The Origin PC Neuron 3500X exudes the aesthetic of a costly gaming machine. With remarkable foresight, the creators deliver their Origin PCs encased in large wooden boxes, compelling you to pry them open personally. Nestled within that crate is another box, reminiscent of a vaudeville performance. Within this second box, there’s yet another, adorned with foam padding and protective corners. If you’re anything like me, you’ll eagerly rush to position your PC on your workspace with the excitement of a child on a holiday. However, it’s advisable not to mimic my haste because if misopened, you might find a panel inadvertently crashing to the floor.

This PC looks far sturdier than it actually is when encountered firsthand. Still, it maintains its cold and sleek persona. Air enters from below and exits through the rear and top. It’s an efficient, trusted setup that ensures cool, quiet operation. The RGB lights radiate a glow that brings a subtle thrill to my gaming spirit.

The aquarium-style case design has become popular for logical reasons. Now, your costly gaming treasures are visible from extra angles. However, I’ve encountered issues with the Corsair 3500X mid-tower case’s craftsmanship. Despite its attractive appearance, you should avoid placing anything weighty on top to preserve your case’s form and prevent it from appearing like a collapsible toaster oven.

The Origin Neuron 3500X setup like mine would have a retail price of about $3,387, but Origin lowered it to $2,888 at the review’s timestamp. It includes complimentary shipping at this rate, though dismantling the crate for kindling will be necessary. While the price is justified for what is offered, I can’t help feeling that your desktop towers should offer more overall. If aesthetics ruled all, this PC in its aquarium-style enclosure would appear spotless. Yet, certain aspects tarnish an otherwise strong assembly.

Origin PC Neuron 3500X Review: Quality of Construction

The trio of Corsair-brand intake fans is particularly delightful and visually captivating, and the pre-installed iCUE software simplifies altering the fan hues and patterns all at once. The Vengeance RGB DDR5 memory modules and the Capellix XT cooling component align with the style. No matter how you look at it, it consistently impresses.

Yet, other concerns exist with the Corsair 3500 mid-sized enclosure. The Y-patterned grating, while clean, causes the top panel to sag inwards slightly. Placing books or trinkets on the primary heating vent of the PC is ill-advised. Its minor dip lessens its visual charm. On top of the case, there is a singular USB-C port, two USB type-A jacks, and a 3.6mm headphone connector. Additional USB-C ports are available on the MSI Z890-P rear I/O if you need to attach further dongles or lines.

All the panels use ball and socket joints for pressure-fitting. They managed to stay secure during the short move from the box to my workspace, but the moment I opened the main panel to remove the intrusive packing phone, I unintentionally pushed the front panel, nearly sending it crashing to the floor. Both the main and backside panels are located behind the front glass. Removing the front panel before taking off the sides is advisable, despite the absence of a convenient cutout in the frame. If considering this chassis, extra caution may be needed during routine maintenance within your fishbowl setup.

Dissimilar to certain other pre-assembled desktops available, such as the Alienware Aurora R16, there isn’t a specific bracket for the GPU. Instead, it simply uses the rear bracket and the PCIe Express slot for support. This turns problematic predominantly when moving the PC, since the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super is a hefty and dominating card. It tends to wiggle if some force is applied to the part that hangs over the motherboard.

The PC’s quietness is its saving grace. The serene hum of the fans during idle times provides a relaxing white noise, and even when under pressure, the tower doesn’t become annoyingly loud. The interior of the PC offers ample space, allowing usage of two additional RAM slots and a PCIe Gen 5 slot if opting for the larger Nvidia cards. Opening the rear part reveals a tidy arrangement of cables until you encounter the tangled array entering the PSU.

However, if purchasing this PC is about possessing a visually appealing unit with a soothing RGB glow, the Origin 3500X fulfills this function excellently. Origin’s engineers succeeded in assembling it adequately, but in my opinion, there are excessive design elements in the Corsair case affecting its overall score negatively.

Examination of the Origin PC Neuron 3500X: Efficiency

The configuration the corporation delivered my way had 32GB of DDR5, 6400 MT/s memory, the RTX 4080 Super, and the latest top-tier Intel Arrow Lake processor, specifically the Core Ultra 9 285K. At baseline, this CPU achieves 3.7 GHz clock velocities, but TurboBoost is claimed by creators to overclock that to reach up to 5.7 GHz.

Before encountering the Origin, I hadn’t delved fully into Intel’s newest desktop-class processor. The reasoning behind abandoning the older generation’s naming schemes for more “Ultra” iterations, like what is recent for its laptop CPUs, remains puzzling to me.

Regardless of reasoning, I also heard whisperings about the processor’s capacity compared to top-tier desktop processors of previous generations like the Intel Core i9-14900K. Through my own testing, the more recent Intel processor struggled to sustain parity with the 14900K—the Maingear MG-1 matched with the equivalent GPU but Intel’s 14th-generation gaming CPU. The Ultra 9 registered approximately 200 fewer points in Geekbench 6’s single-core and over 1,500 points fewer in multi-core evaluations. The Ultra 9 demonstrates improved results in Cinebench’s multi-core rendering tasks by about 65 points.

My processor benchmarking did nothing to counter claims made by chipset enthusiasts suggesting that Arrow Lake excels in productivity but underperforms in gaming. In 3D Mark evaluations, competing with an RTX 4080 Super, Maingear’s PC delivered superior results in 3D Mark Time Spy and Steel Nomad trials.

Excellent game performance can still be expected from this Origin PC. I evaluated the unit across various games at different resolutions. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 in non-benchmark scenarios at 3440 by 1440 ultrawide resolution, frame rates of approximately 50 FPS were reached at maximum settings, with ray tracing activated and DLSS disabled. Using Nvidia’s scaling, one can expect frame rates to rise up to about 90 FPS in intensely action-packed scenes. At 4K, Cyberpunk starts declining towards 30 FPS.

It’s unrealistic to demand more from a PC priced like this. Baldur’s Gate III delivered a seamlessly fluid experience, reaching 105 FPS outdoors in Act 1 and nearly 87 FPS within the urban scenes of Act III, while in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 about 90 FPS was seen during chaotic scenarios.

Players can push the limits on the most strenuous titles. On average, testing ran at 70 FPS with DLSS activated in Horizon Forbidden West and around 90 FPS in God of War: Ragnarök. The system benchmarks top titles effectively and provides an equally satisfactory play experience. The one downside is that it’s not as seamless as the 14th generation Intel gaming-centric processor would offer. The Neuron version offers options for up to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950x. To be certain—consider waiting for next year’s release of the anticipated AMD 9950x3d

Review of Origin Neuron 3500X: Conclusion

The Origin Neuron is a commendable PC that looks outstanding on your bedroom workstation, able to illuminate the entire room with RGB lighting. Ensure careful consideration of your processor selection if deciding on this PC. While it is beginner-friendly, it’s simply not a grab-and-play setup; a bit of planning is required. Despite its solid appearance, certain design limitations will necessitate some gentle handling.