What did we BUY?? - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt2

[Ivan M]

In our second episode we unbox and get first impressions of the 5 systems we ordered while undercover.

 

 

[Streetguru]

Alienware $1500 for a 1060?

 

HP $1500 for a 1070?

ibuypower $1500 for a 9600 and 1070?

origin $1500 for AN 8400 + 8gb OF RAM AND A 1050TI??!?!?!?!

Maingear $1500 for a 1060?

 

*Very sad specs for the money, for either a cheaper 1080p gaming PC, or just a better CPU or GPU for $1500.

[scottyseng]

I've got to say, this series is quite fun to watch. Will be interested to see how customer support goes. haha.

 

Price to performance is pretty brutal on some of these though.

[asus killer]

one think to consider with this PC's is that customers of this products eat with their eyes.

 

Linus should also include a build with off the shelf parts someone not expert on PC's could get together to compare on the same price braket. Even if the girl would never be able to put it together some stores charge 20$ or something like that to put it together. She could have a list parts the boyfriend wanted for example.

[AndrewCC]

HP, with all the obfuscation of the specs prior to delivery, managed to pull quite some good specs out of the hat.

And as many said on youtube comments, cancelling the order for fishy stuff with the CC and phone number is a good thing.

[Streetguru]

17 minutes ago, asus killer said:

 

It's a joke what kind of hardware you can get for $1500 USD to what is in those system, could go to a local shop or someone and just have them build it

Also depends on if you want to do 4k 60hz gaming or 1080p/1440p 144hz gaming of course.

Plus going past like a Ryzen 5 CPU, and a 1070ti for practical gaming is sort of getting into waste of money territory.
 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yDFQYT
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yDFQYT/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL - SUPER LUCE RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Gigabyte - UD PRO 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Video Card  ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $890.14
 

[asus killer]

3 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

It's a joke what kind of hardware you can get for $1500 USD to what is in those system, could go to a local shop or someone and just have them build it of course.

Also depends on if you want to do 4k 60hz gaming or 1080p/1440p 144hz gaming of course.

Plus going past like a Ryzen 5 CPU, and a 1070ti for practical gaming is sort of getting into waste of money territory.
 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yDFQYT
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yDFQYT/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL - SUPER LUCE RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Gigabyte - UD PRO 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Video Card  ($379.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $890.14
 

i get tour point but you can't also do it like that, the girl would have to pay for assembly, the support is (should be) easier with just one company i guess that was a price for some people,... But i agree you would save a lot

 

remember the girl that was buying this.

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, asus killer said:

 

The best bet for getting someone like that the info they need is having them call a local PC shop, or possibly walking into best buy and getting a not salesmen at the geek squad desk.

Only one of the companies even asked what kind of monitor would be used. They aren't going to try and turn away a sale and get them the info they'd need to make a better choice and/or save money.

If it were only a $100 difference as it is in some cases it's not as big of a deal. But you still need to know about what hardware to buy on the websites with configuration options.

[Luscious]

This is a great series you guys have done to put these shops under scrutiny. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the observations made here.

 

I would recommend doing it every year to see just how these companies work and improve their "experience". Competition is good, but responding to feedback and improving the customer experience is where they will shine or bomb.

 

I would also recommend a more premium $2500 build and hit up the likes of Digital Storm, Falcon NW and Puget to test those guys out as well. Not that I am skeptical, but how they respond to feedback and the customer experience is where these outfits can prove themselves.

[gta6287]

What are they planning to do with those pcs. I'd recommend doing a giveaway if they're not doing anything with those.

[Enderman]

What's with the really annoying blurring going on?

What super important info is there on those tiny, barely visible bar codes?

[unijab]

7 minutes ago, Enderman said:

What's with the really annoying blurring going on?

What super important info is there on those tiny, barely visible bar codes?

Its none ya business

 

 

They have a reason to blur. So they did.

[Shypl]

4 hours ago, LMG Ivan said:

In our second episode we unbox and get first impressions of the 5 systems we ordered while undercover.

 

 

My Alienware Aurora R7 (GTX 1080) came with both a keyboard and a mouse. That empty slot is where the keyboard went. Did they just not include it with the 1060 version?

[Spotty]

4 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Alienware $1500 for a 1060?

 

HP $1500 for a 1070?

ibuypower $1500 for a 9600 and 1070?

origin $1500 for AN 8400 + 8gb OF RAM AND A 1050TI??!?!?!?!

Maingear $1500 for a 1060?

 

*Very sad specs for the money, for either a cheaper 1080p gaming PC, or just a better CPU or GPU for $1500.

