1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:07,040
Brands reach out asking for reviews every day but if they send the product

2
00:00:04,759 --> 00:00:13,080
to us directly how do we know that they haven't sent us a

3
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:16,640
uh special handpicked

4
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:19,680
unit well believe it or not with most

5
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:21,960
product categories this isn't a major

6
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:26,720
concern you see it costs millions of dollars to develop and validate a CPU

7
00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:31,559
for example which makes it pretty impractical to send out special or

8
00:00:29,359 --> 00:00:40,239
different on from the mass production units however we've always been a little

9
00:00:35,399 --> 00:00:42,960
wary of pre-built PCS you see so much of

10
00:00:40,239 --> 00:00:48,719
what sets one apart from the next is the care and attention that goes into the

11
00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:52,160
build so when Cooler Master offered us

12
00:00:48,719 --> 00:00:55,079
their half five Pro gaming PC it raised

13
00:00:52,160 --> 00:01:00,440
a lot of questions like since when is Cooler Master a system integrator and

14
00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:07,400
would they handpick a unit to send us to find out we did accept their offer but

15
00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:10,759
unbeknownst to them we also purchased a

16
00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:13,200
second unit for ourselves off of Amazon

17
00:01:10,759 --> 00:01:18,799
let's see then how these systems stack up both the one they meant to send us

18
00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:23,320
and the one they didn't mean to send us and let's see how this segue Stacks up

19
00:01:20,759 --> 00:01:27,240
to our sponsor motion gray they sit to stand desk and ergonomic chairs provide

20
00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:30,479
excellent Comfort at an affordable price so you can crunch numbers and not your

21
00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:34,399
spine check them out at the link down below and use code Linus for 10% off

22
00:01:32,399 --> 00:01:37,560
your purchase before our machine arrived we poured over the Amazon listing

23
00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:42,360
comparing it to cooler Masters Communication in an attempt to figure

24
00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:44,560
out exactly what to expect and between

25
00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:49,360
the description and some CSI style zooming in enhancing we were able to put

26
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:54,119
together a list of expected Parts we're going to have them all linked down below

27
00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:58,920
to our surprise and Delight actually when we totaled up the prices on PC part

28
00:01:56,119 --> 00:02:03,840
picker it was almost bang on cooler Master's 1 99 list price which at the

29
00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:08,959
time of recording has actually dropped to $8.99 making this a pretty good deal

30
00:02:06,719 --> 00:02:13,120
at the moment as long as they didn't bung anything up both systems ultimately

31
00:02:11,319 --> 00:02:16,720
arrived in one piece and we started with a quick non-invasive once over we're

32
00:02:15,319 --> 00:02:20,599
going to keep the unit from Cooler Master on your left side throughout the

33
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:25,400
video and the one from Amazon is going to hang out on the right now we didn't

34
00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:30,080
want to pull off any of the coolers or move any cables around since that could

35
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:34,640
affect our Labs team's results but we were able to confirm at this stage that

36
00:02:32,239 --> 00:02:39,360
most of the components were as expected and that both systems were identical

37
00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:44,920
save for the angle of the adjustable fan right here or so we thought we weren't

38
00:02:43,239 --> 00:02:50,800
at all prepared for what we found when we opened up the back

39
00:02:47,959 --> 00:02:58,599
panels no no not the different colored zip ties this the unit sent To Us by

40
00:02:55,959 --> 00:03:02,879
Cooler Master had a loose screw rolling around a screw that that should have

41
00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:08,040
been holding the motherboard in place that is exactly the kind of thing you

42
00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:14,239
might expect on a retail unit but that you would not expect on a cherry-picked

43
00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:16,200
review sample so good job Cooler Master

44
00:03:14,239 --> 00:03:21,400
not trying to oversell your quality control I guess anyway that screw wasn't

45
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,040
actually going to impact the testing that we had planned so we put it back

46
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:29,120
where it belonged boxed the units back up and drag them over to the lab I

