$8000* Disaster Prebuilt PC - Corsair & Origin Fail Again
jimmy_thang
May 19, 2025
We test Origin's expensive PC’s thermals, acoustics, power, frequency, and perform a tear-down
The Highlights
- Our Origin Genesis PC comes with an RTX 5090, 9800X3D, and 32GB of system memory
- Due to poor system thermals, the memory on the GPU fails our testing
- The fans in the system don’t ramp up until the liquid-cooled CPU gets warm, which means the air-cooled GPU temperature suffers
- Original MSRP: $6,050+
- Release Date: January 2025
Table of Contents
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Intro
We paid $6,050 for Origin PC’s 5090-powered Genesis when it launched, or $6,500 after taxes. Today, a similar build has a list price of $8,396. Markup is $1,700 to $2,500 over DIY. This computer costs as much as an RTX Pro 6000, or a used car, or a brand new Kia Rio with a lifetime warranty in 2008 with passenger doors that fall off…
The point is, this is expensive, and it also sucks.
Editor's note: This was originally published on May 16, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.
Credits
Test Lead, Host, Writing
Steve Burke
Video Editing, Camera
Mike Gaglione
Testing, Writing
Jeremy Clayton
Camera
Tim Phetdara
Writing, Web Editing
Jimmy Thang
The RTX 5090 is the most valuable thing in this for its 32GB of VRAM, and to show you how much they care about the only reason you’d buy this prebuilt, Origin incinerates the memory at 100 degrees Celsius by choosing to not spin the fans for 8 minutes while under load.
The so-called “premium” water cooling includes tubes made out of discolored McDonald’s toy plastic that was left in the sun too long, making it look old, degraded, and dirty.
But there are some upsides for this expensive computer. For example, it’s quiet, to its credit, mostly because the fans don’t spin…for 8 minutes.
Overview
Originally, this Origin Genesis pre-built cost $6,488 – and that’s after taxes and a $672 discount off the initial sticker price of $6,722. We ordered it immediately after the RTX 5090 launch, which turned out to be one of the only reliable ways to actually get a 5090 with supply as bad as it was (and continues to be). It took a while to come in, but it did arrive in the usual Origin crate.
We reviewed one of these a couple years ago that was a total disaster of a combo.
The system had a severely underclocked CPU, ridiculously aggressive fan behavior (which is the opposite of the system we’re reviewing today), chipped paint, and a nearly unserviceable hardline custom liquid cooling loop. Hopefully this one has improved. And hopefully isn’t 1GHz below spec.
Parts and Price
Origin PC RTX 5090 + 9800X3D "Genesis" Part Prices | GamersNexus
| Part Name | Retail Price 4/25 |
|---|
| Motherboard | MSI PRO B650-P WIFI | $190 |
|---|
| CPU | Ryzen 7 9800X3D | $480 |
|---|
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Edition | $2,000 |
|---|
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 (2x16GB) | $93 |
|---|
| SSD 1 | Corsair MP600 CORE XT 1TB PCIe 4 M.2 SSD | $70 |
|---|
| Custom Loop | "Hydro X iCUE LINK Cooling" / Pump, Rad, Block, Fittings | $712 |
|---|
| Fans | 12x Corsair iCUE LINK RX120 120mm Fan | $360 |
|---|
| Case | Corsair 7000D Airflow | $240 |
|---|
| PSU | Corsair RM1200x SHIFT 80+ Gold PSU | $230 |
|---|
| RGB/Fan Controller | 2x Corsair iCUE Link System Hub | $118 |
|---|
| Operating System | Windows 11 | N/A |
|---|
| T-Shirt | ORIGIN PC T-Shirt | N/A |
|---|
| Mousepad | ORIGIN PC Mouse Pad | N/A |
|---|
| Shipping | "ORIGIN Maximum Protection Shipping Process: ORIGIN Wooden Crate Armor" | N/A |
|---|
| ??? | "The ORIGIN Difference: Unrivaled Quality & Performance" | Priceless |
|---|
| Total retail cost of all parts as of April 2025 | $4,493 |
|---|
We’ll price it out based on the original, pre-tariff $6,050 build before taxes and with a 10% off promo. Keep in mind that the new price is $7,500 to $8,400, depending on when you buy.
