I Bought a Toasty Bros PC Build Undercover... 

Hey Zach! Thanks for the review. Just a couple of notes we had but overall appreciate the feedback. Our cost for the Ryzen 5 5600G systems that you reviewed is $648.18. Sadly, we don't have all the connections we want yet to make our systems more affordable. This is something we have spent a lot of R&D on and hope to bring the price down even more this year. With our $50 off promo right now, we are only profiting $100, and that is before paying our employees well above minimum wage. Regarding Aresgame power supplies. We appreciate the feedback and will take it into consideration for our lower end PC's. We have shipped and built around a thousand systems with this power supply and have had a total of two go bad and it was DOA. But again, we will look into options to improve on this! We definitely give you props for the builds you sell on your site! We hope to keep working on building those connections and offer better pricing. Oh and we decided to create code ZTT10 for 10% off all our builds for the next two days.

zach: "im not trying to be disrespectful and just giving my honest opinion" zach: *proceeds to roast the living shit out of toasty bros*

Dudes is roasting them and plugging his own LLC 😂 lmfao

Daaaaang Zach came in HOT! Very fair criticism overall, I'm sure the Toasty Bros will definitely take a lot of it to heart and improve where they can. This exact video was in my backlog of vids to do but you got to it first! Now I can't review a PCBros system otherwise I'd be called a copycat, dang it!

i fr just wanted to see what it’s like to get a pc from the toasty bros and ended up learning every single detail about some dudes business plans and what he wants to do with it

Redo this whole video and directly leave your company out of the convo and this would be a dang near spot on review plus after all the reviews that you can easily find on that PSU you should google before bashing it just because you would never use it seems a bit like a shin tackle if i have ever heard one otherwise keep making videos as we all appreciate the tech community being a open place!!!

Fair review. In my opinion it would have been better without plugging your own company. Don't get me wrong, I'm an entrepreneur and I understand, but that turned it from an honest and fair review to almost a hater review to build your own company. No disrespect because again I understand why you did that, but it would have made for a better review to me if you didn't.

I have used 20+ units of the aresgame psu and I have not had a single issue with any of them. Fantastic for the price.

I've used well over 100 AresGame PSUs in builds for people over the last couple years. Packaging and build quality on them are amazing, up there with EVGA and Corsair in terms of that. Performance wise I have never ran into an issue with any of them thus far. All the systems I have built with those have had dediicated GPUS as well

I don't think you can fairly call that PSU a fire hazard for being on the list when it is in a section that says it may just be there isn't enough info on it. Considering they are willing to support it with warranty and have a lot of experience with it, I would think they have good faith in it, otherwise their support costs would go through the roof. Also, not fair to assume they are getting better than retail pricing when they are a small SI.

I love the toastybros, I’ve bought amd stock / wraith stealth coolers from them and it shipped fast and it was well packaged .I am a long time fan of the Toastybros as I’ve been watching them for a over a year

As someone who has never watched your channel or PC Bros and saw this in my recommended….this felt tacky. You start by saying you didn’t want drama and wanted to be objective, but at every turn promoted your own business. You struck them down with negatives at every point then would offer a small line of positive. And the PSU…you admitted yourself you don’t know that much about them. If I were them and I saw this I’d be pretty upset, but seeing their reaction I can tell they’ve got much more maturity and class than you. In my brutally honest opinion (since that’s what you gave), this video spoke volumes about you, and very little about them.

I have used my Aresgame 500w power supply very frequently in two different builds since i got it in January of 2021. I can't exactly say its perfectly safe, because I've always used below 400w systems with it (rx 570 + i5 4570, and then rx 570 + i3 10100f,) but it hasn't given me a single problem in all the time I've had it.

I used those psus, and they are not as bad as you would think man. Definitely better than something that is 80+ white

Bruhh, You can't "review" something to just plug your own company over it. I'm unsubbing

"this video isn't about starting drama" *Shits on their build* "Don't ever buy this! Buy mine instead! It's better I promise!"

