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Are Walmart Gaming PCs actually THAT bad?

Ok, lets be realistic here for a second and stop looking at the system from our nerdy perspective, shall we?

 

Would the kind of person who buys a pre-built system in a supermarket store like Walmart really care about frame times, what kind of motherboard is inside and that case has only USB 2.0 ports in the front? Of course not. All they will care is if the system can generally run latest games smoothly. To which, the answer is yes. Again, don't forget that majority of people buying these are not nitpicky like us who notice every tiny stutter or refresh rate issue just by looking at the image. I've seen several casual users who were playing games with really bad framerate and it was like totally a OK for them while it was literally painful for me to play it. So, these are the kind of people using such systems.

 

Realistically, only major cockup was the unplugged PCIe power which I think is a HUGE problem. For us it's a 10 second fix. For a casual consumer it's a non functional computer. Otherwise they'd build one by themselves.

Also, I think single channel memory was a dumb decision from performance perspective. People like this don't care about upgradability (they usually run system till it's so old they replace it entirely), it should have come with 2x8GB RAM in dual channel. But I think they used single stick because it's easier to assemble. It's why they do the same shit in laptops.

 

So, realistically, only REAL issue with the system was the unplugged PCIe power cable which is hopefully just an isolated case. Single channel RAM and restricted airflow are just minor inconveniences and are pretty much irrelevant for casual consumers.

 

If they addressed the airflow and dual channel memory with maybe USB 3.0 on the front IO, I think the system would be something to shortlist. Now it's just worthy of consideration as pre-built for a casual consumer as it's not absolutely terrible and/or overpriced.

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2 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Now it's just worthy of consideration as pre-built for a casual consumer as it's not absolutely terrible and/or overpriced.

It is not overpriced now but it was before the tech community made an outcry. The reason the tech community should be outraged at these PCs is because the average customer won't know to be.

 

As far as we can tell the tech community has done their part because Walmart brought down the price of the PC.

 

The airflow of the case is a different issue though. This is something that only the tech community would be able to figure out, and it is their duty to let the regular consumer know that the cases for these PCs are crap and will kill the system after a while.

 

Sure, your average Joe wouldn't know that he's having a terrible experience for an exorbitant price (before the price reduction) but that's why the tech community should be outraged.

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I don't think tech community has done all that much quite frankly. It was probably just price adjustment on their own. Remember, people who buy systems like these most likely don't even watch Linus Tech Tips or Gamers Nexus...

 

We are raging here in our little bubble where normies are still buying these because they generally have the specs, price and of course RGB.

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5 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I don't think tech community has done all that much quite frankly. It was probably just price adjustment on their own. Remember, people who buy systems like these most likely don't even watch Linus Tech Tips or Gamers Nexus...

 

We are raging here in our little bubble where normies are still buying these because they generally have the specs, price and of course RGB.

Sure, but at least when Granny goes to buy the PC she will see that it has 2/5 stars on Walmart's website. Then she might be prodded into digging deeper.

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1 minute ago, MandoPanda said:

Sure, but at least when Granny goes to buy the PC she will see that it has 2/5 stars on Walmart's website. Then she might be prodded into digging deeper.

Granny won't visit a website, you can be sure of that...

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8 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Granny won't visit a website, you can be sure of that...

Pretty sure that's the only way you can order the PCs right now.

Rest In Peace my old signature...                  September 11th 2018 ~ December 26th 2018

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They don't sell it in retail (I don't know, I'm not from USA so I don't know how Walmart operates)?

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didnt kyle or one of the other tech tuber have the same issue with the gpu power cable not being attached when they opened it? it might have been tech jesus i dont remember exactly

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8 minutes ago, nightninja87 said:

didnt kyle or one of the other tech tuber have the same issue with the gpu power cable not being attached when they opened it? it might have been tech jesus i dont remember exactly

It was the PC that Kyle (Bitwit) did a quick video on, the PCI-e power cable on theirs wasn't plugged in all the way, or maybe knocked loose in shipping. Kind of weird how the USB plug got glued in yet the PCI-e power didn't, most people that would probably buy these gaming PC's would just think it's broken when it won't boot and send it back.

