 While many of you build your own PCs, we've shown before that buying from a system builder can be a good way to save yourself some hassle, get extra warranty support on your machine, and, thanks to the economies of scale, even save a buck or two. But who exactly should you buy from? Well, to answer this question properly, we couldn't rely on cherry-picked samples where the system builder knows who they're shipping to. You know, some extra cable management here, a touch of extra overclocking there. So, as we learned over the last couple of Scrapyard Wars, You look like someone I know, Ash. That means that I couldn't be involved in the process at all, not even to get on the phone. So, we devised a plan. We recruited Agent Janice from accounting, equipped her with 1500 US dollars per system, and gave her a simple mission. As someone who doesn't know that much about gaming computers, buy the best gaming PC you can, following the advice of the PC advisors on the other end of the line. And I think the results here are gonna shock you. They're certainly going to shock me because I haven't heard any of this yet. Ivan, you got the donuts and coffee? Because I think it's time for me to have a good old-fashioned stakeout. Let's do it. Team Group's T-Force Delta RGB SSD features a large luminous RGB body with read-write speeds of up to 560 MB a second. Check it out at their thank-miss sale in the link below. The T-Force Delta RGB SSD features a large luminous RGB body with read-write speeds of up to 560 MB a second. Alright, so we decided to go with three different types of system integrators. So, a big well-known manufacturer, Alienware. And Hewlett-Packard. Okay, and HP, sure. Yep. Then... I'm envious already. I see what you did there. So, then we went with the two high-volume manufacturers, such as IboPower and CyberPower. Sure, okay. And then finally we went... More boutique? Yeah, two boutiques. So, we went with Origin and we went with Manger. Okay. Yeah. I have a feeling we're not going to be making any friends over the next half an hour or so here. Hold your judgment. Welcome to Dark Canada. You're a mission operator. How can I do a short call today? Hi, I'm looking to purchase a PC. Alright, gaming time or not gaming? Computer. Gaming. Gaming. It's like these people have never heard of a computer before. It's a gaming type of a computer. You heard it here first. Okay, so is this going to be the gaming computer? Yes. The gaming. I'm a gamer, so... And you need a laptop, right? No, I'm looking for like a PC. Desktop? Monitor? Monitor? No, just the box. Laptop, right? What? No. Second time. A desktop, please. Okay, a desktop is a desktop, right? Yeah. Yeah. For those who didn't know. So let's just go ahead and check one laptop for your brother. What is it? Three times. Did you just try to sell their laptop again? No, sorry, the laptop you said right, you need a laptop. Holy crap. Four times. No, a desktop. Four. Okay, all right, one moment. Desktop is like a tower. I just loaned it. Yeah, I'm looking to spend around 2000. So that's Canadian dollars. Is he just like looking up gaming computers on Dell.com? He's been gone for 30 seconds. Yeah, with no elevator. He's back, he's back. It's a Neo alien where Aurora... He's not even like, hold on a second. Let me get... It's specially designed for the people who love gaming. Who just want to do gaming on the desktop and this is faster. And I'm waiting this one goes for again for like seven to nine years. Okay. Seven to nine years. Where is he pulling these numbers from? Like that, there is no way that that isn't out of the script. But if you pay $600 extra, you can go for R7-800K processor, you know, like 10 times faster than... However, the processor is also the faster one. But R7-800K is the latest technology to boost the performance of the desktop. You heard that here first. It's like 10 times faster than the other one. Like 10 times faster. The other one. Great deals. Listen, for all the support to buy services this month, you just have to go and meet you for a minute then... Wait, what? He's passing her off to someone? Yep. Did you just say 460W multi-GPU approved? With liquid cooling. It does not have to... Oh, because the K doesn't come with a box heat sink. But she doesn't need liquid cooling and that also isn't a power supply. Like, what is he even talking about? He's like, oh, you also need liquid cooling. Yeah, because her computer didn't have a cooler. That was his job to tell her. And he didn't until she called him out on the price discrepancy. Yeah, thank you for choosing Dell. You have a great day. Thanks for your time. Thank you so much. Yeah, he should say thanks for your time because she gave him an awful lot of it. Okay, bye. Geez. Hi. Okay, that's not bad. A minute to reach a person. All right. And how much are you willing to spend with this new computer? I'm looking for around $2,000. Okay. So location, purpose, budget. Regional price for this is $1,999. But you can get $200 off as of today. So from $1,999, you can get it for $1,799. So she tells you right away there was a discount. But we don't even know what the spec is. Like, we don't even know if that's a good deal. That sounds great. Yeah. And then, so if I had like about $200 to spend, are there any upgrades or things I could do to make it like even better for gaming and that kind of thing? So do you already have a monitor you'll be using for this? Yeah, he has all the like monitor, mouse, keyboard. That's a pretty good question. Like what monitor is he using? Resolution, yes. Oh, but then he didn't follow up and like, what's the resolution? Okay. Missed opportunity. Since your brother will be using this for gaming, actually here in HP we offer HP Care Pack. Oh, here comes the... Here comes the warranty. So just in case... He has no idea how hard she's laughing right now. Your brother will be using this for gaming. So that would be like, he'll be using it