Embarrassingly Bad: HP Pavilion $1430 Prebuilt Gaming PC (TG01-1160XT Review)

[@GamersNexus]

Pre-built gaming PC review playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jorcc5iPjJl5jpY We're running very low on Volt Modmats! If you want to get one while supporting us, place a back-order here (ships this week!): store.gamersnexus.net/products/modmat-volt-large

[@Rambo42088]

Love my desk sized signed mouse mat! Thanks Steve! Love your videos

[@siranjiviramm9302]

Can you test 3990x vs 5950x in beamng drive ai is benchmark

[@siranjiviramm9302]

@Sebastien Tides leaking too much damage everything

[@cppctek]

That is one of the most bizarre power supplies I have seen in a long time lol. Not gpu upgrade friendly at all. Yikes this is not a sustainable pc 😬 😳 no upgrade path that should be so not a thing

[@siranjiviramm9302]

@@cppctek why Prebuilt pc is evern exist in 2021what is point of Prebuilt company

[@Hardwareunboxed]

I told you these were trash and I know because I had to buy two of them to review the 5700G and 5300G :(

[@ShieldX_Snowy]

First reply

[@GamersNexus]

You rescued those APUs, Steve. You're a good person to give them a caring forever home.

[@Hardwareunboxed]

@@GamersNexus that's what I keep telling myself.

[@Boots3962]

Well im looking for a pc to run idle in the background. Will buy off you for the cost of postage 🤣

[@aringiri1946]

@@GamersNexus @Razer want a thermal paste for my razer blade 15 (2020) with which paste should I go with kryonaut, noctua nt nh1 ,or artic mx4,or kingpin kpx which one will last 8 -10 months without drying or significant rise in temp

[@ZestyRanchDressing]

I work at best buy and we unfortunately have a display for the Dell G5 PC and someone came in and threw on your video about it on a loop lmao

[@GamersNexus]

hahahaha

[@roxymigurdia-t5p]

That's beautiful.

[@Turok2]

Haha thats great

[@burner8959]

"Someone" you say.....sure....lol

[@blankblank224]

justice

[@EthyrielY]

The absolute lack of a reaction at the case falling really got me.

[@Vasharan]

If it dents the floor, I'd feel bad for the floor.

[@p0lar83]

Lack of reaction? He kicked it, did you not keep watching?

[@erlingnesbakken9871]

@@p0lar83 I think he means lack of immediate reaction such as an attempt to save it or a flinch or something. He just kinda let it flop on the ground with no reaction, and then a whole 5 seconds later he kicked it.

[@TheHammerGuy94]

“Yea, f that case”

[@ThumberBulls6]

@@Vasharan I doubt that piece of can could even dent a floor made out of cotton candy.

[@bluegizmo1983]

HP has lost their minds! There is absolutely NO WAY that collection of parts should cost $1400!! Even in today's crazy PC parts price gouged world.

[@stellanstafford6025]

I have the same pc with an i7, 16gb of ram for only $700

[@fiftyphonkartist]

@@stellanstafford6025 stop the lie

[@that_camo_bronco_guy]

I have the lesser version of this, Ryzen 5 3500, 1650 super, was $500, well worth that, idk about this tho

[@djsaekrakem3608]

@@that_camo_bronco_guy ryzen 5 3600 b550 motherboard 16gb ram bought off some dude for 200 bucks. Very rare to come across that. so If you do grab it up. These companies are realizing they can sell off all the old stock for higher prices because "market" "inflation" "Scalpers" and computers are still kicking 10 years later down the road. Windows 11 I believe will try to cripple that by bloating the OS. We will start seeing linux (prob ubuntu) take off soon because of the windows 11 issue. just wait man once support for windows 10 stops its all done for them.

[@that_camo_bronco_guy]

@@djsaekrakem3608 yeah thats a deal, I didnt realize win 11 bloated it that much, however im not a fan of the UI so I havent upgraded, much like I didnt upgrade to win 10 until win 7 was no longer supported

[@philtkaswahl2124]

Linus: *drops things by accident* Steve: *knocks things over as a sign of contempt*

[@thebundafamily]

Seen that. R.I.P. RTX 3090... Then almost dropped the Framework laptop 🤣

[@tim3172]

@@thebundafamily Seen that? Do you mean seen't'd'd?

[@NoGoodNoob]

He learned that behavior from the kitty.

[@SaberusTerras]

Then kicks it because it's trash.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Another useless review by GN. Gee, HP uses proprietary parts, no shit Sherlock . And they offered to sell you more RAM (which in fact you may find useful in next few years) . PSU is bad because it uses less power, I guess. Overall, it is now clear that GN takes money from certain companies (hint: Sony) and smears those who do not accept their blackmail.

[@qfan8852]

You have to give HP reps better credit. With those bloatware, 16GB will be totally unusable.

[@Carterthielftw_]

This is true

[@x8jason8x]

I guess people don't know that the product key is stored in BIOS these days, and you can just DL a clean copy of win 10 to get rid of the bloatware for free?

[@randypeterson566]

@@x8jason8x I need to do that lol

[@sjones72751]

@@x8jason8x true, until you find that common drivers such as they keyboard hotkey drivers and such are bundled with the bloatware. And removing it removes the possibility of turning your volume up and down until you install the HP support framework app. And then that app reinstalls most of the bloatware again.

[@x8jason8x]

@@sjones72751 No, that's not how it works at all. If you're not inept at googling, you can get hardware id's and install acceptable drivers.

[@Zaqry]

when i saw the case fall off the table i was expecting a really loud bang but instead got greeted by a ting

[@GamersNexus]

The sound of QUALITY

[@toanoan4250]

@@GamersNexus quality desk mat :))

[@it6uru]

Lmfao

[@matasa7463]

Soft and thin, that's the ways of the OEM.

[@JCrook1028]

That looked intentional lol.

[@Mr__Geno]

This one computer that was looking at and I'm so glad I caught this review. Steve, thanks for breaking this stuff down for us plebs that don't know much about building or shopping for computers. Glad I found this channel and looking forward to supporting this channel. Happy New Year!

[@Phyrre56]

"It's a timeless design" is my new favorite example of Steve damning with faint praise. Which is saying something, because damning with faint praise is one of his specialties.

[@Ltdcloud]

I had to rewatch this part, way too funny. Here's the timestamp for the curious : 15:41

[@RonnyJakobsson]

It has the same massive case cooling like my first build. A Pentium 100 MHz in 1994.

[@Calyrekt]

@@Ltdcloud that part and 9:46 "it's like I'm being gaslit by HP" hilarious!

[@techsavvycat2584]

@@RonnyJakobsson It also has unused headers labeled "COM A" "COM B" "PS/2" on the motherboard. Would fit right into 1995.

[@twystedhumour]

how about "anachronistic"? makes it sound so sophisticated and "mo' betta'."

[@junko4166]

Funny how all these corporations are always grandstanding on sustainability but keep pumping proprietary garbage out, wasting rare metals and creating more e-waste in the near future.

[@junko4166]

Even funnier how the general public keeps falling for it for some reason.

[@GameTimeWhy]

@@junko4166 general population knows zero about computers.

[@takehirolol5962]

It will be long until basic computer knowledge is like reading, writing and the basic math operations.

[@dihydrogenmonoxide9210]

@@GameTimeWhy my IT teacher calls the case a CPU lol

[@bubbledoubletrouble]

@@takehirolol5962 It will be never, thanks to mobile devices dumbing down UI for the general public.

[@roxymigurdia-t5p]

Honestly, knocking the case onto the floor probably improved airflow.

[@RT-gaming]

the lack of effs given is fantastic, i love it

[@TDavis-ml6kl]

That's funny!! Thanks

[@JigokuKamikaze]

While it was flying, definitely

[@fracturedrealitygaming1326]

I didn’t realized I’d tuned into Linus Drop Tips

[@Epic_Gamer_9000]

Plus the added percussive maintenance probably tuned it into an overclock avatar state.

[@k9cj5]

It's sad to see nothing's really changed with these chep oem builds. I remember when my parents bought our first PC in 99 to quickly find out that upgrading it to play any type of games was extremely limited. Since than I've built every PC I've ever had and never looked back. Luckily channels like this will make this practice more noticed and maybe some change will come. One can hope.

[@lillexus5589]

Gotta choose the right one, don't buy blindly. I have a MSI prebuild that is upgradable in every dimension you can normally.

[@rydoggo]

But even dells and compaqs from 2009 let you upgrade practically everything. Standard 5.25" bays, micro ATX motherboards as standard, and ATX power supplies. It's ridiculously easy to design computers around these and yet these large OEMs just stopped.

[@atomicbeachball]

The amount of disrespect you've shown this prebuilt (and HP in general) in this review has me laughing so hard. Thank you so much for being a beacon of light in these murky pre-built swamps!

[@arnox4554]

HP is such a weird company to buy from. Their business-targeted products such as the ProBook line are amazing, but their regular consumer-targeted products are constantly trash.

