WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:08.160 we bought them we unboxed them and we endured tech support hell and now 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:12.960 finally after three weeks of waiting 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:17.440 we're ready to share the performance of our fifteen hundred dollar gaming 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:21.520 systems in both gaming and game capture workloads 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:26.640 but not before we share with you some 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:30.880 interesting discoveries that cropped up while we were taking a closer look 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:33.680 at these machines because uh 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:39.840 oh boy there's far more here than meets the eye 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:44.079 thermaltake's a500 has a modern minimalistic design with brushed 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:49.260 aluminum panels and dual hinge swinging tempered glass doors check it out today 00:00:46.160 --> 00:01:20.499 at the link below 00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:26.799 okay uh i know 00:01:24.479 --> 00:01:30.560 i am just as psyched to find out which of our rigs produces the most FPS as you 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:35.759 guys but we've actually got some other really 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.640 really important stuff to go through here first 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:41.840 let's start with alienware 00:01:42.479 --> 00:01:50.479 so this thing shipped with a reasonably recent version of Windows 10 built 1803 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:55.280 and needed very few updates in order to get up and running the theme wallpaper 00:01:52.880 --> 00:02:00.799 and boot logo were all set so you'd know that dude you're getting a doubt 00:01:57.520 --> 00:02:04.320 excuse me i mean alienware and bloatware 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:05.360 didn't look too bad um so let's see here 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:11.280 we've got updater mobile connector customer 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:17.599 connect alien effects whatever for lighting and overclocking control but 00:02:14.720 --> 00:02:23.680 let's come back to bloatware later first something got weird 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:28.080 this system uses over four 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:30.560 gigabytes of RAM at idle that is double 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:36.640 our other machines and after we manually killed any and all 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:38.239 alienware slash dell processes it barely 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:43.120 budged then we subjected the machine to a CPU 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:48.879 stress test and this is even weirder normally 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:55.280 this kind of stress test loads up all of the cores to the hilt but on this 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:58.400 machine the load fluctuated 00:02:55.280 --> 00:03:01.120 not only that but the CPU would boost to 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:06.640 4.5 ish gigahertz hit temperatures in the high 90 degrees celsius then do this 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:11.040 weird thing where the cooling would rev up super hard then the temps and the 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:14.560 clock speeds would go down rinse and repeat 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:20.959 what because like if the processor can't handle the 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:23.200 standard load why on earth do they have 00:03:20.959 --> 00:03:27.680 overclocking support well to see how bad that would be 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:34.319 we fired it up and wait are you sure you got this right 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:37.920 this is bizarre this shows that the CPU 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:41.599 while overclocked neither overheated nor 00:03:37.920 --> 00:03:45.200 dropped below 4.3 gigahertz that is the 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:49.360 max 6 core load per Intel spec that 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:50.400 means that enabling oc stage 1 was 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:55.599 faster and cooler than the out of the box 00:03:53.200 --> 00:04:00.239 settings and not to mention essentially required to get the processor running 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:04.799 the way that it was supposed to to begin with 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:09.120 stage two was not as rosy with our processor shooting up to 4.8 gigahertz 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:12.879 occasionally but then quickly toning itself back down to 3.7 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:18.639 okay what made this even more puzzling was 00:04:14.799 --> 00:04:20.639 that after we disabled the software oc 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:26.160 that weird turboing up and overheating behavior completely disappeared 00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:30.639 and that's not even the end of our software and firmware and whatever 00:04:28.080 --> 00:04:35.520 issues with this box but we really need to move on to hardware now 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:40.080 so our graphics card is a standard issue gtx 1060 that behaved entirely 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:46.240 predictably minus the driver set from six months ago 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:48.080 so that's all right but there are some 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:52.160 issues here that we missed during the initial inspection first we found that 00:04:49.919 --> 00:04:56.479 the machine had a sloppily wired wi-fi module 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.759 then we noticed that while the box said 00:04:56.479 --> 00:05:03.360 NVMe our configuration is actually equipped 