- Hello and welcome to "This Is." We often get scammed, bamboozled, skull-duggered. We get Cumberbatched. We get hogwashed. So over on Austin's channel we looked at what we would consider fraudulent. - No, it was actually fraudulent. The video's been up for a couple days now, by the time you're watching this. But essentially the gist is, I just went down the rabbit hole of trying to find gaming PCs on Amazon. Instead of finding the HPs, the ASUSs, ASUS is a goose-
- We found like this underworld, this weird culture of scam PCs that are being sold on
the internet to you, your grandma, and your
grandma's friend Matthew. - No, mostly your 12-year-old nephew. Essentially what's happening is companies are building PCs with flashy RGB cases and components from junk
Dells that are 10 years old that came out of an office. They are proliferating the
gaming PC search on Amazon. They look identical to
the good gaming PCs. But still, if you know
what the parts are inside, you're paying $400,
$500, $600 for maybe $100 worth of parts-
- But- - That half of them were probably gonna go in the recycle bin anyway. It's not good.
- Austin, you're forgetting one thing, that they are RGB, Really Good Brands. What we did is we went
through the rabbit hole ourselves-
- I hate you. I hate that. - And looked for some more
what we're gonna classify as skull-duggeries. Moving on to the first one. Here we have the listing
that started it all. Alarco Gaming PC Desktop. We're not gonna get
into this one too much, because you can go check
out Austin's video on it. It's great, I think. I don't actually watch his content. - Boom. Roasted. - It's a bunch of specs that are old and it's being sold for not old prices. - 450 bucks for like an RGB
case and a bunch of junk that they tossed in and
call it a gaming PC is, I would say, egregious. I hope the video has rustled
some jimmies over at Amazon. - I hope that someone over at Amazon had their dingaling rung to notify them that this is bad.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait.
- Let's see the next scam PC. - Here we go.
- The ViprTech Enthusiast Gaming PC Desktop. - So I will say that this particular one is essentially equivalent
to what you're gonna find the majority of the time on Amazon. So, going down the list here, they say it's a Core i5-2400. The i5-2400 came out in 2011,
so a 12-year-old processor. - This processor is older
than most of our viewers. Like-
(Austin sniggers) - That's not true. - You want the best in gaming performance? You have here an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660. - [Austin] 8 gigs of RAM,
a 1 terabyte hard drive, not even an SSD. So they tell the games tested, "GTAV," "Fortnite," "CS:GO." - If you need the ultimate
in power to play "Among Us," just check out these builds. My favorite listing is in the specs. It comes with a GTX 660, in parentheses, better than a GTX 750 Ti. - These things came
out in like 2013, 2014. Who cares? That'd be like, the iPhone 10, better than the iPhone 4. Like yeah, cool, I guess. - So according to some reviews, this crashes on simple
games like "Roblox," randomly shuts off, "Was told it was the game I was playing. It wasn't. Turns out bad motherboard." - If you are selling a new
PC with components that are 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, most PC components, sure, will have a very nice long life,
but if you're buying it and it's 10 years old, you
can't expect everything in that system to work for the long haul. Look, look, someone actually did the math. "Overall, in looking at
the specs that are actually in my computer only costs around $207, not including the case." People in the reviews are
literally doing the math on this. And again, if you look
at the actual specs here, if you're trying to find
the core i5-2400 on eBay and everything like
that, you're gonna spend a little bit more. But what these guys are doing
is they're buying pallets of Dells for like 10 bucks each, or these things are just
literally going to the e-waste bin they're getting for free,
pulling out the components that are good, and then
they're just buying like an RGB case, slapping
it in and calling it a day. - Well, I think it's
so much more nefarious, and I kind of brought this
up in our other video, but I think these guys are
getting paid to do this. I think they are going
to, you know, companies saying "For a fee, we'll take
care of all your old systems." And some, you know, mom and pop shops say, "Oh yeah, we have 40 computers we don't know what to do with. Here, we'll pay you to
take these off our hands." To take 'em to recycling.
