Gamers Nexus Reviews the Walmart Gaming PC

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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Walmart released their "Overpowered" lineup of gaming PCs late last month, and Gamers Nexus decided to get their hands on one for some testing. Walmart has a reputation for being cheap, and however bad you might think a $2100 Walmart PC would be... well, it might actually be worse. For starters, Walmart sent Gamers Nexus the wrong model, something many buyers might not even notice. The power supply, motherboard, heatsink and fans are all bottom barrel, even though the rig is much more expensive that rough equivalents from the competition. And that's just where the problems start.

Check out the written review on the site, or the full one in the video here.

It's hard to know where to start; undoubtedly, this is also the feeling that Walmart's PC builders had when they opted to hot glue the USB3.0 header into the motherboard. Or perhaps they felt more confusion when faced with the decision of routing the cables, whereupon hands were thrown up and wires were used to ensnare the video card to the PCIe socket. Actually, maybe it makes more sense to start with the case, whose fans have literally 2mm of clearance for air intake.
 
I thought Bait-and-switch was illegal.

I guess not if you're big enough.
 
I stopped in for a 25’ hdmi cable, that and cheap movies are the only reason I go to Walmart once ever two years, and I saw the PCs.... they had stock intel heatsinks and looked like complete garbage.
 
lostin3d said:
Should've known someone would take it literally.

https://www.hardocp.com/news/2018/0...for_how_we_built_2000_custom_gaming_pc_video/
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Krenum said:
Despite not getting the product he ordered. That pricetag is a complete ripoff!
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Yeah, the only goo things in the system are the cpu(a K model would of been better for the highest end model).
Paying that much for crap is crazy. But I do wonder about the power supply. Just how bad is it?
 
Hagrid said:
Yeah, the only goo things in the system are the cpu(a K model would of been better for the highest end model).
Paying that much for crap is crazy. But I do wonder about the power supply. Just how bad is it?
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Bad. Even an equivalent in specs Alienware uses 80 plus gold PSUs these days. And an Alienware would be cheaper and have a better motherboard, etc.
 
How bizarre. I figured theyd atleast buy prebuilt machines from a warrantied 3rd party like acer or msi. Havent been to a walmart in like 5 + years though sounds like theyve really hit rock bottom.
 
I haven't had any good experiences with Walmart. I tried ordering a case from them a few months back and at the time that I made/paid for my order the item was listed as 'in stock' and would be delivered by X date.

Well, the day before the claimed delivery day the item still hadn't shipped and they sent me an email saying the item was out of stock.

If it was out of stock then why did you list it as in stock and take my money?

It made no sense.

So considering this is a situation where you have to deal with the Walmart logistics hoping you get the correct item, and a computer that's just built like shit - I'd stay far away.

To show how bad of a deal this $1400 system is I just looked up a similar spec Alienware. The similar spec Alienware is $1300 not including standard Dell 10% discount, and the Alienware actually uses dual channel RAM, has a better motherboard, and generally better build quality along with warranty support.
 
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piscian18 said:
How bizarre. I figured theyd just buy prebuilt machines from a warrantied 3rd party. Havent been to a walmart in like 5 + years though sounds like theyve really hit rock bottom.
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It technically is a 3rd party. It's through the 'ESports Arena' brand/company. Walmart is just the exclusive distributer.
 
ofg ya want a $2100 PC buy the parts ,,have microcenter build it for you ..then wipe it and install your stuff your way ..or better yet build it yourself for less money .
 
piscian18 said:
Yeah corrected, I meant to say like an actual real builder.
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Because they wanted to price gouge - And they will. These things will be setup in Walmart stores and middle aged parents will be buying them for their kids who want to play Fortnite not knowing any better.

They seemed to have built the cheapest possible thing to support the standard CPU/GPU combo that would attract the most buyers. Most buyers not knowing better will never know they are running a shit chipset with a substantial DMA/memory bandwidth restriction. The crappy build quality could be forgiven if it weren't for that.
 
Just done some quick price checking, mostly on Amazon of the same parts used in this system, or very similar ones where I couldn't find an exact match.