[@LZeugirdor]

@@arnox4554 maybe it's because of the premium price they charge and they rly don't wanna hear complaints lmao. To them the little people exist but the businesses opinions matter a lot. It's similar to different tiers of customer service based on money you spent on the PC or plan.

[@Nooboroshi]

HP literally stands for Horrible Products if you've worked as a computer tech in any capacity.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@arnox4554 eh, businness workstations from HP are literally the same as this thing. Laptops that cost an arm and a leg might be decent, but that's it. Even on servers they have to be weird

[@volvo09]

The absolute worst are these major brands.... So much time put into making proprietary parts. Surprised thay haven't make the video card proprietary. They are that bad.

[@perking5617]

"We've run all the tests, so now we can take it apart without accidentally making it better when we reassemble it" That one was good

[@R9A9V2]

line so intense it could fuse iron to cobalt

[@Dan-Simms]

"Timeless design, could be from any decade" got me real good, that was class.

[@jamieh4086]

Lol I have a 286 @ 386 boards that are green from the 90s so the statement is as funny as it is true. At least my 386 was AT form factor so it's got this hp beat in that regard😂

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The thing is I had a better case than that in 2007! More airflow, more mounting points for drives, better cable management. And that was a case I got for like 40€ HP went back more than that.

[@jakublulek3261]

HP is like Nintendo, cashing in on our nostalgia. Allegedly.

[@Battledongus]

Its spot on to it really looks like something from the 90s! So great!

[@Crunchifyable2]

I had this case (component shortages, reasons), and the case is the heatsink. You could cook on it. I ripped out the gaming stuffs, put it all on a real board, and put a office grade CPU in it and gave it to some old folks.

[@scorchwave1]

Gave it to some old folks 😂 not sure why I find that so funny.

[@Robemcla]

I'm pretty sure they recommended the 32 gb of ram for gamming so you can load the game and the bloatware at the same time.

[@bobbymiller5297]

warzone itself on my pc uses 17 gigs of ram and then windows 10 uses 4 gigs. total 21 gigs with just those 2 things running though

[@shrugchan5914]

Lmao

[@maestrohun]

@@bobbymiller5297 LOL. depends. And That crap could eat up 8-9GB of VRAM with no reason...

[@fuckoff565]

@@bobbymiller5297 warzone allocates it. It doesn't use all of it.

[@bobbymiller5297]

@@fuckoff565 ohh okay. :) it just shows on my pc is being used so I don't know lol. Far cry 6 is using 12 gig of VRam . So I'm glad I went AMD gpu

[@crimsonradar8017]

"You're probably watching these videos in hopes of getting a good GPU out of them for your custom build." Nah I just really like these vids. I can't be the only person watching this purely for the entertainment value of seeing how terrible these can really be.

[@ifiwantyoutofeel]

He's lying to you, the gpus are great 👍

[@andrewlebedev7749]

I like watching them as a reminder of how much shit I'd be in if I decided to be lazy and buy one of those instead of custom building my own.

[@Cinkodacs]

@@andrewlebedev7749 Answer: a lot of shit, you would be in a lot of shit. :)

[@KOS762]

I watch them, for the laughs. I built my own Frankenstein... Good part here, and a good part there....... It's ALIVE!!!!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It's the same for me. I'm still fine with my 1060, so no new GPU needed for now. But this series means more people get informed about the stones that like on the prebuild road.

[@ThornyBeard]

"They're doing bizarre things again." A phrase that could absolutely be applied to most pre-builts.

[@SuperTrb0]

You do a really great job of steering us away from bad buys on pre-built systems. I wish you’d do a series on smart buys for pre-built systems or even a series on home built systems that are reasonable.

[@gokou0017]

I guess smartest buy is not to buy a prebuilt 😋.

[@leftypirate]

@@gokou0017 some people it is more convenient. i am handicapped in a wheel chair with one working arm lol it was easier to buy a prebuilt for me :) i only play runescape so i didnt need much lol

[@obiwankenobi661]

@@leftypirate dude... youre an EXTREME exception. im sorry but theres maybe 11.5 people like you in the entire world. safe to say that EVERYONE ELSE shouldnt buy prebuilt computers.

[@JCTorresDFW]

@@leftypirate I don't mean to sound rude, but it's safe to assume that most people that buy prebuilts aren't handicapped and missing an arm. Most of the time it comes down to either not knowing how to build your own PC, or not wanting to build it yourself. Warranty/support is also a factor, but that's misguided since support doesn't really offer much help anyway and PC parts can already be RMA'ed.

[@leftypirate]

@@JCTorresDFW everyone is entitled to their own opinions. there's a lot of handicapped ppl that play. some ppl don't mind buying a prebuilt with their money. you do what you want with your moneys and we will with ours :D

[@sohamsengupta6470]

The alphabet+function key bit of the hp keyboard is literally their low end laptop keyboard slapped onto cheapass plastic, absolutely incredible

[@Joze1090]

Gojira, nice.

[@execthts]

Also, it's got brightness setting function keys shipped as a desktop keyboard.

[@sohamsengupta6470]

@@execthts I'm just impressed that it doesn't have f1 bound to some random hp user manual thingamabob like the 2016 hp laptop I'm familiar with, especially because they almost definitely have some variety of similar bullshit help thing loaded onto the pc somewhere.

[@AraiDigital]

@@execthts Holy shit i did not realize that, lol.

[@Shmbler]

I love those GPU shrouds that actually touch the PCB and rip off SMD components when you press on the shroud during card insertion. Designed to perfection.

[@mattparker9726]

12:42 what's hilarious and sad at the same time, is, he inside of these prebuilds hasn't really changed in the last 20 years.

[@GregM]

I totally agree. The inside of that computer looks like an old i3 2nd gen along with the still proprietary ps and connectors.

[@Shotblur]

@@GregM forget that, it looks like an OEM Intel Pentium 4 box from 2004 on the inside.

[@grihoriko8800]

@@GregM lol no, I have first gen i5 in my system and I can tell it is blue PCB and looks WAAAY better than this crap! I think the last time I saw green PCB on PC was in 2000.

[@samiraperi467]

@@grihoriko8800 The last time I saw a green mobo was... last year or the year before? Granted, it was a Core 2 Duo so around 15 years old. :D That is, unless you count the "industrial" stuff I have lying around.

[@chuuni6924]

@@samiraperi467 Nothing at all wrong with green motherboards. Green is generally much better than black, since black just tends to have the effect of obscuring traces and stuff. The only reason you'd want black is if you prefer form over function.

[@henryatkinson1479]

9:30 HP has been using those stupid screws since the 90s. I helped dismantle a school fleet of probably 200 HP towers from between the late 90s and early 2010s, they basically all used the same stupid torx-flat combo head. They really love to strip too, since they're made of crap.

[@whatiskensworth]

Yeah I feel the frustration here big time. I work in a local electronics repair shop, and recently had a customer who wanted me to take one of these and "put it in a new case." He was starting to stream and create content and found his performance would drop heavily after ~20 minutes of streaming, and after some diagnostics sure enough he was thermal throttling. Anyway, as you well know moving this system to a new case wasn't as simple as migrating the existing components as *everything* was proprietary. A new board, PSU, and CPU Cooler (yep, another proprietary stock cooler 🙄) all needed to be purchased alongside the new case and fans. The price quickly skyrocketed and I feared losing a customer over something that was neither the customer's fault nor mine, but rather the insistence these OEMs have on making it harder and harder to repair/upgrade your own device and not following industry standards. Luckily the customer was understanding after some explanation, and I essentially took a wash giving them a labor discount, but this is objectively bad design that's harming both consumers and other businesses. Here's hoping the journalistic integrity of people like Gamers Nexus and the word of mouth from other tech professionals will be able to help people avoid purchasing these intentionally bad designs. Your average consumer would have no way of knowing these flaws at purchase otherwise. Get your shit together, OEMs.

[@eideticex]

Sadly I fear if you were to explain all this to the customer, they would view it as you don't know what your doing. Sunken cost fallacy combined with this crap is a recipe to shove some small shops out of business with confusion instead of a good product.

[@morph5014]

I know exactly what you mean. Total pain to put these prebuilts on another case.

[@ViolentMLG]

You can't really blame the OEM's either though, its a chicken-egg issue and its also partially the customers fault. The standards have been brought down so low that in attempting to elevate them you'll kill your business. You think if HP cut its profit margins, potentially losing out in sales, to make its PC more upgradable that a customer would appreciate them? I mean, maybe a few, but I find it unlikely to have any sort of real impact. All the customer is going to weigh is; "RGB, LOOKS COOL, THIS ONE I7, THIS ONE I7, THIS ONE 2060, THIS ONE 2060". If its cheaper, looks cooler, they buy it. They're far from a casual, let alone an enthusiast. I know from first hand EXP, I ran an ebay store selling gaming PC's and I quickly realized that people will buy anything as long as you claim it can do what they want. I always went the honest route, because Id rather not deal with a bad review, returns, and I'd rather just be a decent person, but I always knew that it wouldn't get people to buy from me, it never did, without failure, "Can this PC do something a $2000 PC can do", "Nope, only a $2000 PC could do that", then, they probably went and bought elsewhere and still ended up disappointed, its just that someone else was willing to lie to them. Its why you never see high-end components sold in OEM's. I'd love to sell somebody components with quality, but there is hardly anyone who exist who'd buy one, and that's just the truth. Go tell a customer; "Well, my PC is better than Joe blow because my PC won't explode in 2 months" and they go ask Joe blow, and Joe blow is like; "Nope, that's a lie", so they just listen to what they want, its confirmation bias. You're just seen as a liar/someone who's trying to take advantage of somebody when you try to talk them out of what they want.