 

This is the iBuyPower system as close as I could get it. Case is different since their case is custom iBuyPower branded, but everything else is the same. Looks like the AIO is a Corsair H60 (older one), but for some reason it has different red fans on it? Maybe Corsair sells the AIO without fans to SIs at a cheaper price? Checking the website the mouse and keyboard that come with it cost $9 and $14 respectively, so just added similarly priced ones from PCPP.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$274.79 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H60 54 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$89.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI - Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$128.49 @ SuperBiiz
Memory	ADATA - XPG Z1 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$115.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Western Digital - Green 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$39.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Toshiba - P300 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$39.99 @ Walmart
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Dual Series Video Card	$334.89 @ OutletPC
Case	Cooler Master - MasterBox MB600L ATX Mid Tower Case	$45.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	EVGA - 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$83.10 @ OutletPC
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$98.89 @ OutletPC
Keyboard	SIIG - JK-US0012-S1 Wired Standard Keyboard	$14.16 @ Amazon
Mouse	Azza - Diablo Wired Optical Mouse	$8.57 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1374.63
	Mail-in rebates	-$100.00
	Total	$1274.63
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 21:49 EST-0500

 

Once you consider things such as the cost of building it, shipping it, support and warranty... It's not horrible value considering it's mostly going to be bought by people who have no idea what they're doing and wouldn't consider building it themselves anyway... But as a surprise to no-one it's still cheaper to build it yourself.

 

For me so far I'm going to say the iBuypower is in the lead, at least in terms of value. Component choice makes sense for the most part and the 9600K + GTX 1070 is a good pairing. Nothing that I would be offended by, though if it were me I would use a better SSD (860 evo, MX500, WD Blue), and DDR4 3000MHz memory (not sure what frequency was used, but the other systems had 2400MHz so I assumed that), which in total would add maybe an extra $25 to the cost of the system, but those are more minor nitpicks when it comes to prebuilt systems, and not something most people would be concerned by.

 

 

That Origin PC with an i5 8400 + 1050Ti that was over the budget of $1500, costing $1575 is another matter.... Clearly the cost went in to the poster, mouse pad, T-shirt, stickers, game codes, etc; because it definitely did not go in to the cost of the system.

Quote

This part list is a little more over the place, since Origin uses more custom branded stuff such as the Case, CPU cooler, RAM... Also don't know which SSD it is and there was no mention if there was a HDD in the system or not... I looked back at Part 1 and when they were configuring the system they only got the 120GB SSD, that's it. Ivan and Linus even mentioned that 120GB was the only storage her (Janice) system would have. So it looks like no HDD.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$219.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H60 (2018) 57.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$69.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI - MPG Z390I GAMING EDGE AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard	$151.55 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$114.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Green 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$30.89 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB ACX 2.0 Video Card	$175.66 @ Amazon
Case	Silverstone - RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case	$102.98 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply	Silverstone - SFX 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply	$59.99 @ Amazon
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$98.89 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1044.82
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1024.82
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 22:31 EST-0500

 

+ Black Ops 4 - $70
+ SCUM - $30
+ Shroud of the Avatar - Free to Play
+ Star Trek - Not sure which one, could be Free to Play, could be $60...

^ What's the point of including those games when you probably can't fit them on the included 120GB SSD

COD: BO4 takes up 55GB of storage space according to system requirements. SCUM 20GB. Let's assume 30GB for Windows 10 and that's your storage full already.

This is easily the worst value system of the lot. Could save over $500 by building it yourself, probably even over $600 if you went mATX instead of ITX as the case and motherboard are quite expensive (as is usual for ITX stuff).

 

Even though their phone sales support in the first episode was pretty good, I think Origin is going to walk away from this as the clear loser (excluding CyberPower). They have the worst performing parts of the systems, they were over budget, and they're charging over $1500 for a system that should be under $1000 (and at that point you would be better off with an $800 Ryzen 2600 system)... The Origin PC is a rip off.

[Jayl0cked]

Great Series loving the breakdown. Hell I even love the corny 70s Buddy Cop intro and language

Just for a comparison note, my buddy who didn't know much about building computers and didn't quite feel so comfortable building his own bought an ABS system off newegg about 7 months ago just before the market started to correct it self with the GPU price crash and memory price hikes. For just shy of $2500 CAD rupee's (2400 + change) here is the system he got (which I opened up and we had a look at together just cuz he was curious how he did as I was telling him about this series): 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jaylocked/saved/#view=3Wj9Jx

 

i7 8700 k (unlocked) ** hugely surprising here** 

EVGA z370 FTW
EVGA GTX 1070 SC edition. 

EVGA 240 mm rad rgb aio cooler

Delta T-Force 2x8GB (16GB) 2666 Mhz Dims

a non modular EVGA BR600 600w 80+ bronze PSU

All inside a Meshify C case

 

4 Apevia 120mm white and black white ring led fans

I budgeted $30.00 for the led strip they stuck in it which probably in reality was like 10 bucks. 

although it did come with the controller. 

Adata 240G 2.5" SSD

A 1TB HDD Im assuming it's probably a seagate 
 

PC Part Picker comes out to about $1575 USD (I'm estimating a little high throwing in any incidentals I missed). 

let's face it they probably didnt pay for windows 10 home, and they probably got a killer deal through evga for buying the majority of parts from them... 

