Building a PC is something that people either take joy in doing, or want to stay far away from. If you’re the latter, and want a shiny, new PC to arrive at your door step, but still have some input on what you’re actually getting, then NZXT BLD is for you. It’s a service that has existed in America for some time now that easily allows you to build a PC based on price point, and as of right now, it’s available in Australia.
I’ve only recently taught myself to build a PC, and I can’t really say that I’ve done it at ease. Opting to go with NZXT cases with both my recent builds, I can only wish that this has existed when I was looking to jump into the PC world about 18 months ago.
Heading to the newly launched NZXT BLD website, you’re presented with two options. You can either select which chipset you’re going for and a budget to get on your way or select from one of the pre-built options.
The best part about NZXT BLD is how easy it is to use. Regardless of whether you’re selecting your own parts or going with one of the pre-selected builds, you’ll get estimated FPS counts for some of the most popular games at both 1080p and 1440p. NZXT will let you return your PC if it doesn’t fall within 10% of this performance.
NZXT will also tell your if your PC is ready for VR, streaming, as well as if it has Wi-Fi, lighting and Bluetooth. When it comes to production, all PCs are put together right here in Australia and for shipping, you can either pay $30 for TNT Ground Shipping or $55 for TNT Overnight Express.
One of the most surprising things is that at launch (right now) there’s actually stock of the 3060 TI, 3070 and 3090 GPUs, so this is likely going to be the cheapest way to get your hands on one if you’re building a new PC.
PRE-BUILT PCS
At launch, there are five pre-built PCs on the website.
- Starter PC – $1,399 – NZXT H510/Intel Core i5-10400F/GeForce GTX 1650
- Starter Plus – $1,599 NZXT H510/Intel Core i5-10400F 6-Core 2.9GHz/GeForce GTX 1660 Super
- Starter Pro – $2,099 NZXT H510/Intel Core i5-10400F 6-Core 2.9GHz/GeForce RTX 2060
- Streaming PC – $2,999 – NZXT H510/AMD Ryzen 5 5600X/GeForce 3070
- Creator PC – $5,999 – NZXT H510 Elite/Intel Core i9-10900K/GeForce 3090
BUILDING YOUR OWN PC
This is where the fun really begins. I was able to completely build my own NZXT BLD PC to get the full experience from customising it to having it arrived at my door and I was really impressed with the whole process.
Firstly, you start with your chipset (AMD/Intel) and your budget (anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500). From this point, you’ll get a quick performance overview for what you can expect FPS-wise for games such as Fortnite, GTA V, Minecraft
Once you plug your price in, you’ll be presented with a number of parts that closely match your price, and then you can make minor changes with BLD telling you how much it’ll either subtract or add based on which parts you want to change to.
Whilst NZXT does have a range of 30 Series cards at the moment, there’s actually not a lot else GPU-wise, which means there’s only quite expensive builds on there at the moment, although if you’re after a 30-series card, it’s going to work out perfectly for you.
Once you’ve ordered your build (you’ll also pay a $99 building fee), NZXT says that they have a maximum turnaround time of two days, which I was sceptical of in all honesty, but just a few days later, there was my build at my door. When dealing with any fragile tech, I’m always wary of delivery drivers, so was obviously nervous taking the black wrapping off the PC.
Turns out I had absolutely no reason to be. The BLD team did a great job in ensuring that everything was packed tightly, with custom foam placed inside the PC to keep all parts stable. I quickly pulled off the back of the case, to see how neat the cables were and I’ll be honest, comparing it to what I had done with my most recent NZXT build, it was night and day. I knew that my cable setup was messy, but I had absolutely no idea that it could be this clean. After closing back up, it was an unfamiliar experience for me as building my last PC resulted in more than 24 hours of trouble shooting before I was able to plug in and play.
To sum it up, if you’re in the market for a new PC, then it’d be worth checking out the BLD process based on prices and ease of use, especially if their stock of 30-series cards is able to be maintained. I’ve been a long-time user of NZXT cases and coolers since I got into the PC game, and this makes it even easier, providing that same premium product that I’m used to with their PC parts. You can head to the BLD website HERE.