[@99897767]

hurting your business is exactly their goal, if you can't fix it they earn more money

[@aleks138]

So a customer buys a prius and tries doing racecar stuff with it. When that doesn't work they want you to put the prius engine in a racecar. And when that doesn't work it's the manufacturer's fault? How about telling the customer to use the right tool for the job. And if he doesn't want to do that he can keep the side panel off

[@Juurus]

It'd be hilarious if the HP motherboard was compatible with the Dell case.

[@lowzyyy]

Great profile picture haha

[@Dimondminer11]

That profile pic XD

[@andymath89]

THAT PROFILE PICTURE LMAO

[@x8jason8x]

I can make any mobo work in almost any case. Not that I would. It's just like Steve said, future e-waste. lol

[@wrathofsocrus]

@@x8jason8x They fit in larger ATX cases. I snagged a $25 Acer board with nearly identical layout to revive a Skylake i5. Even came with the wifi card at that price. It takes a standard ATX power supply, while most HP boards are proprietary like in this video. HP deserves a swift kick for purposely sabotaging standards to needlessly create e-waste.

[@Dagger_323]

It’s always amusing when an OEM makes claims that Intel has a more “advanced ecosystem” and is for those who want the “ultimate in performance” while claiming that AMD is best for those on a budget (**erhmm Alienware**). One of two things: either these people are still living in 2017, or they have struck a deal with a certain CPU brand and are thus marketing said brand over the other by making completely false claims about it. Something tells me the latter option is the more likely scenario…

[@matasa7463]

They have no training and usually zero interest in computers. They'll say anything to make a sale.

[@Dagger_323]

@@matasa7463 I’m not just referring to sales reps. Dell/Alienware for example specifically markets their Aurora towers outfitted with Intel CPUs as being above in tier to their AMD offerings, both in description and naming. They know exactly what they’re doing.

[@0LoneTech]

They've struck that deal... in the 1990s.

[@gabrielm.942]

The higher ups and people who make those calls don’t know much about Gaming Pc’s and likely new a brief amount 5 years ago or so

[@LaCroix05]

From business point of view there is nothing wrong calling Intel has more "advanced ecosystem". Why? Because getting AMD CPU is hard right now. You maybe can get 1 or 2 AMD CPU , but thousands? I doubt it. TSMC simply cannot give the output the world want right now. And it's worse because TSMC fab also need to share it's output to Apple and other. As manager myself, I understand the decision why they force Intel as more "advanced ecosystem" for the marketing sales line. Because telling people "we cannot get AMD chip" is just not going to make your sales up. While somehow "lying" will make some parent who don't understand IT stuff buy the thing. I point out again this is from business viewpoint. If you think it from IT Enthusiast viewpoint, this will not make sense.

[@H4Carson]

Thank you for this series! I had actually ordered one of these HP prebuilts before I saw this video. It wasn't scheduled to ship until March 21 so I canceled the order and I have parts for a build coming this weekend.

[@criteecgaming]

I needed a pc like yesterday for a job I was doing so I bought a HP prebuild just like this one a few years ago for about $600 and it's been the most solid pc I've ever owned. It takes a few minutes to uninstall the third party bloat, I bought it before the massive inflation, upgrades are limited by the motherboard, but it still plays any game I throw at it. I've never had temp issues either. All my buddies are avid pc builders who built pc's around the same time for way more money and they've had nothing but trouble since. Gone through multiple gpu's, bios bricking problems, overheating and so on. The problem I think is that Nexus did this series during the highest pc prices I've ever seen in my life due to limited supplies, and he never thinks about the users like myself who just needed something right now that works and works every time, can't stress every time enough as my job depended on it. Even if I don't get that extra 10fps or I can't upgrade hardware past a couple generations because I'm stuck with a proprietary board I consider it a good $600 investment.

[@Ang417]

@@criteecgaming that's what I was thinking this PC is $600 that's a good deal to me

[@ceeinfiniti1389]

@@criteecgaming Do you know the specs of the build, as in the parts by any chance? I'm into DIY computers and I would like to see how comparable building a computer for $600 compares to what you got. Also good to hear that what you got was solid when you needed it and still is!

[@DrewOn22FPS]

@@ceeinfiniti1389 I can send you a link rn of this pc with a Gtx 3060 8 ddr4 and 500gb ssd for 740$

[@ceeinfiniti1389]

@@DrewOn22FPS sure

[@Anduvir]

The interior of the case and motherboard's shape really bring back the memories about one HP system I was disassembling 3 years back that was from 2004 and had P4 in it xD

[@solouno2280]

it is the same design of my old pentium 4 (non HT, that was why i still used windows 98)

[@cardinaldriver]

And they still use the single Torx / standard head screw that Compaq invented in 1995 for side panel retention. REAL secure... one should have no worries of their buddies coming over and lifting their GPU with that beast that almost everyone is familiar with!

[@MementoMori-xx5qo]

@@cardinaldriver Its designed intentionally so the screws dont strip at the factory, the flat had guides it in. The reason the case looks the way it does, without too many fan holes, and with that nasty looking metal everywhere is to comply with EMF radiation regs. Quite a few things Steve criticises aren't actually to save money or stupid, they have reasons.

[@cardinaldriver]

@@MementoMori-xx5qo I'm well aware of FCC regulation and RFI compliance, what I dont get is that I have a 20 year old HP Pavillion with the same basic layout and I can guarantee it provides better torsional support and RFI abatement albeit a little worse airflow. But in all seriousness, thats a very interesting bit of information you shared on the screw. Theres really nothing wrong with HP so please don't take offense if you work for them. HP is the ONLY company whose hardware outlasted generations of OS and are sitting on sides of roads in perfect working order. At least that's how they used to be. They were TANKS...yeah! Peace bruthah.

[@no_misaki]

@@cardinaldriver My HP omen hits 95C when doing anything remotely CPU intensive and had it's GPU fail within the first 3 months I owned it. I was informed by one of their support center technicians that those temps are completely "within spec" while he was replacing said failed GPU and benchmarking my system. I'd have returned it but they want an arm and a leg for the "restocking" fee. They are a trash company.

[@mleise8292]

32 GB of RAM starts making sense once you open up task manager to take a look at the process list.

[@OVERKILL_PINBALL]

*"You wouldn't be ablet to tell if this computer was from 1990 or yesterday"* So true.. Well said Steve. This thing is pathetic...

[@creaturedanaaaaa]

for real stick one of the HP RX 460s in here and the guts would look ancient and still be able to play a bunch of current games

[@alexg7856]

We just got some new "high end" HP Zbooks for work. And I can't believe how insanely terrible the BIOS is. These are laptops that cost over $2k and they're all still running DDR 4 2666 RAM with no XMP available in the bios. The bios on these is even more limited than the ones in the video. It's just insane how shitty HP machines are for the price you pay.

[@danb4900]

Why would a work based laptop have XMP overclockable ram?

[@C3l3bi1]

@@danb4900 Because its a 2000 dollar laptop? i can get a 2000 dollar laptop that i can use for work AND overclock all the same technology doesnt magically fall into categories.

[@foobarbazbaa5598]

15:49 That was my first thought when the case was opened. Made me nostalgic for the days of sharp-edged off-beige cases with archaic green PCBs inside.

[@azmc4940]

Yea, it's just a bit disappointing that the case isn't colored beige-grey like in the 1980s.

[@Custodian405]

yep, inside still pretty much looks exactly like the Dell Pentium 4 i had in like 2000-2002. Same exact chassis for sure.

[@rtyzxc]

Timeless design!

[@larryjames343]

Yes, and the mustard/ketchup colored wiring just scream that they must be quality. Brings back memories of my 286

[@Junior41180]

If you have never cut yourself on your case, do you even PC?

[@ponchoissean]

“This is incredibly annoying and ruined our day.” Fucking love this channel.

[@Felipemelazzi]

24:54

[@KOS762]

It would have been better if the garbage can was lined up for the fall. This way, Steve wouldn't have had to pick it up, to throw it away.

[@psivewri]

I spat my drink out when you knocked it off the table ahaha

[@CarbonPanther]

Are you sure you didn't accidentally drink your eucalyptus oil beforehand?

[@Quicksilver-7791]

I spat my drink when I saw you here ..

[@wraithofsolidarity]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@JessyU13]

I definitely would have too...hahhaha

[@dkat1108]

Then he kicks it out of the way....LMAO

[@thatboi1140]

I unfortunately bought one of these around 5 months before this review and didn’t put the effort into looking too much into it, and it just completely bricked yesterday. I can certainly attest to this not being worth the money.

