Do Not Buy NZXT - Predatory, Evil Rental Computer Scam Investigated
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Date: 2024-12-02
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Comments and reviews: 20
0_Rex_0
I am going to tell a story. This will be very long. If you choose to not read it, I respect your choice, so TL;DR - Avoid NZXT at all costs. Even if it costs more.
If only 1 person reads this and decides that my story has convinced them to take their hard earned money somewhere else, then I am okay with any backlash or harsh replies. I am an adult with thick skin and just don't care anymore. I have held my tongue and stayed silent with my opinion of NZXT for many years. I tried to give them some grace even through the H1 fire scandal, but I feel like I must now speak up and speak out about their shady and unprofessional at beat practices, as they go back at lest a decade-- if not more.
Long, long ago in the heyday of PC modding, back when if you wanted LED strips you had to make them yourself.. I was selected to do an NZXT sponsored build. It was the first time I had been selected for a sponsored build, so I was really jazzed about it. Some emails and conversations were exchanged with all the details. The day arrives and I was on my way to their LA office to pick up the gear. I won't call it an HQ, because at that time, a 3000 SF house was probably as big or nearly so. I arrive at the prescribed time and wait. And wait. And wait. Must have been 2-3 hours before the POC (who will remain anonymous because I am not here to defame anybody, only to put NZXT on blast) finally showed up. LA has traffic, so whatever.
Once the POC did show up, I got the full tour of their facility and was very underwhelmed. I would bet Microcenter had more NZXT stock than this place, but whatever. It was their HQ / warehouse, not their (probably) ACTUAL warehouse. Whatever... I was then presented with the sponsored items and quickly shown the door.
I get everything back to my shop and start checking to make sure I got the correct items and testing things. I immediately discovered problems. The power supply fan and 2 case fans did not work. The case's side panel was broken. On the fans that did work, no less than 2 had at least 1 LED that didn't work. This was before the ARGB days, so a missing LED was a big problem when it comes to high end builds. Most fans at that time only had 4 LEDs to begin with, so there was a noticeable dark spot. The case was missing all of its hardware. I immediately took pictures of the issues and documented them, so there could never be fingers pointed my way as if I negligently damaged something. Replacements were requested, and it took 2 weeks to even get the approval after many emails, chats and panicked text messages. This mod contest was ending in a few days, so even if they overnighted the stuff to me, it would be a really tight deadline and I would be working around the clock. Sure enough, it takes until 3 days before the end of the competition and I still have no replacement parts. I finally got the replacement parts 36 hours before the competition ended. I still had to do 60% of the work, and by this time there was no way I could reasonably expect to get the build done even if I DID work around the clock. There just wasn't enough time left. I was left with no choice but to withdraw from the competition.
I bet you're wondering how NZXT responded. Once the submission deadline came and went, and my build wasn't included, they immediately started demanding I return everything I was provided at my expense. They didn't care whether it was by driving back to their HQ and dealing with LA traffic again, or by spending north of $200, which was close to MSRP of the stuff to ship it all. My memory is getting worse, but if I had to make an educated guess, the stuff was probably worth maybe $300 or $350 MSRP. It wasn't like I had $2k worth of parts.
My reply was to pound sand, that the whole experience with them had been a nightmare. If they wanted the stuff bad enough, they would come and get it or send a shipping label. They never responded, and that was the last correspondence I had with NZXT. All the crap they gave me (yes including the replacement junk) went to the landfill and I washed my hands of the whole experience. I also vowed to stay far away from NZXT and any of its products. It is a company that has deep roots in being shady and deceptive. I still have nightmares about that piece of shit case slicing my hand open because NZXT didn't know how to roll edges of thin crappy steel, making me get 10 stitches in the middle of this whole debacle. Is debacle even a strong engouh word clusterf--- Sh--show I digress.
Moving on to present day..
