Wallmart kills OVERPOWERED Prebuilt PCs - [UPDATE - They're back!... Now with a $400 discount!]

[mariushm]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

There's multiple 12V rails. 24A + 21A = 540W. 24A@12V (288W) on the rails for peripherals (PCIe) will be fine for most GPUs... Though, I wouldn't trust it to actually deliver that.

 

It DOES NOT work like that

 

The TOTAL POWER (3.3v + 5v + 12v) going into the system is 500w, with 3.3v and 5v outputs limited to 140w.  So if the parts in your computer use 50 watts on 3.3v and 5v, then power supply in theory can give 450 watts on 12v.

The amps for each rail are more like thresholds where the power supply is supposed to shut down if the value is exceeded, as a sort of over current protection.  You can't add those up. 

If the label is honest, then the power supply can do 500w -(3.3v x current + 5v x current)  / 12v = ~ 42 A  in total, assuming no current on 3.3v and 5v (wrong). It would be safer to go with something like 38-40A continuous on 12v.

So those 40A are split across two rails, and the CPU rail is not allowed to take more than 24A and the IO rail is not allowed more than 21A.  You don't have 45A magically, in total it's still only 40A.

 

The problem is for example, if someone puts 2  RX 570 cards inside, since each uses around 175 watts.  Two cards means 2 x 175w = 350w which is 29A ... more than the 21A limit for IO. You could totally do a system like that, it's realistic, for example you could work just fine with a Ryzen 1200 that consumes 50-60 watts when gaming.

[Canada EH]

The vendor just needs to streamline some QC.

[CarlBar]

Just now, KuJoe said:

And something like that is easily fixed at little to no extra cost.

 

I'm pretty sure what's going on there is some kind of QC issue. Again bearing in mind this is Walmart's first swing at this so they're not as up on what they should be looking for as is really ideal i can't hit them too hard on this.

 

Don';t get me wrong, someone like HOP who's had enough experiance at this point to not be making schoolboy errors did that i'd be knocking a lot more of their score because i expect them to get this stuff right. But Walmart getting as much right as they did deserves some props.

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, bellabichon said:

Holy sh*t. That quick? At least they can listen to consumers.

That gives them a one up on apple

[Spotty]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

I really doubt the outlets like Jonnyguru, Anandtech, etc would test an OEM unit like this, but I would actually love it for GamersNexus to test this PSU with their new PSU testing equipment they've been setting up for a while. AFAIK GN doesn't have a hot box or anything like that, but I'm sure just putting the full rated load on it will create a fireworks show.

Aww jeeze I'm such an idiot. I just tweeted GamersNexus asking them to test the Great Wall PSU from the Walmart PC, only to then scroll down their twitter feed to see they're already doing it.

 

@seon123 @mariushm closer look inside the unit for you.

 

[KuJoe]

Just now, CarlBar said:

I'm pretty sure what's going on there is some kind of QC issue. Again bearing in mind this is Walmart's first swing at this so they're not as up on what they should be looking for as is really ideal i can't hit them too hard on this.

 

Don';t get me wrong, someone like HOP who's had enough experiance at this point to not be making schoolboy errors did that i'd be knocking a lot more of their score because i expect them to get this stuff right. But Walmart getting as much right as they did deserves some props.

That is my point, for a first attempt it wasn't that bad. Was the PC good enough for people who build PCs? No and that's not who they're target audience is BUT Walmart was fortunate enough to get feedback from experts in the field which would have allowed them to do so much better on the next version.

 

This is exactly why I never by a car the first year it gets a redesign, I always wait until the following year when they fix all of the mistakes from the first year.

[seon123]

Just now, Spotty said:

@seon123 @mariushm closer look inside the unit for you

I'm don't have anywhere near enough knowledge to do anything with internal pictures of a PSU. I know that Enhance likes using black and white wires for the input, but other than that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, seon123 said:

I'm don't have anywhere near enough knowledge to do anything with internal pictures of a PSU. I know that Enhance likes using black and white wires for the input, but other than that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm glad I'm not the only one

[TetraSky]

that was short lived.

[mariushm]

10 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Aww jeeze I'm such an idiot. I just tweeted GamersNexus asking them to test the Great Wall PSU from the Walmart PC, only to then scroll down their twitter feed to see they're already doing it

Yeah, i was aware they're testing it.  Saw the PSU open on the bench in one of their latest videos. Didn't see these pictures though, so thanks.

My "not an expert" opinion based on the picture alone ... it's not terrible.

 

The circuit board material looks cheap as hell, don't like it.

 

There's decent amount of input filtering (the coils and yellow rectangle at center top and stuff on the input connector)

heatsink on primary side (right) looks decent, while the one on the secondary side left looks a bit undersized for the wattage and efficiency rating. They're probably using same heatsink on all models, from 350w to 500w, or something like that. 

 

All capacitors seem to be 3rd tier, Capxon or some other Chinese brand (asia-x, changx, whatever)

 

Don't like how the controller board (to the left of the big heatsink on the right) is placed, without any shielding or protection on the back side. If it bends somehow (knock during shipping, maybe missed during quality control) the contacts on the back could touch the heatsink and you'd have fireworks.