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14 hours ago, maksakal said:

*whining about how not everything is unique snipped*

They have go adapt to the times if they want to make money.

Make sure to quote or tag me (@JoostinOnline) or I won't see your response!

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1 hour ago, JoostinOnline said:

They have go adapt to the times if they want to make money.

So if they don't talk about the Walmart PC, they don't make as much money? You're somehow putting Apple and Walmart on the same level....

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18 hours ago, LMG Ivan said:

The new OverPowered line of gaming PC's from Walmart got slammed by other reviewers. While they do not sell these in Canada, we went down to US and got one to see for ourselves.

 

 

They need to retest the system using a dual channel ram setup. That should make up for the performance differences. Cause that is about exactly the difference in performance between the two.

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I'll have to agree with @RejZoR on this one. This isn't as bad as I thought. The two major cons of this build are unplugged power cord from GPU and the single channel RAM. The power cord situation speaks for itself - for us it's easy to fix, but good luck to a person who bought it as his/her first PC. Terrible, but I suspect it was just a bad luck. The single stick of RAM is really a stupid decision. Since this is designed to be used by people who have no idea about the technical side of PCs, I don't think they will be upgrading RAM anytime soon, so there's no point in leaving that second DDR4 slot empty. It would be MUCH better if they put 2x8GB inside. This is probably the reason for these FPS drops. PSU is a no-name brand, which is a bit bad, but as long as the lines are powerful enough, it should work fine, especially without overclocking and so on.

 

As for the rest, I don't see anything bad with it. The motherboard is cheap, well of course it is. I also pick the absolutely cheapest one for my builds, since I'm not overclocking and I've always used non-K CPUs. If you're going on a budget, then ~60 USD motherboard is all you need. I'm running on one for years and there's nothing wrong with it. It's a good way to save money. I'm planning on moving from i5-4440 / MSI B85M-P33 combo and I will most likely buy i7-8700 with a cheapest MSI / AsRock. Lack of USB 3.0 on front panel... well, I don't find it necessary. As long as there are USB 3.0 ports on the back of PC, it's fine. Keep in mind that it's all about cutting the costs whenever possible to offer the lowest price. For many people there REALLY is a BIG difference between 1100 and 1250 USD, and putting better motherboard, better case and better PSU would most likely increase the price by that margin.

 

One thing that I don't understand, though, is... why Walmart? Why pre-built PCs in the first place?  I'm not from US, I'm from Poland, so I never understood the appeal and popularity of these products. When big electronic markets started to become popular in Poland in the late 90s / early 2000s, they also tried to sell such prebuilt PCs, but it never really worked here. People always went to more PC-oriented shops, either local or online. These days every single online shop with PC parts has an option for you to check "Please, assemble my PC" after you've picked your parts. Usually, it's either free or costs something like 50-80 PLN (20 USD?). They also offer prebuilt PCs, but it's not like these are treated as "one product" with some weird name. These are usually sample rigs built from the most popular products, so you get exactly the same thing as you would have if you built the PC by yourself. Where does the appeal for CyberPower PC, HP Omen and all these pre-built rigs come from? It barely exists here, in Poland.

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18 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

mentioned it on the WAN Show

Ah ok

One day I will watch a Linus video, if its not too silly.

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3 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

if its not too silly. 

oh nvm...

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On 12/2/2018 at 12:39 PM, Uttamattamakin said:

This will be a good PC to buy for a 14 year old kid.  Who can then learn how PC's work by upgrading it as they are able to afford better components.   Reminds me of buying a 486SX in hopes of upgrading the processor in a few years with an AMD 586

Ooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr.....

 

The 14 y.o. could just build one from scratch, like I did, and get a much better value and quality.

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14 minutes ago, Fez_Boy said:

Ooooooorrrrrrrrrrrr.....

 

The 14 y.o. could just build one from scratch, like I did, and get a much better value and quality.