This latest scam they have cooked up comes as absolutely zero surprise to me. My thoughts truly go out to anyone victimized by them and their shady / illegal practices. When the H1 debacle came out, I considered speaking out then but feared potential backlash or defamation from them. This time, I no longer care. I'm not the one running the scam.
Sending best wishes to everybody and a happy holiday season. May you be blessed with zero NZXT boxes under your tree this year and all the rest of your years. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodnight, and most importantly: Good luck.
Good riddance, NZXT. You could have been so good.
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I am going to tell a story. This will be very long. If you choose to not read it, I respect your choice, so TL;DR - Avoid NZXT at all costs. Even if it costs more.
If only 1 person reads this and decides that my story has convinced them to take their hard earned money somewhere else, then I am okay with any backlash or harsh replies. I am an adult with thick skin and just don't care anymore. I have held my tongue and stayed silent with my opinion of NZXT for many years. I tried to give them some grace even through the H1 fire scandal, but I feel like I must now speak up and speak out about their shady and unprofessional at beat practices, as they go back at lest a decade-- if not more.
Long, long ago in the heyday of PC modding, back when if you wanted LED strips you had to make them yourself.. I was selected to do an NZXT sponsored build. It was the first time I had been selected for a sponsored build, so I was really jazzed about it. Some emails and conversations were exchanged with all the details. The day arrives and I was on my way to their LA office to pick up the gear. I won't call it an HQ, because at that time, a 3000 SF house was probably as big or nearly so. I arrive at the prescribed time and wait. And wait. And wait. Must have been 2-3 hours before the POC (who will remain anonymous because I am not here to defame anybody, only to put NZXT on blast) finally showed up. LA has traffic, so whatever.
Once the POC did show up, I got the full tour of their facility and was very underwhelmed. I would bet Microcenter had more NZXT stock than this place, but whatever. It was their HQ / warehouse, not their (probably) ACTUAL warehouse. Whatever... I was then presented with the sponsored items and quickly shown the door.
I get everything back to my shop and start checking to make sure I got the correct items and testing things. I immediately discovered problems. The power supply fan and 2 case fans did not work. The case's side panel was broken. On the fans that did work, no less than 2 had at least 1 LED that didn't work. This was before the ARGB days, so a missing LED was a big problem when it comes to high end builds. Most fans at that time only had 4 LEDs to begin with, so there was a noticeable dark spot. The case was missing all of its hardware. I immediately took pictures of the issues and documented them, so there could never be fingers pointed my way as if I negligently damaged something. Replacements were requested, and it took 2 weeks to even get the approval after many emails, chats and panicked text messages. This mod contest was ending in a few days, so even if they overnighted the stuff to me, it would be a really tight deadline and I would be working around the clock. Sure enough, it takes until 3 days before the end of the competition and I still have no replacement parts. I finally got the replacement parts 36 hours before the competition ended. I still had to do 60% of the work, and by this time there was no way I could reasonably expect to get the build done even if I DID work around the clock. There just wasn't enough time left. I was left with no choice but to withdraw from the competition.
I bet you're wondering how NZXT responded. Once the submission deadline came and went, and my build wasn't included, they immediately started demanding I return everything I was provided at my expense. They didn't care whether it was by driving back to their HQ and dealing with LA traffic again, or by spending north of $200, which was close to MSRP of the stuff to ship it all. My memory is getting worse, but if I had to make an educated guess, the stuff was probably worth maybe $300 or $350 MSRP. It wasn't like I had $2k worth of parts.
My reply was to pound sand, that the whole experience with them had been a nightmare. If they wanted the stuff bad enough, they would come and get it or send a shipping label. They never responded, and that was the last correspondence I had with NZXT. All the crap they gave me (yes including the replacement junk) went to the landfill and I washed my hands of the whole experience. I also vowed to stay far away from NZXT and any of its products. It is a company that has deep roots in being shady and deceptive. I still have nightmares about that piece of shit case slicing my hand open because NZXT didn't know how to roll edges of thin crappy steel, making me get 10 stitches in the middle of this whole debacle. Is debacle even a strong engouh word clusterf--- Sh--show I digress.
