1 00:00:10,559 --> 00:00:17,600 Well, Lilock, you've done it again. I don't think the PCB will be troubling us 2 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:21,520 anytime soon. Quite indeed, Plen. Quite indeedly. But just tell me, how did you 3 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:25,279 manage to crack the case? Miss Katesson's got her shawl back, and 4 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:30,240 you've managed to determine which of our pre-built gaming computers is the best. 5 00:00:27,119 --> 00:00:31,920 Well, it was quite elementary. Elijah 6 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:35,520 just paid for a pizza. He never ordered because I bought his info online to 7 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:39,840 prank him. But while sponsor me, you can stop can stop stuff like that. What's 8 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:45,200 that? What? Wait a tick. That's not how I remember 9 00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:48,000 it. You see, it was near the end when 10 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:53,520 Scotland Yard examined our preconfigured computing 11 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:56,399 machines. Ah, Dell, we meet again. And 12 00:00:53,520 --> 00:01:01,600 this time you're very similar to last year. The XPS 8960 still requires a 13 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:06,799 screwdriver to access the side panel, but is otherwise mostly toolless. You 14 00:01:04,239 --> 00:01:10,799 get two fans, front and rear, with space for a third, along with decent cable 15 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:14,960 management, including pre-run cables for adding a hard drive, as well as a GPU 16 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:19,759 brace that could probably survive an earthquake. The proprietary Z690 17 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,880 motherboard will cause some headaches if you want to upgrade the power supply 18 00:01:21,119 --> 00:01:28,799 later, which you may very well want to do, but is well featured with two M.2 19 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:30,479 slots and onboard Wi-Fi. The only major 20 00:01:28,799 --> 00:01:37,119 quality complaint that I have here is the cheapo flowerype CPU cooler. There's 21 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:39,200 a Core i7 14700 nonK under this thing. 22 00:01:37,119 --> 00:01:44,000 And that would live a happier, cooler life with even a basic tower heat sink, 23 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:49,600 like oh, I don't know, the one that they give you if you order the K variant of 24 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:51,520 that same CPU. Otherwise, the specs are 25 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:57,759 about what we would expect at this price, except for the 26 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:59,600 460W bronze efficiency power supply. At 27 00:01:57,759 --> 00:02:03,200 least Dell's system arrived fully intact, though. I don't know what 28 00:02:01,439 --> 00:02:07,759 happened to our IBY power system in shipping, but aside from the thumb screw 29 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:12,640 that was lodged in the IO, upon closer inspection, we found that nearly all of 30 00:02:09,920 --> 00:02:17,520 our motherboard screws were loose, and two of the ones that weren't were 31 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:22,319 crossthreaded. As for the case, it's not particularly toolless, but it's also not 32 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:27,520 difficult to work in. And we got four 120 mm ARGB fans, though they use a 33 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:31,520 proprietary connector, which is a bit of a downer. And for some reason, were not 34 00:02:29,599 --> 00:02:36,959 configured to sync with our motherboard or even to each other. Cable management 35 00:02:34,640 --> 00:02:40,800 is decent with nothing loose or hanging around. And this time, we got a much 36 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:46,319 better CPU heat sink with what looks like an I by PowerBadged Hyper22 ARGB 37 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:51,280 tower cooler. You guys were so close, you just had to screw down the 38 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:56,000 motherboard. Oh well. As for specs, we got a strong CPU, dual channel memory, 39 00:02:53,599 --> 00:03:01,200 and ample storage. Too bad there was a little mixup with iby's unauthorized 40 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:08,000 reseller on Amazon, and we didn't get the 4060 Ti that was supposed to be in 41 00:03:04,959 --> 00:03:11,040 this system. Moving on to Main Gear, the 42 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,920 MG1 case is largely unchanged since our 43 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:19,040 previous secret shopping spree, and if it is not broken, then nay, it need not 44 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:24,000 be fixed. With that said, a filter behind the removable face plate would be 45 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:27,920 a nice touch. Cable management was a strong point, though, with no shortage 46 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:31,120 of zip ties, though that might be a pain point when you're upgrading later and 47 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:36,000 you have to start cutting them off. And we got a beefy RGB fan controller 48 00:03:33,519 --> 00:03:41,280 requiring two SATA power connectors that supports six fans and up to eight ARGB 49 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:46,400 headers for extra lighting strips or effects. It also appears our case power 50 00:03:43,519 --> 00:03:51,200 switch is routed to it as well. curious. Another odd choice was the anti-seg GPU 51 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:54,560 bracket. It was a nice touch to have it in there, but the way it's mounted made 52 00:03:53,040 --> 00:04:00,080 replacing the graphics card in the system a bit of a pain, so be prepared. 