Origin Millennium review

New year, new look. That’s a very literal statement from Origin PC as it gave its custom chassis a tempered glass and aluminum makeover at the dawn of 2018. The boutique PC builder was one of the first custom computer companies to introduce their own PC cases in 2014. Since then, new fads and the RGB craze outpaced Origin’s original design, so as welcome as a fresh new look is, it feels a little overdue.

Beyond mere looks, the Origin Millennium remains one of the most customizable PCs in the world. The company can set up this computer with any motherboard orientation and components of your choosing. Just keep in mind that it’ll likely cost a pretty penny.

Pricing and availability

The configuration you see to the right cost a grand total of $4,311 (about £3,050, AU$5,440). That’s a whopper of a price tag and we can build a PC for decently less with parts readily available at retailers – that is if you can find graphics cards selling near their intended list prices.

Of course, when buying an Origin PC, you’re not just paying for the PC components; there’s also the service, full customizability, professional wiring, fine-tuned overclocking, one year of free part replacement, as well as a lifetime of support and labor from Origin included in the price here.

Compared to other boutique PC builders like Digital Storm and Maingear, you’re also going to find similar going prices for this configuration.

Design

The new Millennium is much more streamlined than in years past. Origin had done away with sculpted plastic side panels with small acrylic windows and replaced them with full sheets of smoked tempered glass (an optional upgrade from the stock solid aluminum side panels).

There’s been more and more use of tempered glass in all modern PC cases, so Origin is a little late to the game here. But, at the same time, we’re glad the boutique PC maker took its time to develop a rear door design that opens with well-hidden hinges and magnetic latches. It’s a much more elegant mounting system compared to the majority of PC cases that just use four thumbscrews.

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The new Origin Millennium feels more solid as a whole, thanks to a majority of its chassis now being made out of aluminum. It’s a welcome improvement over the flimsy plastic shell used for the previous edition.

We’ve found plenty of other small improvements to the design of the Origin Millennium all over. The power supply now has a shroud to help you further cover up any wires. Likewise, the recessed ports on top of the case are even better hidden now under a sliding cover.

Last time, we applauded the original Origin Millennium just for having a swing-out door that concealed all the 5.25-inch bays and a hot swappable hard drive cage, but this new chassis has an even cleaner look now.

Although the new Origin Millennium looks sleeker than previous editions, it’s actually physically larger. Measuring in at 9.75 x 24.8 x 25.3 inches (24.8 x 62.9 x 64.3 cm; W x D x H), this is a system that’s going to take up considerable table space or a small section of your floor.

Performance

With an Intel Core i7-8700K processor and two Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards for a combined 22GB of video memory – twenty-two gigabytes! – how could this PC not perform well? 

The Origin Millennium absolutely obliterated all our benchmarks with scores much higher than anything we’ve tested before – all without overclocking any components.

Admittedly, we haven’t reviewed many systems with two graphics cards in SLI or CrossFire – so the closest PC we can compared it with is the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper Edition. But, even with a 16-core processor, a single Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti can’t compete with two running in SLI. 

The Origin Millennium runs away with a 7,000 point higher TimeSpy score among other feats.

Gaming benchmarks show the Millennium can also easily play games at frame rates leaning towards the 100 frames per second (fps) mark at a 1080p resolution and Ultra-quality settings. After plugging the gaming desktop into the 3,440 x 1,440 resolution Alienware 34 Curved Gaming Monitor, we were also able to enjoy Doom and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at blistering 160-170 fps and 100-130 fps, respectively.

Final verdict

The Origin Millennium is a gaming desktop that will floor you in both performance and price. When dressed to the nines as our configuration has been, this rig can absolutely steamroll through any task or games you throw at it.

That said, we wouldn’t lightly part ways with $4,311 (about £3,053, AU$5,437). Instead, we would much rather just build the PC on our own for 500 to 800 bucks less – even considering the component pricing climate at the time of writing – and have money left over for a gaming monitor.

The new Origin Millennium is a big step up in looks and build quality, but it’s still a gaming desktop meant for those who just want a rig built by experts. In this regard, Origin delivers completely with a PC that can be built to order with all the components you wish in a clean case that’s also easy to upgrade.