NZXT’s PC Subscription Service Has Been a “Godsend,” Customers Say

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NZXT Flex, a first-of-its-kind gaming PC subscription service that allows players to rent a high-performance gaming PC and receive upgrades every two years for a monthly fee, has been positively received by customers following its introduction in February, including some who have described the service as being a "godsend," according to a new press release that NZXT shared today, one that points out the service can be canceled at any time.

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Also if the monthly cost isn't crazy.. a 4090 top end PC with upgrades every two years is kind of awesome. NVM best they offer is a high end 4070.
 
Has anybody sat down to do the math on this? Interesting for sure but I'm curious how the numbers work. I'd do it but....*cough*...

Never mind, I did anyway. The highest tier PC is $169/mo. for 24 mos. That comes out to $4,056 over the course of two years. If you were to buy that same PC, you're looking at $2,299. Of course, you're paying for the ability to upgrade or return any time, and a lifetime warranty is nice, but is it worth it when it's double the cost? If you can find a credit card that will give you two years with no interest, that $2,299 box will cost you around $96/mo.
 
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If you have the money to burn and don't want the hassle I can see why this works, after all, rent-to-own businesses have somewhat been operating on this business model for over 50 years.

However, I did some of the math in my head when I saw this story and yep at 2 years some of these builds approached and surpassed what it would take to DIY.

In the end, whatever works for folks and this dynamic isn't much different from buying pre-builts as well. All have their pros and cons.

Quick reference (and I noticed that basically each tier increases by the base amount of $59):
1722517847897.png


$708/yr = $1,416 for two $1,428/yr = $2,856 for two $2,028/yr = $4,056 for two
 
Niner51 said:
I could see that working for some people who couldn't cover the cost of a PC upfront as one reviewer pointed out.
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My initial reaction is one of disgust, but this is true.

PC Gaming is expensive and only getting more and more expensive as time goes on.

I would never sign up for something like this, but if they do it ethically, I could support it for those who need it.

It all depends on what the breakeven point is between the subscription fee and the total cost of all the parts, and how soon they qualify for an upgrade.

Lets say a gaming system has a two year anticipated life span.

If they price it so the breakeven price point is 22 months (in other words what the customer pays in 22 months is the same as the cost of all of the parts) then NZXT gets to keep the next two months of subscription fees as profit, and then after month 24 they send trade in and send them an upgrade and the cycle starts over, then this isn't too bad.

If - on the other hand - they gouge the **** out of them on the subscription fee, and keep them paying in perpetuity for an increasingly obsolete system, then they can **** right off.

The devil is in the details.
 
Zarathustra said:
If they price it so the breakeven price point is 22 months (in other words what the customer pays in 22 months is the same as the cost of all of the parts) then NZXT gets to keep the next two months of subscription fees as profit, and then after month 24 they send trade in and send them an upgrade and the cycle starts over, then this isn't too bad.
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While I get this and it sounds good. There are FAR more costs. Support, parts replacement, swapping systems. and honestly... profit that they have to build into the model. The only people they have to please are the customers.

Power supply dies, cross ship a new system. (or send someone onsite to replace like the next day or same day better.)

Refresh time hits... cross ship new system.

Offer one time fee upgrades for gpu/monitor/other easily serviceable parts.

There are many avenues to make money here as long as the service is worth it to the end user. It's not being gouged if you enjoy the experience.

Though in reality saving and building an PC that will get you part way there ISN'T that hard and some used parts can go a long way to equivalent systems for far cheaper.

These are for people who 'just want to game' and don't know how, don't have a gamer family member, or just don't want to bother with the ownership experience.

You know... the same people who always lease or use Uber.
 
Niner51 said:
I could see that working for some people who couldn't cover the cost of a PC upfront as one reviewer pointed out.
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Paying in installments was always an option.

This is just for fools who can't be bothered to do the math. Which is probably 90% of US citizens, who are terrible with money anyway. They always complain they can't make ends meet from multiple times the money I get to spend while many things cost less for them than to me.
 
Just another crappy way of a company doing this to people who either aren't very good at managing their finances, or just had some other type of hardship, and have no other way of getting a gaming PC. Either way I hope they either change their ways, or just fade away due to the aftermath of this.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Such a shame because they have had some great products over the years.
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I agree they have improved, but only to throw it away by doing something foolish like this. I still have their H9 Flow here in storage. It's a decent case, but not ground breaking. Other than that I really haven't looked their way when it came time to purchase something. I guess you can say that companies just get too greedy and do themselves in, and this feels like one of those instances. These companies have to start to realize that GN is out to make these sort of things public. I really never put much fanfare into a Youtube channel, but GN has really done a lot for the PC community.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Such a shame because they have had some great products over the years.
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More like good concepts executed extremely poorly. I had an NZXT fan controller which was exactly the product I wanted with custom fan curves, except the software would randomly forget said fan curves or worse fail to ramp up the fans when needed and everything would overheat.

I'm not an engineer by trade, but even I would know to design a fan controller to go to 100% instead of 0% when the software crashes.
 
I had a controller from them as well, two of the same model actually, but they didn't need software and worked well for me but I get what you're saying. I can't keep track of all the crap app implementations out there which are obviously either outsourced or delegated to intern-level staff. From manufacturer specific GPU apps to motherboard etc., there's plenty to be wary of.
 
Niner51 said:
I still have their H9 Flow here in storage.
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I've got an H7 sitting but if I hadn't moved onto my current mATX builds I'd still be using it. I'm a bit late to smaller designs after using HAF cases for over a decade now but it did open the door for me to accept high airflow could be possible even when going smaller.
 
Sadly the target market for this program are those without credit who can't get credit or don't want it. They are implicitly high risk borrowers who in many cases are accustomed to paying out the nose for stuff they want. Mostly through crap rent to own places.

But NZXT has taken this to a whole new level in crapdom by pawning off old stock and not even having a transfer of ownership as part of it.

It's not better than a car lease at least those are designed to bring the monthly cost down. You would pay less if you put this on a personal loan. Far less.

It might be acceptable if they said this is for an 10 or 3 month term only. Instruct you to buy an external nvme for anything you create and save. And require return after 10 months to ship it back out next school year. Or three months for the between school year time frame. Yea it would still be predatory but it would have built in convenience. Summer gaming PC or two semester college PC. Then people would be blessing it. And if people signed up for the various programs to just keep renting it would be on them.
 
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Niner51 said:
I still have their H9 Flow here in storage.
Click to expand...

I was considering an H9 flow or elite for my new build but read that the fans are not that great, the 011 Evo XL was a bit too expensive for my taste so I went with the Antec C8 which at least came without fans that I would ahve to replace.
 
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