00:05:00.080 --> 00:05:05.199 with an m.2 drive that uses SATA rather 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:09.199 than pci express meaning that there is no performance benefit over a 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:12.479 traditional two and a half inch drive now our invoice was marked correctly 00:05:10.880 --> 00:05:16.000 it's not false advertising or anything like that it's just 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:21.280 kind of a drag anyway much more interesting is the 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:29.080 topmost pci express slot that runs at only 8x electrically rather than 16x no 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:32.919 matter what we did and that our 00:05:29.080 --> 00:05:37.199 multi-GPU approved power supply only has 00:05:32.919 --> 00:05:40.160 385 watts combined on its 12-volt rails 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:44.560 with no 80 plus certification whatsoever now given that this machine already 00:05:42.320 --> 00:05:49.520 pulls around 300 watts from the wall under a combined CPU and GPU load 00:05:48.320 --> 00:05:54.880 calling that sli capable is misleading at best 00:05:52.880 --> 00:06:01.199 one positive note is that the power supply fan does stop under low load and 00:05:58.400 --> 00:06:05.680 our machine idles at just 26 watts furthermore after the rev up throttle 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:10.639 down behavior magically disappeared the system would only hum up under load with 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:14.800 no sharp fan rev ups those naked vrm modules that we were 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:19.280 concerned about before by the way those did not end up heating up pretty much at 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:24.000 all and finally when it comes to the UEFI bio settings they were about as 00:06:21.919 --> 00:06:29.360 sparse as you'd expect with a pre-built machine like this with no option to save 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:35.039 a profile and SATA mode set to raid which then disables BIOS recovery from a 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:39.680 hard drive which is enabled by default so i guess all we can really 00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:39.680 say is uh 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:48.000 let's move on to the hp omen unlike the alienware our hp omen ships with Windows 00:06:45.440 --> 00:06:53.360 10 version 1709 from over a year ago 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:58.479 so between that and replacing the graphics driver from 00:06:55.199 --> 00:07:01.759 five months ago it took over an hour to 00:06:58.479 --> 00:07:03.680 get this thing updated out of the box 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:07.520 note is that the issue with games running slower off of the hard drive 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:11.280 versus the SSD that we encountered while using this machine in our walmart pc 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:18.160 video has gone away so that's good and we were also pleased to 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:22.080 see less than two gigs of our RAM being used at idle that is half of the 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:27.280 alienware onto software the so-called omen command 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:32.800 center commands almost nothing except for enabling dual 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:38.479 force mode to send low priority networking traffic over the integrated 00:07:35.599 --> 00:07:43.199 wi-fi and then higher priority packets over Ethernet but i mean given that they 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:48.319 both terminate at the same modem i'm i'm having a hard time understanding 00:07:45.919 --> 00:07:52.080 what the point of that is also of note our omen included mcafee 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:57.720 antivirus so if you want to uninstall it 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.720 john says hi 00:07:58.400 --> 00:08:05.840 now here's something weird our 8700 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:08.560 non-k processor boosted to about 3.5 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:15.280 gigahertz with all core turbo now this is well below the 4.3 gigahertz 00:08:13.039 --> 00:08:20.800 all core boost that gamers nexus measured for this CPU and only 10 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:28.000 above base clock now why hp might have handicapped the CPU 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:32.320 frequency in this way is not clear but what we do know is that this can only 00:08:30.400 --> 00:08:38.800 hurt it when it comes to performance moving on our graphics card is a bone 00:08:34.640 --> 00:08:40.719 stock gtx 1070 with as expected behavior 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:44.640 and then finishing it up in here we found a wi-fi module that we actually 00:08:42.479 --> 00:08:49.920 didn't notice during our unboxing also it turns out that our power supply 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:53.600 is rated to 470 watts max on the 12 volt rails with 80 plus certification 00:08:52.800 --> 00:09:00.080 so far more sli ready actually than the one 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:02.480 in the dell moving on to the BIOS well 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:06.320 actually you just don't get to pressing f2 at boot takes you to a diagnostic 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:10.959 screen for just about every subsystem in the omen from CPU and RAM to usb and 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:16.800 keyboard then going to advanced reboot yields a mostly useless gray on blue 00:09:14.160 --> 00:09:19.680 setup screen straight out of the 90s all right 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:24.880 let's move on to the eye by power rig now then which is apparently 00:09:22.160 --> 00:09:28.880 so advanced that janice is not even worthy of opening it and you're not able 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.720 to help me through that not my ability to 00:09:30.800 --> 00:09:35.600 mimic your ability to look inside a computer if you're not familiar with the 