PCG Performance Computer Group — Local services in Tampa

Company built custom loop for me and made wrong decisions on parts that were given to them. Zero advice on if I needed more rads, different fittings, etc.

EK provided me with parts via loop config. After I told them what I was using, they said the rads were wrong AND the fittings were wrong but PCG used them anyway.

On the build, bends had kinks and they weren’t parallel and perpendicular. The rads I had were already not a good idea for the heat load (per EK after I sent the email) and they said I didn’t need the extra 120mm slim rad because what I had was sufficient. The water also had massive air bubbles that weren’t addressed. Lastly, as a professional company (and tech) they would’ve made suggestions to improve the build instead of hinder it. The temp probe that I wanted installed wasn’t even touching the liquid and they didn’t even add a drain valve (FYI if you buy a custom loop from them, most of them don’t have a drain a valve, you’d think it be common practice to add one for being a company in the business for 20+ years).

Performance wise, the computer was now suffering from the lack of cooling. There was a heat pocket that was heating the SSD, the CPU, VRMS, and RAM. Water temp AT IDLE was 100+ F.

Initially had a great experience, but after experiencing what they produced and even having the heat issues, I would not go to them. Requested a refund because I’m having to get the job re-done and the service I paid for, I did not get. Brett dangled the refund in front of me in exchange for the company that’s redoing the job. I didn’t share but I did provide other proof of the job being redone that he asked for and when I gave it to him, he said he still wants the name of the company. Now I’m disputing charges and have given them everything he’s said to me including the fact that he said he would refund me.

I can’t speak to any other things PCG offers, but when it comes to custom loops, don’t have them build you one or don’t buy one from them. I would avoid that at all costs.

Edit: going thru replacement now, look at these bends.. it was almost out of the fitting.

Edit2: my computer is still at shop being worked on because of the job you performed. The monoblock installed by your stated “professional” tech was installed incorrectly. The inlet and outlet of the monoblock had an orientation and he installed it backwards. Another issue arose in that he didn’t use the thermal pads I provided and that some of the VRMs didn’t even have thermal pads on them. I’ve used the money that I had to fight to get back, to pay the new company and since then have had to pay more as problems became apparent. Videos and such have been documented since the start of this rebuild showing does and don’t of custom loops. Water temps haves lower idle temp but cpu is hot still which why we removed the monoblock and found...

Mixed experience. The place is very clean, well equipped, and clearly has competent employees working on high-end builds, but I definitely had some issues with them in terms of honesty about mistakes they made and receiving some unjustified rudeness from some of their employees. I had a CPU fail, which they were able to identify and replace for me, but they also couldn't seem to follow basic instructions about my NVMe m.2 drives.

They seemed to be very confused by the fact I swapped my primary slot NVMe OS drive with a corrupted windows boot manager into an external enclosure while troubleshooting myself. I brought them an unallocated NVMe m.2 in the primary slot along with my problematic system drive in an external enclosure and explained the problems, but then they ended up formatting both the primary and secondary slot NVMe m.2 drives for no reason. My secondary drive was full of games and important backups of files. I never told them to do anything to the secondary slot, but someone screwed up and formatted it. That's not ideal, but mistakes happen. The more annoying part about this was that they absolutely refused to acknowledge that they did it even though it's very obvious because I can see the write history of each drive and know which was which, and I can also see the label they made for the drive is using THEIR naming conventions, not mine. They also did not do a single thing to even attempt to repair the boot manager on my previous system drive despite the drive itself reporting no problems, which I find weird since it's very possible to fix, and I will be fixing it myself.

Lastly, they also acted like they were doing me a favor by selling me a 5700x3d for $240 instead of the labeled $270 price even though you can buy one from Amazon, Microcenter, etc. for $190 right now. I didn't say anything about this, because I was already annoyed about the dishonesty and wanted my computer back. Overall, a mixed experience. If you really need help, they can definitely help you, but I don't think you can rely on them to be 100% honest with you, especially if it involves covering for the mistakes of their co-workers, and you may run into some communication problems with employees and/or have to deal with employees who just generally really seem to have an...

As a first-time customer of PCG, I have to say I’m thoroughly impressed with their customer service and the deep knowledge their employees have about PC hardware.

I walked in one evening in search of the elusive Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which is incredibly hard to find. Tom and Anthony were a lifesaver—they managed to secure exactly what I needed, saving me the hassle of driving 8 hours round-trip to Miami and spending $100 on gas just to check availability at Micro Center. The best part? I would’ve been risking a wasted trip since Micro Center doesn’t allow online reservations for this particular chipset, and stock is very limited due to its high demand, especially with the upcoming release of Nvidia’s 50-series GPUs.

Not only did PCG save me a grueling trip, but I also ended up spending less than I would have purchasing at Micro Center (even after factoring in the $100 gas expense). Their markup is far more reasonable compared to the outrageous prices from scalpers on sites like eBay and Amazon.

PCG is truly beating out the competition when it comes to high-end PC hardware in today’s scalper-dominated market. On top of that, they back every purchase with a 6-month warranty and are always available for support and advice over the phone.

As for the 9800X3D I purchased, it’s an absolute powerhouse. I haven’t even overclocked it yet, but with just EXPO enabled, it runs a solid 5.2GHz, stays cool at 40°C idle, and operates at just 1.1V. I can tell PCG supplied me with a high-quality binned chip, and I’m thrilled with the performance.

I’m not a paid advertiser for PCG, but after talking to Tom and learning more about the company, I’m confident they’re a team you can trust. They’re always on top of the latest tech trends, attending trade shows like CES to stay ahead of the curve. Their relationships with major vendors like AMD and Gigabyte allow them to offer high-quality hardware at affordable prices, cutting out the middleman and sparing us from the scalper’s markup.

I’ll definitely be returning to PCG for the rest of my build. I no longer have to worry about getting scammed on Amazon or eBay—I can relax, knowing PCG will handle the sourcing and deliver quality hardware...