NZXT PODCAST - #179 - NZXT for Business (Ft. Laurent)

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

On this week's episode of the NZXT Podcast... We have our very own Laurent to talk about the NZXT for Business program! Note: Laurent IS a double-dipper, so keep an eye out on that salsa. Follow Laurent on Twitter! https://twitter.com/NZXTLaurent Catch the replay at twitch.tv/NZXT!

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 179 of the NXC podcast, the official podcast of the NXD community. This podcast recorded live every other Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on the official NCC Twitch. It is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. With me, as always is Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan? I'm doing fantastic, Michael. I love Fridays.

I'm on my natural Friday high, especially because today we have a very special guest, and we're going to talk about a very special thing that we recently launched at NST that I'm really excited about. But before we get into that, I do want to make two quick announcements. The first announcement is if you are tuned in live on twitch.tv slash nzxte right now, we are giving away a free NZXT poochie plush, just like the one I'm holding up right here in front of the camera. All you got to do is type exclamation giveaway in the chat, and you will give it a link for your time. your chance to win. And if you stick around to the end of the show, we'll give you a special secret word to give you a bunch of bonus entries to increase your chances at winning.

The other announcement I want to make is that if you are tuned in live, you're also going to get first dibs and early access to a giveaway that we're going to be announcing later today on social media. So before anyone knows, you guys are going to know first. And because of that, we're going to give you a special treat. We're going to give you a secret word. If you stick around to the end of the show so you can get a bunch of bonus entries and that giveaway is going to be for a brand new limited edition nzxte craft 12 starfield case lift two mouse and mouse pad and we're going to give away three three bundles of those to three lucky people so if you like starfield or even if you don't like starfield there's still pretty cool products and I think you're going to like them I love

these craft designs. I wish we would do more of them. So anyway, without further ado, I do want to introduce our special guest for the day. And, hey, Laurent. How are you, man? Doing all right, man. First time here. I thought this started off as a joke, but we're here. It's not a joke, man. It's real. You're really, you're really here. Before I ask you questions, I want to know, how do you pronounce your name? I think this is the biggest question. since I started here four years ago. It's Laurent. Yeah.

It's funny because when I first used to see your name on Slack, I always thought you had like a very, like, exotic European type of name. When in my head, it was always like, Laurent, like that. Oh, yeah. But then one time I asked you how to pronounce it and you're like, it's like low and rent. And I was like, hmm, low rent. That's not very exotic.

But I just, you know, I'll just call you Laurent in my mind again. Lauren with a T also works. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, man, who are you and what do you do at NZXT, Laurent? Oh, dude, that's a heavy question. Ivan, I'm just kidding. But I'm Lawrence.

I've been with NZXT for four years, and I am the account representative enterprise sales. So that's a new role. But if you mind, I want to share a brief history. I started here off as a customer service. So shout out to CES real quick. Nice. Yeah, I love it when people start somewhere and end up somewhere else, especially when it's like completely different. And I know your role in particular is new and you never had it before. And it was created to launch this, this new program that we're calling NZXT for business. So can you tell us a little bit more about what NZXT for business is? Yeah. So NZXT for Business is.

Yeah, so NTC for business is basically helping schools, organizations, anyone in the gaming industry, even outside the gaming industry that are looking to purchase PC in bulk. Not only that, you know, if they need monitors, keyboards, mice, everything, the whole desk, essentially, I can help you with that. And what's interesting to me about this is most people when they think like, you know, something for business, you don't necessarily think. about gaming PCs. So it's like what what do you think businesses like what are the specific needs that businesses have that NST can cater to with with our gaming PCs? A lot of people had this idea or thought of like gaming PCs only made specifically for gaming. Ironically the components in a gaming PC, the CPU, the RAM capacity, everything that makes a PC a PC can be used. for your day-to-day task.

Funny enough, we worked with graphic designers and a lot of engineers, and they find that even our PC, the pricing, the quality, even our customer service is where they want to do business with us. But yeah, I mean, think outside the box. Can we use a console as a piece? Oh, is that a hot topic? I'm sorry. But, no, they

ask about, hey, can your PCs do our type of work? And the answer is simply yes. So whatever task that you would do on any type of computer or any type of rig, our PCs can definitely handle that.

Nice. And Mike's showing the NZAC for Business website right now. And I think what stands out to me the most is, you know, they're not like your typical boring-looking, office type of PCs which I'm sure we're all familiar with.