[@lilwoodiewood3457]

Did u even try fixing it it could be something as simple as something not being plugged in all the way or your os could've gone corrupted.... which a corrupt os isn't there fault .....

[@catracho987]

Same here bought one around 7 months ago. And mine died about 5 days ago. It was doing so good but my gpu started overheating

[@owo1744]

I absolutely hate myself for buying one of these. Bought one 4 years ago. It had a 1060 6gb, ryzen 5 2400g and a single 8 gig 2666hz RAM, giving it 6.9 gigs of ram....

[@bulletproof4716]

It's the shitty case and the lack of proper air flow. I got one a while back and changed the case and it's running great

[@zeroturn7091]

I got the TG01-0023w back when the PS5 launched, and really regret it. I swapped out the 1650S for a RX6600, and after updating Adrenaline my LAN port is fried (not even recognized in the BIOS even after a reflash) and the GPU is no longer recognized in the PC. Switching it back to the 1650S works and the RX6600 works in other desktops. I might put a 6400 in it, and give it to my kid. As far as the LAN port the only thing I recall was installing Virtualbox, to run a NAS VM. Again an Adrenaline update knocked all of this out. These units are not meant to be upgraded at all, regardless what HP claims.

[@Spikeypup]

"It's a Timeless Design! It could be from ANY decade!" Absolutely priceless Steve, golf clap galore.

[@Fay7666]

The only good part about these PCs is that they're all over eBay for extremely low prices. If you're lucky, you can get a whole 5700G system for around the price of the 5700G itself.

[@Fay7666]

Chuck in an extra stick of RAM, and you're rolling for a good hold-over system for this GPU-pocalypse. When cheap loose 5300Gs start making their way to eBay, swap that in and voila cheap office PC.

[@MrPhooey442]

@@Fay7666 We should be near the end of all this crap. Crypto is about to go through massive changes.

[@r3do_]

@@MrPhooey442 I hope you are correct, don't know if I can wait for a GPU any longer.....

[@brianbrians3157]

Yeah about 6 months ago I scored the older i5-9400f/1660Ti version refurbished for $515 on vip outlet via ebay. At basically half price I couldn't pass it up.

[@thefirehawk1495]

@@r3do_ There's a pity party for GPUs in every tech video, I don't understand why, even yesterday I've checked newegg and there was stock. It's expensive? Yes. But I've bought a 3080 Suprim for gaming for double MSRP back in April and its already paid off due to mining on the side and hodling the mined ETH since it was 2000$. If I can do it so can you and almost everyone else. Just buy it. If you don't have the money buy with credit and have the card pay for it monthly. I don't get what the matter is to be honest. All my friends got their cards months ago as well and so far it has worked out for everyone. Before ETH 2.0 there's still 3 or 4 months to go. Maybe if you get it now you won't pay the entire card until then but you'll probably pay most of it.

[@kupaN9]

12:40 When he said "80+ gold....Allegedly" I had a sudden desire to hear Project Farm say "We're gonna test that".

[@braydenkenney3313]

The most ambitious crossover

[@f-ckmyr0fil788]

walk nicely and quietly🤓🧐🤭🤫🤥🤡🤠

[@f-ckmyr0fil788]

he lay down again in the bed⛹️‍♂️🏊‍♀️🏊‍♂️🏇🏄‍♀️🏄‍♂️🥌

[@syrynx4454]

Except its worthless since its proprietary shit.

[@BigBear--]

Having just watched Project Farms Slip Joint Pliers comparison a few minutes ago…I find this extremely hilarious. Though secretly hoping that it may happen one day. It’s be even more fun to throw AvE into the mix…with his Canadian witticisms.

[@dangingerich2559]

While this may seem foreign to you, Steve, it seems right in line with HP's past. I used to work a lot with the D510 and D530 models in corporate It back in 2003-2004. I did a migration project for a major bank acquisition (Lehman Bros bought Aurora Loan Services) and we worked with thousands of those D510s and D530s, reformatting systems from Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 installing the highly restrictive Lehman Bros XP image. The designs of the D510 and D530 are just like this box, only with Pentium 4s.

[@alpagator1372]

More of a general comment than for this specific video, but I really appreciate that in your reviews you take into account the environmental aspects, like unneccessary packaging and longevity and reusability on coolers for example. It's really good that a high-profile reviewer with higher outreach to both the consumer and producer sides has this in their reviews.

[@CheeseburgerChad]

Clearly the 32GB of RAM is justified here in order to be able to run all of the bloatware in the background.

[@bowi1332]

Pro Tip here.

[@rydoggo]

Clean installed windows 10, hilariously it lowered my idle ram usage by over 10%

[@bowi1332]

@@rydoggo If you had the factory Windows 10 with bloatwares, it makes sense.

[@Syntheticks]

I love how Hp and Dell use modern parts but make them look fresh out a time warp from 2002 lol

[@stevenson720]

It does take a certain amount of skill. Do you think they ask the manufacturer for the shit one? 🤔 🤣

[@mikadeca4031]

Yeah, stuff looks like the old corpses we used at school to get our "Tech support" grades

[@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart]

The same people that designed the old Sandy Bridge Optiplex were asked to design these and make it LESS modular.

[@07wrxtr1]

Yeah I had a dell around 2011.. the only thing I could "upgrade" on it was going to an SSD for the boot drive... Sadly I was poor and had to just live with it for a few years, then when Ryzen 1 came out, decided I'm going to build myself rather than being stuck in a throw-away computer situation. Atleast by building yourself you can upgrade the MB/CPU as needed, keep your case, power supply... and most of all: It'll actually last 5-7 years.

[@depth386]

My Pentium 2 350Mhz from 1998 looked better than this

[@fiftiethfiend8999]

I got that build except with a R5 4600G minus the 32gigs of ram but I paid like half of what you paid making it a decent deal considering I eventually just scrapped it and took the GPU and CPU along with other parts I upgraded in it previously

[@Eidolon2003]

Watching this with my autographed mouse mat, thanks Steve! I really appreciate the work you guys do :)

[@GamersNexus]

Thanks so much for buying one!

[@Eidolon2003]

@@GamersNexus You're welcome!

[@Tredenix]

Have had a HP laptop for the past 6 years, I got so annoyed by the function keys being swapped until I found out you could revert this in the BIOS. Finally putting together my first custom build next week and I couldn't be more excited :D

[@GeminionRay]

My first laptop was a 2005 HP Pavilion DV4000. The build quality was horrid. A year after my father bought it for me, I was walking with it inside the laptop bag and the strap somehow snapped, the whole bag slightly dropped to the ground. After that it got a loose HDD and the laptop just randomly freeze while running. It's the worst experience you can have. Later my father got another of the same model for him, and this time a quarter of its screen got ruined by itself after a while. I decided to never touch HP again. They're just that bad.

[@andersjjensen]

@@GeminionRay I have a 10 year old HP ProBook 6550b which has never seen travel in it's life. It has literally served it's entire life as "the coffee table computer". The thing I reach for when I think of something I need to google. So far it has had the following repairs or unfixable issues: 3x fan clean and repaste. Upgraded the HDD (which was unreasonably "chatty") to an SSD. Hot glued the inside of the rear right corner because it couldn't handle falling 40cm onto a thick carpet. Disabled the power to the CD-ROM drive because it started doing ejects at random times after some years. I doubt it has ever seen an actual disc. Left track pad button is missing a big chunk from normal use (by a user who loathes mice/trackpads and uses shortcuts 95% of the time). Palm rest area has paint completely worn through (again, this is not my workstation, just a coffee table computer). Webcam stopped working for no reason. After much cursing, googling and pdf-site browsing I managed to take the screen apart.. and PUT THE CONNECTOR BACK IN RIGHT... on a computer that has, as stated, never seen travel. Headphone jack only disable speakers 95% of the time. Two BIOS versions to chose from: fix this, but webcam stops working, or just unplug and try again while retaining webcam. Thanks god for bluetooth! Bluetooth is *horribly* slow to connect.... thanks god for... jacks.. :-/ ACPI Suspend on lid close does not work without manual Windows registry hacks. The knobs on the home keys (F and J) got worn down SO unreasonably fast that I have to look to see if I'm in the home position or face typing gibberish. Stuck on 54Mbit WiFi forever. Won't even accept HP labelled WiFi cards that are newer. .... And this is a *ProBook* - supposedly the epitome of quality and durability for the professional user. I can't imagine any other than that your random seller on Ali Express must be on par with their consumer stuff in that case...

[@AmorDeae]

Well my father has an HP workstation laptop which has never had a single issue in it's 15+ years of life, including ~10 years of daily use and transport, now it's at home and he got something more portable. Experiences vary, every brand has people cursing it out for their bad experience and people praising for longevity. HP is on average one of the better manufacturers in that regard from mine, my father's and all 5-6 IT guy's whose opinion I ever got on the topic, that being on average if you don't want to get apple, Dell and HP are the most reliable, and stay away from ACER. Most others are "fine" Edit: most other "big" ones, the unknown guys are always a shot in the dark, especially warranty wise. It also of course depends on the type you get. A plastic budget "gaming" laptop always has much worse build quality, cause it's not built to last, it's built to perform while it lasts and then die, heavy working components also die faster and get obsolete, which incentives further striking a balance between physical damage issue potential and inevitable component level issues for hot silicon dies.

