Origin PC Neuron 4000X Review: A Powerful, Clean 12th Gen Gaming PC
by
Keith May
—
Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 01:20 PM EDT
Origin PC NEURON 4000X: Powerful 12th-Gen Infused PC Gaming
Origin PC has been building top-flight gaming rigs for over a decade now, and the attention to detail that the company demonstrates in its builds is right up there with the best of them. There was a time when Origin PC featured custom chassis designs, like the Genesis series of years past, which only Origin had in its line-up. Since being acquired by Corsair, however, there has been a shift in design philosophy that has played out well and has been beneficial to both Origin PC and its customers. This integration with Corsair has enabled Origin to create a tight-knit ecosystem within its gaming PC line-up, and that is very much exemplified in the Origin PC NEURON 4000X system we'll be showing you here.
The Origin PC NEURON Series is available in a variety of Corsair 4000 Series cases, with either solid, mesh or tempered glass front and side panels. We initially had some concerns with airflow with the solid tempered glass front panel option we were sent for review, but Origin PC has this NEURON 4000X loaded up with fans in every available spot, so it should be able to move plenty of air. The starting price point of the NEURON Series is a palatable $2,299, with an Intel Core i9-11700K and a GeForce RTX 3060 on board. However, the model we tested is loaded up with an Alder Lake-based Intel 12th-gen Core i9-12900K and a bodacious ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080Ti. That CPU and GPU combo, along with numerous other upgrades, swells this system's price tag to a heftier $4,797.
Does the performance and user experience with this fully-loaded Origin PC NEURON 4000X justify the asking price? Well, that's what we're going to find out...
Origin PC NEURON 4000X Specs and Features
At the core of the Origin PC NEURON 4000X we'll be showing you here, is the Intel 12th-gen Core i9-12900K, residing in the LGA 1700 socket of the MSI MPG Z690 Force WiFi DDR5 motherboard. The Core i9-12900K is one of the fastest gaming processors available and packs 8 high-performance cores with HyperThreading along with 8 lower-powered efficiency cores to handle lighter workloads, making for a total of 16 cores and 24 threads of processing power. If you'd prefer to go a different route and scale things down somewhat, Origin PC also offers other Alder Lake CPUs as well as 11th-gen Rocket Lake CPUs. If you prefer AMD Ryzen processors, Origin PC has you covered there as well with plenty of configs available. When it comes to cooling the NEURON, Origin has several options available, from a single 120mm AIO, to a 360mm AIO, while our review system came with the Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix LCD, which offers some fun customization capabilities.
Corsair H100i showcases the Origin PC logo nicely
A new feature of the Intel 12th-gen Core Series is support for DDR5 memory, and Origin PC brings the fire here. The NEURON 4000X we have was equipped with 32GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB modules in a 2x16GB configuration operating at 5200MHz. While the NEURON can be toned down with non-RGB Vengeance modules, even those kits have a nice heat spreader on them, so no naked RAM here. Storage on our NEURON 4000X is handled by two different drives. Primary storage makes use of a speedy Corsair 1TB MP600 CORE Gen4 drive that is home to the Windows 11 operating system. The secondary drive is a bit more tame, 2TB Samsung 870 QVO Series drive. There are options for spinning disks as well, if you need high-capacity bulk storage.
While the NEURON can be equipped with a variety of GPUs, including the mainstream GeForce RTX 3060, ours came packed in with the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. This particular model comes loaded with a beefy cooler with a triple fan design, plenty of RGB lighting, and dual 8-pin PCIe power connections. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is overall a bit faster than the RTX 3080 and often competes with the RTX 3090, just with 12GB of RAM instead of the RTX 3090's 24GB. If an AMD Radeon is preferred, Origin has you covered as well -- Radeon RX 6000 Series cards are available as an option, ranging from the Radeon RX 6700 XT to the RX 6900 XT.
ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has plenty of breathing room
Network connectivity is handled by the MSI MPG Z690 Force's integrated intel Wi-Fi 6E and multi-gigabit 2.5G wired Ethernet. It is great to see ancient gigabit connections banished from motherboards in favor of multi-gig ethernet and wireless connectivity was fast, stable, and often indiscernible from a wired connection.
Cases can be contentious topic for some PC gamers. Often, system integrators like Alienware or HP Omen will use a proprietary case designed to their specific needs, which may or may not offer headroom for future upgrades. In the case of the Origin PC Neuron 4000X, the decision to use the Corsair 4000 Series was a good one. The Corsair 4000 Series gives users the ability to choose between three different panel options (including tempered glass, like our review sample) and the Corsair 4000 Series is a reasonable-sized mid-tower that's not overly bulky, but still offers room to grow. Fan mounting options are abundant and having the ability to mount up 6x 120mm fans or 4x 140mm fans with up to a 360mm AIO in the front or a 280mm AIO in the roof delivers great flexibility for now and in the future. Cable management with this case is excellent thanks to a lower PSU compartment and ample room behind the motherboard tray. Don't let that detract from the fact that Origin PC is masterful with cable management -- this was an expertly crafted build.
While the rear I/O is heavily dependent on the motherboard and graphics card combination being used, we should point out our configuration nonetheless. The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti gave us three Display Ports and a pair of HDMI outputs, more than enough options for almost any situation. The motherboard I/O was plentiful as well. The system had four USB 2.0 ports, five USB 3.2 ports (Type-A), and a single Gen 2x3 Type-C. There is a single RJ-45 port and a pair of WiFi antenna mounts along with Realtek ALC4080 5.1 audio outputs with SPDIF. While there is an HDMI output and Display Port in the motherboard's I/O array, those are strictly for the processor's integrated graphics. Front I/O is fairly limited with the case having a combo mic/headphone jack, single USB 3.2 Type-C, and a single USB 3.2 Type-A port.
One of the many things that Origin PC is known for has to be their iconic shipping crates. The Origin PC Neuron 4000X came shipped in a massive wooden crate, and for what it's worth, having to remove the top panel to get into it was pretty awesome. Inside the crate, the system is cradled with firm yet flexible soft-cell foam that kept the system as safe as can be. A separate care package is stored on top of the crate that holds all of the extra cables and manuals. The system was also wrapped in a stretch fit sleeve to keep it dust and scratch-free. But the real nice touch is inside the case, where there is an expanding foam insert that secures the graphics card and cooler all in place, so it's a worry-free shipping experience.
Origin PC Software Experience
As is the case with most boutique systems, Origin PC keeps the pre-installed bloatware to an absolute minimum. The Neuron came with Windows 11 out of the box and, other than the OS itself, there's not much to report on over and above Corsair's iCUE and MSI Center. Both of these applications are fairly easy to navigate and don't nag users with incessant pop-ups. MSI Center helps manage driver and firmware updates, and offers a plethora of hardware health info, while Corsair iCUE delivers full control of the RGB lighting and fans throughout the Origin PC NEURON 4000X, along with additional hardware info.
With that tour of the Origin PC NEURON 4000X out of the way, it's time to move along and see just how well the system performs in our suite of games and application benchmarks...