- Yeah. - And then they're gutting 'em. So not only are they getting
paid to recycle them, then they're stripping all the
components and reselling 'em. Why are we not doing this? - Okay, now that's not the message here. - Check out our link
to check out the Matt-- - No. No, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. So this is the STGAubron. Now this is actually
another one that I saw. I believe this was actually like the number one search result. - But the cool thing about this one is it comes with accessories. - I'm gonna say this with like the biggest grain of salt ever. This one actually seems to be a little bit more reasonable, right? So they claim it's i7,
3.4 up to 3.9 gigahertz. - [Matt] An RX 580 is
actually a pretty decent card. - This is a reasonable sort of system, and it comes with RGB keyboard
and mousepad, everything. It's got an SSD, which
makes sense, 16 gigs of RAM. To be fair, I am not telling you to actually go buy this Aubron. But this is a better sort of deal, because at least some of
the components are newer compared to everything
being like 10 years old. There's no doubt that this
seems like a better system. It's got the SSD, and it's got more RAM
and everything like that. But you've got to be
clear on these listings. Are you selling these things with used components, and what
are the components, right? If I'm getting an i5 or an i7, there are 13 generations of these things, especially if you're just
comparing it to whatever's out. If you just see 3.4 gigahertz, that doesn't mean anything almost, right? There's like 3.4 gigahertz, could be like a lower end i5 from yesterday
or 10 years ago, right? Like that's such a
misleading kind of thing. - These are really good brands. Moving on to the next one. (Austin groans in agony) - $7,200. $7,200. Bro, you could buy two Ford Focus.
- This costs more than a 1998 Ford Focus. (car horns beeps)
- Hold me. - I don't wanna. Who cares about specs? I don't give a (beep) about
specs in these anymore. I like looking at the listings. It will make you a better gamer. (Austin chuckles) That's all I need to know. I don't care about any specs anymore. This tells me I'm gonna be a better gamer. You know what? (producer giggles)
(plastic card tapping) 7,200 bucks is a steal for how
I'm gonna be a better gamer. - [Austin] The computer
will take six to eight weeks to finish the product,
install the software, and complete product testing. - [Matt] Yeah. - We understand that there's a wait. Because of that we will throw in a free 24 inch 5K high definition OLED screen that will make your game play flawless. - So that doesn't exist. - What? Okay, so these guys are
just straight scamming you. Also-
- No, they're not. No, no, no, no, no. So they invented their
own screen, all right? They invented a new panel, handmade. We know Etsy likes the handmade computers. - In addition, I was like,
damn that image looks familiar. - Uh oh.
- So I reverse image searched that exact picture, and I found this new listing.
(Austin laughs) - They're not even building the system. - No.
- They're buying it from New Egg. - They're waiting for New
Egg to ship it to them so then they can ship it to you. - What if they just drop ship it? What if they're literally drop shipping it from New Egg to you? What the (beep)?
- No, no, they- - This is straight up,
you're buying something from New Egg and you're flipping it for thousands of dollars for profit from people who are looking
up gaming PCs, and that's- - Yo, that's that Sigma
bro mentality right there, all right?
- Hey Kenzie, can you check the listing? Is it Matt's address? (Matt giggles) If I messaged the Etsy, let's
see if his phone goes off. (Matt giggles) - I'm not gonna pretend like I did this. I'm not gonna pretend
like I made this listing. - I just messaged. (faint piano ringtone) - I do it for the art, you guys. - This could be a thing now. This is just a thing now. - I steal from Austin just
so we can make better videos. - Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Skytech Archangel, $1,690. - I feel like we need an
archangel to take that thing back up to hell where it belongs. - For reference, it's got a Ryzen 5 3600, and a GTX 1660 with a 500 gig SSD, eight gigs of RAM, and that's it. - It comes with a race crew cooler. - This is probably worth $500, tops. - That race cooler right
there alone is worth $1,200. - It's included in the box. - I'm not defending this listing. - Are you gonna victim shame right now? - I'm gonna do a little
victim shaming on this one, because this one is being more
open than the other ones are. So like this-
- If you buy this, you are, yeah.
- Like, this one is, if you're buying this
one, it is egregious. But this one here, you didn't
do your homework on it. - They very much tell you what, yeah.
- Whereas like, yeah, like the other ones, they're hiding that information from you. - Dude, there's only 62% positive reviews in the last 12 months. Like they are basically
making $1,000 of profit selling you a $1,600. - There's a really good
chance that, for $1,600, this is just pure money laundering, right? The big mafia guy, he comes
over and he says, "I sell"- - If you don't buy his PC,
he breaks your kneecaps? - I'm gonna buy a PC.
You know what I'm saying? Like they funnel their
dirty money through New Egg. "Waste of money." The pros, "None." Cons, "Infinite boot screen," which should just be the only one that, if it's infinite.