Saw toasty bros in the title…. Love seeing two channels I watch doing a collab… even if one of them didn’t know they were collaborating🤣

$850 for a $300 build is insane

Your "honest" review left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole time you were making assumptions about policies and practices of PCB that you had no clue about, but you also kept plugging your own business while ripping PCB apart. This was anything but an honest review.

Fair review. Little harsh on the power supply. I purchased like 20 of these for builds. No issues. But I'd rather see a 650w psu or better for the customers eventual gpu upgrade. 500w is a little low for mid range gpu's. Nice video!

I personally have used the same exact PSU 3 times without flaw, and I've used a EVGA PSU also, and that is the one that was faulty.

Only thing id want them to do is add to their note saying that if you change to a dedicated gpu you should consider changing the psu as well. I think you went kinda hard on them to promote your own company

Why go undercover? Why not just ask them for a PC to review. You may have been able to send them one of yours. Seems less genuine and that a different motive was behind the video. Too bad they don't have one of yours to review.

this review is more like My Shop vs Their Shop TBH you said it in the very start and we builder/gamers knows building our own is always be cheaper than anyone selling a pre-built BUT at least try to compare it with other mainstream pc builders/online sellers or even local stores but never compare it to you shop you keep repeating mine vs them, them vs mine its BS

I use them PSUs in a lot of my builds and customer builds. I don't think I'd trust that list if they're in the avoid category..

all he did was compare his deals vs theirs

Nothing wrong with AresGame 500w. You provide where that unit is somehow unsafe and i'll take you more seriously. Saying 'I looked at a list' just makes you look like a lemming.

better yet build your own with parts from marketplace, amazon, walmart, ebay, and damaged shipping stores.. just takes time and can be very rewarding when your done. plus you learn something. youtube and social media has a lot of dyi help

I appreciate the review and the details you gave on the parts. I definitely like that you touched on the power supply a bit, and I totally get why you didn't obsess over it, _but_ I thought I'd give a bit more information on what group regulation means, for anyone interested: To explain this, we'll have to talk about what a power supply in a PC does. The power that comes from your wall is not consistent enough to be used in a computer (it's AC, if you want to look into that further.) A power supply must convert it into power that your system can use (DC.) A power supply outputs power in 3 voltages: 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. 12V is what will be used the most; your CPU and GPU both draw from it. Modern systems will often draw several hundred watts from this rail. The other rails are referred to as the minor rails, powering things like RAM, storage, and sometimes lighting. Since going from 1.4V to 1.9V to the CPU is usually enough to kill it, it's important that these "rails" stay consistent. As such, these should be regulated separately, ideally. In most modern power supplies, this is the case; good units typically use what's called DC-DC, where it will convert the input power to 12V, then convert the 12V to 5V and 3.3V as needed with buck converters. This is where group regulation becomes a problem. With group regulation, 5V and 12V are regulated on the same coil. If power draw becomes substantially different on 5V compared to 12V, regulation will start to fail since the PSU has to switch between 5V and 12V constantly. Ohn's law states that power is equal to the product of current and voltage. So if 5V and 12V are outputting different enough wattages (power,) and the PSU can't keep up, then the 12V rail starts to output a voltage lower than 12V, with 5V outputting higher than 5V. In modern systems, it's not uncommon for hundreds of watts to be drawn from the 12V rail, with under 100 combined being drawn by the other rails. This is why group regulation is a problem for modern systems. The AGV500 might not be a huge issue with a 5600G alone, but when the buyer adds a dGPU down the line, that's when it can present problems. And, of course, just untested protections.

I have a Aresgame AGW 650 in my personal rig and I have used it for more than a year, no issues.

They have a AMD FX 6300 + GTX 1050 "Gaming PC" selling for $775 on sale from $850... there are multiple things that need to be evaluated with how they are pricing some of these "Gaming" PC's. I like Toasty Bros but really... FX 6300 and a 1050.