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.680 part it's going to be very difficult to do anything inside of the pc 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:45.120 while this one shipped with a recent version of Windows 10 the machine still 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:48.160 did require quite a few updates and the 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:49.360 graphics driver here is the oldest one 00:09:48.160 --> 00:09:53.040 yet i mean i guess that's uh what they had 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:56.959 rolled into their os image and they just haven't bothered to update it i mean 00:09:54.320 --> 00:10:00.320 frankly back at ncix we did a lot of stuff wrong 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:05.760 we did but we did regularly update the bloody 00:10:03.680 --> 00:10:07.600 graphics drivers for our gaming systems like 00:10:06.880 --> 00:10:14.160 i with that said this behavior doesn't seem that 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:18.880 surprising given the clap it together and ship it overall build quality that 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:24.800 we observed there were zero changes made to the UEFI BIOS so that means no 00:10:22.079 --> 00:10:29.279 optimized profile was saved even though the option is present on this 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:34.560 motherboard and in practical terms this means that while our invoice boasted a 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:39.680 free upgrade to 3 000 megahertz RAM you can see it in there it's all shiny 00:10:36.640 --> 00:10:41.760 ours was only running at the default 26 00:10:39.680 --> 00:10:46.640 66 megahertz don't get me wrong everything worked and 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:52.160 it was stable with our CPU boosting to 4.3 gigahertz max across all cores as 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:56.000 expected and our graphics card was factory overclocked with idle RAM usage 00:10:54.480 --> 00:11:01.200 that was normal it's just that we didn't really get a 00:10:58.160 --> 00:11:03.680 you know we care a lot vibe from the 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:05.600 overall build quality like 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:11.360 again this kind of sort of sloppiness 00:11:09.040 --> 00:11:14.640 doesn't affect performance which we will see is definitely a strong point for 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:20.880 this system but not even one of the CPU cooling fans 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:25.040 is plugged into the CPU fan header they put the pump there when there's an empty 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:28.880 pump header right here 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:35.680 i mean why and like we found a grand total of 00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:38.880 exactly one zip tie and 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:41.839 one twist tie in the entire system 00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:44.160 let's move on to the next oh 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:53.839 so this is what you get for 00:11:49.320 --> 00:12:00.320 1500 us dollars from origin pc 00:11:53.839 --> 00:12:02.800 a core i5 processor and a gtx 1050 ti 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:06.240 i mean at this point it almost doesn't really matter what else they do right 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:11.600 does it but for the sake of completeness let's 00:12:08.560 --> 00:12:14.639 take a look the os the machine shipped 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:16.720 with was recent and so was the graphics 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:22.000 driver that shouldn't be worth bonus points but apparently it is 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:27.279 idle RAM usage was sub 2 gigabytes another good thing but we did notice 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:32.720 that when we looked at the UEFI settings that while our xmp 3000 megahertz 00:12:29.839 --> 00:12:37.440 profile was enabled for our RAM the speed field was left on auto which 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:42.800 for some reason caused it to clock in slightly lower at 29.33 to origin's 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:47.680 credit even though only that one setting was tweaked on the machine it was saved 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:50.800 into a profile which we could load onto it for our performance testing 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:56.000 but profiles are only as useful as how 00:12:53.839 --> 00:12:59.760 enabled they are we've really hoped that our tech would prompt us when we called 00:12:57.920 --> 00:13:04.839 them for tech support to load the profile after that whole only half the 00:13:02.560 --> 00:13:09.680 RAM is being detected incident but he didn't looking under the hood we found 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:15.360 cable management that on the surface looked pretty good until we noticed that 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:18.639 our pump was powered via molex 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:20.880 which means no speed control and no 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:25.760 warning if your pump dies and then making matters worse we notice 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:30.399 that there is an available header on the motherboard that they used that they 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.480 plugged the front intake fan into instead 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:38.160 then this is the worst thing yet we came to the pass-through power cable that 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:42.880 connects the rear plug on the back of the actual system to the power supply 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:45.600 inside because it's got a really unusual internal layout 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:50.880 this here uses non-soldered 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:56.320 hobby grade connectors and on our machine the metal contacts were slightly 00:13:53.760 --> 00:14:01.120 exposed with no power off switch available at