Review GN Steve is not a fan of pre-built gaming PC's!

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
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Gamer's Nexus is doing a series of reviews on pre-built gaming PC's, seemingly to show how bad the build quality and choice of cooling components are on these systems.

You should watch this video on the Dell pre-built he bought, it's amusing:


What's funny that people would probably praise this completely proprietary hardware design if it had an Apple logo on it.
 
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UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Dell was firmly back in the proprietary hardware game, and around 2005ish they largely got out of doing that with their consumer desktops. It was disappointing to see they decided to go back down that road a few years ago when I was looking at a few of their PCs.

I personally would never buy a desktop PC with proprietary components.
 

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
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I was just watching this. I would never buy a prebuilt. Been building my own for over 20 years. I was always amazed at how much the prebuilts cheaped out on everything every time I worked on a clients machine. Not only are they crap components in that video. They are proprietary. Cheap and proprietary. It's when it becomes an appliance. Like a toaster.
 

dlerious

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Mar 4, 2004
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My first pre-built was a Gateway 2k (80486) in the early 90's. My 2nd was a white box I chose the components for. After that it was DIY.

Waiting for the video from Steve with cheap PSUs blowing up.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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This is unfortunate, as the prebuilts are the best way to get a video card these days. ABS and the other prebuilts on Newegg seem to use standard parts and should be better.
 
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ultimatebob

Lifer
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This is unfortunate, as the prebuilts are the best way to get a video card these days. ABS and the other prebuilts on Newegg seem to use standard parts and should be better.

I recently got an Ibuypower system, because frankly it was cheaper than trying to buy the parts separately at this point. I was impressed with the component selection and build quality. The case was a bit gaudier than I would have done (holy hell, they love their RGB), but it works great and is rock solid stable.

It also came with zero bloatware, which you certainly can't say from Dell.
 
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crashtech

Lifer
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I'll bet that HSF is exactly the same as the Sandy Bridge era Dells I used to work on. They probably have a warehouse full of them still.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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I personally would never buy a desktop PC with proprietary components.

the only time i am ever locked in doing this is if i am buying a real server, and it better be heavily discounted like a cou*HP*gh, as nothing will work in one, and if you pull something out of one, chances are the part also wont work either unless its another HP. :eek:
But again heavy discount at 80%+ off, i can care less if they made the board into a shape of a heart because if it dies, i can just get another one off ebay at a heavier discount.

I also find it funny when DELL does it, people go ARGHADSRFOLIGVAMEVIODF!!!, and when Apple does it, there stock goes up 5% and people rave about how sexy it looks.
 
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ultimatebob

Lifer
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the only time i am ever locked in doing this is if i am buying a real server, and it better be heavily discounted like a cou*HP*gh, as nothing will work in one, and if you pull something out of one, chances are the part also wont work either unless its another HP. :eek:
But again heavy discount at 80%+ off, i can care less if they made the board into a shape of a heart because if it dies, i can just get another one off ebay at a heavier discount.

I also find it funny when DELL does it, people go ARGHADSRFOLIGVAMEVIODF!!!, and when Apple does it, there stock goes up 5% and people rave about how sexy it looks.

This Dell is still better than say... an iMac for gaming. At least you can upgrade the memory or video card in this one. Probably not much of an card upgrade in the Dell because of the junk power supply, but still.
 

aigomorla

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This Dell is still better than say... an iMac for gaming.

lol.. by far.... if we look at just raw hardware.
But Apple has managed to make art out of customized oem parts which are close to 0 in reparability and somehow get less heat about it, except by Louis Rossman, which i agree 100% with him. We should always be allowed the right to self repair, and have access to parts to it, at the cost of losing our warranty and tech support if it is still left which in most cases aren't.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
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It looks like iBuyPower had an even worse showing than Dell did, because their system showed up on Steve's test bench DOA:


Sure, it took shipping damage, but you could also tell that the system was not assembled properly.
 

dlerious

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It looks like iBuyPower had an even worse showing than Dell did, because their system showed up on Steve's test bench DOA:


Sure, it took shipping damage, but you could also tell that the system was not assembled properly.
He didn't seem as negative - mainly because of price. That steel reinfiorced PCIe slot sure took a beating, I'm surprised it still worked. Waiting for the reviews of the 3 systems still coming.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Power delivery looks like bottom of the barrel. Thanks, Dell.

yeah.... 6 chokes i count... not nice when most aftermarket boards throw at least 12.

But steve did get impressed @ dell's 3090.
Infact id say its probably built better then most MSI cards.

 
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