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Reviews<br />
Removing the aluminium grill on<br />
top, gets you just this far inside<br />
the Corsair One without officially<br />
violating your warranty<br />
drives; we suspect the M.2 may be<br />
mounted behind the motherboard<br />
making access major surgery.<br />
Swapping the GPU will require a<br />
compatible liquid cooler for the<br />
upgrade, not to mention time spent<br />
extracting the part.<br />
To be fair, this has always been<br />
the price of miniaturisation. In<br />
fact, we’re actually surprised the<br />
One is as upgradable as it is, given<br />
its size and acoustics. All of the<br />
components, as you can see, are<br />
industry standard. There’s no weird<br />
mobile GPU or strange custom<br />
motherboard in there. It won’t be<br />
easy, but upgrading is possible.<br />
Caveat emptor<br />
Here’s the catch: Corsair says<br />
the act of opening up the One<br />
to, say, add RAM or a larger SSD<br />
voids the warranty. Period. Want it<br />
upgraded? An authorised service<br />
centre can do it for you.<br />
Why would Corsair do this? Small<br />
computers can be tricky to work<br />
on. The firm is likely afraid that a<br />
clumsy consumer will try to open it<br />
up, destroy things, and then scream<br />
for a warranty replacement. That’s<br />
a valid concern, but we should point<br />
out that Dell, HP, and even Apple<br />
allow you to add RAM or storage<br />
without voiding the warranty<br />
(provided you don’t break things).<br />
Granted, established <strong>PC</strong> OEMs<br />
have hundreds of different models<br />
and huge support mechanisms.<br />
First-time <strong>PC</strong>-maker Corsair has a<br />
considerably smaller operation.<br />
To get the most out of your twoyear<br />
warranty, you basically have<br />
to treat the One as a sealed box.<br />
And for many that won’t be a deal<br />
breaker – this amount of power will<br />
easily last two years. Corsair also<br />
says users can overclock without<br />
breaking the warranty.<br />
For more on gaming <strong>PC</strong>s, see<br />
our Group Test on page 60.<br />
Verdict<br />
For a first go at the rodeo, Corsair’s<br />
One <strong>PC</strong> gets most things right.<br />
That’s quite an accomplishment<br />
when you think about all the moving<br />
parts there are to a custom design,<br />
much less a complete liquid-cooled<br />
<strong>PC</strong>. Corsair just needs to loosen up<br />
its warranty policy to make the One<br />
truly superb. J Gordon Mah Ung<br />
<strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong> www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews 43
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