47
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:33,879
should make it clear that up until this point we didn't make any adjustments to

48
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:38,720
components or even plug the systems in we wanted to be sure that our Labs team

49
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:44,760
got them in a fresh outof the-box state or not so fresh the unit from Amazon

50
00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:49,439
actually wouldn't even post right out of the box after some troubleshooting the

51
00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:55,799
Labs team discovered that the problem was one of the two RAM sticks neither of

52
00:03:53,360 --> 00:04:01,280
our systems would boot with that stick installed curiously that stick did work

53
00:03:58,879 --> 00:04:05,159
in an entirely motherboard so it could be that it's borderline functional I

54
00:04:03,519 --> 00:04:10,040
mean maybe it worked when Cooler Master tried it but overall not a great

55
00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:13,239
experience though I have to give credit to Amazon for their handling of the

56
00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:17,639
situation they offered to send a technician out to fix it free of charge

57
00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:21,759
for us and time permitting we could have gone through that process and gotten a

58
00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:26,360
new stick that way but we had spare RAM on hand anyway so we said hey thanks uh

59
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:30,400
but no thanks and moved on to testing our system side by side we can deal with

60
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:35,520
the warranty service later with both units booted we could finally

61
00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:38,160
confirm the I5 12400 F CPU and have a

62
00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:42,039
little poke around in the BIOS both of them came with the very first version of

63
00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:48,320
the BIOS for this motherboard from way back in October of 2022 that's bad but

64
00:04:46,199 --> 00:04:53,759
XMP was enabled out of the box and we didn't have any stability issues that's

65
00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:56,000
good resizable bar was not enabled which

66
00:04:53,759 --> 00:05:01,039
will hurt gaming performance so that's bad and Labs reported that both systems

67
00:04:58,919 --> 00:05:08,080
were a little temperamental about using DisplayPort until they enabled CSM

68
00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:10,639
which is also bad particularly troubling

69
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:16,039
in all of this is that there is a BIOS update for this board from March of 2023

70
00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:22,319
that specifically fixes problems with the RTX 360 gpus that are pre-installed

71
00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:26,520
in these systems so it's disappointing that they weren't updated but given how

72
00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:31,000
manufacturing lead times and shipping work it's likely that both of these

73
00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:35,720
systems were boxed up before the March revision we can't confirm this we didn't

74
00:05:33,319 --> 00:05:39,960
find any packing dates on the boxes but we did later find that the installed

75
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:44,759
NVIDIA drivers were dated February of 2023 which is as close to confirmation

76
00:05:42,319 --> 00:05:49,000
as we're going to get the Labs updated both motherboards in hopes that CSM

77
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:54,039
could be turned back off but found that things still worked better with CSM

78
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:56,080
enabled even on the latest BIOS for this

79
00:05:54,039 --> 00:06:00,319
board we were all set to start installing and testing games then when

80
00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:05,360
we hit our next snag again again on the Amazon system instead of the outof

81
00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:09,400
thebox new computer experience that we expected we saw the Windows system

82
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:13,680
preparation tool that's supposed to be run by the technician when they're about

83
00:06:11,199 --> 00:06:18,039
to pack up the new system for delivery seems like whoever was setting this

84
00:06:15,319 --> 00:06:21,759
machine up forgot to finish the job luckily our lab techs aren't easily

85
00:06:19,919 --> 00:06:26,319
deterred and both systems were quickly up and running and not only that but

86
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:30,639
they were refreshingly bloat free they didn't even preload any game launchers

87
00:06:28,039 --> 00:06:34,800
on these things that sucks unusual these days wow sorry I was just I was logging

88
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:39,840
into steam here and I couldn't help noticing this is a

89
00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:44,319
spectacularly awful keyboard it was this included with the system yeah Devastator

90
00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:48,319
3 I'm the one who got devastated how's the mouse oh good it's

91
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:56,479
a Devastator 3 Mouse um I mean it feels less