I have AresGame 750W power supply no problems with it. I don't have issue with what Toasty Bros are using.

The link to this video has now been added to the definition of passive-aggressive in the new edition of the Webster’s dictionary. Seemed like a pretty good attempt of bashing someone’s business while not bashing someone’s business.

To be fair, your equivalent PC build sports a 450w power supply. I would say that is not enough for a lot of gpus for a gpu upgrade as well.

The Psu is perfectly fine and bronze rated, a lot of people used it many times for their builds with a bare minimum of people saying it doesn’t work. Unlike an Evga PSU that I bought for 60 dollars that didn’t even start up

Wow. Drama incoming in 3..2..1. Scummy, bomb, overpriced, bad advertising. This was not objective particularly since you blatantly pushed your own pc building website saying it’s better. Oh man.

Hey Zach I follow both you guys and I do agree that some of the Toasty Bros builds aren't nearly as nice as yours for sure with aesthetics but they tend to focus on more of what you can afford and do put the Costa of the builds on the channel. Most for the builds are done on RU-vid as well so it may very well be that it's just more costly for then to build where they are. That being said I mean Amazon and eBay do have very good deals as well as Newegg so it's something for them to consider. Lol like most other person's in the comments I think it may have been best to leave out you AD for ZTT builds to make it more fair to them. Kinda seemed like you were using the opportunity to push ur own builds... Aresgame is also a solid low budget PSU which I have used for over a year with no issues in a lower end build with a GPU 500w

Note: If you have you're windows 8.1 key you will not need a win 10 or 11 key. When I changed my motherboard I got the activate windows thingy, so I took one of my 8.1 keys typed it in and bang reactivated. What can you even play with the on board video?

The thing is that i dont need a windows key i can just get a free license in 5 minutes with some code and tricks just did that for my school pc that had a outgoing license

As a pc builder as well I actually don’t like when it’s vertical 😅 it’s weird to waste the extra time on that for me… but it’s still much better than it being turned towards the ram slots where it can possibly interfere with the ram sticks like I’ve seen a lot of builders do 🤮

That PSU is definitely not a "fire hazard,"

This video seems tacky, this is not how to be objective. It just seems at every point you keep throwing punches at there business and promoting you business. Not a good look, sincerely.

As a very small time builder and reseller I gotta say this was a pretty poor attempt to put down another company to promote his own. I have sold 30 builds in the last 2 years and over 10 have had Aresgame branded PSU's installed. ZERO have had issues so far. Also hammering on the price was pretty unfair due to the cost they had in those parts as they were ordered during the shortage so cost were much higher. Lastly after checking out his website now that he's been up for a few months I hope someone does this to him and see how he fairs...

OR you can go to your local PC repair shop and look at what they have on sale. Mine currently has 1 with an i7 11th gen, 16gb, 1tb ssd, and a 3060 for $400!!! They also have an Xbox Series X with controller for $400!!!!

Similar build in Denmark. Ryzen 5-5600G MSI B450M Pro-VHD Max (Similar B550 board goes for $15-$20 more) G.Skill Aegis 2x8GB 3200 CL 16 D Blue SN550 M.2 500GB Asus TUF Gaming 650B 650W AeroCool Trinity Mini-G Tempered Glass. 600 USD with taxes 480 pre-taxes. (Yeah, we have a 25% VAT)

Pc Bros Cheaped out! Did not expect it !

Honestly, telling people to buy your PC's over theirs during the review kinda makes the review a little biased sounding. I know you both have a business to run, but I think that it would have been best to leave your PC building out of it at least until the very end to mention you build and sell, but that's just my opinion.

