Origin Millennium Gaming PC review
Last Updated on by Daniel Lawrence
Gaming PCs are available pre-built from a number of manufacturers, or you can build your own with the best components your budget can afford. One option in the middle is the Origin Millennium.
The company is known for its highly customized builds, allowing gamers to customize their own gaming computers without actually putting in the effort (or having the knowledge and skill to do so). Their market is certainly big. People don’t always know which motherboard goes with which CPU.
Origin Millennium gaming PCs are not only highly customizable, from the side panels to the orientation of the motherboard. It can also be expandable – for example, if you need more than eight SSDs in the mid-sized tower you bought or if you need more cooling. The machine is therefore extraordinarily flexible.
Origin designed the Origin Millennium so you won’t have to buy another gaming PC anytime soon. You won’t get bored with your existing chassis until you’ve grown bored with it.
Don’t be surprised if you spend a lot of money. You’re paying for customization and future-proofing even at the Origin Millennium’s base configuration.
SPEC SHEET
Here is the Origin Millennium configuration sent to us for review:
CPU: Intel Core i9-10900KF @ 3.70GHz (10-core, 20MB cache, up to 5.3GHz
TurboBoost)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
RAM: 32GB RAM 3200MHz
Storage: 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD, 3TB HDD
Ports (Front): USB 3.0 x2, USB-C, 3.5mm mic port, 3.5mm headphone port; (Back): USB-C, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB 3.1 Gen1 x4, USB 2.0 x2, DisplayPort, HDMI, 2.5G LAN, 5+ Optical Audio, S/PDIF
Connectivity: ASUS PCE AX3000 Internal Wireless Card
Weight: 30 lbs
Size: 9.17 x 20 x 19.76 inches (23.29 x 50.8 x 50.19 cm; W x D x H)
Origin Millennium Gaming PC: Design and features
One of the things that make the Origin Millennium PC unique is the amount of customization and options you get over competitors. While the crazy number of parts you can choose from is truly impressive, we’re not just talking about internals here. From the motherboard orientation to the side panel design, you can also decide how your Origin gaming PC will look.
The Origin Millennium gaming PC is available in three different cases: a full-tower (Millennium case) and two mid-tower models (Carbide Series 678C and Obsidian Series 500D). We reviewed the mid-sized tower, the 500D. Its size already signifies the PC’s ability to expand. If you don’t get the full tower, you still have a lot of room to expand.
Our review unit has the traditional mounting, but variable mountings – for different orientations of the motherboard and components – are also available when configuring your unit. Standard, 90 degrees (where the motherboard and components are vertically shifted), inverted, and 90-degree inverted are the four configurations available. Having components inverted only means that they’re accessible from the right side of the chassis because they’re facing the opposite direction.
The front door, as it is called by Origin, can also be configured to open either left to right or left to right to reveal front bays for optional or aftermarket optical drives. It’s not included in our review unit, but if you choose it, you’ll get four front bays with a hot-swap cage for hot-swappable hard drives.
Left and right glass side panels are held in place by magnets and can be opened for quick access to the interior. In addition to eliminating the need for a screwdriver or tab-pulling, these are so easy to open while still holding firmly in place. Nevertheless, be careful when you lift it, as you could easily open it by accident.
As with the Origin Millennium we reviewed, the side panels can be easily customized on this PC. Printed HD UV glass panels or laser etched tinted glass or aluminum side panels can be ordered. With HD UV glass panels, you can even use your own high-resolution image, but not with printed ones.
According to Origin, the chassis is made of “server-grade” steel, which makes it more durable. There is also a neat power supply shroud that keeps the look even tidier. It looks like a professional designed it, with Origin’s nice cable management ensuring that the interior remains clean and well-designed.
On the front, there are a decent number of ports. A sliding top panel can hide these ports depending on the case. Although the model we reviewed does not have this feature, the front ports – including two USB 3.0 ports, one USB-C port, a headphone jack, and a mic jack – are easily accessible and more than sufficient for our needs.
Depending on the motherboard you choose, you will find different ports on our unit, we have more than enough USB ports, as well as optical audio and S/PDIF inputs, so we could turn it into a home theatre home the only problem we have with the Origin Millennium is However, it does have USB-C, so it isn’t that it does not millennium in terms of ports is that it doesn’t have Thunderbolt. It does have USB-C, however, so it isn’t a big deal.
You can also add an expansion kit that converts the Millenium case into a Genesis case for additional storage or liquid cooling for the CPU and GPU. This lower bay expansion fits at the bottom of the case, making the tower even taller.
The Origin Millennium offers quite a bit of RGB, so it can be customized with quite a bit of light flourish. The RGB lighting is present on the motherboard, RAM, GPU, liquid cooler, and six fans of our review model, so it looks like Christmas in the dark. Two apps are available to us for customizing the RGB lighting – Corsair’s iCUE software and MSI’s Dragon Center (since our unit has an MSI motherboard).
If you’re familiar with the iCUE app, you know that it has a very extensive and versatile RGB customization feature. Due to having two apps in control, it can be confusing – when RGB is turned on in Dragon Center, sometimes the system ignores RGB changes made in iCUE.