[@ozzyp97]

@@GeminionRay They did actually make some decent laptops too, at least in their business lineup. I've got a 2007 nx7400 still in working order, it's a well built machine with a top tier keyboard and a pretty nice looking screen. If it wasn't so slow I'd honestly prefer it to my current ThinkPad W520, it was that good.

[@Davide-bx3js]

"I've made a classic mistake, using a philips screwdriver on a computer" killed me xD

[@bulgogiprince8625]

Gosh this takes me back to 2008 when I bought my first "gaming pc" from Bestbuy rocking a phenom x4 processor. It was an HP unit (arguably the best they had on the shelf at the time) which had very poor air flow and overheated frequently. I distinctly remember the PSU provided being below the minimum recommended PSU for the processor, let alone any extras such as a video card or sound card. Once I delved into PC building I soon learned what a POS I had actually wasted money on. The motherboard was a funky sized $4 dollar waste of space as was the crappy graphics card at the time. I picked up an ASUS ROG Crosshair II board and a Radeon HD4890 a year later - Best decision ever!

[@fergalstackstreams]

My ASUS lasted me 12 years. I'd have bought one again, but they're out of my price range for what I require.

[@nebufabu]

The whole proprietary form factors thing actually does go back to HP, in a way -- IIRC, the first company that actually started to do that was Compaq, back in the late 80s, which then merged with HP in the 2000s... To the detriment of both companies, but that's another story.

[@RayneAngelus]

Ugh, Compaq. My first PC (that I owned) was a Compaq Presario. It was also my only OEM ever, because it was a lemon and I started DIYing after that so I'd know every last part I was putting in my systems.

[@eideticex]

Packard Bell. They did it with the one that had the two part mainboard, a lower horizontal board and a vertical board with extension sockets (ISA, PCI, AGP, etc). Then we seen a lot of variations of that upside-down, T-shaped computer case from almost everyone. HP was actually one of the first to produce a case I liked for normal builds. Huge case in the late 90s but all your typical mounting locations of a modern case. The walls had very real insulating properties being a sandwich of sheet metal, plastic and insulation batting.

[@nebufabu]

@@eideticex I'm not very well-versed in the very very early PC stuff but I think some kind of two-board setup wasn't unusual or nonstandard, though definitely not ideal from the upgradeability standpoint (or maybe I'm mixing it up with those giant PC XT HDD controller boards, as big as modern high-end videocards sometimes...)

[@jackedup447]

@@eideticex Compaq also had variations of this. Look up compaqs deskpro EN motherboard.

[@Gato303co]

@@nebufabu I had a chance to see the internals of a maybe late 80s or early 90s, probably a pre built desktpo PC, you had like a lot of cards and boards everything separated and connected by cables and stuff a real nightmare to mantain and do a simple cleaning

[@Verlisify]

0:15 I'm really glad Linus got a cameo in a Gamer's Nexus video

[@utubby3730]

Yes, poor guy needs some exposure. His next level of clickbaitiness is slipping…

[@amashaziz2212]

@@utubby3730 calling him poor is really stupid on ur part…. That being said, I do truly hate his clickbait. Although he said before that he click-baits due to not seeing much growth and he wants to continue to grow his channel, I don’t know if that justifies the act of click-baiting. But at least his team makes useful content most of the time.

[@ВалентинКоломийчук]

@@amashaziz2212 as i understand youtube algorithms force every blogger to use clickbates. Views translates to the revenue. Clickbates are far better then "payed reviews".

[@smartgorilla]

@@ВалентинКоломийчук rather than descent content

[@bernds6587]

Honestly that is the only thing I even know about Linus, he likes to drop things. I can't stand watching any of his videos. No hate (I surely do not know him personally), just a fact on my side.

[@maximiliandeitrick9468]

Having just gotten off HP chat support for trying to buy a laptop, their upselling is egregious when you mention anything moderately intensive.

[@crumpledpaper8897]

These builds make me feel a lot better about my build. I built it two years ago and got the gpu for 130 and the cpu for 90. Parts are, ryzen 5 3600, oloy 16 gig 3200 MHz ram, Rx Radeon 580 8gb, tuf b450m pro motherboard, a cooler master case, I forget the exact one. Got a sceptre 24 inch monitor, 144hz. Total was around 1100 dollars including monitor, mouse, keyboard, desk. 600w power supply. And an extra noctua fan I put in the back as an exhaust fan.

[@Sentralkontrol]

your cpu is basically all you need for gaming even on much newer gpus. Such a good performance for price chip

[@N00bB1scu1tGaming]

That torx head with a flat head grove is more for keyslotting in their assembly tools. Having worked in a factory environment, it helps keep the tool from potentially stripping the torx head, especially considering these are generally mass produced in advance. It also helps maintain the screw's coating to look more professional after assembly. Just a random note for anyone who cares out of curiosity.

[@hanes2]

torx is superior. I wished more used it. and it's backwards compatible with a flat-head.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

I mean most PC screws are philips with a flat base and a hex shape so that you can use philips, flathead and hexhead screwdrivers on them, depending on what you have available. I can see the torx/flathead combo being a useful thing. Torx isn't the worst shape, but less common at home.

[@nmcrar]

HP/Compaq have used these screws for 30+ years. Having recycled thousands of PC's with this hardware, I have to say that they are one of the quickest screws to remove. I actually prefer them over Phillips head screws.

[@devdylan6152]

@@hanes2 I think they meant that, despite it being backwards compatible, having the ability to use larger flat-heads with them keeps people from trying to use whatever they can find that will fit in place of a properly sized flat-head.... and it actually makes sense to me as I have had end users tell me they did try to use a **knife** and other-stuff when they did not have a proper screwdriver for a torque screw.... and ended up stripping the screws.

[@lburbo23]

I much prefer the slotted Torx over the common 6-32 / M3-0.5 Philips head. Every Compaq and HP I've cannibalized I would save and sort them for later use. I have a good quantity on hand whenever I need them.

[@prycenewberg3976]

As someone that works with pre-builts like this on a daily basis, I just want to express the pure joy I feel seeing someone else discover my pain. Thank you, Gamers Nexus. Thank you for joining me.

[@jukujohantā]

"AMD is for cheap PCs and Intel is for high end gaming." Sounds like something an Apple user would say.

[@chocopastaa4707]

As an Apple and AMD user, I disagree :)

[@allenwalker9928]

That's because intel has reigned the industry for years, and looking at the sheer size of Intel, they will take performance crown sooner than it took for AMD to take.

[@TheRealThisIsAlex]

@@allenwalker9928 12900k uses x2 the power of the 5950x for a 7% improvement in performance.

[@thetruestar6348]

@@chocopastaa4707 I never cared for apple since middle school but now I’m done with school I got my first iPhone recently and it’s not bad it gets the job done. Plus built my first PC at the start of the year with a amd 3700x man big upgrade from my shit laptop

[@JeffreyBernabe]

AMD for cooling, Intel for heating

[@ColeCxle]

My first pc I owned was an HP prebuilt work station. Upgrading was a nightmare. I had to get a sata to 6 pin adapter just to put a gpu in it. Now a year later , all that remains from the original is the 10700 and the 8 gb stick of ram

[@war_hawkan1727]

Funnily enough, that was the exact solution we had to do when turning one of their office PCs into something better, though it was much older (DDR3 and a i5-4570). It's such a stupid fucking thing to leave out... proprietary bs is always dumb

[@snowhawk4049]

From the inside this looks like my first PC in the 90s.

[@Operational117]

Dell: “We’re the worst OEM providers out there!” **boss music starts** Dell: “… why do I hear boss music?” **Dell looks behind himself, and sees HP stampeding towards him**

[@cieknie]

HP and Dell uses exactly the same OEM manufacturers for most of their product. It's exactly the same garbage.

[@stuartmorgan3654]

@@cieknie So you're saying HP had to try really hard to make theirs worse?

[@bernds6587]

@@cieknie so the real question is: why are the cases not interchangeable? (the front IO is wider)

[@cieknie]

@@bernds6587 - just becouse their products are manufactured by same subcontractor doesn't mean that they will not follow they basic principle: to order parts incompatible with any other computers, even their own. Jokes aside - HP Elite and Dell Latitude series are great for what they are designed for. Still built from parts produced mostly by Compal, but with completely different mindset than their consumer-oriented series.

[@franky-161]

i’m not even kidding pc‘s like that should be illegal

[@JVHShack]

If I could lobby against the practices of proprietary BS like this design, say for "environmental reasons", I would.

[@crepituss9381]

Sounds like some people aren't old enough to remember Packard Bell, Compaq, and friends... This shit isn't new.

[@JVHShack]

@@crepituss9381 I do remember those. I'm 41 years old and proprietary garbage from back then sort of became a standard on it's own. Remember the LPX form factor?

