A Rant about LTT's Latest $1000 Build Guide

[DocSwag]

@Slick@LinusTech@nicklmg@CPotter

For those of you that don't know, LTT recently put out this video:

Now, it's great that LTT is making another build guide, but I have MANY issues with this build. Here is a short list:

• A 1600 would be a much better choice. It would cost only a little more, comes with a better stock cooler, and can be OCed, not to mention on average the minimums and averages are higher, and in any multi threaded workloads it will crush (though that's not completely relevant, since this is a gaming build guide)
• You're using a B150 mobo with a Kaby Lake CPU. While most of the time there shouldn't be an issue, there are probably still some B150 mobos on shelves that have older bioses that don't support Kaby Lake on them.
• You only got 8gb RAM in a $1000 build. WTF?
• You bought an $80 cooler with a locked CPU and mobo. Wat.
• You got a $100 case, instead of a $65 one like the S340. At the very least, get the Pure Base 600 no window instead for $20 cheaper.
• You could've saved another $20 by getting something like an M12ii instead for the PSU.
• All the money saved by doing that allows us to fit a 1070 in the build, a GPU that is at least 25% more powerful from here (probably more since it's a top of the line 580 vs a founders 1070)

Here is the PCPP list that evidences this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($217.55 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI B350 PC MATE ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($81.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: Team Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($80.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card  ($379.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 600 (Black/Silver) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($56.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $997.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-04 11:32 EDT-0400

 

A build that has a slightly better CPU, double the RAM, and at least around 30% faster GPU with the sacrifices only being the lack of a window and a worse CPU cooler (and maybe a slightly louder PSU, but it probably isn't by much).

 

You see what I'm saying?

 

Now I understand, LTT was sponsored by be quiet!. But that doesn't excuse recommending a build to possibly a MILLION people that could've been 30% faster for the EXACT SAME PRICE. Now yes, not a million people are going to lose out on that, but at least a few hundred people will PROBABLY use this as a base for their next pc. Instead, you could've used a $30 cooler from be quiet!. Or maybe could've used the same cooler, psu, and case in a $1500 build guide where you would be using a 7700k, where the parts would actually MAKE SENSE.

 

The Ryzen 5/3 "previewed" videos were also a fail in a similar way, but those didn't cost people performance/money and you guys truly learned your lesson from those.

 

But this? This is just misleading/hurting your OWN VIEWERS by costing them performance because of sponsorships. This is just bad, honestly. It's a new low, and I hope you guys will fix this, possibly by doing a followup video with a BETTER parts list using a 1600+1070.

 

I wasn't really bothered by the thumbnails, and the Ryzen 5/3 previewed video seemed to teach you guys a lesson, but this is just flat out bad. I don't have words for how low you guys have gone in this video, to recommend people to spend money on useless things (like the CPU cooler) because of sponsorships.

 

Again, I don't have anything against sponsorships, I know this is how quite a bit of your money is made, but when sponsorships mean you are HURTING your viewers, that's just flat out bad. 

 

I hope someone at LMG sees this, since you guys really need to reverse your mistake.

 

EDIT: And for Ryzen, you can't make the argument that this was filmed before Ryzen 5 was launched, since you had a disclaimer in the video about the rx 580 which was launched a few weeks after Ryzen.

[Unhelpful]

They're at the point of allowing their opinions to be bought and advertised, which is fine if you take them as a purely entertainment-based channel and not informational. I don't necessarily think that's an issue though, people have kids to feed.

[n00bmlg]

I didn't watch the video all the way through, but for $1000 I expected a 1070 at least, you could probably do a 580 build for around $700-$800

[DocSwag]

Just now, JoeyDM said:

They're at the point of allowing their opinions to be bought and advertised, which is fine if you take them as a purely entertainment-based channel and not informational.

I disagreed with that until this video. I still don't think that LTT is bought out, but they are starting to become a sort of corporation that stops paying attention to their real fan base for money.

Just now, n00bmlg said:

I didn't watch the video all the way through, but for $1000 I expected a 1070 at least, you could probably do a 580 build for around $700-$800

Exactly, it's so poorly priced out, and a lot of that is due to the sponsorship.

[79wjd]

This isn't the first questionable build guide they've made. I can't remember any build guides of theres that made much sense.

Just now, DocSwag said:

Exactly, it's so poorly priced out, and a lot of that is due to the sponsorship.

But not even. Check out my first post in that thread, I built two MUCH better systems using a BeQuiet! case, PSU, an cooler. Sure, I could've done better without the sponsorship, but even with it I could do much better.