The good news is that nothing is proprietary – all of its parts are standard. The bad news is that this means we can directly compare it to retail parts which, at the time we wrote this piece, would cost $4,493, making for a $1,557 markup compared to the pre-tax subtotal. That’s a huge amount to pay for someone to screw the parts together.
Given the price of the system, the MSI PRO B650-P WIFI motherboard and 1TB SSD are stingy and the 7000D Airflow case is old at this point. The parts don’t match the price.
Just two months after we ordered and around when it finally arrived, Origin now offers a totally different case and board with the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite. The base SSD is still just 1TB though – only good enough for roughly two or three full Call of Duty installs.
The detailed packing sheet lists 22 various water cooling fittings, but, curiously, the build itself only has 15, plus one more in the accessory kit, making it 16 by our count. We don’t know how Origin got 22 here, but it isn’t 22. Hopefully we weren’t charged for 22.
Oh, and it apparently comes with “1 Integrated High-Definition.” Good. That’s good. We wouldn’t want 0 integrated high definitions.
Similar to last time, you also get “The ORIGIN Difference: Unrivaled Quality & Performance” as a line item. Putting intangible, unachievable promises on the literal receipt is the Origin way: Origin’s quality is certainly rivaled.
Against DIY, pricing is extreme and insane as an absolute dollar amount when the other SIs are around $500-$800 markup at the high end. In order for this system to be “worth” $1,500 more than DIY, it would need to be immaculate and it’s not. The only real value the PC offers is the 5090. Finding a 5090 Founders Edition now for $2,000 is an increasingly unlikely scenario. Lately, price increases with scarcity and tariffs have resulted in 5090s closer to $2,800 or more, so the markup with that instead would be $777 if we assume a 5090 costs $2,800. That’s still a big markup, and the motherboard is still disappointing, the tubes are still discolored, the SSD is too small, and it still has problems with the fans not properly spinning, but it’s less insane.
Build Quality
Getting into the parts choices:
This new Genesis has a loop that’s technically set up better than the last one, but it only cools the CPU. That means we have a $6,500 computer with water cooling, but only on the coolest of the two silicon parts -- the one that pulls under 150W. That leaves the 575W RTX 5090 FE to fend for itself, and that doesn’t always go well.
Originally, Origin didn’t have the option to water cool the 5090. It’s just a shame that Origin isn’t owned by a gigantic PC hardware company that manufactures its own water cooling components and even has its own factories and is publicly traded and transacts billions of dollars a year to the point that it might have had enough access to make a block...
A damn shame. Maybe we’ll buy from a bigger company next time.
At least now, with the new sticker price of $8,400, you can spend another $200 and add a water block to the GPU. Problem solved -- turns out, we just needed to spend even more money.
Here’s a closer look at Origin’s “premium” cooling solution, complete with saggy routing that looks deflated and discolored tubing that has that well-hydrated catheter tube coloring to it.
The fluid is clean and the contents of the block are fine, but the tubing is the problem. In fact, the included drain tube is the correct coloring, making it even more obvious how discolored the loop is.
Corsair says its XT Softline tubing is “UV-resistant tubing made to withstand the test of time without any discoloration or deforming.”
So clearly something is wrong. Or not “clearly,” actually, seeing as it’s not clear. The tubing looks gross. It shouldn’t look gross. The spare piece in the accessory kit doesn’t look gross. The coolant is even Corsair’s own XL8 clear fluid, making it even more inexcusable.
We’re not the only ones to have this problem, though – we found several posts online with the same issue and very little in the way of an official response from Corsair or Origin. We only saw one reply asking the user to contact support.
Even without the discoloration, it comes off as looking amateurish from the way it just hangs around the inside of the case. There’s not a lot you can do about long runs of flexible tubing, unless maybe you’re the one building it and have complete control of everything in the pipeline...