the back of the system that 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:07.600 means that while it would be unlikely these can slip off and someone could 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:14.480 accidentally bridge those live wires full ac power with their fingers 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:16.399 this could and should be done better 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:20.079 let's move on to main gear first we need to make a correction here 00:14:18.560 --> 00:14:24.560 during the purchasing part of this system the rep mentioned the two-year extended 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:29.199 warranty and we laughed oh here comes the 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:31.839 warranty pitch well he saved it for the last you know 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:38.560 oh man he mentioned it because it was free and 00:14:36.880 --> 00:14:42.480 that's a good thing but we were mostly laughing because we'd 00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:46.399 sat through so many warranty pitches in the last two hours 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:50.880 we should have corrected ourselves because free is free baby so thanks to 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:55.120 our commenters for noticing that as for the machine itself well the 00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:59.920 software side was virgin other than a custom boot logo wallpaper and a red 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:05.199 theme both the os and the graphics driver were recent and our gtx 1060 was 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:10.320 a factory overclocked version the processor clocked itself at about 3.9 00:15:07.760 --> 00:15:15.519 gigahertz on all six cores this is exactly what we would expect for a ryzen 00:15:12.560 --> 00:15:19.680 2600x and we noticed that the machine had its high performance power plan 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:23.519 enabled by default this would help explain why it had the highest idle 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:28.560 power draw out of our competitors at around 50 watts but that is considered 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:33.360 best practice with ryzen processors the UEFI did have a factory settings profile 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:37.040 set but there was really nothing in there that would affect performance just 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:41.680 a couple of networking related settings and boot mode forced into UEFI only mode 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:43.920 a closer look at the insides revealed that 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:50.880 well in terms of issues we had a really hard 00:15:47.839 --> 00:15:53.680 time finding fault in this build they 00:15:50.880 --> 00:15:59.279 even cable managed the back side of the motherboard tray 00:15:55.920 --> 00:16:02.240 digging deeper the power button was 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:07.759 slightly off center i guess but that's more of like a case qc issue and 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:11.920 actually no this was one the hard drive SATA cable clicked when we pushed on it 00:16:10.160 --> 00:16:17.360 meaning that it wasn't actually in a hundred percent but the drive was 00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:19.680 detected and did work out of the box and 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:22.560 given main gear support if that did come out in shipping i'm sure they would have 00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:26.320 been able to help us with it pretty quickly 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:33.279 so then you want to line them all up here i guess let's finally do it for you let's 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:34.959 summarize the specs of all the machines 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:40.399 we ended up with alienware shipped 00:16:36.560 --> 00:16:44.800 with a liquid-cooled 8700k processor 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:47.519 16 gigs of 2666 RAM a stock gtx 1060 00:16:44.800 --> 00:16:51.240 with a 128 gig SATA os drive coupled with the two terabytes of storage and it 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:59.199 was powered by a multi-GPU approved 460 watt power supply 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:01.600 hp shipped our omen with a 9k 8700 00:16:59.199 --> 00:17:07.439 processor with 16 gigs of 2400 megahertz RAM a vanilla gtx 1070 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:09.039 a 256 gig NVMe drive they were the only 00:17:07.439 --> 00:17:14.079 one to ship an NVMe boot drive weren't they and two terabytes of mechanical 00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:20.880 storage they also threw in a decent 80 plus 500 watt power supply and they had 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:22.799 a 200 canadian 150 us promotion at the 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:27.199 checkout it should be noted we bought all of these systems though during 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:28.640 Intel's gamer days promotion so every si 00:17:27.199 --> 00:17:33.039 had the same opportunity to take advantage of that i buy power jumped the 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:37.600 gun smartly selling us a pre-order of the core i5 9600k 00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:43.840 before it was formally shipping they cooled it with an aio water cooler threw 00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:47.520 it in an MSI z390a motherboard loaded up 00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:50.799 16 gigs of 66 megahertz RAM and through 00:17:47.520 --> 00:17:53.280 a 240 gig SATA os drive with one 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:58.799 terabytes of storage in it we got a factory overclocked gtx 1070 the most 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:03.440 powerful graphics card out of the bunch and that was powered by a quality 750 00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:06.240 watt power supply that we got upgraded to for free 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:11.600 on paper this