Corsair Vengeance a4100 gaming PC review

The Corsair Vengeance a4100 is part of its newest line of gaming PCs, introduced alongside the i4200 series earlier this summer. This AMD Ryzen powered system comes with an Elgato 4K60 Pro capture card pre-installed, which makes it a dope option for anyone looking for a powerful pre-built PC for streaming and content creation.

The Corsair Vengeance a4100 build we're checking out (the CS-9030011) retails for about $2000. It sports an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X liquid-cooled CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 480GB SSD and 2TB HDD, and a GeForce RTX 2070 Super. More importantly, what sets this system apart from the $1,799 a4100 is the included Elgato 4k60 Pro Mk.2 internal capture card that is only available on this particular system.

I could though live with losing the HDD for a bigger, faster SSD. Considering the size and load times of popular streaming games like Call of Duty: Warzone and GTA V, you absolutely want them running off an SSD. Plus, if you care more about performance than streaming and you've got some money to burn, the Intel i7, 32GB, and RTX 2080 Super in the Vengeance i4200 might be more up your alley and only costs an extra $450.

But the Corsair a4100 is a nicely built system, with a two-year warranty that will take an upgrade pretty easily. In our long history testing Corsair products, we've never run into any major build quality issues, and thankfully the a4100 keeps that tradition going.

Another big plus for the Vengeance is the case design. It uses the iCue 220T RGB mid-tower Smart case with a tempered glass side panel. The top, bottom, and front magnetic dust filters are a godsend considering the amount of dust my workspace seems to produce at any given moment.

A peek at the inside; you're greeted by quadruple RGB Pro Fans and RGB coming from the pair of DDR4 Ram sticks. It was strange to see RGB nowhere else on the system. As someone who became a bit of an RGB convert in the last few months, after a lifetime sneering at colorful systems, I was hoping for more considering that a lot of streamers like to show off their fancy new PCs.

Though, why there is no USB Type-C port in the front top panel, I'll never know. There is a single Type-C port on the rear of the motherboard, but that's it. The seven standard USB 3.0 ports (nine total USB slots), however, gave me plenty of room for many devices plugged in, such as keylights, microphone, webcam, and still has a place for all my wireless dongles—more than enough room for a productive stream.

That being said, the Vengeance a4100 doesn't let you down where gaming is concerned either—hitting over 101 and 108 fps on GTA V and Gears Tactics respectively. The system also did well on Metro Exodus, even with the RTX preset turned on, scoring 66 fps. Total War: Three Kingdoms Battle benchmark scored 79 fps, a notorious game that can really put a rig through its paces. 

For streamers, the inclusion of the powerful Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 capture card is great if you're looking to capture 4K footage from a console or gaming PC. Of course, streaming out at 4K is most likely not going to happen considering the bandwidth requirements, but creating video content with recorded 4K footage absolutely could. 

I was surprised at how well the system handled a 1080p/60fps stream with no major hiccups. Hell, I even decided to fire up the CPU intensive Facerig app and did a short stream as a virtual black cat playing Metro Exodus to tax the system a bit, and it did pretty well. The capture card also means you can use a fancy new camera, via HDMI, if you've been looking to upgrade your production value on your streams and ditch your USB webcam. 

If money is no option, the Vengeance a4100 would be great for veteran streamers looking to upgrade to a reliable two PC streaming setup to take the load off their main gaming PC, or for someone with deep pockets just starting out. 

For me, the Elgato 4K60 Pro is my preferred 4K capture solution since it does instant gameview, which allows for a delay-less preview of your live gameplay. It's something the costly 4K60 S+ external capture card does not do.

The Corsair Vengeance a4100 is one of my favorite gaming PCs I've gotten my hands on this year. It has everything you need to start stream out comfortably at 1080p and record killer 4K gameplay out of the box. It's got enough power under the hood to handle whatever sort of projects you've got lined up for your Twitch stream or your higher-res YouTube channel.