92
00:06:52,840 --> 00:06:56,479
awful is that both of

93
00:06:57,039 --> 00:07:03,039
them you know what I'm sorry I'm going to take off our label just to just to

94
00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:09,199
check no it's not our label that hurts

95
00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:13,440
the value argument a little bit just because it's the right price according

96
00:07:11,879 --> 00:07:18,599
to PC part picker doesn't mean that it's worth whatever we paid for it or that we

97
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,520
would have chosen it okay well let's

98
00:07:18,599 --> 00:07:24,479
play cyber Punk anyway once we finally got to benchmarking we found pretty much

99
00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:29,759
exactly what we expected for the hardware in these systems we tested

100
00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:32,520
cyberpunk 2077 Hitman 3 and total War

101
00:07:29,759 --> 00:07:38,440
Warhammer 3 at 1440p with everything cranked up and our systems cranked out

102
00:07:35,479 --> 00:07:42,160
virtually identical performance I mean I'm talking one frame per second

103
00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:46,960
difference at most which is within the margin of error of our runs we also took

104
00:07:44,759 --> 00:07:50,800
a quick look at csgo and this is to compare against cooler Master's claimed

105
00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:57,879
performance of 293 FPS and I don't really know what to

106
00:07:54,759 --> 00:08:00,560
say other than we have no idea how they

107
00:07:57,879 --> 00:08:04,080
got that number the good news is we ended up blowing it out of the water

108
00:08:02,159 --> 00:08:08,720
with an average FPS of 432 meaning that if you pick up one of

109
00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:13,159
these systems all you need to do next is pull on a hoodie from the new pcmr

110
00:08:10,479 --> 00:08:17,919
collection on LTT Store.com and you are ready to start annoying all of your

111
00:08:14,879 --> 00:08:20,360
console playing friends now the Labs

112
00:08:17,919 --> 00:08:25,039
team doesn't quite have their thermal testing suite formalized for desktop

113
00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:28,360
systems but I can say that we didn't run into any thermal throttling at room

114
00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:32,719
temperature actually a little above room temperature it's some and our AC is not

115
00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:36,200
in yet don't worry about it the point is we're not really surprised given the

116
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:42,240
amount of air being moved by the ample case fans in here and Cooler Master it

117
00:08:38,919 --> 00:08:44,880
seems has lived up to their name now the

118
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:48,800
script calls for lightning round Linus inspection so I guess this is the part

119
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:53,000
where I get to see if I can find any differences between our two

120
00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:57,040
systems h no big complaints about Cable

121
00:08:55,279 --> 00:09:01,760
Management though personally I would bring the 24 pin in from up here and

122
00:08:59,880 --> 00:09:06,839
then I would bring my USB in from right next to it minor thing okay there's a

123
00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:12,120
random zip tie and the one directly from Cooler Master hold on I can get this

124
00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:19,839
how's the front panel come off this case oh you have to release the clips

125
00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:19,839
ha what is going on with this twist

126
00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:30,480
tie nerd jewelry oh she said

127
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:34,760
no I guess I'm pulling panels off I might as well do the same to the back

128
00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:39,560
this is also a perfect opportunity to plug the upcoming noct to Edition LTT

129
00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:45,000
screw driver sign up for a notification of stock on LTT

130
00:09:42,399 --> 00:09:51,680
store.com not bad I do have to wonder um are they

131
00:09:48,959 --> 00:09:56,200
really saving that much on the natural plastic color zip ties on the back such

132
00:09:54,360 --> 00:10:00,760
that anywhere that the zip tie is not visible they use those instead of the

133
00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:06,160
black ones this is hilarious look at

134
00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:09,200
this all black zip ties on this side

135
00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:12,279
everywhere all ugly yellowish zip ties

136
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:14,760
on the back this seems to be the same on

137
00:10:12,279 --> 00:10:21,320
both systems but the reset switch goes into the RGB

138
00:10:16,680 --> 00:10:24,000
controller which oh interesting that is

139
00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:27,839
not that intuitive and kind of random when they could have just plugged this