Moving on to present day..
This latest scam they have cooked up comes as absolutely zero surprise to me. My thoughts truly go out to anyone victimized by them and their shady / illegal practices. When the H1 debacle came out, I considered speaking out then but feared potential backlash or defamation from them. This time, I no longer care. I'm not the one running the scam.
Sending best wishes to everybody and a happy holiday season. May you be blessed with zero NZXT boxes under your tree this year and all the rest of your years. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodnight, and most importantly: Good luck.
Good riddance, NZXT. You could have been so good.
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RomanDoes
I don't disagree with you by no means and 100% their rental scheme is a bs. However! As business owner of rental company, I kinda see where their prices come from. Number one risk in rental is not getting your item back, so imagine someone signs up for the rental, pay first payment and get lost with your item. Insurance companies hate this scenario, and if you claim against it too often, the rates skyrocket. So what do you do You start increasing the rent cost. Simply because it's you who will then be spending time on cost recovery by either going after renters directly or hiring third party services. Then, the end user of this service is pretty young, so chances that they destroy the equipment or won't return it are pretty high which again go back to my point of cost recovery and insurance claims. Does this means paying $250 a month for a rig is a great idea Yes if you need it for a couple of months, but long term Absolutely no, this is why there are credit services available starting from 0% APR. BUT! let's be honest, NZXT is not banking on those people who can get a credit and spread the payments, no, they want to bank on the less financially educated bunch and unfortunately that market segment is huuuge in gaming community. So all costs involved, chances of no recovery, total loss or parts swap scams are super high in this rental business model and this is where the cost is coming from.
Again, I'm not defending them. Just giving a Sideview of the story as a business owner of a similar business model.
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I don't disagree with you by no means and 100% their rental scheme is a bs. However! As business owner of rental company, I kinda see where their prices come from. Number one risk in rental is not getting your item back, so imagine someone signs up for the rental, pay first payment and get lost with your item. Insurance companies hate this scenario, and if you claim against it too often, the rates skyrocket. So what do you do You start increasing the rent cost. Simply because it's you who will then be spending time on cost recovery by either going after renters directly or hiring third party services. Then, the end user of this service is pretty young, so chances that they destroy the equipment or won't return it are pretty high which again go back to my point of cost recovery and insurance claims. Does this means paying $250 a month for a rig is a great idea Yes if you need it for a couple of months, but long term Absolutely no, this is why there are credit services available starting from 0% APR. BUT! let's be honest, NZXT is not banking on those people who can get a credit and spread the payments, no, they want to bank on the less financially educated bunch and unfortunately that market segment is huuuge in gaming community. So all costs involved, chances of no recovery, total loss or parts swap scams are super high in this rental business model and this is where the cost is coming from.
Again, I'm not defending them. Just giving a Sideview of the story as a business owner of a similar business model.
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BloodDragon-40k
I bet someone at Ubisoft went to work for NZXT, shared their horrible idea about rentals since games for Ubisoft are the same even when you pay for them outside their subscription service they can take away your games at any time practically legally robing you.
What NZXT did is just the next step in not owning anything, overcharging legally for a product that should definitely belong to the customer them moment its full price has been reached, even when you agree to pay for your prebuild a monthly fee until it's price it's reached, this subscription is just overpaying for a maintenance service that is not worth the cost and which you can make yourself or anywhere else at a onetime price.
Don't buy prebuilds, make your own, or search for stores that actually sale PC's at a fare price and deliver what they are showing. And should anyone consider this rental they should ask themselves why pay for the rest of my life for a pc, when I can built my own or buy a fully built one at a fare price with the possibility to upgrade in the future.
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I bet someone at Ubisoft went to work for NZXT, shared their horrible idea about rentals since games for Ubisoft are the same even when you pay for them outside their subscription service they can take away your games at any time practically legally robing you.