53 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:04,959 Main Gear is our first competitor to go AMD for the CPU, which we all know is 54 00:04:02,879 --> 00:04:09,280 good for gaming, but the chip that they chose has 55 00:04:06,599 --> 00:04:13,519 literally as many processing cores as the last two systems we looked at. And 56 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:18,000 while Main Gear chose some of the highest clocked memory in this round, 57 00:04:15,519 --> 00:04:22,320 the high rated latency means they might not get as much performance benefit from 58 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:27,520 it. As for the rest of the specs, the main standout was Main Gear selection of 59 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:30,040 an SSD with a DRAM cache. Generally, 60 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:36,320 these drives perform better and last longer. As for cooling, we got four 120 61 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:40,320 mm fans and what looks like a Hyper212 Black Edition, so you probably won't 62 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:43,360 need to change any of that out anytime soon. 63 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaking of change, I'm happy to report that Star Forge has gone through quite a 64 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:50,880 bit of change. Gone is the Deep Cool CG 65 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:56,639 650 from last time. And in its place, we have the beautiful Fantex XT View, a 66 00:04:54,160 --> 00:05:01,280 gorgeous and mostly toolless case that's easy to work in. By the way, those of 67 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:05,040 you who suspected that Star Forge's fans were all set to exhaust were 68 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:10,400 hoodwinkedked by their use of reverse blade intakes. There is an additional 69 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:14,160 120 mm fan that is exhausting out the rear, but the rest of them are all daisy 70 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:19,680 chained together for some positive pressure goodness. Curiously, this case 71 00:05:17,199 --> 00:05:24,240 does include an RGB controller, but Star Forge opted to plug into the motherboard 72 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:28,720 for control instead. Another thing they didn't use was the case's included 73 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:32,880 mounting hardware. They clearly used something to assemble the computer, but 74 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:37,840 we were left with the full set of screws and zip ties. Not that we'll need them 75 00:05:35,039 --> 00:05:42,479 since the cable management was solid. I'm still not a fan of this uncapped 76 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,240 ARGB cable that could short out on something and some of these SATA cables 77 00:05:44,479 --> 00:05:50,639 could be tucked away a little nicer, but it's not bad at all. We need to talk 78 00:05:48,479 --> 00:05:55,440 about the CPU cooler, though. The contact frame that's included with their 79 00:05:52,639 --> 00:05:59,280 Arctic cooler is a nice touch. But Star Forge, you might want to let your techs 80 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:05,360 know that you don't need the full tube of thermal paste. And ours, while secure 81 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:09,680 enough, was actually not torqued down all the way. As for the heat sink, some 82 00:06:07,759 --> 00:06:13,520 of you noticed that it was a skew after I ripped out the packing foam, but I'm 83 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:18,400 happy to report that while it looks a tad wonky, it didn't seem to affect 84 00:06:16,039 --> 00:06:24,080 performance. Under our cooler, we find our most pedestrian CPU yet, mounted to 85 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:29,520 the most bulk of motherboards we've seen yet, along with some other kind of 86 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:32,039 mediocre stuff. Except for the GPU, our 87 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:38,639 only Radeon card this round is an RX6650 XT8 gig from three years ago. 88 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:44,240 We'll also be exploring the performance of this system with the 7700 XT upgrade 89 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:48,880 that we would have gotten for the $300 we had left in our budget, but our value 90 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:54,960 calculation will be based on the system that they sold us. Next up is HP with a 91 00:06:52,639 --> 00:07:00,039 new case that sports these nifty stealthy Wi-Fi antennas and a perforated 92 00:06:57,759 --> 00:07:06,240 front panel for better air flow for our dual 140 mm intake fans. We've got a 120 93 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:10,240 mm exhaust in the rear. And all three fans are wired directly to our 94 00:07:07,759 --> 00:07:15,120 motherboard headers instead of into the perfectly good RGB fan hub where they 95 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:20,080 did decide to route the RGB cables for the fans. Cable management on the back 96 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:25,039 isn't terrible, but on the front, come on, HP. Either use a nicer case with the 97 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:30,479 power supply shroud, you know, like the one you sent us last time, or just take 98 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:33,440 a little bit more time to tidy this up. 99 00:07:30,479 --> 00:07:37,680 On the plus side, unlike Dell, HP has basically no proprietary weirdness going 100 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:42,639 on that would prevent you from changing