[n00bmlg]

Just now, DocSwag said:

Exactly, it's so poorly priced out, and a lot of that is due to the sponsorship.

We're also at the point where intel needs to step aside for budget builds

[RadiatingLight]

true

I hated that they felt obligated to pick bequiet parts due to the sponsorship

 

they could've advertised it as a "super silent" build and I would've been okay with it.

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

This isn't the first questionable build guide they've made. I can't remember any build guides of theres that made much sense.

I wasn't an active member of the PCMR until after they stopped regularly publishing build guides, so I don't know enough to give an opinion on that.

1 minute ago, n00bmlg said:

We're also at the point where intel needs to step aside for budget builds

Except for super budget builds where a G4560 makes sense.

[n00bmlg]

Just now, DocSwag said:

Except for super budget builds where a G4560 makes sense.

Until Ryzen 3

[paddy-stone]

11 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

@Slick@LinusTech@nicklmg@CPotter

For those of you that don't know, LTT recently put out this video:

SNIP

Agree, I had a look at the UK prices too, and just changed the RAM to get the price down to £990  https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/wzYgxY

 

Much better build IMO, with just a few sacrifices to keep the 1070 viable.

[SSL]

12 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

I hope someone at LMG sees this, since you guys really need to reverse your mistake.

 

In case you missed the boat, LTT is a business now. They have employees to pay and kids to feed. That means making sacrifices in terms of quality and reputability in order to grow the channel and increase cashflow. Whether it is lame video thumbnails or sponsored builds of dubious value, you have to accept that reliable and accurate information is not necessarily the prime concern of a channel like this.

[mrchow19910319]

 Compare to its older build guide, this video's editing is not that great too.... so ....

I felt that we are beating the dead horse right now. 

 

[DocSwag]

Just now, SSL said:

 

In case you missed the boat, LTT is a business now. They have employees to pay and kids to feed. That means making sacrifices in terms of quality and reputability in order to grow the channel and increase cashflow. Whether it is lame video thumbnails or sponsored builds of dubious value, you have to accept that reliable and accurate information is not necessarily the prime concern of a channel like this.

I know that that is true, but it's still flat out bad for them to do this to mislead their fan base. Being a corporation doesn't excuse this. In LTT's last Honest Answers episode they literally were talking about how they aren't paid off and whatnot. And then they upload this.

 

That's not to mention that it's not even worth it for them to do this, since they said the huge amounts of dislikes on the Ryzen previewed video really hurt their views for the next few days and this video also got a ton of dislikes.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

In case you missed the boat, LTT is a business now. They have employees to pay and kids to feed. That means making sacrifices in terms of quality and reputability in order to grow the channel and increase cashflow. Whether it is lame video thumbnails or sponsored builds of dubious value, you have to accept that reliable and accurate information is not necessarily the prime concern of a channel like this.

That's all fine, but the video should never have been called "$1000 budget build guide", but rather "BeQuiet sponsored build guide", or "Silent PC build guide", or basically anything that doesn't imply value. 

[SSL]

4 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

I know that that is true, but it's still flat out bad for them to do this to mislead their fan base.

 

In their mind, LTT is not misleading anyone. They're providing them with "good enough" information that allows them to exist and grow as a company.

 

Also, LTT does not have "fans" anymore. They have numbers, which translate to other numbers with dollar signs in front. If the former number gets bigger, so does the latter. So their business strategy basically boils down to doing anything that results in "growth".

 

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

That's all fine, but the video should never have been called "$1000 budget build guide", but rather "BeQuiet sponsored build guide", or "Silent PC build guide", or basically anything that doesn't imply value. 

 

That's adorable, but it wouldn't get nearly as many hits. See my point above.

[Loot]

but ... it had pyrotechnics !

[DocSwag]

2 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

In their mind, LTT is not misleading anyone. They're providing them with "good enough" information that allows them to exist and grow as a company.

 

Also, LTT does not have "fans" anymore. They have numbers, which translate to other numbers with dollar signs in front. If the former number gets bigger, so does the latter. So their business strategy basically boils down to doing anything that results in "growth".

 

 

That's adorable, but it wouldn't get nearly as many hits. See my point above.

Evidently though, dislikes hurt them, as I've said before.

[Fraser Cow]

I totally agree with you. Linus used to say that he wouldn't be bought by advertisers, but it seems to have happened without him realizing it. Like how could he look at that CPU cooler and that CPU and think "this makes perfect sense." Just ridiculous.