What NZXT did is just the next step in not owning anything, overcharging legally for a product that should definitely belong to the customer them moment its full price has been reached, even when you agree to pay for your prebuild a monthly fee until it's price it's reached, this subscription is just overpaying for a maintenance service that is not worth the cost and which you can make yourself or anywhere else at a onetime price.
Don't buy prebuilds, make your own, or search for stores that actually sale PC's at a fare price and deliver what they are showing. And should anyone consider this rental they should ask themselves why pay for the rest of my life for a pc, when I can built my own or buy a fully built one at a fare price with the possibility to upgrade in the future.
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6236003
For some products, long term rental makes sense in some contexts. Leasing a car for example. Most people buy a car on credit, and if you want to switch your car out frequently, the math might work out in your favor to lease a car and upgrade every couple years as opposed to buying one with a loan, selling it (almost certainly at a loss) and repeating. For computers though If you can't afford a $3000 computer just buy a cheaper computer. If you really broke just get a used office computer and throw a 3050 in it. This is very much something to prey on people with champaign taste and beer budget.
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For some products, long term rental makes sense in some contexts. Leasing a car for example. Most people buy a car on credit, and if you want to switch your car out frequently, the math might work out in your favor to lease a car and upgrade every couple years as opposed to buying one with a loan, selling it (almost certainly at a loss) and repeating. For computers though If you can't afford a $3000 computer just buy a cheaper computer. If you really broke just get a used office computer and throw a 3050 in it. This is very much something to prey on people with champaign taste and beer budget.
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ragekage209
the money you spent monthly on this could get you one part each month with some maybe taking 2-3 months depending on how high-end you're going and then you would just have a computer forever after like less than a year. no strings attached. and you would be done paying for it lmao.
disregarding all the awful practices surrounding it its just a dumb idea in the first place. if you're so impatient to get a gaming computer that you cant wait a few more months to save up the money you'll already be spending on this then you have bigger problems tbh
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the money you spent monthly on this could get you one part each month with some maybe taking 2-3 months depending on how high-end you're going and then you would just have a computer forever after like less than a year. no strings attached. and you would be done paying for it lmao.
disregarding all the awful practices surrounding it its just a dumb idea in the first place. if you're so impatient to get a gaming computer that you cant wait a few more months to save up the money you'll already be spending on this then you have bigger problems tbh
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alexnaq
Modern capitalism at it's finest. Buisness must always grow booooys... instead of making good consumer's cooling and focus on it to make it awesome, we will doing all sort of shit and be master of none. And now this... can't afford a 1500 PC (pre-build, which means you can probably build one cheaper), but at the same time able to pay 120$ monthly for it... wait a minute... it's just about 12 months of saving 120 each to get one yourself. What the hell is the sales team smoking there. Who will rent a gaming PC for such a price ahhaha
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Modern capitalism at it's finest. Buisness must always grow booooys... instead of making good consumer's cooling and focus on it to make it awesome, we will doing all sort of shit and be master of none. And now this... can't afford a 1500 PC (pre-build, which means you can probably build one cheaper), but at the same time able to pay 120$ monthly for it... wait a minute... it's just about 12 months of saving 120 each to get one yourself. What the hell is the sales team smoking there. Who will rent a gaming PC for such a price ahhaha
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Mr.Bastion
So I ordered my pc through flex on the 14th just got it yesterday was supposed to be a 4090 but I got a 4080 super. at a whopping 289 a month was told during the phone interview I could buy the pc out ect. Then 2 days later they changed the website showing different parts. also they blatantly don't make you read the user agreement in any process of ordering the machine. it isn't even easily found. someone who is just looking to get a pc doesn't look at everything. litterally saw 4090 and was like take my money.
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So I ordered my pc through flex on the 14th just got it yesterday was supposed to be a 4090 but I got a 4080 super. at a whopping 289 a month was told during the phone interview I could buy the pc out ect. Then 2 days later they changed the website showing different parts. also they blatantly don't make you read the user agreement in any process of ordering the machine. it isn't even easily found. someone who is just looking to get a pc doesn't look at everything. litterally saw 4090 and was like take my money.