There is one thing we can compliment about the loop: Origin actually added a ball valve at the bottom underneath the pump for draining and maintenance, which is something that we directly complained about on the previous Origin pre-built. We’re glad to see that get addressed.
The fans in the build are part of Corsair’s relatively new LINK family, so they’re all daisy chained together with a single USB-C-esque cable and controlled together in tandem by two of Corsair’s hubs. It’s an interesting (if expensive) system that extends to include the pump and CPU block – both of which have liquid temperature sensors.
Tear-down
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We’re starting the tear-down by looking at the cable management side.
Opening up the swinging side panel, we noticed masking tape on the dust filter, which we’re actually okay with as it’s to keep it in place during shipping and is removable.
Internally, they’ve included all of the unused PSU cables in the system’s accessories box, which we’ll talk more about down below.
The cable routing makes sense and is generally well managed. While they tied the cables together, not all of the ties were tied down to the chassis. The system uses the cable management channel for the 24-pin connector. Overall, it’s clean and they’ve done well here.
Looking at the other side of the system, we can see that the power cable leading into the 5090 is mostly seated, and isn’t a concern to us.
Removing the water block’s cable, it had a little piece of plastic which acted as a pull tab. That’s actually kind of nice.
Removing the screws on the water block reveal that they are captive, which is nice. Looking at the pattern, we can see that they used pre-applied paste via a silk screen. That allowed contact for all 8 legs of the IHS, which looked good with overall even pressure. The block application was also good.
Looking at how well all of the cables were seated, everything was fine from the CPU fan header down to the front panel connectors.
Removing the heat sync off the NVMe SSD, we didn’t see any plastic on the thermal pad, which is good.
Look at the 16GB DDR 6000 RAM modules, they are in the correct slots and Origin outfitted them with Corsair 36-44-44-96 sticks, which are not the greatest timings.
Examining the tightness of all the screws on the motherboard, we didn’t encounter any loose screws.
Removing the motherboard from the case, everything looked fine.
Looking at the motherboard out of the case, it’s a lower-end board than we’d like to see out of a premium system.
Looking at the fans, they are immaculately installed, which is partially due to how they’re connected together. This results in a very clean setup.
The back side of the PC has a massive radiator. And overall, the system has very clean cable management and the assembly was mostly good. This relegates the system’s biggest issues being the value and its water-cooling setup. We didn’t drain the loop so we’re going to keep running it and see what it looks like down the road.
Thermal Benchmarks
System Thermals at Steady State
Getting into the benchmarking, we’ll start with thermals.
Right away, the 96-degree result on the memory junction is a problem -- especially because this is an average, which means we have spikes periodically to 100 degrees. The technical rating on this memory is 105 degrees for maximum safety spec. This is getting way too close and is hotter than what we saw in our 5090 FE review. This is also when all of the thermal pads are brand new.
The Origin pre-built uses a large case with 12 fans, so it should be impossible for the GPU to be this hot.
The Ryzen 9800X3D hit 87C at steady-state – which is also not great for how much cooling is in this box. All of the various motherboard and general system temperature sensors fell well within acceptable ranges.
Finally, the watercooling parts provide a couple of liquid temperatures. The pump is on the “cool” side of the loop and read 36.7C at steady state, while the coolant in the block on the “hot” side of the loop got up to 41.3C. You typically want liquid temperature to stay under 55C (at the most) to not violate spec on the pump and tubing, so this is fine.
We need to plot these over time to uncover some very strange behavior.
CPU Temperature vs. Fan Speeds Over Time
CPU temperature during the test starts out on a slow ramp upwards during the idle period. When the CPU load first starts, we see an immediate jump to about 72C, a brief drop, then a long and steady rise from roughly 250 seconds to 750 seconds into the test where it levels off at the 87C mark. The VRM temperature follows the same general curve, but takes longer to reach steady-state. Adding the liquid temperatures to the chart shows the same breakpoints.