[@iskamag]

The periferals are also horrible, the keyboard and mouse I got from years ago from a shitty tech shop at $5 each are somehow miles better and more reliable than whatever hp is getting. (Except my pipe key types > < instead of \\ | so it's harder to code and use the terminal and I can't find info on how to fix that aaaa)

[@AaronJLong]

I remember the first PC I got for myself with my own money was an HP. It had a Pentium 4 with hyperthreading when that was new, before the multi-core revolution. It had 4 ram slots and 5 audio jacks which was rare for MicroATX motherboards. It had a DVD-RW drive with Lightscribe. had a huge hard drive, and it even came with a flat screen monitor. All for $1000 on Woot (a daily deal website.) I didn't know much about building computers at the time, but I figured all this computer needed was a video card and maybe some extra RAM and I would be all set to play TES4: Oblivion when it came out that year, since the computer's only weakness was that it was running on Intel integrated graphics. When I opened it up to look inside to see if I needed a VGA card or one of the new PCI Express cards I was in for a shock. There was no video card slot. There was room for a PCI-E slot, with all of the soldering points, and it was even labeled PCI Express, but the slot itself wasn't there. That could've been a great computer that would have kept me gaming on high settings for years, with a fast processor with hyperthreading to take advantage of the emerging multi-core tech while also having the highest single core speed of any commercially available CPU at the time for games made for single cores. I could've had surround sound without having to buy a separate sound card. The 4 ram slots could allow me to upgrade the ram as needed, and the DVD drive was cutting edge. The only thing this PC was missing was a video card, and to save pennies on manufacturing they just didn't include the slot for some reason despite the motherboard clearly being designed for a PCI-E slot. I made do with the integrated graphics for as long as I could. When my brother decided to get his own PC he bought the parts and we built it together so he wouldn't get burned like I did, and I ended up having to play Oblivion on his computer when it released since my integrated graphics didn't support the hardware transform and lighting needed to run the game. Eventually I had enough and bought a MicroATX motherboard with a PCI-E slot that was compatible with my CPU, along with a video card, and switched it out. My new motherboard only had 2 ram slots, so I had to buy expensive big ram sticks (2 1 gigabyte sticks was much more expensive than 4 512 megabyte sticks) just to have the same amount of RAM I had before. Audio was only speakers/headphones, mic, and line in, so I had to ditch the surround sound (with RGB mood lighting.) And to top it all off, since my copy of Windows XP was an HP OEM copy it stopped working when I changed the motherboard so I had to get a new copy (luckily I was able to install it to the HP recovery partition so I didn't have to reformat my whole hard drive and lose my data). Overall the new motherboard was a pretty big downgrade aside from having a video card slot, but I was finally able to play new games for years until the CPU kicked the bucket and I had to get a new one which meant another new Mobo. In all of my shopping around I never saw another MicroATX Motherboard that would have been as good as that HP one would have been if they hadn't omitted the PCI Express slot, but I haven't owned a desktop in 10 years. The lesson: Never trust HP, and never buy a pre-built Desktop, especially from a deal of the day website where you can't take your time reading all of the fine print on the system specs because the daily deal often sells out in minutes. It isn't hard to build a PC yourself, it is usually cheaper, and you have full control of what goes into it. If you have a Microcenter near you, I recommend them for PC parts. When I last shopped there, they would match the shipped cost of parts from online stores like Newegg, and if a part was DOA you could exchange it in person (Only time I used Newegg the part was DOA, I went through the return process and mailed it back, was charged a restocking fee, and still didn't get a refund). Also if you're not comfortable assembling a PC yourself you can pick out the parts you want online and Microcenter will build the PC for you and make sure everything works and is compatible. They charge $150 for this service ($250 for water cooled systems) which the last time I checked was still much cheaper than the usual markup for a pre-built PC, and you get the peace of mind from knowing that each part is exactly what you wanted. Still, if you have an afternoon to spare I'd recommend assembling your computer yourself. I don't know how much has changed in the 12 years since I last built a PC, but it isn't really that hard if me and my brother could do it as teenagers with no experience in the days before KZbin tutorials. Building yourself saves money, and you'll know what and where everything is so if you want to upgrade your video card or RAM you'll know exactly what to do.

[@iainh]

16:20 - "Can't say I've ever used a flathead on a CPU cooler". Steve missed the glory days of having to press down on a lever with an absurd amount of pressure to get the CPU cooler mounted. Everyone sweated bullets doing that.

[@dodolurker]

I did that just last month 😁. Built myself an Athlon XP retro pc. And yes, bullets were sweated when mounting the CPU cooler.

[@azmc4940]

These coolers still exist, you just have to go cheap enough, then you can still enjoy the thrill of maybe breaking your mobo in half. Even better are the coolers where you need to press a clamp with a screwdriver at maximum force, punch a hole in your mobo if you slip.

[@zoomzabba452]

I always hooked a 1/4" socket driver over the tab. Didn't have to worry about a flat head screwdriver slipping.

[@christiant373]

Don’t you ever, EVER bring up Socket 462 processors you bastard 😭🤦‍♀️ *white PC build flashbacks intensify*

[@RayneAngelus]

I remember using a flathead for leverage to get the damned retention clips in place! Those were the days I didn't consider a new build "proper" until something drew blood from my hands.

[@HAunderscoreVE]

Steve throwing things off the table on purpose makes me think steve is a cat. The shade and straight up murder focus on bad practises also supports this theory, as cats are (sometimes) very good killers. Other times they are cute lil' fluffballs. Like steve.

[@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart]

Steve is a cat confirmed

[@pierrea3094]

HP has zero incentive to give an F about bad reviews they have so many contracts with various large companies and sell to end users who won’t know the difference between motherboard and cpu. The purposeful incompetence will largely carry on unhindered

[@killertruth186]

This is just sad, they really do make nice looking laptops and desktops.

[@darthwiizius]

It's not incompetence it's bean counting in full force. They want to manufacture as cheaply as possible as sell as many as possible so build in obsolescence. Then load you up with as much useless software as possible designed to get you to their store or their premium charge support line. Some of these firms also build the bloatware into the bios so even if you do a clean OS install the bios still reloads the bloatware on the system at the first opportunity it gets.

[@ashkebora7262]

Capitalism, baby!! Keep buying shit, they'll keep making shit. That's why you cannot support it if you have half a brain. It, in and of itself, is the _embodyment_ of a snake oil salesman. Anyone who says it gives you better products ... just think about the products you see around you every day. They're made to be CHEAP, not good. Thanks, capitalism.

[@lairdbarron5297]

Funny thing is, my last computer was an HP with a bad airflow case (components were literally stuffed in there), a lone exhaust fan, bad cable management, weirdly put together, etc. Definitely a monstrosity by pro builder standards. Ran five years flawlessly--NY State heat waves in a stifling room. Kept waiting for it to crap out. Never did. I finally threw in the towel and bought a great PC last year. Still, that HP is patiently waiting in storage if I ever need an emergency backup. Edit: a 1500 dollar rig, by the way.

[@RezaQin]

Damn, I got a water cooled PC for 2200 with a 1080, 6700k, and 16 GB Ripjaws several years ago. What a waste of money

[@Spacecoreinspace]

you buy a brand new lemon, and it'll never die on you

[@PtxDK]

Steve sounds almost depressed when completing the disassembly. Understandable, since the computer is surprisingly worthless.

[@Tekzite]

Is it surpising though?

[@xeridea]

Worse than Dell award? Dell was worse than Walmart, so the bar was already pretty low.

[@quixomega]

Torx screws are better for automated screwdrivers because the heads fit perfectly and they don't slip out unexpectedly like Phillips heads do. HP is probably using those to assemble this.

[@jackedup447]

They sure do have a habit of using torx screws for everything.

[@lordaleksandre]

@@jackedup447 that's a good habit. Seems like the most redeemable thing about this machine.

[@Cdrsan]

@Arron How is philips anti-consumer? Curious about this

[@Mostlyharmless1985]

@Arron philips is designed to cam out when over torqued. If you break phillips screws, you are doing it wrong. Torx is designed to never cam, so, it's possible for an assembler who's asleep at the wheel to put something down with tire lug levels of torque and literally shear the head off the bolt.

[@gabiold]

@Arron Actually I found out that a proper PH head is better than a PZ head. TX is superior in any way, I don't question that, but it seems to me that proper PH heads are more compatible with proper PH drivers. For example, drywall screws hold on on the bit very well and stable. Maybe today's designs eliminate the cam out effect. For PH heads I always have to try different bits which one fits tighter, it seems it is more unreliable. But for any equipment I design, I use TX or allen, maybe except when it holds just a small cover or cable holder or something...

[@JayStein777]

You had me at knocking the case off of the table.

[@jdog631]

I have an old Compaq desktop that came standard with XP back in '06 or '07 when it was given to me as a christmas gift from grandma. Once he opened it up, the graphics card was the only thing I saw that differentiated the two. Seriously, the motherboard and cpu cooler look indentical.

