Final Verdict - $1500 Gaming PC Secret Shopper pt4

[Ivan M]

In fourth and final episode, we take a closer look at all the machines and finally benchmark them

 

 

Alienware R7: http://geni.us/d5Jj
HP Omen: http://geni.us/Af4t
iBuyPower i5 Configurator: http://geni.us/0BgZ
Origin PC Chronos: http://geni.us/1pEFO
Maingear Vybe: http://geni.us/qI9q4

[r2724r16]

Final Verdict - Build your own PC

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, r2724r16 said:

Final Verdict - Build your own PC

Here you see a wild pcmr member in his natural habitat

[TempestCatto]

11 minutes ago, r2724r16 said:

Final Verdict - Build your own PC

Yes, let me just tell my aunt to build her own pc, when she knows nothing about them. She'll save a few quid and have a roarin' time.

(I'd build one for her, but she's on the other side of the coast)

[Streetguru]

Did the audio shift between bad/good for anyone else near the start of the video?

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Did the audio shift between bad/good for anyone else near the start of the video?

I didn't really notice any audio issues, but it has been literally half an hour after the video was released on both Facebook and YouTube and it's still 360p on YouTube (396p for facebook). Oh good guy YouTube.

 

€: 720p is now available, at last *sigh*

€2: 4K, Hallelujah

Edited December 26, 2018 by Warrie
4K!

[T_ech]

I don't know how you are willing to accept a sponsorship from Origin. This is disappointing. Please just go to Maingear instead.

[Streetguru]

3 minutes ago, Warrie said:

I didn't really notice any audio issues, but it has been literally half an hour after the video was released on both Facebook and YouTube and it's still 360p on YouTube (396p for facebook). Oh good guy YouTube.

That's more than likely why, switched from low bitrate to high mid video I think

LTT CREW! Por que you no mention what a custom PC at the same price would look like?

Or you should have compared what a similair PC would look like at retail, especially for origin

Do Xidax, Falcon Northwest, and Puget next

 

[biohazard918]

My take away is that main gear ran away with this. They may not have provided the fastest machine for the money but the customer support was miles ahead of the companies that beat them on performance. They provided decent value for money hardware wise and won in the important metric of how much of a headache is this going to be for me down the road if I recommend somebody buy a pc from them. The best value for money is usually going to be diy. You go to a system integrator for something that should just work out of the box and for the customer support if it doesn't. Everyone else pretty much failed in that regard. Ibuypower was shockly bad imo and I will no longer recommend them to people even though they provide some of the best bang for the buck hardware wise.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

it shocks me how many mistakes were made in terms of where fans are plugged in and bios crap... like damn. 

 

also the Windows install on the Alienware.. oof. 

[Faceman]

I'm really curious to see if any of these companies reach out to Linus for comment.  Really great and original video series

[Martinspire]

One question I'd like answered is: What PC did Janice think was best?

 

Sure you can argue for specs and whatnot, but its also about what the "n00b" in question would prefer. Which made her feel like she bought a quality product and which had the best support and/or ordering process for people that are not really gamers.

[Vekien]

Why were the computers only scored and won based on performance when the whole show included sales and support? This makes no sense, I thought it was about the best experience and product for the average Joe yet it was judged based on experience and PC professional enthusiasts.... 

 

MainGear are the clear winners here, the final outcome is bonkers... I would only recommend MG to any friends or family who don’t give a flying F about getting 90fps instead of 80 in a game they play. 

 

The judging felt like they just took the whole series and threw it away, ignored it, you could just have this video alone and it wouldn’t of mattered...

 

/rant 

[Ocee]

Can we get how much you guys paid for the systems in the video?

[Jumballi]

are we gonna get that follow up with the reps?

 

[Hit_and_run_poster]

why does linus keep reaching down to his waist?

[Rude_Dude]

Did they specify anywhere what settings they were using in the games?

[zdemigod]

Maingear wins over all no doubt. if someone non tech savy were to ask  me for a pc, I'm totally sending them there. 

[ahuckphin]

I doubt this would happen, but I would love the see a part 5 where LTT shares their investigation with the company and their reps. 