 

So US 1575 ---> $2107.27 CAD -- Figure they musta paid a guy to stand there put the system together A fee on most configurators I've seen of anywhere from $70-$250... I suspect my friend didnt do too bad here. They probably made a couple hundred off him which hey they're running a business that's fair. 

watching this series so far my friend made out like a bandit comparatively. All he had to do was email their customer support to get the windows key cuz it didnt come with the package lol. 
 

That being said seen some shitty reviews on ABS on newegg too.. looks like if you shop around though and ask a few questions as he did/read a few reviews on the SI's you can do alright for that budget. 

[ahuckphin]

if i'm not mistaken, dell is the only brand with a service manual which will come in handy when the user want to upgrade their Alienware. 

[ahuckphin]

9:07 can someone please explain how proprietary psu and board is a con? 

[Spotty]

24 minutes ago, bindydad123 said:

9:07 can someone please explain how proprietary psu and board is a con? 

If a component fails, such as the PSU or motherboard, it can make replacing the part difficult.

 

Also makes it harder to upgrade on some cases. Lots of Dells have proprietary PSUs that don't have PCIe power connectors because the GPU that originally came with the system might have been a gt1030 that doesn't need external PCIe power. So to upgrade the GPU, you would also need a new power supply, and then a new motherboard, and in the situation of BTX form factor you would also need a new case to fit the motherboard.

 

So proprietary can make upgrading or replacing parts very difficult.

 

It looks as if the one used in the alienware isn't too bad in regards to upgrading since it features PCIe power and an ATX layout, but it's still not a good sign to see.

 

Edit: can't remember if it was the Dell or the HP. Whichever, they both often use proprietary boards and PSUs.

[alpharowe3]

Are those more expensive CPU coolers necessary? Would someone buying from these retailers be overclocking? Wouldn't it be better spending that CPU cooler money on better components?  Just wondering

[Jotoco]

People here underestimate how overwhelming building a system can be for the average Joe or Jane (or Janice). 

 

I often give advice to a lot of people I know, and it is like I'm advising then on building a rocket to go to Mars. They have no idea of what they need, or want, or even how to get to that information.

 

And they don't want to know. They just want the easy answer, and they are willing to pay for it.

 

Aside from the most egregious system I think all of those options are fair. There is no excuse for bad consumer experience and support, but the systems delivered seem fair (with the exception of Origin, probably).  

[Alfakr0ll]

About the AMD CPU. Janice told at least one of the stores that "her brother" also streams occasionally, the extra cores should help there. We don't know if she told that to all the stores, or just the one on the clip.

Unless you're really sure that Janice told each of the stores the same requirement (same games, streamer or not, multitasking, etc) then I would judge the systems according to the usage she told the salesman "her brother" would have against that order and not against the other machines. Remember that you sent a no-a-computer-expert to order the computers so don't rate the computers as something yourself would order/expect to receive.

[SolarNova]

So the Dell/Alienware system we all knew was goign to be trash inside. OEM out the wazoo. Annnd .. it was. That case interior was just different for te sake of being different, with propratory mothebroard and PSU.. just bleh. Wouldnt buy.

 

The origin system...as expected tbh. Expensive, underpowered ..nice look from the outside. ...and thats about it. Wouldnt buy.

 

The others. Ibuypower, Maingear, and Omen ... varios levels of wonky specs for the price BUT atleast they built with good components.

 

ibuypower is most certianly the best imo... all 4 bad points you listed were imo ..non issues. bare interior .. i personaly like that style..sleek and clean. The interior box being loose inside the outer box ..not really an issue tbh. The sticker ..meh ..arguable, i dont like stickers on my machines so it would come of anyway. And the  'how to open' panflet ..its kinda like the saying "dont tell me how to suck eggs" ..how to open a case isnt somthign u need a step by step guide for unless its some weired mechanism.

 

Would certainly buy or recommend a ibuypower machine ..asuming the mark up price isnt to high.

 

So far atleast ..more vids to come untill final verdict.

[thevicparable]

Loving the new series. Looking forward to seeing how they go in customer service. Also echoing those that say don't knock the Ryzen system and test it under a streaming load too. Heck, test them all under different kinds of gaming and streaming loads, that'd be great to see.

 

Do some of these places (ibuypower, maingear, origin) have physical stores too? Would love to see a kind of secret shopper/hidden camera series. It would be quite interesting to see how the different stores treat different shoppers e.g. Janice, parents, actually knowledgeable customers (guys vs girls if you wanna go there).

[NumLock21]

Went to BestBuy the other day and I saw HP new Omen desktop. It's using a more standard case with standard components.

This is how it looks like.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-omen-by-hp-obelisk-desktop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hard-drive-256gb-ssd-hp-finish-in-shadow-black/6285800.p?skuId=6285800

 

[NumLock21]

Sorry have to dp.

I just noticed one of Ivan's badge is actually the heatsink used for those Killer network cards, by BigFoot Networks.  And that gun tho...