[@nicolaspinto2927]

This is awful, so awful you can hear Steve's soul leave him halfway through the PSU segment. Knew HP et al liked these glorified SoC-esque designs that are utter lock in nightmares in the lower segment but it's fascinating they have the balls to do this with $1K+ systems too.

[@danielharvison7510]

A surprising observation I've made is that, the richer the company, the cheaper they tend to be where it matters. HP and Dell cheap out on all kinds of rubbish crap, like power supplies and cpu coolers, so they can save a few dollars and lock in the customer, yet they keep getting stupid amounts of money every year. A smaller company will go much further with much smaller profits, but will show the customer that they give a damn. Stupid, ain't it?

[@paulpietschinski3282]

I built a PC at the ripe age of 47 for my son. Never done it before, watched alot of youtube vids. Man I am so happy I didn't go the easy way and order a pre built.

[@batarasiagian9635]

Many thanks for this. It means I can also do a first build at my older-than-you age. 😁

[@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart]

Congrats! Your son is lucky.

[@paulpietschinski3282]

@@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart well, dad is pretty happy as well. I still game every day.

[@paulpietschinski3282]

@@batarasiagian9635 yah you can my friend.

[@JATmatic]

-Steve: "There are some good news." -What is it? "The CPU cooler is not load bearing"

[@XtrAMassivE]

HP is a nightmare when it comes to repair. We had an HP tower, maybe 5 years old with a broken PSU. We couldn't find a replacement anywhere in Europe, literally nobody had it. HP was helpless and we are an HP partner. Had to deem the PC unfixable.

[@daLoerdchen]

So you are telling me that after I stripped it off its components, I got a gold nugget left in the case? xD

[@alexandregiaccheri]

YES, please disassemble that GPU! I LOVE watching the incompetence and weirdness of these abominations!!!

[@KyleFalconer1]

Everything else aside, I think one of the worst parts of having the front IO integrated into the motherboard is that the power button is also there: if and when the power button fails, the whole motherboard would need to be replaced.

[@LRM12o8]

Or you could solder on a new button. If you can replace a motherboard, I'm sure you can also learn how to do that. Also the replacement part will be easy to find, because unlike everything else in this PC, they're fairly standard parts. I'd be more worried about one of the ports breaking or a damaged trace or broken SMD connection elsewhere on the board due the flexing that the board is subjected each time during plugging in, using and unplugging devices.

[@buffcode]

@@LRM12o8 Replacing a motherboard is, for an average end user, far easier than soldering- not every person [consumer] has the skills, equipment or experience to solder. He isn't talking about the company's experience with the board, he is referring to the end user's. The average user probably doesn't even have soldering equipment, I'm considered tech Jesus among my coworkers and such and i can just solder things that function after a handful of attempts. In fact, I'm pretty sure that amongst my social circle, I'm the only one with soldering experience and equipment, even though many of us have experience with things like putting PCs together and salvaging builds, shucking etc. That aside, this shouldn't be a concern in the first place when daughterboards exist, and the option to simply have the pins exposed and hitting them with a screwdriver is still better than integrating the power button (I mean, it's how i usually turn on test benches...). There's even a middle ground solution of having a button integrated into the case that shorts the pins... And you wouldn't even have to get rid of the proprietary nonsense...

[@LRM12o8]

@@buffcode Well, I 100% agree. I'm not saying that everyone can do it. Heck, I currently have the pain of not having a place where I could do electronics projects, because I live in a rental flat with no electrical power in my basement compartment, so every time I do have to solder something I need to run a long cable over from my washing machine in the laundry room, which is very annoying and feels kinda sketchy even though I'm not doing anything forbidden. My point was just that out off all the things that are rather likely to break and shouldn't be fixed to the mainboard, the power button is probably the easiest one to replace and it's quite doable with the right tools and basic skills. Try repairing/replacing a broken USB C port on a mainboard on the other hand, that's gonna be impossible even for most people who have a soldering iron and know how to use it. I'd be much more concerned about those high-speed ports than a simple button. Anyway, yes it shouldn't be an issue, it should just be socketed or plugged in rather than soldered. But it would be an entry level repair as far as soldering goes, so pointing out the power button in particular seemed a bit odd to me.

[@strawberyyicecreamdream216]

Well there are options, but not good ones for someone who is inclined to buy a prebuilt

[@strawberyyicecreamdream216]

@@LRM12o8 Replacing a motherboard and soldering are not at all equivalent. I can do low level repairs but most people can not, nor do they even have a soldering iron. I don't even have one anymore and I know how to do it. The average end user probably won't even be comfortable using a paperclip to short the pins to turn it on.

[@viewstar89]

That case reminds me of those 5$ cases from back in 2000-2005. I still have one in my basement, funny thing is that I bet it has better airflow than this HP one.

[@eclipsegst9419]

haha i have one still, i don't even know what brand it is but it has a sticker saying it was made in 2004 on the inside, and had a pentium D sticker on the front. I used that thing as my main case from my i5 2500K thru to my i7 5775c and just got a glass case last year when i built my 3300x system and gave the 5775c to my son. Now it's his, but i'm going to get him a cheap glass sided case and toss the old 2500K back into it and use it for a minecraft server. It had one 120mm in the front, one 80mm on the door, and 2 80mm on the rear, so yea the airflow wasn't terrible, but i took out the optical drive covers and put a metal screen and another 120mm in the front top to make it a little better.

[@viken3368]

I got a 2018 model pavilion (dont use it anymore cause broken, thanks HP) which looks almost identical and the airflow of it was astonishingly bad. So a blower style cooled 1070 that is limited through like vbios to max 120w (normal tdp = 150) and it ran at slightly above 90 during load. Put it in another case and bam never goes above 80

[@MrTwisted003]

I have to say that I love these series. If it weren't for bad pre-builds I would've never started to build my own. I got a pre-build once. I don't remember who was selling it, but it was an ASUS system. It did not even turn on out of the box. So I did an RMA and they sent the new system before they sent the return label for the other, which in fact never came. Got the new system and it too was having issue. It at least turned on though. I decided to open up the first one since the return label never came and the very first thing I spotted was a loose cable, the 24 pin (if it was 24 back then idk, 18 or 20 pin?). Plugged it in all the way and viola, it worked perfectly. This was so far back, this system had no dedicated GPU and as an upgrade I got a year or so old G100 for upgrade. Then took the 2 1gb sticks out of one pc and put them into the other, then took the HDD out of the 1st one to add to this one and now a total of 4 GB RAM, GPU, and 2 500GB HDD's in one system. Thought I was the shit then. That thing lasted for years. Eventually the MB got a boo boo so I just threw everything into the other box I kept and was like a new system again, almost. But I never bought a pre-build again. I've been upgrading and building my own since.

[@Republic3D]

What pisses me off with these prebuilts is that some kid delivering the paper all summer finally has saved up for his first computer, and then HP sells him that thing ^

[@bowi1332]

So true!

[@d00dEEE]

Actually, that slotted Torx screw makes a lot of sense. The Torx drivers are great for factory assembly, you can automate them much more easily and they always go in straight. On the other hand, a typical consumer probably doesn't have Torx bits, but they almost certainly have a straight blade screwdriver laying around somewhere.

[@CharredChar]

I was going to state the exact same thing. This is exactly why you see it here and, while everyone working on anything should have some torx bits at this point, it was consumer friendly to use a screw that can be removed via slotted screwdriver.

[@laurelsporter]

It's also just been a Compaq thing, since as far back as I can remember.

[@neoasura]

@@CharredChar Yeah definitely, I'm pretty sure your average tinkerer would have some torx bits on hand, at least I would hope so at this point.

[@gabiold]

@UC-6nIaqRv_1qZ5N5CVwXB0w Any screw head which have slots in addition is a piece of shit. The blade screwdriver keeps sliding off and falling into the middle of the holes of those screws, so you eventually have to use the fitting non-blade one anyways. And in case of PH or PZ heads, because of the slot, two edges of the cross does nothing to drive the screw, so it is inferior in both ways thanks to the useless slot. Maybe torx is better, at least using the torx key I mean. Manufacturers really should give up on these idiotic screws and stick to one pattern which is good. Users, on the other hand, who feel the need to DIY something should buy proper tools for jobs, and don't see everything as a nail, just because they have a hammer. You can't do decent work with garbage tools, and as long as these screws are used, the ones with quality tools also forced to do inferior or inconvenient work.

[@drunkhusband6257]

Yes because I'm sure it's extremely difficult to automate a phillips head.......nah this is just shit design

[@clouds5]

Thank you for really hammering on the point of reusability. 20 years ago I bought a Coolermaster computer case. Thanks to things being compatible I can still use it and it works perfectly. The front USB ports are very slow, so I don't use them anymore and I had to "mod" it a few years back to fit a really long GPU. But apart from that, it's still a great case.

[@davidmiller9485]

to make this a study of two, I'm still using the case i bought for my AMD 64 X2 6000+. I see no reason why i won't be using it for years to come. I really wish the industry would come up with more modular systems for PC's that are Eco friendly. (yeah i know about the framework PC, however i have two major problems with them. First is cost. They are way to expensive, Second they are Intel only due to firewire being the way they connect their modules. I would be way more interested in a AMD option with all the goodies.)