140
00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:32,920
into the motherboard for RGB control wait no no they couldn't have what the

141
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:35,519
devil's going on here is this it yeah

142
00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:41,200
this is it what the why' they do that Cooler Master that's not intuitive I

143
00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:48,000
would think the reset switch would reset the computer not adjust my RGB

144
00:10:44,079 --> 00:10:50,480
lighting and also the lead for this is

145
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:56,040
right here all you had to do was plug it in there now it's controlled by the

146
00:10:53,519 --> 00:11:00,000
motherboard with that said we praised them for their bloat Weare free

147
00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:05,160
installation and in installing RGB software is arguably bloat depending who

148
00:11:02,959 --> 00:11:10,680
you ask it is nice that they're all the same though now it matches the RAM you

149
00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:14,760
know like it should what happens if I press the reset switch

150
00:11:12,959 --> 00:11:19,519
now um oh it disables that oh that's a good

151
00:11:17,279 --> 00:11:24,639
way for that controller to function cool yeah all I could think is just like it's

152
00:11:21,680 --> 00:11:29,320
dead simple that way yeah but like you lose the reset functionality which is

153
00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:33,160
not good I'd be pretty frustrated if I needed to hard reset my computer and it

154
00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:39,480
didn't hard reset just kept changing yeah just kept changing the

155
00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:41,760
RGB are you mocking me sir to cooler

156
00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:46,720
Master's credit though the experience however flawed is consistent on the one

157
00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:51,920
that we ordered from Amazon seems like they oh not quite consistent they've

158
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:55,920
routed the USB cables slightly differently overall though if I had a

159
00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:59,920
system integrator and my production team turned out systems that were this

160
00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:03,279
similar I would praise the consistency even if I wouldn't be happy about the

161
00:12:01,639 --> 00:12:06,639
fact that you know they don't turn on for the customer it's consistent yeah

162
00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:11,680
you can have the screen any color you want as long as it's black Henry Ford

163
00:12:09,399 --> 00:12:14,880
approved the truth is cooler Master's been playing the game long enough that

164
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:19,079
we didn't really expect to find any significant differences between the

165
00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:23,639
systems it's extra work to cherry-pick review units and if you take the chance

166
00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:27,480
and try to handb build something special for a reviewer that's outside of your

167
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:30,920
normal manufacturing process you've got a greater chance of embarrassing

168
00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:34,760
yourself s if a customer posts something significantly different on Reddit so

169
00:12:33,199 --> 00:12:39,880
it's good that Cooler Master isn't engaging in this practice however the

170
00:12:36,959 --> 00:12:43,959
bad RAM and the flawed outof boox experience in the retail unit not to

171
00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:47,880
mention that loose screw in the direct shipped Tower are indications that

172
00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:51,839
Cooler Master has some work to do on quality control if they want to be a

173
00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:54,920
serious player in the pre-built game given that their most memorable previous

174
00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:58,360
attempt at this had a chicken warming chamber I guess these hiccups aren't

175
00:12:56,600 --> 00:13:02,279
entirely unexpected but I'd like to see them do better as far as specs are

176
00:13:00,399 --> 00:13:06,199
concerned it would have been nice to see a 13th gen CPU but with the planning and

177
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:10,560
Lead times that are typically involved in PC system building not to mention the

178
00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:15,040
attractive pricing of 12 gen chips right now this is a decent deal at the list

179
00:13:13,079 --> 00:13:18,399
price I mean you'd pay the same to build it with the exact same Parts yourself

180
00:13:17,079 --> 00:13:23,519
and at the time of recording it's available at a $200 discount if that

181
00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:27,600
becomes a regular occurrence I'd say it gets a recommendation even if I can only

182
00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:32,399
recommend it for folks who have a bit of experience troubleshooting PC

183
00:13:30,399 --> 00:13:38,040
the if you like this video check out the recent one where we unleashed our secret

184
00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:39,880
shopper to test some of our sponsors I

185
00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:42,120
mean somebody's got to keep them honest right