(Austin laughs) "Some of the USB and
ethernet ports may not work, may not be able to connect
to the internet at all, and may not be able to
connect to speakers." So like four of the five things that a computer needs to do. - And so for a comparison,
I found a HP on Amazon for $600 less with better
specs in every one. - Yeah, exactly. And so this is from an actual
reputable brand, you know, called HP for $600 less. It has a far better processor,
a much better graphics card, more RAM, much better SSD.
- But- - It's better than every possible way. - But how am I supposed to know that this is better in every possible way, if they don't tell me that the 2060 is better than the 1660? I'm calling for a boycott
of HP for not telling me. - Oh my god, Matt, are you just upset that someone's ruining your scam racketeering?
- I'm gonna make, I'm like I want no one else to buy
any other PC other than mine. All of these are probably the same like one or two companies. All of those ones on Amazon
are all the same specs. - Yeah. - The cases are a little different, but like they basically say,
"We're a different company, so we'll get a different cheap case." But like it's probably all the same group. - Some enterprising business
people who have learned that you can turn lemons into lemonade. And by lemons and lemonade, I mean rip off 12-year-olds. - Let's talk about the ethics of- - Yeah. Of your scam empire? - Yeah.
- Okay. - So like I think I'm doing okay. I like I think I'm fine. - But everyone else is the problem. You're fine. Everyone
else is causing issues. Look, this kind of stuff is
always gonna be a thing, right? Because what you've got
is you've got people who want a PC who maybe are not ready or willing to build it themselves. A lot of people who might
not be super familiar with the difference between
a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 7, or 1660 and 2060.
- Especially a Ryzen 5 of different generations. - Absolutely. - Like it's okay to not
understand this stuff, and it's okay to buy a pre-built, but the takeaway like I want
people to have from this is there are scams, there
are overpriced listings, so like you do have to do
your homework a little bit. - Basically if you're seeing pre-builts from a non like reputable
company like you know, HP and ASUS and whatnot,
the majority of them, not all of them to be fair,
there are certainly some, the vast majority of what
you're finding on sites such as Amazon, New Egg, Etsy, these are actual scams, right? People are taking a
couple hundred dollars, they're making it look
nice with an RGB case that's gonna blend in with
all the other expensive PCs. But guess what? You're getting ripped off. Not only do they have
questionable support, but they are making piles of money on you. If you're looking one of these PCs, even especially in like
the lower budgets, right, you look around for say 500, 600 bucks, you're actually gonna
have a hard time finding an equivalent HP or ASUS, right? Which would make sense
why you might be like, oh well I can't look at the HP version, 'cause it's, you know, $800 and it doesn't have the same spec, right? Just Google a few of the parts. If you're seeing things
that are made in 2010, 2011, 2012, if you are
seeing things that are made in like 2015 or 2017,
those are old components. There's nothing wrong with that. But be very mindful that,
when you're buying components that are used and years
old, you don't know what the reliability is. You don't know if the
graphics card was sitting on a mining rig for five
years at 100% and then got tossed in your system.
- So I agree with all this, but like you're assuming,
it took two people who know PCs very well some detective work to find that some of
these are 10 years old. That's where again-
- Yeah. - You know, if it's not
from a reputable dealer, there are some, you know, like companies that we know to be reputable.
- Yeah. - That aren't the HPs
and aren't the ASUSs. Like I Buy Power like it's for the most part usually pretty good. And there's like the one-
- There's like Origin PC. - Yeah. Like, but it's
- And to be fair, but they are usually a little expensive. But at least that's in
the realm of like, okay. But like no, these are
straight up scams, right? Like they're charging you $500, $600 more, or they're charging you $300 or $400 extra on a system that they
probably put together for like 50, 75 bucks, right?
- But how do I know? That's what I'm asking you. How do I know?
- Don't trust these things. The other thing is, what we found in the other video we did, was a lot of the negative reviews have been removed through various skullduggery. I would just say as a blanket statement, do not buy gaming PCs from brands that you are not very familiar with. And if you have a question
about it, Google it. - Better yet, post it to Reddit. - Yeah.
- And people will love to tell you what a terrible PC that is. But you know what you
should do for 500 bucks? You should buy a Mac, stupid.
- Okay. - Let us know the comments if you bought one of these scam PCs. - That's smooth, that's smooth. - Like, follow, subscribe
and we will catch you in the next one.