Finally, adding pump and fan speeds gives us the big reveal for why the curves look like this. The pump stair steps up in speed while the temperatures rise, but the fans don’t even turn on for over 8 minutes into the load’s runtime. Once they’re actually running, they average out to just 530RPM, which is so slow that they might as well be off.
This is an awful configuration. Response to liquid temperature isn’t new, but this is done without any thought whatsoever. If you tie all fans to liquid temperature, and if you have parts not cooled by liquid like VRAM on the video card, then you’re going to have a bad time. And that’s the next chart. But before that one, this is an overcorrection from how Origin handled the last custom loop PC we reviewed from the company, which immediately ramped the fans up high as it could as soon as the CPU started doing anything. Maybe now they can find a middle ground since we’ve found the two extremes of thoughtless cooling.
GPU Temperature vs. Fan Speeds Over Time
This chart shows GPU temperatures versus GPU fan speed.
The GPU temperature under load rises to around 83C before coming back down when the case fans finally kick on. As a reminder, 83-84 degrees is when NVIDIA starts hard throttling the clocks more than just from GPU Boost, so they’re dropping clocks as a result of this configuration.
The 5090’s VRAM already runs hot on an open bench – 89 to 90 degrees Celsius – and that gets pushed up to peak at 100C in the Origin pre-built. This is unacceptable. Adding the GPU fan speed to the chart shows us how the Founders Edition cooler attempts to compensate by temporarily boosting fan speed to 56% during this time, which also means that Origin isn’t even benefiting as much from the noise levels as it should from the slower fans. Balancing them better would benefit noise more.
As neat of a party trick as it is to have the case fans stay off unless they’re needed in the loop, Origin should have kept at least one or two running at all times, like rear exhaust, to give the GPU some help. Besides, letting the hot air linger could potentially encourage local hot spots to form on subcomponents that aren’t directly monitored, which can lead to problems.
Power At The Wall
Now we’ll look at full system load power consumption by logging it at the wall – so everything, even efficiency losses from the PSU, is taken into account.
Idle, it pulled a relatively high 125W. At the 180 second mark, the CPU load kicks in. There’s a jump at 235 seconds when the GPU load kicks in.
We see a slight ramp upwards in power consumption after that, which tracks with increasing leakage as the parts heat up, before settling in at an average of 884W at steady state.
Acoustics
Next we’ll cover dBA over time as measured in our hemi-anechoic chamber.
At idle, the fans are off, which makes for a functionally silent system at the noise floor. The first fans to come on in the system are on the GPU, bringing noise levels up to a still-quiet range of 25-28dBA at 1 meter. The loudest point is 30.5 dBA when the GPU fans briefly ramp and before system fans kick in.
CPU Frequency vs. Original Review
For CPU frequency, fortunately for Origin, it didn’t randomly throttle it by 1GHz this time. The 9800X3D managed to stay at 5225MHz during the CPU-only load portion of torture test – the same frequency that we recorded in our original review for the CPU so that’ good. At steady state with the GPU dumping over 500W of heat into the case, the average core frequency dropped by 50MHz. If Origin made better use of its dozen or so fans, it should hold onto more of that frequency.
BIOS Configuration
BIOS for the Origin pre-built is set up sensibly, at least. The build date is January 23, which was the latest available in the time between when we ordered the system at the 50 series launch and when the system was actually assembled.
Scrutinizing the chosen settings revealed nothing out of line. The DDR5-6000 memory profile was enabled and the rest of the core settings were properly set to Auto. This was all fine.
Setup and Software
The Windows install was normal with no bloatware. That’s also good.
The desktop had a few things on it. A “Link Windows 10 Key to Microsoft Account” PDF is helpful for people who don’t know what to do if their system shows the Activate Windows watermark. Confusingly, it hasn’t been updated to say “11” instead of “10.” It also shepherds the user towards using a Microsoft account. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but we don’t like how it makes it seem necessary because it’s not and you shouldn’t.
There’s also an “Origin PC ReadMe” PDF that doesn’t offer much except coverage for Origin’s ass with disclaimers and points of contact for support. One useful thing is that it points the user to “C:\\ORIGIN PC” to find “important items.”
