Corsair snaps up box builder Origin PC

Corsair has announced it is expanding its box-building efforts with the acquisition of Origin PCs, whose products will be sold alongside Corsair's own-brand gaming PC offerings.

Founded by former Alienware executives Kevin Wasielewski, Richard Cary, and Hector Penton in 2009, three years after their former employer had been acquired by Dell, Florida-based Origin PC sells a range of custom-built gaming desktops and Clevo-manufactured white-box gaming laptops into the US market. More recently, the company branched out into high-performance workstation desktops and laptops aimed at the professional market along with its 'Gearshop' which sells products ranging from liquid cooling fluid and video capture cards to webcams and bags, along with wooden shipping crates for its main product range.

Corsair, meanwhile, made the shift from parts-manufacturer to box-builder just two years ago with the Corsair One family, since upgraded to include options up to an Intel Core i9-9920X 12-core 24-thread (12C24T) CPU, 32GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory, a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards, and a combination of 960GB M.2 SSD and 2TB hard drive.

The company is now expanding its efforts, but taking the easier route for a cash-rich company which has traditionally ignored the pre-built system market: Corsair is acquiring Origin PC outright, to operate as a subsidiary company.

'With the gaming PC market continuing to expand as an increasing number of players make the jump from console to PC, we wanted to do more to reach customers in North America that prefer to buy, rather than build, their system,' claims Andy Paul, founder and chief executive of Corsair. 'With Origin PC's expertise in personalized custom gaming systems and Corsair's strength in performance PC hardware and the iCUE software ecosystem, we're excited to combine our efforts to create new world-class gaming experiences for PC gamers.'

'Corsair is a fantastic partner to help take Origin PC forward, known for creating quality, high-performance products that fully align with Origin PC,' adds Kevin Wasielewski, Origin PC co-founder and chief executive. 'With a complete range of enthusiast PC products, Origin PC and Corsair are uniquely placed to create amazing new systems that make the experience of owning a personalised custom gaming PC better than ever.'

The shift will see Corsair One and AMD-based Vengeance PCs sold alongside Origin's systems, though an integration plan will see Corsair products and technologies - in particular the company's iCue lighting and control software ecosystem and Hydro X liquid-cooling products - find their way into future Origin PC builds.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.