefiest and most expensive that Corsair sells, with an Intel Coffee Lake Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics and 32GB of RAM for £2,799 ($2,999).

That specification is only really needed by creatives, so the Corsair One Pro Plus is also available. It has the same processor and GPU, but halves the RAM for £2,549 ($2,799).

Design

The Corsair One Elite is stunning. It’s made from aircraft-grade aluminium that looks smart, with thin bands of light snaking down the rig on either side of subtle logos and the power button.

It looks fantastic, and the dimensions are disarming. It’s just 380mm tall and 176mm wide, and weighs 7.4kg. That’s comparable with the Asus ROG G20CI and MSI Trident 3, which are other recent high-end desktops that used smaller enclosures.

The great design is paired with rock-solid build quality. The panels are sturdy, and the interior is built around a strong metal skeleton. It’s perfect for carrying to and from LAN parties or eSports events.

The front of the Corsair One Elite has a USB port and an HDMI socket, for VR headsets, and at the rear you get more display outputs alongside a USB 3.1 Type-C connector and a PS/2 port. Some of the connections are illuminated for late-night gaming. Wireless is also included.