[Lathlaer]

Personally I'd very much like to see a heavyweight category of this. Larger budget, Origin vs. Maingear vs. Digital Storm. Impractical and crazy expensive, I know, but hell yeah I'd watch

[TempestCatto]

1 hour ago, Hit_and_run_poster said:

why does linus keep reaching down to his waist?

He has a wireless mini keyboard in his pocket, it has a trackpad on it. He scrolls with the track pad to maintain the autoscroll speed on his teleprompter. (as I understand it anyway).

[Enderman]

Most AIO pumps are NOT made to be variable speed, and running them at lower voltages can cause damage or completely make them stall.

This is why "pump" headers on newer motherboards exist, they deliver 12V constantly.

If a motherboard has no pump header you need to be very careful plugging the pump into a 3 pin fan header, because the header needs to be set to deliver full 12V and NOT be temperature controlled.

This is why plugging the pump into molex is a better option.

 

Some AIOs like the corsair ones plug directly into sata, so they can run at full speed regardless of what fan header you plug it into or what voltage the fan header is providing, while still providing rpm info through a 3 pin header.

 

Even if the AIO pump fails connected to molex and not the motherboard, the computer will just overheat and shut down.

Same thing would happen if it was plugged into a 3 pin fan header.

There is no special windows notification that alerts you to 0rpm on a fan header, so your PC would still shut down from overheating.

The only advantage is checking the BIOS and seeing the pump rpm at 0 and quickly diagnosing the issue, which could almost just as easily be done by listening for pump noise or seeing the extremely high CPU temps in BIOS.

[Ishaan Tiwari]

This was a great series, please do more themed intros, costumes and the like when the right opportunity comes along. 

[biohazard918]

42 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Most AIO pumps are NOT made to be variable speed, and running them at lower voltages can cause damage or completely make them stall.

This is why "pump" headers on newer motherboards exist, they deliver 12V constantly.

If a motherboard has no pump header you need to be very careful plugging the pump into a 3 pin fan header, because the header needs to be set to deliver full 12V and NOT be temperature controlled.

This is why plugging the pump into molex is a better option.

 

Some AIOs like the corsair ones plug directly into sata, so they can run at full speed regardless of what fan header you plug it into or what voltage the fan header is providing, while still providing rpm info through a 3 pin header.

 

Even if the AIO pump fails connected to molex and not the motherboard, the computer will just overheat and shut down.

Same thing would happen if it was plugged into a 3 pin fan header.

There is no special windows notification that alerts you to 0rpm on a fan header, so your PC would still shut down from overheating.

The only advantage is checking the BIOS and seeing the pump rpm at 0 and quickly diagnosing the issue, which could almost just as easily be done by listening for pump noise or seeing the extremely high CPU temps in BIOS.

You do know there is more to computers then just the os right? I had my previous machine throw an error code during post and refuse to boot when I replaced my 120mm case fans with 200mm ones. The rpm they were running at fell below what the default minimum speed setting in the bios was. The bios assumed they had failed and refused to let the machine boot until I went in and lowered the minimum acceptable speed setting.

[Enderman]

10 minutes ago, biohazard918 said:

You do know there is more to computers then just the os right? I had my previous machine throw an error code during post and refuse to boot when I replaced my 120mm case fans with 200mm ones. The rpm they were running at fell below what the default minimum speed setting in the bios was. The bios assumed they had failed and refused to let the machine boot until I went in and lowered the minimum acceptable speed setting.

In the video they say that you "won't know if the pump fails" because it's plugged into molex instead of a fan header.

 

Well yeah, you won't know the pump failed regardless of whether it was plugged in to the motherboard or to molex, because the computer will overheat and shut down.

 

So either way you will need to enter BIOS to figure out what is wrong, which will be either seeing the rpm of some fan header at 0 (which is not a really good way of knowing the pump is dead, because most motherboards have many fan headers and not all of them populated, so there are usually many fan headers at 0rpm) or you will see the CPU temperature very high which is a good indication of either a bad mount or a dead pump, which can then be easily determined by listening for pump noise.

 

The only cases where having rpm readout from the pump is useful are:

A) you have a variable speed pump and want to set a specific fan curve

 

B) You have multiple pumps running redundantly as well as some software running to continuously check both pumps are running. This way when one fails the computer doesn't overheat and shut down immediately, and you also get a notification that one of the pumps died.