I won't name names, but you all know those companies, right? Where it's just basically like a little black box and that's it. But I think I mean, if I had worked at a non-gaming business, I would love to have one of these PCs on my desk, to be honest.

That's cool. Yep. So, I mean, it's funny enough that you said that as well because, you know, we're so used to seeing the same thing. You know, it's like the brand recognition of This is associated with this. But no one ever thinks about NGXT at a school, at a business, outside of the gaming environment. But, you know, we cater to all.

So I have a question. So you say cater to all. And, you know, there's been a lot of memes of like, hey, I want a gaming PC for school. I want a gaming PC for work. But, like, people go, like, why do you need that? So what is, like, how do NZXC's, like, game PC? PCs like enhance the performance of like actual work. So if you think about it this way, there's different tiers.

And I feel that there's a connotation about game PC pricing and then what type of work you do. You don't need our player three build for, you know, basic homework, right? Basic homework meaning like something that you can just type up on word documents. you don't need as much capacity as you would need for something like rendering. But, you know, there's different type of work for a different type of pre-built PC or whatever line of PC that you may need. So there's that price category. And I think even pricing is a big, like the starting conversation for any type of purchase, right?

But going back to work, you know, you can do a lot of work with even our player one. and then on top of that once you get your work done you could go play games later so I think that's the best part you get two two things in the world and put it all together in one system so I guess what you're saying is

that slogan of work hard play hard hard is work hard play hard that's basically the philosophy behind NZC for business right like we want to give you a PC that does all the things you need for work and then

At the end of the day, when you clock out at 5 p.m., you know, you can have a little bit of fun on it as well, right? Yep. And you don't even have to wait until 5 p.m. Have a lunch break, you know, hang out with you guys on Discord. Don't listen to it, Mike. You cannot play video games during work hours. Oh, oh, my bad. I've been doing this entire time.

I know last week, Heldiverst 2. I was there. Hell Divers 2. Thanks for everyone that joined. That was fun. That was fun indeed. But I do like the idea that, like, you know, there are work PCs that you can't use to game with, but most of the time, gaming PCs you can do gaming and working on. So I love that.

But I know some people are like, why do I need a gaming PC in my office? Like, why do I need, you know, 10, you know, PCs to have the glass panel? So, like, why would, like, an N60 PC be good in an office environment? Like, would it look good in an office environment? So everyone's going for that minimalistic look, and our PCs definitely fit in any setting. And on top of that, we do offer services of customizing reps just to make it unique to your environment. So, you know, our PCs look good with the RGB on and look good without the RGB off. You know, it'll look good.

I hate to say this on the floor, too. Unfortunately, my desk is small, so my desk is on the floor, but it still looks good. at every angle. So we try to break out from the norm, you know, like I haven't said, I don't want to say any names, but, you know, we've all been to the schools, the offices, and they all have that same identical PC. And just having our PCs in different environments definitely is a game changer. So you mentioned customization. What sort of customization options does NZHC offer businesses? So currently we do offer wraps. I'm still trying to expand that category outwards, but as of right now, it's just wraps. So on the website, you can definitely see that there's a Fall Guys rap on there.

And I don't know if I can say this, but we've worked with other streamers and small businesses that have their custom wraps as well, and we are able to provide that. Do you have, like, I know you said you're not sure who you can say, but is there like, I know we have fall guys here, but is there any, like, really cool people that you've worked with? Yeah, Tim the Tabman.

Yeah, we can say, yeah. We can say Tim. Yeah, Tim is one of the bigger ones. Who else? I guess company-wise, Red Bull was the biggest ones. We did their A-Ram-LM event last year. UCI, University of Irvine. we did their

our founder's alma mater yes we did their uh esports arena yeah it looks so safe i'm showing the picture of like the arena it looks so sick i love the like you can see all the uh and like the PCs the the RGB on but it's not too distracting you know yeah i love that

I also love that you did a like a keyboard workshop there with the students as well showing them how do you how to customize their nz-XC function keyboard. That was a fun event. And that, again, that's something that, you know, can tailor towards your needs. So if you're local or, you know,

I can definitely make a trip over to your business or school and do something like that. So one of a kind. We need to get you like a NZXC for business car or something. NZXC for business airplane. Private jet. No, it'll be a, it'll be like a purple clown car with square wheels in the shape of a puck.

It just goes real slow. But it's going. You got to start somewhere. So you talked about helping a bunch of, you know, not just like one streamer, but like businesses. And like you can see this whole like UCI. Like you can see all these species.

