Origin PC Neuron Review: Immaculate Gaming Desktop With Muscle

If there's one thing the Neuron's 5000D Airflow case was built for, it's in the name -- airflow. Our test unit was outfitted with a total of 10 fans, and at idle they spin slowly. In fact, we measured idle noise to just be barely above our 30 dBA sound floor, and that's just a couple inches from the front of the case. The front is completely open thanks to a series of triangle holes that let air in, so it's not trying to hide any of its cooling, either. 

Origin PC Neuron: Power and Acoustic Performance

That means when it's time to get the components working hard and the system will start generating heat, those fans pick up considerably. The way they ramp up and down isn't particularly subtle, either; it can go from 43-44 dBA under a moderate load to up over 50 dBA in a moment's notice, only to ramp back down quickly again after a few seconds. That can probably be addressed with a different fan curve, which our unit's MSI MPG Z790 EDGE WiFi supports, but we chose to work with the system as it came out of the box. Of course, Origin also sells other cases, so choosing a more silent unit is an option. We don't mind it, though; with a PC under the desk, it's not overly distracting. If it's on the desktop, however, that can be an issue. 


Power consumption initially puzzled us at idle. Our Kill-A-Watt said the Neuron needed 125-130 Watts at idle, which is higher than a lot of our test beds and other prebuilt systems. However, our test PC has 10 RGB LED fans, a fancy programmable LCD in its water block, and high-speed DDR5 with more lighting built in. Power consumption must be a little higher for that kind of hardware, especially since the fans never spin down to shut off all the way.

Under load, it seemed to be pretty much in line with expectations, however, as it seemed to mostly sit at around 585-600 Watts, with an occasional spike that hit just past 620 Watts. For a Raptor Lake Refresh Core i9-14900K and a GeForce RTX 4090 that's not too shabby. Our RM1200x Shift power supply is absolutely overkill it seems, but most units are at their peak efficiency in the middle of their capacity and it's always a good idea to have some headroom built in. 


Next, it was time to push our Origin PC Neuron to the limit of power consumption and heat generation. To do that, we ran Cinebench R23's 30-minute stability test in the background while simultaneously running 3DMark's Speed Way Stress Test, which runs the main demo on loop a total of 20 times. As we reached the end of the loop, we captured the screenshot above, showing that the GeForce RTX 4090 and Core i9-14900K stayed relatively cool under load. Neither was running as warm as 80 degrees Celsius, even as power consumption pushed up towards 780 Watts, which is well within the limits of our test unit's Corsair RM1200x power supply. If that won't make this PC's H150i melt under pressure, we're not sure what will. 

Origin PC Neuron: The Verdict

The Origin PC Neuron is a lot of PC. Our review unit had just about the best possible components for a modern a gaming PC in regard to it CPU, GPU, memory, and cooling. Of course, buyers who want a PC with monstrous horsepower are going to have to break open the piggy bank, but in reality, a system doesn't have to break the bank. Still, this machine scored at the top of our gaming charts, although this particular unit has a price to match. What's unfortunate, though, is that performance was sometimes inconsistent in productivity workloads, with the system's Core i9-14900K felled by the last-generation Core i9-13900K on several tests. However, that also happened in our Raptor Lake Refresh review from time to time, so it's not any issue that we should blame on Origin PC.

Let's start with what's on the outside: Corsair is the parent company of Origin PC, so the company's cases, fans, CPU coolers, power supplies, RAM, and even SSDs are all on the table. Our review unit happened to have the top of the line RGB LED-infused madness that goes with having 10 fans and a 360mm AIO cooler. Corsair is a trusted name in enthusiast circles, and the company has innovated in interesting ways. The RM1200x Shift power supply with its modular connectors on the side was genius.


But you could build a PC with Corsair components on Amazon for about the same money. That's in large part due to inflated pricing on the GeForce RTX 4090 that should retail for around $1,700, but online pricing is closer to $2,200. If you watched the video embedded on the first page, you saw that building our review unit on Amazon was actually about $5 more expensive than buying it from Origin PC. Of course, component prices fluctuate from time to time, but Origin is currently offering the Neuron at a 10% discount. If that deal goes away, the price gap may widen.

But for that price gap, the vendor is building the PC, and doing a pretty nice job of it. Cable routing was clean and restrained, none of the screws had stripped Philips heads, and everything was safe and secure. And as excessive as our review unit is, buyers can customize it down to a far more barebones and restrained build; just sticking with a 240 millimeter H100i and non-RGB fans brings the asking price down to just over $4,000 with that aforementioned discount. The $450 price reduction comes without reducing any of the other specifications.


If reducing the specifications is what the budget calls for, the Neuron starts at around $2,160 with that 10% discount, or $2,400 without. The base config starts with a Core i5-13600K under an H100i, 32GB of DDR5-5600, a more barebones Z790 motherboard, a GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, and a 1 TB Corsair SSD in a Corsair 4000D Airflow with plenty of fans. And of course, if you're better off with a Ryzen 7 7700X or a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, those are options, too; this isn't that different than building a part list on Amazon, but you'll always get compatible parts this way. That starting price is actually is a bit more than the retail price of those components, but once again, it is built for you. 

What you get for that extra money is a professionally prebuilt system with a single vendor warrantying it for two years on parts and a lifetime labor warranty. If you're a seasoned PC builder, that may not be the most important thing, but for novices who would rather play games than tinker, and who want to call someone 24/7 rather than wait for tech support to respond to a web request, that can be a huge deal. The Origin PC Neuron is blazing fast, built with high quality components, and the attention to detail is top notch. If that sounds enticing, the Origin PC Neuron is HotHardware Recommended.