parts or upgrading in the future. And 101 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:49,039 upgrade in the future, you shall. On paper, this is our weakest system yet 102 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:51,599 pretty much across the board. Okay, I 103 00:07:49,039 --> 00:07:57,039 guess the slightly less basic CPU cooler and the 500 W power supply are 104 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:59,759 technically ahead of Dell, but not by 105 00:07:57,039 --> 00:08:04,000 much. Cyberpowers case is designed by Cooler Master and resembles a Masterbox 106 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:09,440 5 light, but with some better ventilation at the front. It includes 107 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:12,720 four 120 mm RGB fans, though 108 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:15,440 surprisingly no RGB fan hub. Cable 109 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:20,319 management is mediocre. No thanks to the board or the case. But at least they 110 00:08:17,759 --> 00:08:24,720 tried. Other than this unholy chain of four pin Molex connectors for those 111 00:08:22,199 --> 00:08:30,400 fans. Where they could have tried harder is the specs. Decent CPU. And 112 00:08:27,599 --> 00:08:36,000 surprisingly, this 600 W Avia power supply didn't fail our testing. More on 113 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:42,159 that later. But a single 16 gig stick of memory in 2025 and this subpar flower 114 00:08:39,839 --> 00:08:46,680 cooler. We didn't do formal acoustic testing, but I can tell you this one 115 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:50,959 gets pretty loud. Almost as loud as the Dell. Wrapping up our physical 116 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:56,480 evaluation. In third place, we've got Cyber Power, though I wouldn't mind some 117 00:08:53,839 --> 00:09:02,399 more amenities, especially front USB type-C. As for the win, I've got to give 118 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:04,560 it to Main Gear. Overall, Star Forge did 119 00:09:02,399 --> 00:09:09,200 a great job with cable management, and packing in the Fantex hardware was a 120 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:12,920 nice touch, but Main Gear looked ever so slightly cleaner. Not to mention, they 121 00:09:11,279 --> 00:09:17,279 didn't go overboard on the thermal compound. Of course, everything we've 122 00:09:15,519 --> 00:09:22,320 talked about just now, including the overlication of thermal compound, is 123 00:09:19,279 --> 00:09:24,240 just looks. I've got a feeling that the 124 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:29,360 beauty of these machines might be only skin deep, and the order might change 125 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:33,440 when we look at performance and value. 126 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:35,480 But first, software. Well, Dell, how up 127 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:40,480 to date and gaming ready are you this year? According to my report, the BIOS 128 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:46,640 and Windows versions were both from November of 2024, so just a few months 129 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:53,920 before our ship date. However, our GPU drivers were from July, like of 130 00:09:50,680 --> 00:09:56,560 2024. Resizable bar, an important 131 00:09:53,920 --> 00:10:01,800 feature for modern GPUs, was enabled, but we found no trace of XMP memory 132 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:06,959 overclocking in our antiquated looking BIOS. With that said, our memory was 133 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:12,560 running at its maximum rated speed of 5600 megat transfers per second. So, I 134 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:16,800 guess that's fine. Our recovery environment and ability to refresh the 135 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:20,640 PC were both configured properly. And while there were some Dell applications 136 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:25,040 pre-installed, they were for the most part not configured to start up without 137 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:30,880 permission. So we only had to remove McAfee during our debloating step. Let's 138 00:10:28,079 --> 00:10:36,000 move on to IBY Power. For those who missed part two, this is the kind of 139 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:40,720 weird PC that Miss Katesson accidentally bought from an unauthorized third-party 140 00:10:38,399 --> 00:10:46,000 seller on Amazon when I by Power directed her to get the system from 141 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:48,880 Amazon rather from them directly. And 142 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:54,800 this is an odd one. Our BIOS isn't too old. It's from September of 2024. But 143 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:59,120 our Windows install is ancient. I'm 144 00:10:54,800 --> 00:11:00,959 talking a 22H2 build from a year ago. 145 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:08,000 So, I mean, it's been getting security updates since the latter half of 2022. 