Specs at a glance: Corsair One Lowest Middle Best (as reviewed) OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit CPU Intel Core i7-7700 (liquid cooled) Intel Core i7-7700K (liquid cooled) Intel Core i7-7700K (liquid cooled) RAM 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2) 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2) 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2) GPU Nvidia GTX 1070 (air cooled) Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB (liquid cooled) Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB (liquid cooled) HDD 240GB SATA SSD, 1TB HDD 480GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD 960GB SATA SSD PSU 400W SFX 400W SFX 400W SFX NETWORKING Gigabit Ethernet, AC Wi-Fi PORTS 3 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB-3.1 Type-C, 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, headphone jack, microphone jack SIZE Height: 380mm (14.9 inches), depth: 200mm (7.9 inches), width: 176mm (6.9 inches) WEIGHT 7.4kg WARRANTY Two years with 24/7 support and five day repair turnaround PRICE £1800/$1800 £2200/$2200 £2270/$2300 Notes There's also a fourth model, which Corsair didn't tell us about ahead of time, with a GTX 1080 Ti. It's an online exclusive priced at £2600/$2700. Still no M.2 SSD though...

It's hard to believe that the Corsair One comes from the same company that designed the Bulldog, a small form factor PC so monstrously ugly that the mere thought of placing it in a living room was enough to set off a spousal gag reflex. Where the Bulldog was a confused mishmash of jaunty, l33t gamer angles, the One is sleek, sophisticated, and—dare I say it—even a little grown up.

That Corsair continues to sell a slightly updated version of the Bulldog is something of mystery considering just how good the Corsair One is. Of all the small form factor (SFF) PCs I've tried—and there have been quite a few over the past year—it is by far the best. I'd even go as far to say it's one of the best pre-built PCs you can buy, full stop.

At £2,300 for a fully loaded version, the Corsair One isn't cheap by any means—and as always, going the DIY route can lead to substantial savings—but few homebrew PCs have such a tiny footprint. Fewer still do so while being entirely liquid cooled, graphics card and all. It's a combo that results in a PC that doesn't just fit into the living room environment aesthetically, but acoustically too.

And, unlike the entirely custom hardware of the Zotac EN1080, you can even upgrade it.

Dual radiators FTW

Well, sort of. The Corsair One does indeed feature standard hardware. Inside is a mini-ITX motherboard by MSI. There's one of Corsair's 400W, 80 Plus Gold rated modular SFX power supplies, two sticks of Corsair Vengeance 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, and a socketed Intel Kaby Lake 7700K processor. A riser cable wraps around from the single PCIe slot to the backside of the motherboard, where there's space for a triple-slot graphics card. Extension cables then bring HDMI (1x) and DisplayPort (2x) to the rear of the case.

But in the fully loaded version of the One, both the GTX 1080 graphics card and the CPU are liquid cooled by two separate all-in-one 240mm radiators, which flank each side of the One's case behind vented aluminium panels. Corsair doesn't intend for the One to be user serviceable—although getting inside just involves pushing a button and undoing four screws—but replacing the CPU is an easy enough task, as is upgrading the 2.5-inch SATA SSD, which sits insides a simple plastic slot.

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

It's unlikely, especially if the rumoured roadmaps for Intel's Coffee Lake architecture hold water—that anyone would want to upgrade the CPU in the near future, but the graphics card is a different story. You can already buy a GTX 1080 Ti, and in year's time both Nvidia and AMD will have entirely new architectures on the market. The MSI-made graphics card is cooled in a similar fashion to the CPU, with a 240mm radiator. But as anyone that's tried to fit a liquid cooler to a graphics card can attest to, it's a far more involved affair than replacing a CPU, particularly since the VRMs and memory modules still need to be air-cooled.

If you're skilled enough, it may well be possible to swap out the GTX 1080 for another Nvidia card with a similar board layout and keep the same cooler. Or, you could just ditch the liquid cooling entirely—or opt for the cheaper air-cooled version of the Corsair One—and install a blower-style card. But doing so ruins one of the best things about this PC: this is by far the quietest SFF system I've ever used.

You might have noticed the lack of mention of any fans, and that's because the Corsair One has just one. At the very top of the case is a single 140mm fan—one of Corsair's fancy magnetic levitation fans that promises quieter operation—which relies on assisted convection to draw air through the side panels, over the radiators, and out of the top of the case. It's similar to how Apple keeps the Mac Pro cool, but by using radiators and liquid instead of a central heatsink.

It works extremely well.

I don't have a way to test sound levels here in the office (consider it something we're thinking of adding to our tests), but Corsair claims that in an anechoic chamber it recorded an idle noise level of 20dBA, or about as loud as a whisper from three feet away. The system is certainly more audible while gaming if you're sitting right next to it, but over a larger distance (such as in the living room), or perhaps in a closed cupboard, you'll hardly notice it.

In both cases, the fan sound is soft and dull and quite unlike the high-pitched whine of a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

Listing image by Mark Walton