Origin Millennium Gaming PC: Performance
As a pre-assembled machine, the Origin Millennium is somewhere between the one you build yourself and the one you purchase pre-built. With Origin, you can pick your internals – from an extensive list, of course – and it will build a machine that is completely unique to you.
As a rule of thumb, if you get a PC with similar specs from a different manufacturer, you’ll probably get a similar performance. However, there are still some advantages to the Origin Millennium – for instance, if you try building one similar to our review unit yourself, you’ll be hard-pressed to even find an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 at the moment. Hence, you might get the best chance at getting one from something like this.
Almost any AMD or Intel CPU, as well as AMD and Nvidia GPU, can be obtained if you can afford it. Even the motherboard and power supply can be customized.
Storage and RAM. Lastly, you can choose from 3 different liquid cooling options – Hydro X Series XD3 RGB, Cryo Core, or Hydro X Series Cooling.
Among the three options above, the Hydro XD3 Stage 1 Soft Tube with a 360mm radiator is the cheapest. The thermal efficiency of this unit is already excellent. Six fans (one at the back, three in front, and two on top) help keep the PC cool, and the added RGB lighting add some fun elements to the case.
Since the side panels aren’t vented, it’s left to the back and the top panels to allow hot air to escape, a lot of it being blown out the top. As long as your PC is on top of your desk, this isn’t an issue. In contrast, if you have it beneath your legs, you may feel a circulation of hot air around your lap area. When you’re playing video games with this setup, make sure the AC is blowing.
Although our Origin Millennium review unit isn’t fully equipped, it still performs well. With a 10th-gen Core i9, 32GB RAM, and a GeForce RTX 3080, you get the performance you’d expect. The PC boots up quickly, and its boot-up drive is an SSD, so you won’t experience any bottlenecks running most applications. You probably won’t be able to stretch the system much until a few years from now, unless you are rendering some heavy-duty 3D.
It performed pretty well with Metro Exodus, one of the most graphically demanding games you can run at ‘extreme’ settings at 4K 60Hz at least. Although it takes some time to load, and there may be a few lags or stutters here and there, but it delivers a very smooth and rock-solid experience. Additionally, it loads very quickly after that initial boot.
Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 at the highest settings on this PC is also a good idea. It runs smoothly and looks great. The benchmarks show a smooth in-game experience at 1080p, with over 120 frames per second. This game runs at up to 68fps on a 4K monitor with rock-solid 4K performance. Similar to Metro Exodus, it might stutter at times at these high resolutions, but that doesn’t take away from its overall impressive performance.
With this gaming PC, you can play games like Doom Eternal, Hitman 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Avengers, Detroit Become Human, and Death Stranding at 4K resolution.
At low graphics settings and resolutions, you’ll be able to experience a more immersive and fluid gaming experience on the Origin Millennium gaming PC, which performs at incredibly high levels of performance. Would that be worth Origin’s hefty price tag? Perhaps.
Definitely for people who want a powerful gaming PC with the benefits of customization and future-proofing. Many would even save for months just to purchase one.
However, most people won’t benefit from the Origin Millennium. Even its cheapest configuration is more expensive than other similarly configured gaming PCs available.
It’s only worth it if you’re willing to splurge on everything, from the powerful components to the design customizations – so you’re getting a lot of power and a personalized machine. It’s like you’re just paying a premium just to have the ability to customize, but not even using it.
Software
We reviewed the Origin Millennium with two different apps to control various aspects of the software – Corsair’s iCue and MSI’s Dragon Center, which came preloaded due to the MSI motherboard installed on the PC. The iCue mainly controls RGB lighting, specifically the fans, liquid cooling, and RAM, while the Dragon Center controls RGB for the motherboard, RAM, and GPU while also offering a few other features. Among them are performance settings, monitoring internal temperatures, prioritizing apps in the network, and controlling fans.
In general, switching between the two apps for different settings isn’t an issue. When setting RGB lighting, however, they can sometimes conflict. Particularly, if you turn on a setting in the Dragon Center, iCue will not be able to customize the RGB lighting on that component until you remove the RGB settings from Dragon Center.
| Pros | Cons |
| Chassis design makes internals very accessible | Side panels can pop out easily when transported by hand |
| Plenty of room for future upgrades | No Thunderbolt |
| Impressive 4K performance | |
| Customizations abound |
Buy it if…
You want customization without building your own PC
You don’t have to get your hands dirty if you’re unsure of your PC building skills with the Origin Millennium.
You need a future-proof machine with room for expansion
In addition to being extremely customizable, the Origin Millennium offers a lot of expansion possibilities. It is possible to get an incredibly future-proof, kitted out configuration now, and you can still add to it later.
You have the money
Gaming PCs aren’t cheap. Even its cheapest configuration will cost you a pretty penny, especially compared to its rivals.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re on a budget
Basically, you’re paying for the privilege of not just customizing your PC inside and out, but also for the ability to upgrade and expand it later on. That’s a steep investment.