146 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:10,399 But come on, 23H2 has been out for kind 147 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:15,839 of a minute now. And our Intel management and GPU drivers are both 148 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:20,800 similarly out of date. Looks like someone hasn't been updating their prep 149 00:11:17,959 --> 00:11:24,079 image. Thankfully, not only does the recovery environment work, an 150 00:11:22,399 --> 00:11:29,200 improvement over last time for I by Power, but there was zero bloatware and 151 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:36,240 no odd folder remnants on our drive. Both of which are nice to see. But wait 152 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:39,920 a tick. What's this? Oh, I by power. How 153 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:43,120 could you? XMPP is disabled out of the 154 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:48,000 box and our CPU cooler tuning is set to 155 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:49,440 a lowly 65 watts. Rebar may be on, but 156 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:55,120 you guys aren't getting any points for that since this MSI board enables it by 157 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:57,440 default. What a mixed bag this has been. 158 00:11:55,120 --> 00:12:04,160 Let's see if Main Gear can do any better. Considering their BIOS, Windows, 159 00:12:00,399 --> 00:12:06,000 and driver versions are all from 2025, 160 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:11,040 most from the very same month that we ordered the machine, I'd say they have. 161 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:15,600 Expo memory tuning and rebar are both enabled. There's no antivirus or 162 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:20,959 additional bloat to remove and no random leftover prep folders. 163 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:24,000 Magnificent. But it's not all good news. 164 00:12:20,959 --> 00:12:26,320 Our system had a little tiny overclock 165 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:31,040 that was pre-applied. Nothing major, just a PBO boost of 100 MHz and our 166 00:12:28,959 --> 00:12:36,800 curve optimizer set to all cores with a minus15 offset, which sounds fine. It's 167 00:12:34,399 --> 00:12:41,120 just that it didn't work. We did try a few adjustments, but our system outright 168 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:46,120 refused to boot with these settings enabled, so we ended up turning them 169 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:50,560 off, keeping only Expo enabled for our testing. Sorry, Main Gear. While I do 170 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:55,360 believe you that it probably worked during QC, alas, tragedy must have 171 00:12:53,760 --> 00:13:00,880 struck this system somewhere along the journey, which highlights the pitfalls 172 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:03,760 of factory overclocking systems. What 173 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:08,560 about Star Forge, though? Well, it appears they've done the opposite of 174 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:10,639 Main Gear and updated very little. Our 175 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:15,320 BIOS and GPU driver versions are from late 2024, and Windows hasn't been 176 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:20,279 updated since late 2023. Oh my goodness. And the Intel 177 00:13:17,839 --> 00:13:26,160 Management Engine driver is older still. Pity. They also left a slew of 178 00:13:24,079 --> 00:13:31,519 leftovers on the system like wallpapers and animations. But on the bright side, 179 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:36,320 look, outdated Windows and drivers can be dealt with by the user, and there's 180 00:13:33,519 --> 00:13:41,360 very little bloat otherwise, and XMP and Rebar were both enabled. Moving right 181 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:46,880 along, let's talk about the system that almost didn't get here. HP is an odd 182 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:51,680 duck this year. The BIOS version of our machine, F.08, isn't available from 183 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:56,399 their website, so we're not sure when it's from, but we appear to be just one 184 00:13:54,000 --> 00:14:01,600 revision behind F-09, which released earlier this year. So, it's probably 185 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:06,800 from 2024, like our Windows version, chipset, and GPU drivers. But if you 186 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:12,240 look closely at HP's website, you'll notice that we're on the latest versions 187 00:14:08,959 --> 00:14:15,519 of some of these. HP, are you suggesting 188 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:18,399 that AMD's most recent chipset drivers 189 00:14:15,519 --> 00:14:23,480 after multiple new CPU launches are several months old? 190 00:14:20,839 --> 00:14:28,240 Inconceivable? No, though, actually inconceivable. What this means is that 191 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:32,399 HP is not only not updating the images that they use to install their systems, 192 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:39,279 but they aren't updating their own driver database and website. For shame. 193 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:44,079 Also, while rebar was enabled, our recovery environment works and they've 194 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:49,040 left no CIS prep traces, they failed to enable XMP and had a bunch of unwanted 195 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:56,480 software installed like Dropbox promotion, my HP, Omen audio control, 196 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:58,480 and gaming hub and McAfee. We removed 197 00:14:56,480 --> 00:15:04,320 McAfee before testing, by the way, per our standardized process. Finally, 198 00:15:01,199 --> 00:15:07,199 there's Cyberpower. Their BIOS is fairly 199 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:11,519 recent. XMP and Rebar were both enabled. Their recovery environment works, and 200 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:16,240 system prep was nice and clean, which puts Main Gear on top, and CyberPower in 201 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:21,600 a clear second place when it comes to system prep with Dell making a surprise 202 00:15:19,199 --> 00:15:29,120 podium appearance thanks to their non- ancient software. But who will win the 203 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:29,120 allimportant gaming performance carriage 204 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:33,560 