Actually Good: $2400 Starforge Pre-Built Gaming PC Review (Lowkey Fractal Terra ITX)
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Date: 2024-08-25
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Comments and reviews: 20
Daniel-hj5jt
I'm gonna take issue with that thermal paste application. The purpose of the paste is as a thermal interface material, it's there to fill in any micro gaps present in IHS and heatsink cold plate, you only need a THIN layer, in fact as i was taught by an actual microprocessor engineer who spent 50 years in hardware industry (AMD VP, Microsoft VP, Compaq VP, Dec-Alpha engineer, as well as designing silicon for car computer systems and government contracts) you want a layer so thin, you can see through it, good mounting pressure will do the rest, and if you don't have good mounting pressure gooping thermal paste on is only going to serve in wasting paste.
Before AMD actually had an IHS on their chips, which shows how long i've been building, the rule of thumb was a dollop the size of a single grain of rice (with electrically conductive Arctic Silver no less) When IHS's became a very unfortunate thing, that was bumped up to a dollop the size of a small popcorn kernel, which is then spread THINLY and evenly using the edge of a credit card/ ID card.
Stop wasting money and making a mess, learn to do it properly.
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I'm gonna take issue with that thermal paste application. The purpose of the paste is as a thermal interface material, it's there to fill in any micro gaps present in IHS and heatsink cold plate, you only need a THIN layer, in fact as i was taught by an actual microprocessor engineer who spent 50 years in hardware industry (AMD VP, Microsoft VP, Compaq VP, Dec-Alpha engineer, as well as designing silicon for car computer systems and government contracts) you want a layer so thin, you can see through it, good mounting pressure will do the rest, and if you don't have good mounting pressure gooping thermal paste on is only going to serve in wasting paste.
Before AMD actually had an IHS on their chips, which shows how long i've been building, the rule of thumb was a dollop the size of a single grain of rice (with electrically conductive Arctic Silver no less) When IHS's became a very unfortunate thing, that was bumped up to a dollop the size of a small popcorn kernel, which is then spread THINLY and evenly using the edge of a credit card/ ID card.
Stop wasting money and making a mess, learn to do it properly.
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knghtbrd
I would recommend a Starforged build to someone who was not going to have me there to build it for them. Starforged is going to configure it right, they're gonna do a helluva lot better cable management than I can be arsed to do (I like my cabling to be FUNCTIONAL over tidy and invisible), and their overall attention to detail is amazingly solid. That was my overall opinion of them before this review.
I maintain my opinion.
I agree wishing they'd included the documentation and a sticker over the motherboard video port. If I'm recommending a prebuilt, it's because I'm recommending it to someone who can't hack a build with a parts list I gave them and specific build videos I chose that detail how to plug things in. Minor minor issues, but worth addressing.
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I would recommend a Starforged build to someone who was not going to have me there to build it for them. Starforged is going to configure it right, they're gonna do a helluva lot better cable management than I can be arsed to do (I like my cabling to be FUNCTIONAL over tidy and invisible), and their overall attention to detail is amazingly solid. That was my overall opinion of them before this review.
I maintain my opinion.
I agree wishing they'd included the documentation and a sticker over the motherboard video port. If I'm recommending a prebuilt, it's because I'm recommending it to someone who can't hack a build with a parts list I gave them and specific build videos I chose that detail how to plug things in. Minor minor issues, but worth addressing.
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flywheelshyster
I was looking at these other day just out of curiosity as I ended up getting skytech pre-built that for whatever reason was a good deal they did after Christmas and still haven't found a price/ ratio as good as it, it nearly came out even with building. But im building a pc for my brother now I was just curious if these star forged would be what I would have wanted if I could afford it. Still bit more than maybe should but otherwise seemed decent enough. Good to know as I actually don't recommend skytech despite having a good system from them. And tell people to just check out GN playlist for pre-built stuff. It just sucks that there's not much sub 1000 decent systems for us working class blokes
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I was looking at these other day just out of curiosity as I ended up getting skytech pre-built that for whatever reason was a good deal they did after Christmas and still haven't found a price/ ratio as good as it, it nearly came out even with building. But im building a pc for my brother now I was just curious if these star forged would be what I would have wanted if I could afford it. Still bit more than maybe should but otherwise seemed decent enough. Good to know as I actually don't recommend skytech despite having a good system from them. And tell people to just check out GN playlist for pre-built stuff. It just sucks that there's not much sub 1000 decent systems for us working class blokes
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JJFX-
Wow... sending you his degraded CPU is the least he could do after this. The 3D info graphic was a great touch and the extra bit of flair you put into the animations didn't go unnoticed :)
I have to say you guys are truly on another level at this point. Every year you continue to step up your game and do exactly what you promised while still managing to stay grounded. You continue to be the example for other techtubers that you don't have to rely on formulated gimmicks and a stream of watered down content to make it in this space. You're a rare breed my friend.