overnight. So... He'll be using it overnight. We're recommending you getting this Care Pack so that just in case something happened to the computer, your brother can always call our technical support and ask for assistance. All right. Let's see how many times they try again. So let's go ahead and complete this purchase. That was it. Wait, what? They're clearly doing it wrong. What? We still don't know what the specs of the system are. They just sent us a link. And they said this is good for gaming. Didn't specify the resolution. Wait, so did he send her a link? Like, is she looking at the system? Or no, he's getting her email now. So we still don't know what system we're buying. But he already found her a solution that says it has the best specs for gaming and has a deal on it and will fit within two grand. Let's see what he sends. So that's a gamble. Because if he gets it wrong, he looks like an idiot. And if he gets it right, then we just had a really streamlined experience. That's what it comes down to for this one. All right. Who's up next? Hi there. I wonder if you can help me with. Wow, live person just picks up the phone. That's pretty good. I don't really know that much about the different components and things. We don't make recommendations on what parts you need to get or do not need to get. But if you need questions, I will try my best to answer for you. Hold on. Did they just hear it right? What? There are salespeople do not do recommendations. OK. What PC would you recommend for around fifteen hundred dollars for a gamer? Yeah, we don't make recommendations. The best for gaming system, there are two things you really need to look for. One will be the speed of the CPU. Two will be the speed of video card. For gaming wise, for Intel, the best CPU is the i7. Technically not wrong, but. You can start with any of the Z390 chip packages. And then start. Once you cook into any of those packages, you can pretty much pick and choose whatever you want. And I'll start with the i7. She totally understands that 390 chips are being taken right now. Yeah, obviously. Which to be clear is not us ripping on Janice. That's just like. You can't expect normal people to know what that is. The best way will be for you to chat with the game maker for the games that he wants to play the most. To find out exactly what parts they recommend you to get to run their games at the setting that he wants. OK, so I'll call up Chris Roberts from Star Citizen, right? Yeah, though. Chrisy. Yeah, you know like. That game that you haven't finished yet. Oh, well, it's only been 80 years. What graphics card? Wait, so that was it? That's the end of the call? That's it. It's just like. He can't even. What even happened there? So what did we just not buy a system? Like did Cyberpower just lose an actual sale? Because just to be very clear to the viewer right now, we are spending our actual money to buy these systems. They actually get our money. And Cyberpower just didn't get our money because they couldn't pass the most basic hurdle in the sales process. I have money. I need system. You would say I money give easy peasy profit. Holy shit. Now, agent Janice did for try and follow what the guy just told her. Just sort of systems by price on their site. Their site is a. Oh, yeah. It's like looks like a freaking Walmart flyer or something, you know. Like imagine somebody with like 1500 hard earned cash just being subjected to this like, oh, no, just Google it basically. Yeah, basically. Hi there. I'm calling because I'm looking into getting a computer for my brother. I'm sorry, your phone is coming out and I also feel very distant. Oh, sorry. Is it any better now? OK, well, that's pretty good. Go straight to a live person pretty much. Yeah, 10 seconds is like barely a week. Yeah, that's great. OK. Yes, I can. The phone is coming out quite a bit. What I can do is I can email ability that would suit super needs. Can you tell me what games he plays? Yeah, he plays. Oh, wow. I can't believe it took this long. We are four SIs in and this is the first time we've been asked what games he plays. Where prop one. OK, I'm a tomb raider. Oh, yeah. OK. And then he also he also like records and puts them on YouTube and stuff. Did you say record stuff on YouTube or records his games and then. Oh, OK. OK, OK. OK, perfect. OK. OK, perfect. So then I'm trying to get a system budget around 1500. The last question is, is what kind of monitors are you are you aware of? Does he have a really high inexpensive monitor or does he have that kind of like a monitor that you get at any local retailer? Are you aware of that or are you also aware if he's going to get a new monitor like a 4K monitor or anything like that? The one he has right now, I don't know, it seems kind of average. I don't know. I don't think he's necessarily looking to upgrade or get one very soon. OK, I'm sorry. I just need to get your email address and I'll email you this bill in a few minutes. I have a report that you said that you forgot to send out initially. I have a call for you that you're sending out right now actually. My apologies for that, ma'am. OK, no, I just want to make sure it wasn't misspelled or something. OK, so it's a good thing it doesn't take a long time to get a human because you got to call them back when they don't send your quote. Yes, no worries. He just sent out a message that he's sending out right now. So expect an email within the next five minutes. No quote again? So that's pretty good. It only takes a minute to get into talking to someone again. Yeah, well, the previous session was more busy, I guess. So we actually were put in the queue and offered the option to call back. Yeah, it was only a few minutes. Yeah, it's not too bad. Someone was going to send me an email with the billed information. I didn't receive the email, so I'm just going to double check if it was misspelled or something. How long ago was this? Twenty minutes, fifteen