race? This is it. 205 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:41,000 This can't be right. Do mine eyes 206 00:15:39,839 --> 00:15:44,480 deceive me? Dell 207 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:54,920 wins. I mean, I know that a 4060 Ti is better 208 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:57,839 than a 4060, but look at this margin of 209 00:15:54,920 --> 00:16:04,399 victory. And what a fantastic writing instrument. Get yours today at 210 00:16:01,079 --> 00:16:07,639 ltstore.com. At 1080p, it's nearly a 211 00:16:04,399 --> 00:16:11,199 clean sweep. Red Dead Redemption 2, 212 00:16:07,639 --> 00:16:13,360 F-124, Cyberpunk, Allen Wake, Dell 213 00:16:11,199 --> 00:16:19,680 demolishes the competition when it comes to pure gaming performance. It's not 214 00:16:16,639 --> 00:16:22,000 even really close. They do suffer one 215 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:27,600 loss in Dota 2 where Main Gear's choice of a Ryzen processor, one that is cooled 216 00:16:24,959 --> 00:16:32,720 properly, not to mention quieter, helps them out in this CPUbound game. And I by 217 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:37,839 Power manages to pull ahead simply by again properly powering and cooling that 218 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:45,440 same CPU Dell is using. But the rest of them, hey, a W's a W and they're all 219 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:47,440 W's. As for our clear losers, Star Forge 220 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:52,720 lands at the bottom of the list more often than not with HP, Main Gear, and 221 00:16:50,079 --> 00:16:57,040 CyberPower trading places for second and third worst. What's particularly 222 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:02,560 interesting is the ray tracing testing we did. Yep, that's the RT performance 223 00:17:00,079 --> 00:17:08,640 that you can expect out of a 6650 XT. All right, it was a modern card at one 224 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:12,079 point, but AMD's newer cards are a lot 225 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:14,240 better in this regard. At 1440p, it's 226 00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:18,880 more of the same. Dell loses to Main Gear and I by Power in Dota and then 227 00:17:16,079 --> 00:17:25,039 crushes them along with everyone else in every other game. That 4060 Ti is 228 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:28,960 putting in the work. It's a real shame that our I by Power system didn't come 229 00:17:27,039 --> 00:17:33,440 with one, especially when it was supposed to. Whether the blame lies with 230 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:38,000 I by Power or with Amazon's crummy marketplace model, it has clearly hurt 231 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:43,440 them here. As you'll see when we do our what could have been analysis 232 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:47,440 later. Of course, raw performance doesn't tell the whole story. There's 233 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:53,600 also the question of value. And here, Dell's victory is still a victory, but 234 00:17:50,799 --> 00:17:59,840 not as clearly so. In Alan Wake 2, Cyberpower dethrones Dell. In Cyberpunk 235 00:17:56,559 --> 00:18:01,760 2077, Dell wins by less than a dime. I 236 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:07,600 by Power and Main Gear come out ahead in Dota 2 and then Dell wins by about a 237 00:18:04,559 --> 00:18:10,880 dollar in F124 and by about a quarter in 238 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:14,240 Red Dead Redemption 2. Still though, 239 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:16,720 what an upset. These results are really 240 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:20,799 going to make the overall pick a tough call this 241 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:24,559 year. Now, while Miss Katesson did specify that the system was for gaming, 242 00:18:23,039 --> 00:18:30,080 we thought we'd take a quick look at productivity performance. In our most 243 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:36,000 GPUintensive test, Blender, Star Forge is way down at the bottom thanks to 244 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:38,240 their lack of HIP RT capabilities. HIPP 245 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:42,559 is just AMD's version of CUDA rendering and HIP RT is the latest version of it 246 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:48,640 that utilizes ray tracing. But I digress. Dell is the clear winner here 247 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:54,240 again. But that is their only win in productivity. In Cinebench 24, I by 248 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:59,039 Power is on top in multi-core and tied with Dell in single core. while Star 249 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:04,400 Forge hangs out at the bottom. And in AV1 CPU encoding with Handbreak, Dell 250 00:19:01,679 --> 00:19:09,200 performs admirably, but loses to I by Power with Starge on the bottom again. 