Just tell me you're planning on filling that LN2 tank at some point to put the enigma that is Zen 5 through its paces ;)
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Wow... sending you his degraded CPU is the least he could do after this. The 3D info graphic was a great touch and the extra bit of flair you put into the animations didn't go unnoticed :)
I have to say you guys are truly on another level at this point. Every year you continue to step up your game and do exactly what you promised while still managing to stay grounded. You continue to be the example for other techtubers that you don't have to rely on formulated gimmicks and a stream of watered down content to make it in this space. You're a rare breed my friend.
Just tell me you're planning on filling that LN2 tank at some point to put the enigma that is Zen 5 through its paces ;)
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nickshaw3619
Starforge really seems to be on the ball. I get that the marks against this system are real, valid complaints, but none of them seems like a deal breaker for me. Well... I'd be pretty upset about such a glaring flaw in a limited paint job or colorway, but I'm also not the kind of guy that goes in for that kind of stuff. Some standoffs and a quickstart card getting left out of the accessories pack wouldn't even be enough for me to really notice, let alone get upset about.
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Starforge really seems to be on the ball. I get that the marks against this system are real, valid complaints, but none of them seems like a deal breaker for me. Well... I'd be pretty upset about such a glaring flaw in a limited paint job or colorway, but I'm also not the kind of guy that goes in for that kind of stuff. Some standoffs and a quickstart card getting left out of the accessories pack wouldn't even be enough for me to really notice, let alone get upset about.
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arudanel5542
Good to see a company going WAY out of their way to make things right. I mean, 10 YEAR motherboard warranty Seriously! That's not just making it right, that's giving someone the shirt off your back, almost literally. Honestly, with so many celeb streamers involved in the company, I had the worst expectation. Not so, they are the exact opposite of what I thought would happen. I have never been happier to be wrong!
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Good to see a company going WAY out of their way to make things right. I mean, 10 YEAR motherboard warranty Seriously! That's not just making it right, that's giving someone the shirt off your back, almost literally. Honestly, with so many celeb streamers involved in the company, I had the worst expectation. Not so, they are the exact opposite of what I thought would happen. I have never been happier to be wrong!
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ElGoogKO
for 2400 price tag, they should've made custom length cables. A generic electrician can do that job (aka minimum wage employee) to have the cables reduced to the fitment required and not have the cables looping around inside. Hack job, profit hungry, don't do any work for yourself...also the small gpu!! Really! Put in a bloody 3 fan, you stingy bastards if you're gonna ask 2400 for it
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for 2400 price tag, they should've made custom length cables. A generic electrician can do that job (aka minimum wage employee) to have the cables reduced to the fitment required and not have the cables looping around inside. Hack job, profit hungry, don't do any work for yourself...also the small gpu!! Really! Put in a bloody 3 fan, you stingy bastards if you're gonna ask 2400 for it
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k80theshade
22:07
I'm sorry, but this visual is just wrong.
Hot air within a mass of cooler air does not descend when the last thing acting on it was a fan blowing upwards.
This is absolute fantasy physics.
Please; it's worth it to you to set up a real demo (not a CGI fairytale)using SMOKE to show warm air DESCENDING within cooler air....especially after it was just blown upwards.
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22:07
I'm sorry, but this visual is just wrong.
Hot air within a mass of cooler air does not descend when the last thing acting on it was a fan blowing upwards.
This is absolute fantasy physics.
Please; it's worth it to you to set up a real demo (not a CGI fairytale)using SMOKE to show warm air DESCENDING within cooler air....especially after it was just blown upwards.
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GENKI_INU
TLDU of airflow in this case: Having an intake fan rather than exhaust at the bottom would cause backpressure trapping hot air, since all existing fans are pushing inward at the center and out.
It's better to facilitate exhaust in this situation since there's already intake from the existing component fans that are positioned right up against the sides of the case slats.
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TLDU of airflow in this case: Having an intake fan rather than exhaust at the bottom would cause backpressure trapping hot air, since all existing fans are pushing inward at the center and out.
It's better to facilitate exhaust in this situation since there's already intake from the existing component fans that are positioned right up against the sides of the case slats.
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stewills9711
So good to see standards have been kept or in some cases improved. Shame about the missing docs and guides, but given their high standards im sure if contacted they would send them out. And the paint while minor, well that would bug the hell out of me. Overall, if thats all you can find wrong with it, then thats a damn impressive build. Welldone Starforge
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So good to see standards have been kept or in some cases improved. Shame about the missing docs and guides, but given their high standards im sure if contacted they would send them out. And the paint while minor, well that would bug the hell out of me. Overall, if thats all you can find wrong with it, then thats a damn impressive build. Welldone Starforge
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MrWesleyDP
I bought two systems from Starforge in April of this year, largely based upon GN's relatively positive review (screw torque aside) and their positive response to GN's concerns. I have to say both my wife and myself have been impressed with our computers and would definitely recommend them to anyone that really doesn't want to build their own system.