one should be the fastest system 00:18:09.360 --> 00:18:21.760 for gaming origin oh origin we got a liquid cooled 00:18:15.840 --> 00:18:25.840 core i5 8400 with a gtx 1050 ti and 120 00:18:21.760 --> 00:18:28.720 gigs of SATA SSD storage with no extra 00:18:25.840 --> 00:18:33.679 mechanical storage for our game library the power supply is a high quality 450 00:18:31.600 --> 00:18:40.240 watt unit but the fancy z390 overclocking capable 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:42.559 motherboard even though it's its quality 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:48.559 doesn't make sense for this config our CPU doesn't support overclocking 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:50.080 honestly this config is a total dog's 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:55.200 breakfast finally maingear sold us the only AMD 00:18:53.039 --> 00:19:00.960 system in the lineup with a 240 millimeter aio cooled ryzen 5 2600x 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:06.000 this could end up very interesting because we did specifically mention to 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:10.480 everyone on the phone that we wanted to not only game but also record our 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:15.679 gameplay for youtube they went with an MSI b350m pro vd 00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:21.840 motherboard with 16 gigs of 2666 megahertz RAM a 256 gig SATA os SSD a 00:19:19.679 --> 00:19:27.600 one terabyte storage drive and a factory overclocked gtx 1060. all this was 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:31.360 powered by an evga 500 watt power supply and of note is that the 200 us dollar 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:35.600 discount that was applied to our checkout due to Intel's gamers day's 00:19:34.080 --> 00:19:45.280 promotion was something we were able to take advantage of however that works for uh 00:19:41.120 --> 00:19:47.200 an AMD based configuration okay 00:19:45.280 --> 00:19:53.280 so which one of these is the fastest for gaming well in a 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:55.600 massive surprise to no one i buy power 00:19:53.280 --> 00:20:00.640 and hp omen dominated our suite of gaming benchmarks 00:19:58.320 --> 00:20:05.600 with ibuypower edging out its closest competitor pretty handily thanks to its 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:09.520 factory overclocked graphics card and the fact that its CPU was turboing 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:13.039 correctly i mean you want your CPU turboing 00:20:11.679 --> 00:20:17.600 correctly that seems like a good idea right who knew 00:20:15.360 --> 00:20:22.400 main gears machine and our alienware aurora then traded blows thanks to their 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:27.520 similar grade of graphics firepower in the next tier down 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:31.360 and as for our origin chronos well 00:20:27.520 --> 00:20:36.240 it didn't manage to break 60 FPS in any 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:36.240 of our gaming tests aside from cs go 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:42.880 also for the sake of completeness we actually 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:48.720 tested the origin machine with both the core i3 that fit within our budget and 00:20:46.159 --> 00:20:53.840 the i5 that they up sold us to make theirs not only the worst performer in 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:59.679 the bunch but also the most expensive system that we purchased 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:05.840 now on to recording videos to post to youtube now this is presumably what led 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:07.840 main gear to recommend a six core 12 00:21:05.840 --> 00:21:12.159 thread AMD system now we never mentioned streaming so we 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:16.480 were actually kind of hoping for someone to recommend using 00:21:13.679 --> 00:21:20.400 shadowplay because it mostly just works and comes with very little performance 00:21:18.320 --> 00:21:23.919 penalty if you want to just you know cut together your frag vids 00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:28.320 but no i think everyone kind of assumed we were streaming 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:32.880 anyway on to testing we set obs to the 00:21:28.320 --> 00:21:35.919 same 1080p 60fps 3500 megabit per second 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:38.480 cbr settings on all machines and then we 00:21:35.919 --> 00:21:44.159 just kept cranking the x264 in code quality until we started dropping frames 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:48.480 which actually brings us back to alienware did what 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:56.240 so check this out regardless of encoder quality our aurora 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:58.640 dropped a savage number of frames and 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:05.120 spit out rendering errors so the benchmark that we chose would run 00:22:01.679 --> 00:22:09.280 at 60fps like so our game was fine our 00:22:05.120 --> 00:22:12.960 CPU usage remained reasonable and yet 00:22:09.280 --> 00:22:14.000 the end recording was unwatchable 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:19.200 every single time 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:22.080 and this behavior persisted even when we 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:27.200 switched to the nbank NVIDIA encoder which has nothing to do with the CPU so 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:31.280 ivan's like racking his brain for a week on this stupid thing trying different 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:35.280 settings recording to a different drive resetting and reinstalling the software 00:22:33.679 --> 00:22:40.799 using a different graphics card out of our inventory and even going as far as 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:45.600 asking one of the key obs devs what the heck is going on here 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:50.720 finally we relented and popped one of our bench boot ssds into the aurora only 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:54.640 for it to immediately stop having