251 00:19:07,039 --> 00:19:14,480 My detective skills are intuiting a pattern here, and X264 encoding tells us 252 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:18,320 the same story, as does Puget Bench's Premiere and Da Vinci Resolve 253 00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:22,160 benchmarks. Main Gear manages to take second place in Photoshop, but other 254 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:28,440 than that, their performance wasn't much to write home about. Yet, if we examine 255 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:31,120 the cost of our systems, curiouser and 256 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:36,160 curiouser, I by power once again looks like a solid value proposition, winning 257 00:19:33,679 --> 00:19:42,000 multiple rounds here. As for the worst value of the pack, HP, I'm sorry, but 258 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:46,320 it's very clearly you. You are consistently at the bottom of every 259 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:51,280 chart we're flipping through right now. Overall, then, as surprising as it might 260 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:55,360 be, Dell looks like the top pick. Whether you're looking at pure 261 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:58,000 performance or performance per dollar, 262 00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:02,240 but value and performance aren't always number one in people's hearts. Some of 263 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:07,120 you out there care about thermals or care about whether or not your power 264 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:08,880 supply is reliable. To test our GPU 265 00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:13,840 thermal performance, we stressed our graphics cards with 4K F-124. And I'm 266 00:20:11,919 --> 00:20:19,120 happy to report that across the board, our system builders chose cases that do 267 00:20:16,559 --> 00:20:23,600 offer sufficient airflow, at least for the weak GPUs that we ended up with this 268 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:29,919 round. Out of the whole bunch, Star Forge performed the worst with still a 269 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:32,400 totally adequate 75° C average and a max 270 00:20:29,919 --> 00:20:36,960 of 78. As for the rest of our builds, they stayed under 70° on average with 271 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:43,760 our coolest systems being the Dell and Cyber Power at just 63 degrees average. 272 00:20:40,559 --> 00:20:46,080 though they were by far the loudest. As 273 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:50,400 for CPU temperatures, things aren't quite as rosy for some of our 274 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:56,640 competitors. Dell even managed to hit about 70° C average during 4K gaming, 275 00:20:54,720 --> 00:21:01,480 which is a scenario that tends to be less demanding on the CPU. So, what 276 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:06,520 happens when we run Cinebench on these machines? Well, as it turns out, the 277 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:11,840 boards really try to juice these processors, at least at first. I by 278 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:16,720 Power and Dell were the only systems to reach over 200 watts of power 279 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:20,240 consumption during their Cinebench run, but they quickly realized that they 280 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:26,240 can't handle that and throttle down to some pretty unimpressive speeds. I mean, 281 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:29,120 yes, 3 GHz is higher than the advertised 282 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:34,080 base frequency of this chip, but boy is it ever a lot slower than the maximum 283 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:39,120 turbo. And Dell's average is even worse at just 2.88 GHz. 284 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:43,280 For those of you buying an I by Power system, there's clearly thermal headroom 285 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:46,960 here based on our average temperatures. And you can adjust the power limits to 286 00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:51,200 get a little bit of extra performance out of your purchase. Though that will 287 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:54,880 take some tinkering in the BIOS, which you, the typical LT viewer, might be 288 00:21:53,120 --> 00:22:00,240 inclined to do, but the average purchaser probably won't. As for our 289 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:07,760 hottest system, it ended up being Main Gear at a sweltering 92° C average. But 290 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:15,840 to be fair to Main Gear, that CPU is pinned at over 5.1 GHz for the whole 291 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:19,200 test. And like it or not, 92° is below 292 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:21,200 AMD's TJ Maxx. So, I don't know about 293 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:25,840 you guys, but I would rather have the hotter, more consistent running system 294 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:30,559 over the one that's running cooler, but not living up to its potential. Either 295 00:22:28,559 --> 00:22:34,720 way, I think the win here has to go to Star Forge. Whether it was their 296 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:40,080 abundance of thermal paste, the contact frame on that Arctic cooler, or it just 297 00:22:36,799 --> 00:22:41,919 being an older CPU, it was only 700 MHz 298 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:47,280 from the max boost on average while sticking to around 299 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:49,880 51°. So, this mediocre performing system 300 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:55,039 will at least last you a really long time. Something else that might last you 301 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:59,679 a long time is this 460W platinum power supply from Dell. Don't get me wrong, 302 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:03,120 it's only 460 Ws and the proprietary connections means you can't build 303 00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:07,280 another computer with it. But when we ran through the light version of our PSU 304 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:11,919 tester, we confirmed that it is highly efficient with 115 volt and 230 volt. We 305 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:15,960 were so convinced that the results weren't correct that we went digging for 306 00:23:13,679 --> 00:23:21,640 the 80 plus test that confirms our findings. Incredible. I by Power used a 307 00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:26,559 high power HP1 J600GD 308 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:29,200 F12S600 watt. Very cool. This one tested 309 00:23:26,559 --> 00:23:33,200 poorly at 2% load efficiency, but this was otherwise a solid contender and 310 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:36,799 mirrors our MSI and Cooler Master units for the rest of our load points. 