News Scrap

An hour-long video published Saturday by Gamers Nexus, a YouTube channel focused on PC gaming hardware, accuses NZXT’s PC rental program of “bait-and-switch” tactics, with prices and specs that are constantly changing.

The Flex program allows customers to rent prebuilt gaming PCs starting at $59 per month (not including a mouse, keyboard, or monitor). But Gamers Nexus shows that NZXT changes the specs and prices of PC models “day-to-day in some instances” and offers PCs with very different setups under similar model names depending on whether you are looking to buy or rent. The rapidly changing prices also obscure the potential value of listed “discounts” as the packages shift back and forth.

The video shows one instance of NZXT’s Player: Three PC listed as having an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super graphics card, along with an Intel Core i7-13700KF with the “buy” option selected. However, viewing the same PC model under the “subscribe” option showed the same processor with a less powerful Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti.

Despite the different GPUs, it said NZXT listed both models as having the same estimated frames per second in games like Starfield and Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

Gamers Nexus also highlights other elements of the Flex program, like the pricing scheme that leads customers to pay more money than simply buying a PC outright and “aggressive” terms of service. The Verge reached out to NZXT with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back, and we haven’t seen a response posted in its community areas or social media channels.

“We just think this is a scam at this point,” Steve Burke, the editor-in-chief at Gamers Nexus, says during the video. “The performance claims alone are hugely misleading, especially since the only difference in one of these that’s meaningful is the word ‘Super,’ which a lot of people — especially those who are potentially renting or buying a pre-built — won’t catch.”