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SpaceManRD
One logical issue that stands out to me immediately: If you have the cashflow to justify $60 a month on a relative frivolity (and to buy the games you'd be _playing_ on it), then surely buying or building a serviceable gaming PC isn't out of the question Set some money aside and you're there before you know it, maybe buy a cheap laptop if you just need a computer in the meantime. Shit, finance it if you're desperate.
Though I guess kids aren't going to make that logical jump.
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One logical issue that stands out to me immediately: If you have the cashflow to justify $60 a month on a relative frivolity (and to buy the games you'd be _playing_ on it), then surely buying or building a serviceable gaming PC isn't out of the question Set some money aside and you're there before you know it, maybe buy a cheap laptop if you just need a computer in the meantime. Shit, finance it if you're desperate.
Though I guess kids aren't going to make that logical jump.
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Alan46810
The topic of the this video eludes me... maybe just because Im simple european. Renting PC Your part of the world really went all in into subscription model. If I would not be able to save up for PC in lets say 1 year or I would need it to work on I would get bank loan for 2/3 years and possibly pay it back earlier
Simulation from my bank for 3500USD PC (i5-13600KF and 4080 that I bought few years back) would be 164USD per month for 2 years with possibility of early repayment
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The topic of the this video eludes me... maybe just because Im simple european. Renting PC Your part of the world really went all in into subscription model. If I would not be able to save up for PC in lets say 1 year or I would need it to work on I would get bank loan for 2/3 years and possibly pay it back earlier
Simulation from my bank for 3500USD PC (i5-13600KF and 4080 that I bought few years back) would be 164USD per month for 2 years with possibility of early repayment
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jameysummers1577
For a lot of people, expensive gaming tech is not in the cards. A lot of gamers are saving up their allowance. Other gamers are working long hours for 3050s. This seems like predatory behavior. This is why I offer cheap repairs to people who can't afford tech. I even give towers away to people in my community who can't afford gaming PCs. You will never own these PCs from NZXT What a bunch of shitbags!
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For a lot of people, expensive gaming tech is not in the cards. A lot of gamers are saving up their allowance. Other gamers are working long hours for 3050s. This seems like predatory behavior. This is why I offer cheap repairs to people who can't afford tech. I even give towers away to people in my community who can't afford gaming PCs. You will never own these PCs from NZXT What a bunch of shitbags!
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EpicRivers1
Good god, I got my 3090ti through affirm, and paid like 115 a month for a year, that I owned from day 1. These PC subscriptions aren't even rent to own Mega scam. I'm very happy with my EVGA 3090ti, god love EVGA. It's a lot of research and work, but there are much better ways to get a reasonable gaming pc for a low price. I run it with a 5950x, and I still see no need to upgrade, for years.
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Good god, I got my 3090ti through affirm, and paid like 115 a month for a year, that I owned from day 1. These PC subscriptions aren't even rent to own Mega scam. I'm very happy with my EVGA 3090ti, god love EVGA. It's a lot of research and work, but there are much better ways to get a reasonable gaming pc for a low price. I run it with a 5950x, and I still see no need to upgrade, for years.
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shperax
You can build a top of the line rig in Canada from New Egg right now for $2500. If you can't save up that money to just pay for one, you should NOT be renting a PC. I get not everyone can build a PC. There's a whole new can of worms to open up if you aren't willing to learn to build one. Honestly, if you can't build your own PC or not willing to learn, please just buy a console and stick to those.
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You can build a top of the line rig in Canada from New Egg right now for $2500. If you can't save up that money to just pay for one, you should NOT be renting a PC. I get not everyone can build a PC. There's a whole new can of worms to open up if you aren't willing to learn to build one. Honestly, if you can't build your own PC or not willing to learn, please just buy a console and stick to those.