That folder has Origin branded gifs, logos, and wallpapers, as well as CPU-Z, Teamviewer, and a Results folder. Teamviewer is almost certainly for Origin’s support teams to be able to remotely inspect the PC during support calls. It makes sense to have that stuff on there.
The results folder contains an OCCT test report that shows a total of 1 hour and 52 minutes of testing. A CPU test for 12 minutes, CPU + RAM, memory, and 3D adaptive tests for 30 minutes each, then finishing with 10 minutes of OCCT’s “power” test, which is a combined full system load. It’s great that Origin actually does testing and provides this log as a baseline for future issues, and just for base expectations. This is good and gives you something to work from. Not having OCCT pre-installed to actually run again for comparison is a support oversight. It’s free for personal use at least, so the user could go download it easily.
There weren’t any missing drivers in Device Manager and NVIDIA’s 572.47 driver from February 20 was the latest at the time of the build – both good things.
There wasn’t any bundled bloatware installed, so points to Origin for that.
iCUE itself isn’t as bad as it used to be, but it’s still clunky, like the preloaded fan profiles not showing their set points.
Packaging
On to packaging.
The Origin Genesis pre-built came in a massive wooden crate that was big enough for two people to move around. Considering this PC was $6,500 after taxes (at the time), we’re definitely OK with the wooden crate and its QR code opening instructions.
Origin uses foam, a fabric cover, a cardboard box within a crate, and the crate for the PC. The case had two packs of expanding foam inside it, allowing the GPU to arrive undamaged and installed. The sticker on the side panel also had clear instructions. These are good things.
Unfortunately, there’s a small chip in the paint on top of the case, but not as bad as the last Origin paint issues we had and we think it’s unrelated to the packaging itself.
Accessories
The accessory kit is basic, and came inside of a box with the overused cringey adage “EAT SLEEP GAME REPEAT” printed on it. Inside are the spare PSU cables (that we’re happy to see included), an AC power cable, stock 5090 FE power adapter, standard motherboard and case accessories, a G1/4 plug tool and extra plugs, and a piece of soft tubing with a fitting on one end that can be used to help drain the cooling loop. All of this is good.
Conclusion
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During this review process, the price went even higher. You already shouldn’t buy this, but just to drive it home:
Now, for the same configuration, the Genesis now costs $7,557 after the discount, off the new sticker price of $8,396. That’s an increase of over $1,000, making the premium over current DIY pricing roughly $1,700-$2,500.
Now, there are good reasons for the price to go up. Tariffs have a real impact on pricing and we’re going to see it everywhere, and tariffs are also outside of Corsair’s control. We don’t fault them for that. But that doesn’t change the fact that the cost over DIY is so insanely elevated. Even Corsair’s own competitors offer better value than this, like Maingear.
At $8,400 sticker price, you’d have to be drunk on whatever is discoloring Origin’s loop to buy it. Nobody should buy this, especially not for gaming. If you’re doing productivity or creative work that would seriously benefit from the 5090’s 32GB of VRAM, then look elsewhere for a better deal. This costs nearly as much as an RTX Pro 6000, which has 96GB of VRAM and is better.
It would actually be cheaper to get scalped for a 5090 on Ebay and then buy the whole rest of the computer than to buy this Origin system. That’s how crazy this is.
The upcharge, even assuming a 5090 price of $2,800, is just way too high versus other system integrators. Seriously, Alienware is cheaper at this point – by thousands of dollars. Alienware.
We can’t recommend this PC. Ignoring the price, the memory on the video card is hitting 100 degrees C in workloads when the fans aren’t turning on because the fans are set to turn on based on the liquid temperature and the liquid doesn’t touch the GPU. For that reason alone, it gets a failing grade. For our thermal testing, pre-builts have to pass the torture test. If they don’t, they instantly fail. That’s how it always works for our pre-built reviews. This system has, unfortunately, instantly failed.
Connexion
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