 

Secondary capacitors (center left) would cook over time, they're too close to that big mag coil (which is used to create the 3.3v and 5v outputs) and the air flow from fan is further choked by the cables going out the case, they see little ventilation there.

If you'll have a bunch of mechanical drives or something loading the 5v output, that coil will most likely be hot... and you also have the secondary rectifiers for 12v on that secondary heatsink producing heat.

 

I don't see this psu with a warranty higher than 2 years, maybe 3 years but that's pushing it imho.  Looking forward to seeing the actual parts, I suspect the 12v rectifiers are barely capable of the advertised current ... probably using 2 x 30A rectifiers on the heatsink or something like that.

 

[Spotty]

Still had the pages open for the DTW2 and DTW3, and looking at the product images on the website I noticed that the DTW2 and DTW3 use different motherboards. The DTW2 which has an interior shot of the PC shows off a Gigabyte H370M DS3H motherboard. This gives them USB3.0 and Type C support, so there's no more stupid USB type C add in card at the back. They also have 4 DIMM slots with 2x16GB dual channel memory configuration.

 

It's still not a great motherboard, but for the chipset alone it's a far better than the H310 board used in the DTW1. They should have used that H370 motherboard on the DTW1 as well, but it's obvious they wanted to save a few bucks where possible.

 

The PSU cables that are visible are sleeved, so they're using a different PSU (probably a different Great Wall unit).

 

It's a shame that GamersNexus didn't receive their DTW3 unit, as I feel like it would have been a different situation. The motherboard change fixes a lot of the issues that many people had with the system (lack of front USB 3.0, the stupid Type C adapter, no HDMI/DP on motherboard out, 2 DIMM slots, single stick memory, etc). There would still have been issues like the PSU and the stupid 4 partitions on the HDD, but it would have been a lot better than what it actually was.

Spoiler

Overpowered DTW2 - Front USB 3.0 Ports (Blue ports)

 

 

Overpowered DTW2 - Inside (Note the PCIe cable is actually installed in this one )

 

 

DTW3 - Rear IO (With Type C USB and HDMI & DisplayPort display outputs)

 

[HalGameGuru]

All the RMA's from the unplugged GPUs?

[Canada EH]

2 hours ago, bellabichon said:

Holy sh*t. That quick? At least they can listen to consumers.

Yes, when money is involved Walmart can quickly move in any direction they want to.

[Commodus]

To me, this ultimately boils down to Walmart trying to bring its usual cost-cutting measures to a space where there really isn't much room for it.  It's like trying to make a budget solid gold watch... this isn't an area where you can afford to cut corners.  And what gets me is that it realized it couldn't cheap out on basic specs, so it cut corners in all kinds of oddball ways, like assembly QA and those USB 2.0 ports on the case.

 

I actually hope Walmart comes back to desktop gaming rigs, but it's going to need to rethink its whole supply chain and realize that it may only offer a tiny savings at best over rival pre-built systems.

[Blademaster91]

2 hours ago, Canada EH said:

You know exactly that is what they will do.

They will keep the same vendor, implement some internal QC with them.

Re badge the pc's

and profit

Yep, they gotta make their money on these somehow lol.

Some QC and maybe a better case would be good, the systems weren't that terrible,the cable management was nice, but they cut corners on the PSU.

[PlayStation 2]

This is what happens when you don't plug in GPUs to power supplies right.

[Misanthrope]

3 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

Well... that was brief... I'm sure every one will remember it as a meme or something.

[ZacoAttaco]

1 hour ago, Misanthrope said:

Well, you always left me smiling and satisfied so...

 

[Phentos]

My cousin almost bought one of these PCs a couple weeks ago... 

 

I told him that if he bought one I would make fun of him until the end of time.

 

He canceled his order and bought an IBuypower rig off Amazon instead. Pyrrhic victory for me I guess.

[ZacoAttaco]

49 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

LOL don't select the nested quote to quote the nested person from! 

What ever do you mean?....

_{pls don't hurt me}

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

5 minutes ago, ZacoAttaco said:

What ever do you mean?....

_{pls don't hurt me}

He did this, didn't he?

[ZacoAttaco]

5 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

oh noes u edited ,_, now I'm the bad one ¡-¡

3 minutes ago, Spotty said:

He did this, didn't he?

3 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

more like this ._.

 

I should get perma-banned for putting 3, count em, 3 GIFs in one post.

[Carclis]

"The star that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

Guess they were too overpowered for this world.

[ATFink]

6 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Still performed on par with other 8700/1070 prebuilts. But they should not have used bottom of the barrel parts.

No it didn't. Average framerate, yes. 1% and 0.1% lows, no.

 

The single channel RAM was holding the DTW1 back a lot in that regard.  Although no one ever reviewed the DTW@ or 3 to my knowledge, they probably had significantly less dropped frames because of dual channel memory.

[leadeater]

You're all wrong, they had to pull it because supply of Nvidia Pascal GPUs dried up since Nvidia stopped making them to force people to buy RTX cards