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Can I upgrade an NZXT gaming PC later on?
Player and Refurbished PCs are built with standard desktop components, so you can upgrade parts like the GPU, RAM, or storage whenever you’re ready.
Flex PCs can’t be upgraded manually, but you can request a refresh or switch to a different system at any time as part of your subscription.
Are NZXT gaming PCs good for beginners?
Definitely. Whether you’re new to PC gaming or switching from console, NZXT desktops are easy to get started with. Player PCs are prebuilt and ready to go, with performance tuned for popular games and support from people who understand what you need.
Are NZXT gaming PCs ready to use out of the box?
All NZXT desktops come pre-assembled, tested, and preloaded with Windows. Just plug in your monitor and peripherals, power it on, and you’re ready to game.
I'm looking for a prebuilt PC and I've taken a shine to NZXT's player series. I have however seen many reviews stating that the PCs are defective and that the customer service does almost nothing. Is this true?
NZXT Prebuilt Experience
I’m writing this in case anyone wishes to experiment with the company NZXT and purchasing their pre-built computers. This is my personal experience with their products and their company, and I have to say I am beyond disappointment and very frustrated. I’ll start from the beginning.
7/19/24: Player: Three Prime product purchased for $4,185. I was very excited to purchase a new high-end gaming PC. I had never had a top-of-the-line PC and my friend had bought one a month before.
Specs:
CPU: Intel i9-14900KF
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090
Memory: 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5 6000 Mhz
Storage: 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD
Storage: 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD x2
Motherboard: Z790 Gaming WIFI7
Cooler: NZXT Kraken 280
Power: 1000W Gold
Case: NZXT H9 Elite
Software: Windows 11 Home
7/22/24: It took 3 days to confirm the order, and they began building it.
7/24/24: They shipped the PC
7/30/24: It finally arrived; that’s fine I can’t be made at shipping constraints.
7/31/24: After booting it up for the first time, everything seemed to be fine at first glance. I began to install standard software for me (Steam, Discord, etc.). But I immediately realized the Ethernet NIC cards link speed was set to 100/100mbps. NIC drivers were PCI Ethernet and tech support said it was supposed to be something related to Intel. I called customer support to report the issue, and their technical support informed me the drivers needed to be updated. They walked me through the process of going to the manufacturer website to download and install the update, but every time I did so, the update failed. Their support even emailed me the appropriate drivers to manually update, which also failed. After several hours of attempts and support they informed me I’d need to send the entire computer back for them to fix it. Instead, I opted to buy another NIC and install it myself later (I never ended up doing this because WIFI worked fine and gave me 1Gb downloads).
Fast-forward 6 months later. I have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 but in the device manager, my driver versions are 31.0.15.6636. But they’re supposed to be version 566.36, an entirely different lineup. Updating the drivers failed through Nvidia app AND through manual download. NZXT customer support was unable to help me resolve this issue. Up till this point, I had only used my C: drive to install and play games. It was limited to 1TB, but I never had any issues with it. I decided to reinstall and play Skyrim modded, using Wabbajack (a popular third-party packaging software that downloads and installs as necessary) as I’ve done before quite easily on my previous computer. But I needed to use the secondary drives (D:) for the increased space. I started the process of installing on the D: drive and halfway through the downloads, the Wabbjack software began crashing on its own. I thought it would take a few attempts so I’d restart the process, and it would crash again. Since it was failing, I decided to start over. Maybe it got hung up somewhere in the process. Unfortunately, I was met with the following error: “D:\Wabba\ is not accessible. A device which does not exist was specified.” I tried to manually delete the files on the D: drive but the drive disappeared from my File Explorer and from the BIOS!
I then attempted to start over and install Steam on the secondary drive (E:). Even before I got to install Wabbajack, the same thing happened to the E: drive! It was inaccessible and it disappeared from the BIOS! During this secondary attempt, I started getting Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crashes. It put me in a loop of booting, then BSOD several times. Finally, I was able to get back to the Desktop one more time; both my secondary drives were still gone and it BSOD again after navigating to the File Explorer. A technical friend of mine informed me the issue was likely related to either the CPU (Intel’s 14th Gen) stability issues caused by incorrect voltages, or the motherboard failing to supply enough power and dropping the SSD’s. By this point, I decided to reset the PC to factory settings using NZXT’s Advanced method. This failed HARD. As soon as I walked through the simple process of resetting, I was met with a black screen of death and a warning that the installation failed for some reason and start again. Every time I tried to reboot and reinstall, I was met with this error.
1/7/25: I contacted NZXT customer support to inform them of everything that has happened so far. They told me they’d cover the cost of packaging to ship the PC back to them in California. At the time, I wanted a full refund, but they denied this request. At this point they said the whole process of returning, fixing and shipping back to me would take approximately 7 days.
1/13/25: Packing supplies arrived and I shipped the PC back to NZXT in California. I got confirmation from FEDEX that the PC arrived on 1/14/25. I contacted NZXT again to see how long it would take now that they had the computer. They stated, “I apologize for the confusion, but our technicians do not work on the weekends”. So apparently it would still take time.
1/28/25: Three weeks later I finally got my computer back. The ONLY explanation they gave me was: “Troubleshooting: After testing all components, it was determined that the CPU and RAM required replacement. After components were installed, and drivers were updated, no further issues were found. Benchmarked and stress tested with OCCT Preliminary Test. Verified with OCCT: Power, CPU, GPU, RAM, 3D, VRAM, and Linpack. The system passed with results attached to C:/ drive.”
Well apparently, they did NOT check the SSDs. The first thing I noticed was Drive 2 (E:) was not visible in the File Explorer. I immediately contacted NZXT customer support again and they tried to walk me through troubleshooting steps to resolve it. They determined it was not formatted and re-added to the BIOS. So, I formatted and re-added it. Unfortunately, the EXACT SAME issues transpired as before. Attempts to add any files to either the D: or E: drives resulted in the error: “Drives not accessible. A device which does not exist was specified.” So, they gave me back the same parts I stated were issues and they were still issues!
1/29/25: I have officially requested a full refund from NZXT and placed a dispute with my bank that will investigate with them. Their official response was “Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide a return for a refund at this time, as it was denied by a supervisor.” But they’ll happily take the computer back a 2nd time to “fix” it.
I have since submitted complaints with the BBB, FTC, and CFPB, and requested a dispute of charges with my bank.
If you're considering buying from NZXT, I would highly advise against it.