So like I assume bulk buying in bulk helps somehow. What are the benefits of buying in bulk. And if you want to explain what buying in bulk. Yeah. So buying in bulk is basically purchasing 10 or more items, right? People could buy one or two and that's, I mean, somewhat

considered as bulk as well. More than one. But purchasing in bulk, there's like a lot of benefits to it. I think exclusive deals is going to be the top, like priority on a lot of people's list. Other than that, you know, I do or I am able to work

say, for example, including freebies. Because I know the word free. Everyone loves that word. We don't know that word ever. I'm going to get a free PC after this. But yeah, I mean, purchasing a bulk, you know, exclusive deals, basically, yeah. I mean, that's top line, right?

Yeah. And since, you know, they're going to, if you're ordering 10 or more, if there's something that happens with the PC, like it stops working or something happens during shipping. Is there going to be, like, customer support with that? Yeah, so it's exclusive one-to-one relationship with me personally. I'm managing all the accounts. And if you do need something, if anything goes wrong, you know, I'm literally a call, email, text away. So all my information is on the web page.

And, yeah, you can even DM me on, what's that? What is it now? Twitter. That's, I still call it Twitter. Everyone calls the Twitter still And if you type Twitter.com It still goes to X. That's funny.

Yeah. Everyone, we don't know what's going on. That's so funny. So, you know, you have, they'll have your direct line. They'll have, you know, they can contact you at any time. You can also help with, I think, consulting as well, like helping out with that. Do you want to explain a little bit and go in depth with that? Yeah.

So a lot of relationships basically start. off with a conversation of, hey, I'm looking to do this, or I'm planning to do this. And usually, you know, they don't know where to start. And coming to me or talking to me is basically a perfect starting point. Hey, I want to start a, what's really cool? What's in right now? Racing simulators. Yeah, so a lot of people are trying to get into racing simulators and they don't know where to start.

Do I need this? Do I, am I, do I need a player one, player two, player three? what are my alternative options so the conversation really starts there then we pretty much try to tailor their needs or what they're using our PCs for and then go from there right so it's like you don't really need

a thread ripper to run one game or multiple types of games and then you know try to work budgeting and other peripherals that they might not know that they need you know like a lot of people we're new to like these preferral categories. They didn't know that we offered monitors, keyboards, mice, and it's like, wow, I could go to NXT for my all-in-one stop shop and make the whole purchasing experience

easier and better for them, knowing the fact that, you know, I have a dedicated customer service line. I can do everything with Morent. You know, I can, you know, reach out if I ever need help. You know, even a simple hello. You know, this is one of those things where it's, you know, I'd like to get personable with everybody. Nice. So you encourage the communication, right? Yeah, 100%. Okay.

So that's awesome. I love that you, I guess we and ZXT are accommodating the unique hardware needs of different industries, right? It's not just like a one-size-fits-all solution. And I think that's another thing that makes it really special. But can you, like, walk us through the process of, you know, setting this up for a business? Like, let's say I have a, I don't know, like, let's say I run a sports club at a school and I want to get 100 computers. Like, how would I go about this? Like, can you just walk me through the process?

Yeah, yeah. So let's take, I guess, UCI, they're my more recent customer. The whole transaction started with basically a DM, which turned into an email, which turned into a phone call, whichever method of communication you feel comfortable with. And then just to get the ball rolling, it's like, what issues are you currently facing versus what type of solutions can be offered? Right. And, you know, it's what's your budget? What programs are you utilizing? you know, what's optimized for your needs,

and how long do you plan on, like, keeping the system? Like, what's your longevity? And is there plans to basically grow this even further? So, again, it would start with a simple call. Let me understand your needs, and here are our solutions. Here are products that, you know, will fit your needs, we'll fit your budget. And then on top of that, it goes from,

this is what your quote would look like. to what's the timeline, to the delivery date. And then if you're lucky enough, I will come to you and help you set up. And what if you're not lucky enough? Ah, man, we can do a video chat or something, get on a Google Meet and try to help you out wherever I can. And it happens a few times. So, I mean, just like my roots where my journey started here at NGXT, customer service,

I still offer the same type of customer service to these customers as well. I mean, you kind of talked about it. You kind of talked about how like going into a person versus like a thing like UCI where a lot of different, a lot of different people talking to, a lot of different things. How do you approach partnerships? Like how do you have like the same outlook when it's like one person versus a whole group or is it like do you change things up for them? I don't change at no matter what level.