311 00:23:35,039 --> 00:23:42,720 Speaking of which, Main Gear and Star Forge both use the same power supply, 312 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:44,480 the MAG A650GL from MSI. These were the 313 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:47,919 best power supplies out of the bunch, featuring good load regulation, 314 00:23:46,159 --> 00:23:53,280 efficiency rating, and low voltage ripple or noise. Excellent selection. HP 315 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:58,640 also chose well with their Cooler Master PSU. It matches the 80 plus gold rating 316 00:23:55,919 --> 00:24:02,400 and has mostly average voltage ripple and voltage regulation. A little high on 317 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:07,840 the 3.3 volt, but nothing to be concerned about. Which leaves us with 318 00:24:04,559 --> 00:24:09,360 cyber power in the Avivia ATX PR600 319 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:13,120 watt. We didn't have a lot of faith in this one. And while it didn't explode, 320 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:18,400 we were right to doubt it. It's not efficient and doesn't stay above 80% 321 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:22,320 efficiency at 100% load. We're not sure if this is just one bad unit or maybe 80 322 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:26,480 Plus was sent a golden sample when they validated it for their rating, but it's 323 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:30,720 not great. It's a clear tie here between Main Gear and Star Forge with HP as a 324 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:34,240 runner up and I buy Power with the honorable mention. If you buy from them, 325 00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:38,240 it looks like you'll get quality power supplies that should last you for years 326 00:24:35,919 --> 00:24:42,799 to come. And while the Aevia unit in the Cyber Power system isn't great, at least 327 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:47,279 it uses standard parts. I'll take that over the low wattage proprietary Dell 328 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:51,919 concoction any day of the week, even if it is quite efficient in need. Which 329 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:57,679 leads us finally to a section we're calling alternate 330 00:24:53,880 --> 00:25:00,880 reality. No, not VR performance testing. 331 00:24:57,679 --> 00:25:03,120 VR hasn't been invented yet in my time. 332 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:07,679 I'm talking about the timeline where we accept Main Gear's offer, get the right 333 00:25:05,279 --> 00:25:13,679 PC from I by Power, don't have our order canceled with CyberPower, and spend our 334 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:15,440 full budget with Star Forge. Well, as 335 00:25:13,679 --> 00:25:20,000 you can see here, our productivity results don't change much. We mostly see 336 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:25,279 the Cyberpower PC make some great strides thanks to its stronger CPU, but 337 00:25:23,039 --> 00:25:31,360 these gaming results are something else entirely. It turns out that Star Forge 338 00:25:28,159 --> 00:25:35,039 is the beneficiary of having a yes much 339 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:37,960 much better GPU than the RTX 4060Ti, 340 00:25:35,039 --> 00:25:42,720 allowing them to win in almost every test. With that said, when it comes to 341 00:25:40,559 --> 00:25:48,240 ray tracing, which is becoming more and more important, it's astonishing just 342 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:55,520 how much better those third gen RT cores are in NVIDIA's 40 series GPUs. In 343 00:25:51,360 --> 00:25:59,520 Cyberpunk 2077 1080p RTON, our Star 344 00:25:55,520 --> 00:26:02,400 Forge 7700 XT alternate reality system 345 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:08,400 still manages to lose to our unchanged Dell XPS. And while the 4060 Ti upgrade 346 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:14,880 on some of our other systems certainly helps here, our Dell still manages to 347 00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:17,840 stay on top when it comes to pure value. 348 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:22,080 Also, while we don't have the same 120 millimeter AIO that you would expect 349 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:27,440 with the upgraded CyberPower, take a look at these thermal results and please 350 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:31,760 do yourselves a favor and avoid them. Unless you're buying a lower-end CPU and 351 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:37,120 trying to fit everything into a smaller case, these single fan AIO's are never 352 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:41,279 worth buying thanks to their poor performance. you're better off either 353 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:47,200 just strapping on a proficient air cooler or stepping up to a version with 354 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:48,799 a 240mm radiator. With that segment out 355 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:53,200 of the way, then it's time to declare the winner, which will not be based on 356 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:59,200 alternate reality, but only based on what we actually received. 