General Analysis

In terms of looks, this small form factor design is intriguing. While it doesn't quite do it for me personally, there is no doubt the design saves on space. The RGB LED implementation is not too intrusive and could even be considered tasteful considering some of the garish offerings I have seen lately. Meanwhile, thanks to the ICUE software, users can obviously change the preset LED colors and lighting effects at will. When it comes to the interior of the system, it is well thought out, but not made to be easily serviceable, like a standard tower. That said, it can still be worked on if you are willing to deal with some added complexity.


Overall cooling performance was quite surprising. With just a single fan, It was impressive to see the convection-assisted cooling at work. During heavy loads, the CPU peaked at 85°C, while the GPU reached 74°C. These temperatures are more than acceptable for daily use with enough headroom for minor overclocking. However, that is not something I would bother pursuing without first upgrading the fan to make sure no thermal throttling will happen. While temps are fine, depending on the environment, pushing the system to hard may result in throttling. That said, going that route means the system will also become much louder, which is something to keep in mind considering as configured by Corsair, it maxed out at 42 dBA, making the system incredibly quiet.

In regards to the system's power draw, the Corsair ONE i160 peaked at 443 watts under extreme loads. Typical loads when gaming or running applications peaked at around 380 to 400 watts. For now, considering the temperatures, power consumption, max noise levels under load, and system performance, it can be said that the default configuration is generally well balanced.

Corsair has implemented a few customizations with the ONE i160. First, the GTX 2080 Ti, while apparently a reference model card, uses a custom all-in-one liquid cooler. While this isn't a problem in and of itself, due to the way it is mounted in the system, changing the graphics card in the future may prove a bit problematic because of space constraints and configured cable management. Meanwhile, the motherboard and other components may prove difficult to swap if the power connector locations do not align with the system's pre-done cable routing. That said, in regards to the M.2 SSD, HDD, or system memory, those can be upgraded without too many problems; however, it is better to just consider the Corsair ONE i160 a set it, forget it, and use it system. This is further evidenced by Corsair's repair service and warranty, which is still valid even if a user upgrades memory or storage if they don't damage other components in the process.


When it comes to included programs, Corsair has a few apps pre-installed on the system, but none of the typical bloatware, trialware, or other garbage software included in some other pre-built systems. This is how a gaming PC should always be delivered; no bloat, all performance, and ready to go out of the box without needing a clean install for the best-possible user experience.