Corsair is wading into boutique territory with its latest gaming PC, which pairs a potent selection of hardware with what appears to be a premium build quality. The catch, of course, is the price.
The new Vengeance 5180 commands $2,399.99, so there's no mistaking this for a budget box. It sits on the opposite end of the spectrum, though it's not in crazy-town territory like some PCs we've seen that cost twice as much.
Corsair's claim is that the Vengeance 5180 is a "small and mighty" desktop, and it backs that up with the following hardware:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
- CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H100i PRO
- Motherboard: Intel B360 Chipset
- DRAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-2666
- Storage #1: 480GB Corsair Force MP300
- Storage #2: 2TB 7200RPM 3.5-inch HDD
- PSU: Corsair CX750
- Chassis: Corsair Crystal 280X RGB
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
- Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB
- Mouse: Corsair Harpoon RGB
- Cooling Fans: 2x Corsair LL120 RGB 120mm & 2x Corsair LL140 RGB 140mm
- Lighting: 1x Corsair RGB Lighting Strip
- iCUE Control: Corsair Lighting Node PRO Digital RGB Lighting Controller
It's a shame that Corsair opted for a motherboard based on Intel's B360 chipset, but otherwise this is a burly build, at least on paper. In practice? We're in the process of reviewing this desktop, and will have more to share soon.
Corsair is uniquely positioned to build a gaming desktop around many of its own parts, from core components like RAM and storage, to cooling and peripherals. Looking strictly at the hardware, Corsair accounts for nine of the 13 categories, or seven out of 11 if you don't want to count cooling fans and lighting.
The highlight of the build is the GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card. It's also the most expensive part. This is the middle card in Nvidia's recently introduced RTX series with dedicated raytracing hardware.
Is it worth the asking price? I rounded up the same set of components on Newegg where I could, and took a guess on non-specific parts (like the motherboard and 2TB HDD). Including Windows 10, the tally came to around $2,020, which jumped to around $2,213 after tax.
As always, you could save a few bucks by shopping around for sales and rebates, and of course by deviating from the part selection. Speaking strictly to the part selection though, Corsair's pricing isn't bad.
The Vengeance 5180 is available immediately direct from Corsair. While not mentioned in the press release, the product page says it also comes with a free HS70 wireless headset, which is about an $80-$100 value (depending on the color).