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dathyr1
Feel sorry for the people that fell for this computer SCAM. They should of done their homework before jumping on the Band Wagon. This NZXT sounds a little similar to a Columbia Record club my parents got into many years ago. Easy to get in, very hard to cancel. When something sounds too good to be true, it is not.
Thanks for the video on these shysters.
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Feel sorry for the people that fell for this computer SCAM. They should of done their homework before jumping on the Band Wagon. This NZXT sounds a little similar to a Columbia Record club my parents got into many years ago. Easy to get in, very hard to cancel. When something sounds too good to be true, it is not.
Thanks for the video on these shysters.
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anorwichfan
So... Wait, you are telling me, a company will send out a PC to an address without verifying who is buying it, provided they have what...
A credit card How much of that can be faked Delivery addresses, temporary credit cards, fake email addresses. If they are doing no verification on the buyer, what is stopping bad actors scamming NZXT
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So... Wait, you are telling me, a company will send out a PC to an address without verifying who is buying it, provided they have what...
A credit card How much of that can be faked Delivery addresses, temporary credit cards, fake email addresses. If they are doing no verification on the buyer, what is stopping bad actors scamming NZXT
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Rizzo2009
My first case was an NZXT Lexa S and i've had nothing but good experiences with their coolers and cases. It's so disheartening that they would be this slimy. Thank you GN Team for diving deep on this one and making sure that no one falls prey to this. I'll never be building in another case or advocating of any product they make ever again.
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My first case was an NZXT Lexa S and i've had nothing but good experiences with their coolers and cases. It's so disheartening that they would be this slimy. Thank you GN Team for diving deep on this one and making sure that no one falls prey to this. I'll never be building in another case or advocating of any product they make ever again.
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sketchyunicornslab
Makes me happy that I always thought of NZXT as bait and crappy equipment based off their terrible looking items and equipment.
But, this is the new worlds and we allow own nothing and be happy about it. It will only get worse especially with letting the rich business lords run everything (Which the people want)
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Makes me happy that I always thought of NZXT as bait and crappy equipment based off their terrible looking items and equipment.
But, this is the new worlds and we allow own nothing and be happy about it. It will only get worse especially with letting the rich business lords run everything (Which the people want)
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Roadsurfer2k11
Why tf would anyone rent a pc buy a used one off marketplace if that hard up.
Also F NZXT for the layoffs as a former tech in semiconductors industry, displaced from our own department closures. Last time i checked they were only paying thier computer buiders min wage, sad for California wages
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Why tf would anyone rent a pc buy a used one off marketplace if that hard up.
Also F NZXT for the layoffs as a former tech in semiconductors industry, displaced from our own department closures. Last time i checked they were only paying thier computer buiders min wage, sad for California wages
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vanhalenbr
The Consumer Product Safety Commision need to be protected, there is some talk to end it in the near future and this is a great example on how they can be important for safery
Also those ads from influencers... that one talking about winning a Fortnite championship should be illegal
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The Consumer Product Safety Commision need to be protected, there is some talk to end it in the near future and this is a great example on how they can be important for safery
Also those ads from influencers... that one talking about winning a Fortnite championship should be illegal
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ljones2087
It's not just financial issues, it's laziness and shortsightedness that lead people into these cons.
If they spent a few months to a year buying components and building their own rig, performance specs respective of budget, they'd have something great and learn something too.
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It's not just financial issues, it's laziness and shortsightedness that lead people into these cons.
If they spent a few months to a year buying components and building their own rig, performance specs respective of budget, they'd have something great and learn something too.
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coder4liberty
I'm here interested in the hardware and the good information so I'm not a gamer but this is so bad that this is weirdly one of the funniest videos I've seen for a while. I feel sorry for the people who they have screwed. I wouldn't have ever considered this route personally.
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I'm here interested in the hardware and the good information so I'm not a gamer but this is so bad that this is weirdly one of the funniest videos I've seen for a while. I feel sorry for the people who they have screwed. I wouldn't have ever considered this route personally.
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