Origin PC Neuron

A cornucopia of cool customization options

BUILDING A GAMING PC yourself means being able to customize it specifically for the games you want to play, whether you’re a casual player or a full-time streamer. But if you can’t build your own, where do you turn to get something completely custom? Origin’s all-new customizable Neuron is yet another option for gamers and streamers who don’t want to fuss with the consuming aspects of piecing a rig together.

The Neuron comes in many different configurations, including a CPU up to either an Intel Core i9-9900K or an AMD Ryzen 16-core Threadripper, and a GPU up to an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti. The unit we were sent is a little different from the one in the photos; it’s red, and sans RGB lighting, but it’s got a great list of components that include an overclocked eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (4.3GHz Turbo Boost), and an overclocked 8GB RTX 2080 Founders Edition.

In terms of customization, Origin offers HD UV glass printing and laser etching. You can send Origin your favorite game art, and voila—the tempered glass now has an image that speaks to your gaming personality. The rounded edges on the front of the case look a little dated compared to the clean, sharp lines of other chassis on the market, but if case aesthetics are a long way down your must-have list, it’s not a deal-breaker.

The microATX case is not only compact and lightweight, but it can also be oriented sideways and upside down, which could come in handy if you have a unique desk setup, and the feet are magnetic, so it’s easy to change the orientation. The tempered glass side panel swings open on sturdy metals hinges, with two simple magnets to hold it closed. There’s even a small groove at the edge of the panel, so you can open it without getting fingerprints on the glass.

Performance-wise, this Neuron build spits out the expected benchmark scores. Cinebench puts multicore performance at an average of 1,845, and 3DMark churns out scores of 20,850 (1080p), 12,650 (1440p), and 6,715 (4K). According to in-game benchmarks at

1080p on ultra, Shadowof the Tomb Raider sees an average of 109fps, while

TotalWar:WarhammerII sees between 81fps and 100fps. GhostRecon:Wildlands saw a lower frame rate, at 73fps, but it’s a graphically intense game.

Our Neuron configuration came with an overclocked Ryzen 7 2700X, so it’s no surprise there’s an all-in-one liquid cooling system to go with it, but it’s noisy. Most of the noise comes from the fans on the aforementioned cooler, and it seems as though that’s how they sound naturally. Considering there are other quieter systems on the market with the same or similar specs, it’s a sour point for an otherwise fine system.

During the benchmarking process, the system did run on the warm side, directly behind where the CPU was placed on the motherboard. Going back and playing Shadowof the TombRaider for a period of time made the case quite warm. According to HWMonitor, however, running TombRaider for less than ten minutes increased the CPU temperature to only 41 C—maybe that heat was just a weird, temporary quirk.

Origin offers a lifetime service agreement, which includes free upgrades and repairs to your system. It also offers a trade-in graphics card program to reduce the cost of the new GPU (although on the model we received, there is no included part upgrade service). It’s these strides in customer support that can make one custom prebuilt service more enticing than another. Origin will also overclock your system for free, and offers 27/4 USbased support.

This unit will set you back $2,490, which is close to what it would cost to build a similar PC yourself. With so many custom prebuilt options to choose from, saving time and the headache of cable management—not to mention the extramile customer support—might be worth the extra cash. –JOANNA NELIUS