Origin PC is arguably the most high-profile custom PC building company that there is. In recent years, Origin teamed with Corsair to implement Corsair parts in its builds, but has aimed to continue to offer its own brand. Origin offers prebuild or configurations to cater to the needs of the customer, but do prepare to break out the wallet. Origin PCs are also shipped in a wooden crate and offer a lot of protection in their packaging, so fair warning on keeping the box on the doorstep. With a high-end pre-build, does it deliver for the price? In most cases, those that are looking for a high end system aren’t necessarily concerned with that. Origin sent over a slightly-altered NEURON Desktop for review as I will also compare it to a high-end build from the previous generation of processor and GPU.
I will say this wasn’t all bells and whistles to start with. The initial shipment would not run any game and began artifacting. After a few hours of troubleshooting and having to send it back, it turned out the MSI RTX 4090 that was included in that build was bad. Origin did promptly send out a replacement computer and armed it with a Zotac RTX 4090 along with an Intel i9-13900K and 32 GB DDR5 RAM. The i9-13900K is the fastest GPU out there currently as it’s rated at 5.4 GHz and the RAM clock speed comes in at 5600 MHz. That RAM clock speed isn’t the fastest, and this RAM is Corsair Vengeance that lacks RGB. There’s plenty of RGB in this case, which is a Corsair 5000D Airflow, as it offers front and side ventilation along with one rear fan and a AIO 360mm radiator at the top. The case has removable panels on the front and the top to help improve airflow as well.
While I wasn’t provided a full-on spec sheet, some digging did provide what other parts are involved with the system. The AIO cooler does seem to be Corsair’s iCUE H150i ELITE LCD XT. This screen is brilliantly animated and can be customized through the iCUE software that comes pre-installed on the PC. The mother board included is the MSI Z790-P WIFI and there’s 3TB total of storage solutions. One looks to be a Samsung 870 SSD and another M.2 with 1 TB. I’m impressed with how well the Zotac GPU did as temperatures under load stayed in the upper 60s and would rarely peak to 75 degrees. This is with testing with 100% GPU usage. The CPU temperature stayed mainly below 65, but was never able to push anything to 100% on the CPU for a long period of time. The best mark was Cinebench testing and it still stayed cool. The system does wake up when under load and gets a bit loud, but it isn’t close to what a gaming laptop offers. The system boots fast and is responsive in day-to-day tasks.
With this NEURON Desktop offering the best of what the current generation has to offer, there are lower options available. There’s a bigger case with more fans, but there are options geared for 1080p and 1440p gaming that will save some bucks. The pre-configured NEURON Desktop for 1080p includes an Intel i5-13600K processor and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti for under $1600. This is just the NEURON product line, as well, and the RTX 4060 TI has been known to handle 1440p gaming well. There are various options to play with depending on the budget, but they all don’t have to be outrageous. How would going the route of a previous generation computer compare to what’s offered here?
The previous generation build that’s used for this comparison includes an Intel i7-12700K 5 GHz, GIGABYTE Vision RTX 4080 10GB, 32GB DDR5 RAM rated at 6400 Mhz, ASUS TUF Gaming Z690, and an NZXT Kraken Z73 360mm AIO Cooler. The comparison includes benchmark scores from 3DMark, Forza Horizon 5, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and finally the updated Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 which came out after benchmarking the previous, so I had to do all over again. One thing I included on these benchmarks is an improvement percentage just to see how much of a boost the current generation is getting from the previous generation. Both of these setups were benchmarked at 1440p and at 4K as I feel 1080p is overkill for both of these GPUs. These tests were also done with the in-game benchmarks, so while they might not be exactly accurate to every in-game scenario, this can be measured versus a personal experience.
For the 3DMark test, there was discernible difference in the points range of both setups. The previous generation setup did score above average while the current generation scored below the average. These scores take in overclocks, but does give an idea to if a system is running properly. Something way below average may need to be investigated, but both of these scored near the average range of numbers. TimeSpy, TimeSpy Extreme and Port Royal were tested. TimeSpy is used for DirectX 12 gaming while TimeSpy Extreme is for 4K gaming in Direct X 12. Port Royal provides Ray Tracing scores. Each category is broken down into the score, the average of all scores and the top score. You can see the results below:
Forza Horizon 5 has received quite the updates since it launched. It offers both Ray Tracing, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR and a lot of optimization options. It’s well optimized and a good test as I thought the previous generation setup was impressive. This game is creeping up on two years old, but racing games tend to shine the best in terms of demonstrating technology. The current generation obliterated the previous generation, especially with DLSS. I’m talking double the performance and then some, whether it be with Ray Tracing or without, and at both 4K and 1440p resolution. When NVIDIA states double the performance with one card over the other, this is what they mean.
While one thing these benchmarks did was satisfy what the previous generation did in these benchmarks. The engine that Borderlands has used has always been demanding and aimed for AMD-based systems. This test is with Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands through its in-game benchmark. The surprising element is just how well the current generation that Origin PC offers does as it continues to blow the generation behind out of the water. These are more than subtle upgrades, and while 4K and 60 FPS is a solid goal with Ultra settings (which all of these were set to in the benchmarks), to get some of these ridiculous results further push the desire for what the best on the market has to offer.
Cyberpunk 2077 has officially became the Crysis of this era. I thought the RTX 3080 would provide a 4K 120 FPS experience at launch, without DLSS, and that was laughable. CD Projekt Red actually upped the assets a while back, further tanking the performance and upping the hardware requirements. The game is still unplayable without the help of DLSS at high resolutions. I didn’t bother attempting running a benchmark with Ray Tracing Overdrive on the previous generation, but was somewhat surprised at what’s playable on the latest update. Really, the 4090 should only be used for 4K on the game and still, DLSS is really required to make it a good experience.
Closing Comments:
Origin PC does offer a lot of options and going with the NEURON Desktop, you’ll receive a setup with excellent airflow and good temperatures. Cable management is always the tip of the iceburg for some on a deciding factor for a pre-build and with this build, it’s extremely clean. The look through the tinted glass is unique and adds a nice vibe. The only real knocks to choosing an Origin PC is having to deal with the crate. The support team was quick to repair the unit and get it shipped back out. I do feel quality control could be better out the door, though. The focus when going with a high-end system is the results, though, and to see this much of a difference over the previous generation is satisfying. While there isn’t a lot to push a true Origin PC brand, the build design and craft are admirable.