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I bought two systems from Starforge in April of this year, largely based upon GN's relatively positive review (screw torque aside) and their positive response to GN's concerns. I have to say both my wife and myself have been impressed with our computers and would definitely recommend them to anyone that really doesn't want to build their own system.
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Joomluh12
That's an unfortunate choice in name. StarForge is rather synonymous with scam to those familiar with CodeHatch. I guess enough time has passed where the majority of buyers won't recognize it, but those of us who backed it will always remember it as baby's first crowdsourced scam. It's still there in my Steam library, mocking me.
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That's an unfortunate choice in name. StarForge is rather synonymous with scam to those familiar with CodeHatch. I guess enough time has passed where the majority of buyers won't recognize it, but those of us who backed it will always remember it as baby's first crowdsourced scam. It's still there in my Steam library, mocking me.
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DocHuckleberry09
As someone who struggles to visualize a conversation surrounding positive and negative pressure, I can imagine the future use case for these types of animations and it gets me really excited for the future use case.
Brilliant and going above and beyond in more innovative ways with every video. Love to see it GN team
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As someone who struggles to visualize a conversation surrounding positive and negative pressure, I can imagine the future use case for these types of animations and it gets me really excited for the future use case.
Brilliant and going above and beyond in more innovative ways with every video. Love to see it GN team
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waynerowlinson6177
I love that you are brutally honest with all of your reviews, which would make this one an A moment for the people at Starforge.
I can only imagine the extreme anxiety they would have at the beginning of the video and how it would change into a huge celebration at the end.
Great video (as usual).
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I love that you are brutally honest with all of your reviews, which would make this one an A moment for the people at Starforge.
I can only imagine the extreme anxiety they would have at the beginning of the video and how it would change into a huge celebration at the end.
Great video (as usual).
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gamersnexus
I'm not exactly a thermodynamic engineer, but wouldn't the fan exhausting hot air out the bottom cause some of that hot air to get sucked into the side intakes, much like we see on the top of the case Is there something or some effect that causes it to glide on the ground and not get sucked back in
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I'm not exactly a thermodynamic engineer, but wouldn't the fan exhausting hot air out the bottom cause some of that hot air to get sucked into the side intakes, much like we see on the top of the case Is there something or some effect that causes it to glide on the ground and not get sucked back in
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johnsmith-lp9bo
I really wish you guys made a video on AMD CPUS the 7000 and 9000s with drilling into the CPU/Mobo to get temps. I really wonder if AMD new Temperature sensors placements are more accurate/better. cause my gut is telling me there is 100% some shenanigans going on with that.
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I really wish you guys made a video on AMD CPUS the 7000 and 9000s with drilling into the CPU/Mobo to get temps. I really wonder if AMD new Temperature sensors placements are more accurate/better. cause my gut is telling me there is 100% some shenanigans going on with that.
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VoldoronGaming
LMAO! trolling Asmondgold about the screws is hilarious. All jokes aside the attention to detail in the BIOS due to current relevant data specifically with intel cpus is top notch workmanship. And that cable management was excellent.
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LMAO! trolling Asmondgold about the screws is hilarious. All jokes aside the attention to detail in the BIOS due to current relevant data specifically with intel cpus is top notch workmanship. And that cable management was excellent.
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OMGJL
is is actually impressive that they have digged in deep enough to change some settings trying to deal with the Intel drama. Here in Australia most system builders won't even bother updating the BIOS at all on those intel prebuilds with i7/i9.
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is is actually impressive that they have digged in deep enough to change some settings trying to deal with the Intel drama. Here in Australia most system builders won't even bother updating the BIOS at all on those intel prebuilds with i7/i9.
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MasterCog999
I feel like the whole jargon heavy intel Microcode Bug section was included in this vid and not spun out to it's own was purely to trip up Asmon on his inevitable reaction stream. I am all for it lol, especially cuz it is interesting.
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I feel like the whole jargon heavy intel Microcode Bug section was included in this vid and not spun out to it's own was purely to trip up Asmon on his inevitable reaction stream. I am all for it lol, especially cuz it is interesting.
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AnalogFoundry
How does customer support work with good system integrators If there's any fault in a system, do they give on-site support Support remotely Or as a customer, do you have to package the system and send it out to the company
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How does customer support work with good system integrators If there's any fault in a system, do they give on-site support Support remotely Or as a customer, do you have to package the system and send it out to the company
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