You have think about what the average kid (and parent) are like.    Lots of very average young people have no idea about any of this and learning using parts would probably wind up being an expensive story of broken parts without someone knowing what to do. 

Having a kinda cheap computer to look at and learn with could've been (and can still be with another brand now) a good first step.

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1 minute ago, Uttamattamakin said:

You have think about what the average kid (and parent) are like.    Lots of very average young people have no idea about any of this and learning using parts would probably wind up being an expensive story of broken parts without someone knowing what to do. 

Having a kinda cheap computer to look at and learn with could've been (and can still be with another brand now) a good first step.

True.  I did get quite a bit of help from my local (small) computer store and one of my parents' friends.  (And ltt, of course)

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8 hours ago, Finnen said:

I'll have to agree with @RejZoR on this one. This isn't as bad as I thought. The two major cons of this build are unplugged power cord from GPU and the single channel RAM.

.......

One thing that I don't understand, though, is... why Walmart? Why pre-built PCs in the first place?  I'm not from US, I'm from Poland, so I never understood the appeal and popularity of these products.

 

I agree with you...but remember this is LTT forum.  The people here are not always practical and pragmatic about computers.  IF you call a computer "OVERPOWERED" to this crowd ... it better be the real deal.

For the average joe going to Walmart to buy a computer for their kid who could probably get buy with a good chromebook these were "overpowered". 

On the appeal of Wal-Mart.

 

It is sort of a one-stop store.  We drive up there in our big US Gas Guzzlers and can grab a weeks worth of groceries, clothes for the season, and computers.  (In some states even Guns and I'd swear at least one wal mart in the state of Illinois sells cars.  :/ )   It is sort of the 21st century version of the "general store" every town had in the old west.   It's a US American thing.

IF I had a 14 year old and wanted to buy a computer that s/he could work on I'd have bought the OP1.  Then if they fried the motherboard I could just buy a new cheap one for them to fry.

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4 minutes ago, Fez_Boy said:

True.  I did get quite a bit of help from my local (small) computer store and one of my parents' friends.  (And ltt, of course)

Back in my day it was going to the Radioshack to buy individual memory chips for my Tandy 1000 RL to get it from 512k to a whopping 728k of ram!.    It was blazing fast at times though... what with Dos 3.3 and a GUI called Desk Mate in Rom.   Then I got a 486SX 25 MhZ with SVGA and a CD ROM drive.  Tandy Sensation one of the first Multipedia PC's. 

I learned by taking my Tandy computers apart and putting them back together.   The OP series looked like they would've been good for that... but I just saw a tweet  from Linus saying that they appear to have been pulled.... (it is also possible they sold them out based on what I see.)

 

https://twitter.com/LinusTech/status/1069730347762348032?s=20

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It's a good thing that they've been pulled from sale then. :)

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5 minutes ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

It's a good thing that they've been pulled from sale then. :)

Do we have confirmation they have been "pulled from sale" due to quality  OR due to being sold out?

With Wal Mart I could them being surprised that much of anyone would buy a PC from them.

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10 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Do we have confirmation they have been "pulled from sale" due to quality  OR due to being sold out?

With Wal Mart I could them being surprised that much of anyone would buy a PC from them.

I'm pretty sure they've been pulled due to poor quality, I actually checked the ratings hours before they were pulled down and it wasn't good. Even if they were taken down due to low/no stock, these pre-builts have had their reputation damaged to say the least. 

Edited by LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo

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28 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Do we have confirmation they have been "pulled from sale" due to quality  OR due to being sold out?

With Wal Mart I could them being surprised that much of anyone would buy a PC from them.

The writing is on the wall. Really bad reviews, customer complaints, and judging by the way the reviewers received their items (wrong item shipped, cables unplugged unable to boot) it's safe to say that there would have been a high return rate on them. The price dropped $200 within the last few days which is a sign of desperation given how new the item is, and now overnight all 3 products are being shown as "This item is no longer available" (not 'Out of Stock').

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