minutes. The first call was so good, but this whole process is getting really dragged out. Why don't they just give her their email address and then stay on the phone to make sure they get it so they can reply to it? Like if you're ever not sure, that's like 101 level stuff. She did get the quote, she did get the list. And they actually sent her a link to their configurator with preselected parts. And what was interesting is 9000 series part was listed in it. Really? Even though it wasn't launched yet? That's the quote he sent us. So they're pre-selling it? Yeah, so pre-ordering essentially, but within a full system. Interesting. I mean they were announced, but this guy's here for sale with pricing. I mean it's system integrator pricing, but nevertheless, we got it. Okay. Alright, so we're just going to not modify anything, just click as is. This is what the guy told us. Okay. Fits the budget. Let's go. Okay, done. Next. Next system. That's pretty quick. Ten seconds from the outer router to the live person. Okay. Okay. I can definitely help. Do you know if you're looking for a desktop or a laptop? Yeah, a desktop. Okay, so then that will take you to kind of like the custom design section. This is just aesthetic choices, so I would skip those for now. You can always go back. And if you want a specific color or specific brand, you can choose that later. Okay. I'm not trying to sell the paint job too hard. So this is the way to do it. Just have her look at it at the same time. Yeah, he's guiding her to decide. From there, my only recommendation would be to upgrade to an i5. Okay. So then upgrading the processor, what does that do? The processor is basically like the brain of the computer, so having a better one would have it. Okay. For $1,500? I mean, that's a good recommendation to upgrade, but like... Did he say 8600K? As an upgrade. What does she do? 8400. What does she do in buying a Z390 motherboard for a Core i3? Because 90 is bigger than 70, okay? So it's better for gaming. Maybe they just brought them in over there. These guys were doing pretty well until this. The graphics are going to be on the system. The default one that we have is the 1050 Ti. However, if he is going to be playing the latest games and the most demanding games in terms of graphics, he might want to upgrade that. If he plays like Grand Theft Auto and like Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider, would that be good? Yeah, he will be able to play those, just not on like Mac settings. That's the only thing. And then our default option is 120GB. That's the one by default, but you can upgrade that based on your preference. 120GB? Whoa. That's it. There is no storage in her system at all. 120GB SSD, if I heard it right now. I mean, I will say this. I can understand based on how much more, like even though he doesn't sound enthusiastic, he does at least sound knowledgeable. His explanation of the importance of the CPU and like what it's for and all that stuff. It's the brain of the computer, she knows how to explain it. It's like fine. So I can see why people might buy from a boutique rather than from a tier one. And certainly better than iBuyPower. Cyberpower. And certainly better than Cyberpower. But then again, iBuyPower guy did know. Oh yeah, iBuyPower knew what was up. He knew what's up. Okay. So main gear, like 15 seconds from operator to live person. That's not bad. That's a good question. Types of games. That's pretty, I didn't know main gear had systems that like 800 bucks. I mean, I'm pretty sure it has i3 and 1050, non-TI. Yeah, but that's with 800 bucks. Once you upgrade it, it should be decent. Wow. She just got recommended an AMD system. Wow. For 1500 bucks. With that said, at 1500 dollars, you could really go either AMD or Intel. But the fact that he brings it up at all. RGB. For gaming. RGB bothers me. If it bothers you after a while, you can turn it off. He said the F word, but I think he said it in a pretty appropriate context. Future proof is a fallacy. Now keep in mind, like this conversation is happening after hours. Their office is officially closed for business. Really? Yeah. Oh wow. He's actually trying to save her money. Black Friday. Wow. He tries to save her money. Damn. He just recommended go get a cheap Wi-Fi adapter on Amazon. I like this guy. Oh, here comes the warranty patch. Well, he saved it for the last, you know. Oh man. Oh, you get a free shirt. All right. Dibs. That's like the only anyone who mentioned that you can save your config on our site. Yeah. In case you don't need some time to think about it. So I wouldn't have expected one of our boutique SIs to be the most low pressure, straight talk sales experiences. So bottom line here is main gear absolutely ran away with the pre-sales experience. I concur. I mean, that was, that was awesome. Non condescending straight to the point. Nope. I would say origin was really good as well. If we're ignoring the config after that, boy, it gets tougher. Like HP was an okay buying experience, I guess. Minus the part where like she was not told what she's buying like ever. Yeah, minus that. Until she got invoice. Yeah. And then I mean, buy by power. If that had a bad connection, I mean, they were probably fine. Yes. And to your benefit of the doubt, you know, they just maybe misspelled the letter. The ones that really lost here though, Alienware and Cyberpower. Those guys need to do better straight up. 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But if you liked it and you want to see more Secret Shopper, hit that like button, get subscribed, or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description. But you should probably wait until we get to the part where how good they are for gaming and all that. Also linked in the video description is our merch store. It has cool shirts like the ones that are probably under the attire we have on over top and our community forum, which you should totally join.