[@x8jason8x]

@@davidmiller9485 I used a full ATX antec case that first housed my socket A mobo up til 2 years ago, it actually has my 4770k build still in it. I rescued a Soyo dragon case I have lying around somewhere too. lol

[@ericjanes591]

I worked at a call center that was hp customer service back in the 2000s looks like they haven't changed. It had nothing to do with customer service it was all about sales and upsales/add-ons. I have just graduated during the tech bust (computer networks) and I was the only one in my training class with any tech training at all. I actually knew what I was talking about but had the lowest sales. So yeah didn't last long there. Sad after almost 20 years they still focus on hiring confident used car salespeople.

[@you2be839]

Ah, c'mon, don't beat yourself like that, we all make mistakes in life... we all have dirty pages in our life's history book that we're not proud of. But cheer up, it could have been worse, you could have been frequently insulted for trying to do upsales/add-ons via "customer service"...

[@thedarkemissary]

Almost as if quantity matters more than quality. Cause it does. Sad, but true. Wallets speak the loudest.

[@mkharrison96]

I just diagnosed one of these things because it would power on and off repeatedly. Turns out the GPU came loose a little and needed to be reseated. Throughout this whole diagnostic I was at a loss for words with how cheap this thing looked.

[@jontobin5942]

Seriously. I built newer looking computers with my dad in the 90's. They at least had standard form factor motherboards. This is someone trying to dump E waste onto the market.

[@nrgamingtech2797]

Funny how HP's prebuilts range from Dell-level to actually decent, which is a pretty wide range

[@timothytim1053]

"AMD is cheap and for budget, Intel is for gaming", LMAO, it's like a throwback to 2011 when I built my first PC.

[@tdrb42]

HP: Makes halfway decent gaming computers with their OMEN line. Also HP: Recommends spending $1,400 on a Pavilion. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@Machtyn]

Would you like a warranty with that?

[@icarus4256]

I used to love the HP Pavilion we owned around 2005/6. Halo Custom Edition, Max Payne, Vice City and Half-Life on constant rotation. In the kitchen! I can’t imagine having a PC in my kitchen ever again.

[@MLWJ1993]

Yup, we used to have one back then as well, with Intel iGPU & free 3 Doom games on Windows XP. Those were the days you'd just have a functional PC (didn't even come with any bloatware either except for *optional* McAfee during first boot). 😕 How things have changed.😅

[@ClonesDream]

I like to think that prebuilts only got more powerful to support more bloatware rather than to support the user lol

[@Inevitabledreamss]

@@ClonesDream HAHA - legit thought!

[@MrSwiftResponse]

I love these prebuilt reviews, they're always entertaining. What I think would be great, is a challenge where GN (and friends maybe?) take some of these pre builts, and try to make them good. You know, some extreme case modding, crazy OCs. Really see what could be done to these to make them better.

[@MrSimoc1969]

Not even the folks from Mission Impossible could achieve that!

[@Thezuule1]

Problem with that is all this shit is proprietary. In order to make them good you'll need a new case, PS, and motherboard at which point you have built an entirely new computer.

[@ashkebora7262]

The entire point is these prebuilts are so bad they _cannot_ be upgraded. That's the entire point in their design. It'd be like using a golf cart for a kit race... Sure, you can make that golf cart go fast ... by building something else that looks like a golf cart. When 95% of the OEM parts are still in the garage at the end, you didn't _really_ sup up the golf cart. You just used it for inspiration.

[@CherryGS]

What would you want to do with this? The case is crap, you can't put standard motherboard in it. PSU is only 400 Watt, so not much headroom for more powerful CPU/GPU... And modding this eyesore of a case? perhaps adding a windows to marvel in that glorious colors of green and metal, like it was 20 years ago?

[@Valtekken]

Find the fanciest dumpster to throw them in, extra points for good throwing technique

[@ianhollis51]

I got an HP Pavilion in 2015 as a warranty replacement from a national (Australia) technology vendor - basically, here is what you can get; just one unit. At the time it served OK, but I always felt it wasn’t living up to the specs. It was only when I took it apart (post warranty) to upgrade it that I discovered how shockingly bad it was. Proprietary mobo., PSU, cheap RAM, and nasty GPU. So I went to a local computer shop and had them build a machine that was better, and cheaper. I recently upgraded that with new mobo, CPU, RAM and GPU and still use the old case and PSU. I’ll never buy a brand like HP or DELL again.

[@LittleBear85]

I've been waiting for you all weekend :)

[@LittleBear85]

I can't wait to see more news on ddr5 and the next generation of computers but I know it's probably to early still for solid facts.

[@TinkletitsMcGee]

I fanboyed hard when he was on EVGA's stream a few weeks ago. #TechZaddy

[@prla5400]

Thanks, I'm finally here. Finally home.

[@kingmarx810]

The OEMs were always price gouging on parts, HP and Dell the biggest culprits. That is why I decided to DIY in the first place.

[@davidmiller9485]

Gateway used to be the worse. Oh god, Gateway was hell in a box!

[@posadist681]

Antec did me dirty when they sold me an overclockable cpu on a motherboard that doesn't support overclocking

[@kingmarx810]

@@davidmiller9485 Very true, only good thing about Gateway was the cow box, but what was inside? Gives me the shivers.

[@Thermalions]

I remember the days when Steve used to give out accolades (BeQuiet). These days manufacturers don't seem to want to aspire to anything more than "It's fine", and some strangely don't even aspire to levels of "It's better than Dell".

[@forleb7968]

i owned the older office version of this a year ago. needless to say it was the center of my inspiration to get into the pc building community.

[@GamerBoy705_yt]

I know these suck, but I recommended this to my brother because he had a tight budget. He got the same thing but with a Ryzen 5 3500 and a 1650 Super for $550 earlier this month. An extremely good value for the specifications, especially at these times. These things suck because they are meant to be targetting the low end market where HP definitely would have to save money by using proprietary parts.

[@nussysnake9933]

My brother got one as well a couple months ago

[@nigel2187]

u might as well get a laptop for better value lul

[@nussysnake9933]

@@nigel2187 I mean my brother got the cheaper one with an R5 3500 and 1650 Super, I think he bought it for $600 so for that money it's not bad. However spending anything more given everything is proprietary would have been a terrible deal. Still not "ideal" tho

[@nigel2187]

@@nussysnake9933 yea true

[@christophergriffis7019]

​@@nigel2187 For all new components $550 seems like a pretty good deal when gaming laptops cost $1000+ for anything close to 1650S performance

[@GamerErman2001]

8:22 I love that Wilhelm Scream. So well timed.

[@Zosu22]

Certified Dell moment

[@rickycastro3210]

I just love the fine art of product bashing.....but damn everything you say is so darn correct! What keeps these companies in business is that there are a lot of customers that just don't know any better and buy the junk thinking its actually a "good thing". I will continue building my own rigs. Oh by the way...I am a big fan of HP....I own two HP Omens but damn!

[@WTFisaSquaLL]

Your total IDGAF attitude regarding the chassis made me smile so big I had to order a large mod mat to support your channel. GN and HUB are the two best tech channels on YT. Keep up the great work Steve and team.

[@gdi69]

To be honest, I'd take those weird torx-flatheads over phillips heads. Phillips heads are bottom-tier. lol

[@756jrs]

I know right. Phillips screws strip way too easily compared to torx. Adding the slot also makes it so that most people will still be able to unscrew it as it is a really common screwdriver to have. I actually really like this screw.

[@rossanderson4156]

@@756jrs that messed up the right way, at least for the screws

[@nickwallette6201]

@@756jrs I do too. It's a little annoying now, because Torx isn't yet ubiquitous, but I don't mind a subtle push toward that direction. I think complaining about the bizarre screws is just contempt clouding rational judgment here.

[@MrWayne6363]

Nothing is worse than a flat head screw. I know...you don't really see them in pc's, but as a maintenance, a/c and refrigeration tech., I groan in agony every time I come across one. My hate for them is very intense.

[@nickwallette6201]

@Arron Holy cow dude, turn down the agro. That’s just unnecessary. Torx is well established, but isn’t ubiquitous. You’re not going to find a Torx driver on the flip side of a bottle opener, or as one of the blades in a Swiss Army knife. That’s all I’m saying. I would love it to be that common, because it is a better design, but you also kind of have to have the right size bit - which means you won’t get away with having one or two drivers that work well enough for about everything. No fudging it one or two sizes the way you can with flat or Phillips. You need the whole set. So I dunno if it’ll ever have the widespread adoption of simpler, but admittedly flawed, designs.

[@kohrakthehorriblebionicle6187]

Steve disassembling this monstrosity: "Ma they're doing weird shit again!"

[@5GreenTea]

Thank you for another great review. HP is more disappointing then I expected. Even buying this for a casual computer would be a bad experience because of the factory installed viruses. Imho, I give HP an F- ("F" is a little to high a grade).