357 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:06,799 Well, Lilock, who was it? You may not like it, and I may not like it, but this 358 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:09,679 is what peak performance looks like. No, 359 00:27:06,799 --> 00:27:14,240 Dell came first in gaming performance, both in raw performance and in value. 360 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:20,159 And they also won in our productivity suite. And while performance isn't 361 00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:22,240 everything, it is a lot. The customer 362 00:27:20,159 --> 00:27:27,279 support could have been better as well as the ordering experience. But those 363 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:33,200 are hopefully one-time events that you can suffer through one time. I would say 364 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:37,360 the main knock against our little XPS that could here, and it is a big one, is 365 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:42,159 that if you want something that not only looks like a gaming computer, but can be 366 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:46,720 easily altered and upgraded and tinkered with like a gaming computer, good luck 367 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:52,720 doing anything with this proprietary board, weird CPU cooler mounting, and 368 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,880 460W power supply that, frankly, we were 369 00:27:52,720 --> 00:28:00,559 amazed didn't blow up when Constable Lucas was testing it. With all of that 370 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:06,480 said, as a set and forget gaming box, darn it, I just can't argue with the 371 00:28:03,399 --> 00:28:08,960 evidence. For a runnerup and system that 372 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:14,480 I would be more likely to pick, it's a tough call. If we'd received the right 373 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:19,640 system for my by Power directly, they'd probably take the silver medal. But that 374 00:28:16,399 --> 00:28:22,559 loose motherboard and the dodgy purchase 375 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:26,399 experience. As for Star Forge, if we'd gotten the 7700 XT, there's a solid 376 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:32,000 chance they would have won the whole thing. But based on what we actually got 377 00:28:29,679 --> 00:28:35,600 this year, I think second place has to go to 378 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:41,279 Cyberpower. Purchasing from them sucked. What are you calling for? What are you 379 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:46,279 calling for? I want to buy the computer. But customer support wasn't bad, even if 380 00:28:43,679 --> 00:28:50,720 they just directed us to a video. And at $1,100, it's really hard to beat this 381 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:55,440 machine. I guess you're right. But I have to say that this year just didn't 382 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:59,760 excite me as much as it normally does. These new fangled computer gadgets seem 383 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:05,919 to cost more and more each year, and these 60 class cards seem to go less and 384 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:11,520 less far each year. What do you say next year or 2 years we up the ante? Up it. 385 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:16,159 Let's butter our bacon and buy some $2,000 gaming doohickeys. Excellent. 386 00:29:13,919 --> 00:29:20,080 We'll need a sponsor though. Maybe like a sponsor delete me want me to show you 387 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:24,080 how scary it could be if anyone could easily buy your data online. Within a 388 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:28,080 couple clicks, I found Elijah's info from one of the data brokers and I'm 389 00:29:25,919 --> 00:29:33,440 going to make him pay for pizza that he never ordered. Hello. Hi. Is this uh 390 00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:36,480 Elijah speaking? I'm just up front today here with your delivery. I'll be there 391 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:42,320 in a second. I didn't order anything, which is why I'm super confused. I have 392 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:47,919 this here. If you already paid 139, it says, but then the balance only is like 393 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:51,760 the 16. Who ordered this? It shows um 394 00:29:47,919 --> 00:29:55,039 Elijah. I didn't order this. 395 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:57,520 See you Elijah. 396 00:29:55,039 --> 00:30:00,640 What the is this? Who did this? You know, you probably should use delete me 397 00:29:58,799 --> 00:30:05,760 to remove your personal data online so people don't prank you. 398 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:11,039 This you I was pissed. I was pissed. All you 399 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:15,440 have to do is sign up. Delete me will do the work for you. You can get detailed 400 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:19,600 reports within 7 days and then the removal process starts. Use code LT for 401 00:30:18,159 --> 00:30:23,440 20% off at Delete Me. We'll have a link in the description. 402 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:26,720 Thank you all so much for watching. If you want more Secret Shopper, check out 403 00:30:25,279 --> 00:30:30,880 the last time we did I can't believe Dell won this year. It's first time for 404 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:33,840 everything. But that it's first time for everything. 405 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:37,600 I don't know. I don't know how they did it. He walked into my office for script 406 00:30:35,679 --> 00:30:44,600 review. Okay. And he goes, "You're not going to believe who won. How many guesses did it take me? Four or five? At 407 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:44,600 least four.