the issues 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:59.840 but then the mystery goes deeper still because we tried our alienware os drive 00:22:57.520 --> 00:23:06.799 in another similar spec test bench machine and continued experiencing the 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:08.880 same issue so while we do not know what 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:14.640 precisely is going on we've done our diligence and we've 00:23:11.520 --> 00:23:15.679 managed to deduce that something we're 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:19.919 pretty sure is just broken in software on our 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:25.280 alienware machine maybe it has to do with the high idle 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:29.360 RAM usage on to the rest then our main gear machine hung in there until the 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:35.200 medium quality setting that's our best result with our hp omen coming in second 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:39.760 i buy power came in third as expected starting to lose frames at the faster 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:44.320 preset when it came to CPU encoding and then as for the chronos 00:23:42.320 --> 00:23:48.559 well she did it right 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:52.480 what were we really expecting on a system that couldn't hit 60fps in the 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:57.039 first place so what's the takeaway from all this 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:01.039 when it comes to raw gaming power for the price 00:23:58.080 --> 00:24:04.960 i buy power took the prize that is if you're comfortable with their 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:09.360 quality tech support but that also doesn't necessarily mean that 00:24:08.320 --> 00:24:15.279 hp lost thanks in part to their promo price they 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:19.760 put up a surprisingly good fight when it came to gaming performance 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:24.720 and there were aspects of this system that don't directly impact gaming but 00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:29.600 are certainly benefits like the NVMe boot SSD versus a cheapo SATA one in the 00:24:27.520 --> 00:24:35.840 i buy power rig not to mention the carrying handle the excellent i o and 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:37.840 the handy easy hard drive upgrade slots 00:24:35.840 --> 00:24:42.559 now their tech support was far from perfect but they weren't dismissive or rude to 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.039 us and they did eventually solve the problem 00:24:45.360 --> 00:24:52.240 after those two we would have a tie for second 00:24:49.840 --> 00:24:57.039 if alienware could get their pre-loaded os figured out 00:24:54.400 --> 00:25:01.120 and also if their pre-sales and after sales support weren't both abominable 00:24:59.600 --> 00:25:05.760 across the board now i'm sure alienware would say that we 00:25:03.360 --> 00:25:10.000 got unlucky but here's my response to that between all the call transfers that 00:25:08.159 --> 00:25:15.120 we went through i'm pretty sure we talked to probably half a dozen people 00:25:11.600 --> 00:25:17.679 who worked there and every single one of 00:25:15.120 --> 00:25:22.960 them was worse than both of the people that we talked to at main gear 00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:26.880 so there's just no contest here main gear comes in third 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:31.760 speaking of no contest origin pc 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:37.360 they did do some things well their staff were polite competent and helpful 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:43.200 but at the end of the day this was a pretty simple transaction 00:25:40.080 --> 00:25:46.640 wii u fifteen hundred dollars give you 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:48.320 us gaming pc send and while they did a 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:55.039 good job of taking our fifteen hundred dollars i would argue that they didn't really 00:25:51.120 --> 00:25:57.760 hold up their end of the bargain 00:25:55.039 --> 00:26:01.840 is this a gaming pc well it's a gaming pc but certainly not 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:05.200 for fifteen hundred dollars so 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:09.200 i guess that i guess that's it right are we done 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:13.279 for this season for this season oh lordy are we doing this again 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:16.960 boy this was time consuming but uh we really hope that you guys have 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:20.559 enjoyed it i know ivan's been tearing his hair out but i mean was it fun at 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:23.440 least yes it was 00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:28.080 you know you know you know it was actually it was a lot of fun to go through this um maybe we'll do something 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:33.279 like this that's similar in the future leave us a comment in the video description uh with with what you guys 00:26:31.600 --> 00:26:38.880 would like to see us secret shop you know 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:42.320 lynum tech investigator and stoy ski and 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:42.320 all that good stuff so uh 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:50.159 now it's time for our sponsor 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:53.679 mastra the mass drop sennheiser hd 6x 00:26:50.159 --> 00:26:55.360 headphones sound fantastic and 00:26:53.679 --> 00:27:00.880 why shouldn't they they're based on sennheiser's legendary hd 650s with 00:26:58.080 --> 00:27:05.520 pretty much nothing tuned that is why they have sold over 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:07.360 50 000 units of this stuff just nice 00:27:05.520 --> 00:27:11.520 natural base and a really full sound to these open-backed cans they've got a 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:14.320 detachable six-foot cable now instead of the 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