As a former UPS employee I will say now that even with all the fragile stickers, your item won’t really be taken care of anymore than normally by the employees that have been there for awhile

I am typically the quiet guy that tries to stay to himself and just watch some videos and move on. BUT considering I see sooooo much of this kinda thing happening nowadays, and not just in the pc building community, I just couldnt resist commenting. Also considering this is a "constructive criticism" video, ummmm yeah, Ill add my "constructive criticsim" to this video and your statements. Ill start off by saying i dont want my comment to come off rude, thats not my intentions, i mean after all its "contructive" right lol. But seriously, i have to be honest. You in your video are telling everyone its just you giving your honest opinion of their process etc, BUT also in every part of this video give yourself a shout out, this is a BIG red flag in my book, and hopefully alot of others that watched. I mean if this was TRULY a video just giving your opinion, why add all your points in there for yourself. I see jealous and envy alot in the pc building community. I sell pcs locally and I have a few local pc builders that are ALWAYS hating on me for absolutely NO reason, Yes i undersell them on price per performance etc, BUT I have not once ever addressed them or their pc builds or needed to go there, OR EVER talked down about their builds even as bad as some of them are heavily overpriced and under built. But back to the main points here. This in my opinion is more of, "you went undercover and bought a pc, and wanted to find the negatives in their process, to give yourself some credit and attract buyers" type video. I have built pcs for 25 years, and NOT once have I ever had to be the guy on the side of the road holding up a sign saying "please come buy my gaming pcs, because the competitors are junk". Nor have i ever had to make a video or put on social media that i build BETTER pcs than the other guys. I mean in my opinion your work should speak for ittself without ever having to go there. I get it, the pc market for builders, is VERY heavily over saturated with pc builders and the like. I mean heavily. And the issue i see is here and soo many other times, is each builder is trying to get a leg up wanting to sell their products and at the same time prove the competitors are junk, or NOT as well built etc as your own. SO for those readers thatll read this comment, let me take a moment to list a few comments from the video. AND these arent exact quotes, BUT you get the point. Hes gonna PIN their comment so it dont get lost, maybe to me saying theyd have a little hate response and it would draw readers attentions and push them away from toasty bros. Another is "unlike the toasty bros he activated ALL HIS pcs with a windows key" then says hey that brings me to our sponsor, buy ours lol. Another is, he knows the pc bros personally in the beginning, BUT then goes on to say anyone there doesnt even know him by his real name?? Hmm! And ooo noo, they didnt make a custom sticker to cover up what psu is in the case, BUT he does that on ALOT of HIS builds. Another, is i mean straight forward, DONT buy this pc, BUT i know where you can purchase a good on, and announces the NEW upcoming website. I saved the best for last, basically if you are someone like me that just goes off of a A-E etc POWER SUPPLY CHART LIST and am NOT up to speed on power supplies in general AFTER saying how IMPORTANT they really are for your system, SO I GUESS you just choose a random one off of the list thats higher up and you will be good. PS, i would have personally edited that part out so you arent advertising to build and sell better pcs without knowing much about power supplies. I do really like your content, dont watch as much as i used to BUT can respect the hard work put in for sure. Much props. But i just couldnt be my normal self and ignore these things said in the video. Maybe just my opinion, but i wish more people wouldnt make videos downing someone elses work and promoting theirs, I just dont think its a good business practice. I mean i never remembered walmart making a "our products are better than kmarts" commercial is my point. Okay, hope this criticism helps someone! Keep up the good work!

Ive been using the FSP Fortron Hexa psus for years now and they still run with no issues. I honestly dont understand why they are in the tier e category. They are great psus for mid range systems.

Can you build a pc that will pull warzone with minimal specs for around 500$

Okay, so I finally listened to the whole thing. Rather than changing my previous assessment, it simple reinforced it and magnified it. This is, IMO, bad form. This is not simply a review as you describe it. You repeatedly boost your builds and your company by comparing it to the TBs PC. Basically, "I do it better, so buy from me, not from them". That may not be how you intended it, but that's how I read it. They may be a larger builder than you are, but that doesn't excuse this sort of "take down" video. Yeah, I know, you don't want it seen that way, and it's softer and a bit subtler, but my assessment is still that it comes across as an attempt to bolster your own business at the cost of a "competitor". And that competitor is run by "people you know" and is still a fellow YTer and not some big corporation. Despite their gracious reply, this leaves a very bad impression for me. Can't judge your motivation, but the presentation is at least questionable in my view. All your caveats and disclaimers at the beginning speak for themselves in this regard.