[DnFx91]

18 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

I disagreed with that until this video. I still don't think that LTT is bought out, but they are starting to become a sort of corporation that stops paying attention to their real fan base for money.

Exactly, it's so poorly priced out, and a lot of that is due to the sponsorship.

ermagerd LTT likes money, how dare they..........

 

we all knew this was coming, if you want minute after minute of bar graphs and raw facts, watch jay or GN.

 

i kinda like where LTT is going, still factual and techie enough for me, but also very funny, becoming a huge fan of channelsuperfun 

[DocSwag]

Just now, DnFx91 said:

ermagerd LTT likes money, how dare they..........

 

we all knew this was coming, if you want minute after minute of bar graphs and raw facts, watch jay or GN.

 

i kinda like where LTT is going, still factual and techie enough for me, but also very funny, becoming a huge fan of channelsuperfun 

factual? Giving horribly priced build guides doesn't seem very factual (yes I know factual isn't a direct definition that can be used on build guides but it's related).

 

Even for money, as I've said, it STILL hurts them due to the number of dislikes they're getting.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, SSL said:

That's adorable, but it wouldn't get nearly as many hits. See my point above.

If LMG wasn't adamant about how much they care about their fans, then I'd agree. 

[SSL]

6 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Evidently though, dislikes hurt them, as I've said before.

 

The like to dislike ratio isn't nearly as bad in this case. I believe the dislikes at least briefly topped likes in their Ryzen fiasco video.

 

Keep in mind that LTT has changed, and so probably have you. You may be viewing their old videos through rose-colored glasses, when Linus wore a backwards cap and unboxed in a room or gave the WAN show in an unheated garage. Sure, this style may have appealed because it felt relatable, down-to-earth, and sincere, but as I said above LTT has changed and will continue to change as they seek growth so that they can hire yet more people who need to be paid so that they then need to grow more to pay them, which then necessitates hiring more people who also need paying, and so on. This is called "business".

 

3 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

If LMG wasn't adamant about how much they care about their fans, then I'd agree. 

 

Showing is better than telling.

[DocSwag]

19 hours ago, SSL said:

 

The like to dislike ratio isn't nearly as bad in this case. I believe the dislikes at least briefly topped likes in their Ryzen fiasco video.

 

Keep in mind that LTT has changed, and so probably have you. You may be viewing their old videos through rose-colored glasses, when Linus wore a backwards cap and unboxed in a room or gave the WAN show in an unheated garage. Sure, this style may have appealed because it felt relatable, down-to-earth, and sincere, but as I said above LTT has changed and will continue to change as they seek growth so that they can hire yet more people who need to be paid so that they then need to grow more to pay them, which then necessitates hiring more people who also need paying, and so on.

Yes, but it still hurts them.

 

The thing is, doing this builds not a loyal fanbase that will stick with you, but an unstable fanbase that is likely to abandon you. If you're looking to the future, a loyal fanbase that will stick to watching your videos is what you want, since an unstable fanbase leads to a lower view/sub ratio. 

 

That's not to mention this completely puts their honesty in question, since they've said their viewers are their priority.

19 hours ago, ONOTech said:

I'll play Devil's Advocate for a hot minute.

• AMD may not have released the Ryzen R5 series at the time of the video either.
• It's a sponsored build, so they were already in the hole $250. This build is actually $750, and there's no way you can put an R5 1600 + GTX 1070 combo for $750 comfortable excluding mail-in-rebates and flash deals.
• 8 GB of RAM is fine for gaming.

Sponsored builds are not efficient at all. My only gripe with the video is the title - it's not a build guide. It's a sponsored build and should be titled accordingly.

 

TL;DR change the title and the video is fine

They put a disclaimer for the 580, so they at least should have one for Ryzen.

 

Still should've put attention to this.

 

Some games use more.

[Syntaxvgm]

As much as I support them doing everything they can to grow to make a niche topic a mainstream channel, even being more clickbiaty, LTT has been walking a thin line lately.

[Mira Yurizaki]

To be frank, copying anyone's build log down to the exact hardware, no matter how reputable or whatever they are, is doing a build wrong. Use a build log for ideas, not for your actual build. If you're copying someone's build log to the letter, you're not thinking for yourself. But if you're someone who just wants a PC to play games on and decides to follow a random build, then okay.

 

I mean, people still buy pre-built systems despite the PCMR telling them how ducking glorious and money saving it is to build your own.