Motherboard $47.29
GTX 1070 $349.99
ADATA 256GB SSD $114.16
2TB hard drive $59.99
500w PSU $23.99
CPU cooler $23.99
Core i7-8700 $429.98
ADATA 16GB DDR 2400 $149
Case $49.99
Total $1224.39

Plus a windows OEM license. I am sure that Walmart can source the components for much less but the price isn't far below the $1,399 that they charge for it. I am suprised really.
 
Even though they got the wrong (slower) PC I'm sure there are people out there where the opposite happened. Such is the problem when your computer is called the same thing, guys filling the order at the store/warehouse probably saw "Overdrive computer, ok right there, next item..."
 
I'm not surprised at all by this. I look at Walmart this way, if it has a plug and cost more than $100, buy it somewhere else. There is a long standing rumor that manufacturers make cheaper models of the same products to sell at Walmart to be able to compete (Walmart forces many suppliers to undercut their own prices).

Well, it's partially true. I did my internship for 6 months at a computer and electronics repair shop. We saw MANY Sony, LG and Samsung model TVs come in for repair. Some of them had TOTALLY different parts and part numbers than others of the same model. Our parts supplier would ask "did the customer purchase the product at Walmart?" because he maintained a totally separate list of part for Walmart products. Keep in mind, these had the EXACT SAME model numbers as stuff sold at BestBuy, Amazon, etc. They just put different parts in them for Walmart.

I can't attest to whether this happens for any other products other than TVs. But, why take the chance?
 
looks like they just sent out the wrong product.

a lot of things he says almost no one would even know or care (assuming they got the right one first)

That whole H310 mobo explanation is a good example. Hell even I didnt know wtf he was talking about nor would those things be a problem in the end.
 
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Even if it wasn't for the wrong product it's still a relevant video given how over priced the system is.

Also, think about the fact that the $2100 system with the 1080ti is using the same shitty single channel half DMA chipset. So not only shit for memory bandwidth, but the PCI-E slot for the GPU I believe is a version 2 X4 slot logically. That's terrible. That means the 1080ti is going to 100% be hitting PCIE bandwidth limitations and that's constricted enough that you're looking at like 10-20% performance hit.
 
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Bigbacon said:
looks like they just sent out the wrong product.

a lot of things he says almost no one would even know or care (assuming they got the right one first)

That whole H310 mobo explanation is a good example. Hell even I didnt know wtf he was talking about nor would those things be a problem in the end.
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And the average person who can just turn on a computer and browse, Facebook, etc?
 
Chris_B said:
Yup, won't stop him milking a youtube vid from it though. :cautious:
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Why not? Not like him getting the right system would have changed how it was built. It would have another stick of the exact same RAM, a higher capacity version of the exact same SSD, a Gigabyte 1080 ti instead of the 1070, and everything else would be the same. Same board, same HDD, same CPU, same cooler, probably the same PSU or maybe a slighter higher wattage version of it, same shitty case, same retarded USB-C expansion card, etc. If anything, getting the right system is going to make them look worse because the 1080 ti is going to shove a lot more heat into that piece of shit case than the 1070 will.
 
I feel like Walmart is not going to want to take that PC back. He took it apart, probably scratched the fuck out of it, and removed their thermal paste... and their super glue... Does this thing not have tamper tape for the warranty? I don't think he mentioned if it did.
 
Victor Savastano said:
I'm not surprised at all by this. I look at Walmart this way, if it has a plug and cost more than $100, buy it somewhere else. There is a long standing rumor that manufacturers make cheaper models of the same products to sell at Walmart to be able to compete (Walmart forces many suppliers to undercut their own prices).

Well, it's partially true. I did my internship for 6 months at a computer and electronics repair shop. We saw MANY Sony, LG and Samsung model TVs come in for repair. Some of them had TOTALLY different parts and part numbers than others of the same model. Our parts supplier would ask "did the customer purchase the product at Walmart?" because he maintained a totally separate list of part for Walmart products. Keep in mind, these had the EXACT SAME model numbers as stuff sold at BestBuy, Amazon, etc. They just put different parts in them for Walmart.

I can't attest to whether this happens for any other products other than TVs. But, why take the chance?
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I have heard of this before - it's difficult to believe that it is cost effective to retool and get different lines of suppliers just for one retailer- even a massive one.
 
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