In all fairness, even big tech companies use sketchy / bad power supplys. Just because its not optimal doesnt mean it doesnt work as intended for a long time.

Excellent review, and I like watching the toasty Bros channel. I learn from them all the time. I also realize you kind of get what you pay for, I still think it's best just to build your own. On a positive note, I see no reason why this computer being reviewed is probably a very reliable and really fast computer. Okay for gaming at low to medium settings at 1080p or 720p resolutions.

I’m using an Aresgame 550w with a 10400f and 3060 ti and it’s been working perfect for almost a year now so it might be tier E but price to performance is nutty lol

I have the aresgame 500w 80 bronze , I didn’t know it was tier E, almost had it in my pc for a year and I haven’t had any problems with it

I have a Aresgame PSU, I seen Toasty Bros use it on one of their videos so I decided to buy one for my PC build, a year later I haven't had any problems with it so i feel like that "Tier list" is wrong and not accurate

Out of all the pc building companies why toasty bro and why the self promo, this isn't how you get customers at all you lose people doing scummy things like this

newer oems use a sticker over the motherboard video output pointing to the correct port

That does seem like a bit of a wild price for an APU build. Great idea for a content piece though! Maybe I need to snag a ZTT build and give it my .02 🤔🤔🤔

Great video! Honest and fair review and good to know these things before hand!

Oof I have a tier E psu and didn’t even know lol but it’s been working good for me for about a year now haha

My local micro center is selling a powerspec with a 6650xt and a ryzen 5600x3d for $800. How the hell is this $825 with no video card lol??

Running a business is difficult lmao, let alone a computer business with prices of parts shifting constantly

Not much of a fan of toasty bros, but I'm also going to be fair with your criticisms. 1) Price changes all the time, so tb coulda bought their parts for higher cost. 2) You went on too hard on the psu. Does the tier really determines how much of a fire hazard the unit is? 3) Your $750 recommendation is hard to recreate due to gpu prices.

This review definitely turned into a bit of a bashing. Agree with others that you have tried to promote yourself off the back of criticising their build, or that is at least how it has come across, which may not have been intended. In future critique the system on its own merits rather than directly comparing to yours.

look at those crazy prices

Enjoyed the vid 😇👍. A “Tier E” psu doesn’t necessarily mean certain model exploding Gigabyte psu or H1 (Rev.1) riser cable fire issue. Not a great psu compared to others at a similar/same price as mentioned but not necessarily a fire hazard 🤔

Aresgame power supplies are low quality and very affordable.They won’t catch your build on fire ,in the long run this power supply isn’t good but for budget builds it’s good .

I really dislike the argument that it's cheaper to build yourself - no kidding. I'm an excellent painter, meanwhile my friends pay for someone else to do it. People pay for convenience...I know how to build my own PC, and have built PCs since I was 15, and while I pick out the parts, I still have someone else do the work. I can change the oil in my car too, but again - I'd rather someone else do it. What do you thin the mark-up is on labor for fast food...?

If the price is unacceptable then don’t buy it, it’s not compulsory

Don't buy this PC and you should buy mine main purpose of the video

I would like to share… I bought a Seasonic S12III 650w 80+ bronze (I guess it’s a tier E) thinking it would be reliable and is a good deal ($65). I have been using it for 2.5 years with a 3700x and a 3070, with no issues. Should I consider replacing it ASAP?

Toasty bros getting toasted sorry I mean rosted

I didn’t realize that case was so popular, I saw it on sale for 45$ on Newegg awhile back and bought it for my girlfriends build. It has been awesome.

they took your advice on the power supply for the one I am planing to order its a tier c now instead of e and according to good they have no danger

You’re hating a lot on the power supply but there’s literally thousands of people who have used it and haven’t had any issues. I use them in all my builds. I even have one in my gpu test bench that runs at 100% basically 24/7 and it’s still going strong 6 months later

I've had an Aresgames psu for a little over a year so far. I haven't had any problem I've overclocked quite a bit. Maybe in 4 years if it does explode I'll come back and comment lmao.

🏀🏀🏀 Zach, would be cool to see a part 2 to this where you visit PCBros HQ and tour the premises and witness the building process happening there. Some kind of playful ribbing or judging would be fun :). ♥️ Toasty Bros

Two best value channels in one video. I loved video, and great response by ToastyBros. Stinks these two businesses are in competition with eachother, since margins in this space are so low.

Man, I have never clicked on a link as fast as I did with the tier list. I rushed in there to check my PSU. At first I could not understand it well, but after reading the legend I think we are good. I got a Corsair RM750. Happy to see it under the Tier A 😀

Did their computer have any packaging inside the computer case?

People put way too much stock into supposedly bad PSUs. I literally used a brandless (Literally brandless. No numbers, logos, or anything) PSU for a good 6 or 7 years up until the 20 series came out. The fan inside even started grinding about 4 years in on cold boots and still kept going. And it was from a system that came out in like 2008. Far before what PSUs are today. Even a bad PSU is rarely going to harm you or your system. These companies aren't looking to get sued. If you're giving an honest/fair review, then why would you constantly advertise your own store (with lower prices) throughout the video? Seems counterintuitive, no? Screams bias.

Im not sure if the criticism on the power supply is warranted. The tier E also could mean not enough information not necessarily a fire hazard. Ive had a gamemax 850 watt gold certified powersupply for 2 years no issues. And its also on that E tier list…

Just bought my first gaming PC from origin PCs custom build spend 4300 ish with taxes 3080 graphic n went with amd since a fan recommended me that brand :)

My PSU is apparently Tier E, but on the Linus tech tips forum with my old hardware they told me it is fine

The shaaaaade. Sheesh! The Toasty Bros took the high road.

i hate when cables are excesivly zip tied or routed together. if the power supply ever needs to be changed or the case gets damaged and needs to be replaced its a pain in the butt to cut zip ties that are tight and not cut the wires they are holding together. if its got a front windwos, make the inside look nice, but the backside, thats not visable, who cares really. out of sight out of mind. saves a lot of time as well!!!!!!!

Add a low tac sticky tear off label to the GPU outs if you want your customer to connect to them, minor cost big aftercare time saving!

This is definitely a hater review with you talking about your company way too much

That PSU being called a fire hazard is a bit much. I have built with 3 of those PSU all 3 for my kids an all 3 have 3060s on them for over a year with zero issues thermally and otherwise.. I also believe that PSU is on that tier list because it was never tested I could be wrong though I have watched reviews for that PSU is taking apart and it's pretty sound really no better quality than the EVGA BR... But all that being said love your channel keep doing great things

HAHA omg bro i watch both of you

I mainly use the bigger brands; Asus, Corsair, Bequiet, Seasonic, SilentiumPC for PSU. Only use lower tiers if higher not available.

the 5600g pc is 1,000$ in my opinion u can buy or build a gtx 1650/ryzen 5 2600 pc with 16gb 2933mhz ram or a rtx 3060/gtx1660laptop

Much smaller channel tries to criticize a lot bigger and more successful channel and doesn’t want to “create drama.” Haha ya don’t believe that for a second. If you didn’t want to create drama, why the hell did you do it in the first place? Guy is just doing this in hopes for clout. Wrong way to build your channel in my opinion. Toasty Bros still handled this video like professionals and didn’t stoop to his level or give him the drama he was hoping for.

Only use lower tier when higher tier not available (out of stock).

They probably have a squad of guys building them for em though.

You cant call it a fire hazard lmao

@Zach’s Tech Turf “We need a collab with you and Toasty Bros, 5k likes and let’s make it happen?

You can source those wifi adapters for about $3.50US. I found like 20 different models.