I mean, type of people, number of people, position. I feel at the end of the day, you know, if you erase their background, their names or whatever, their title, they're still a person. So I'm going to, the way that you guys are hearing me now is the same way I talk to my customers and in the community as well. So my only approach is start off with a hello and basically grow from there. I like that. I like that. And have you, have you got like feedback from clients like UCI? Like I see fall guys and, you know, some other sponsors.

Have you gotten some good feedback and stuff like that? Yeah. Funny enough, my most recent one, too, we've also worked with Discord. They love the fact that, you know, I can be pretty much reached. You know, there's no limitations to reaching out to me and vice versa, where I'm also reaching out to collegiate e-sports teams, other businesses, and they're like, wow, I've never had a company reach out before. And again, this is a brand new role.

for pretty much the whole company, even for myself, the fact that I'm reaching out. And for the person receiving that message, it's like, wow, you know, no one reached out to me. So I think that's what makes this very unique. Make people feel special. Of course, of course. One question I have about this too,

is I guess the question I have about everything I buy. So in terms of after sales service, What can businesses expect from NZT? Pretty much one, and this is really tough, it's like, our PC's last. So the quality is there, and we just don't know when the next time they're going to purchase from us, but they have the reliability to, you know, come back to me, expect the same level of service, and then at the same time, great deals. Anything afterwards, you know, we just maintain relationship, do a really quick check-in,

hey, how's everything going? you know, is there anything else that I can support you with? Yeah, it's maintaining a relationship. I think it's beyond any type of transaction, you know, small check-ins here and there, even if it's just like a simple email of Happy New Year or, hello, how's everything going? So, again, it's very personable. And you mentioned, you know, NZKPCs are built to last. They're going to last a long time.

So you may not need a lot of that after sales service, but that does make me a little bit curious. You know, how does NGXC do that? Like, what measures are we taking to ensure that these computers are reliable and, you know, they're going to last a while? So the quality and components, I think that starts there. You know, you have your two-year warranty with us, you know, lifetime customer service.

On top of that, we do offer extended warranty as well beyond our two-year warranty. So you do have that peace of mind that's pretty much priceless at this point. And then again, the reliability of our customer service team, even myself, just to, you know, reach out. It's funny enough because I'm working with a few customers right now that they're almost at the end of their warranty, and they're still able to reach out to me, and then I meet their accommodations. But the difficulties here, you know, you're not dealing with just one customer, you're dealing with, you know, multiple computers. It can just be anywhere from one PC to 10 PCs to even almost 100.

Yes, that's a lot. Yeah, it's definitely a lot. And it's like, wow, you know, but to get it done, it's crazy. Yeah. And, you know, how are you staying ahead of the technological curve here to meet future business demands? Are you kind of future-proofing these things a little bit for businesses? Or funny enough, we're one of the few companies that have inventory.

That's one thing. When the Supers came out at launch, I had a few customers asking already, hey, do you have this available? And it's not me even reaching out. It's them reaching out to me. And they're asking me, hey, like, we want to be ahead of the curve. This just got launched. Do you have a timeline?

I was like, yeah, let me see what I could do for. you and pretty much go from there. But in terms of future-proofing, you know, PCs evolve every day. And you don't really need a new PC, you know, just because you got one slide upgrade from like a 13-900K to a 14-900K or what's that, a 40-80 to a 40-80 super. You don't need that necessary upgrade. You know, if you look at any type of minimum spec requirements on any program, you know, it's funny enough, you're only looking at it from what?

bare minimums that's almost five-year-old specs. So it's going to last you a long time. And I guess for those that are looking into, you know, getting in touch with you and stuff like that, do you have like a PC or some parts that most people tend to, like, we tend to lean towards? Can you repeat that last part? You cut off? Oh, sorry.

The work internet. Yeah, so, like, do you have any, like, popular, like, PCs or, like, parts that most people tend to buy? Yeah, so our Player 2s are a really hot buy, the Player 2 Prime. It's a really good bang for your buck and type of performance. In addition to that, they really like the high-end GPUs and the fact that we do have them in stock and readily available for them. So a lot of businesses, they love. the GPUs and you know coincidentally we're in the gaming community and we love the GPs too so I wonder if the case has anything to do with it too because it's a really cool looking case

yeah the case with in the new age six it definitely changes the dynamic in the work environment and even people the employees are asking me hey how do I take advantage of you know I work for so-and-so I would like to get some deals and, you know, definitely work something out. So you mentioned the GPU and how everyone loves the GPU and everyone loves the look of the case, but are you doing anything to balance, you know, this high-end gaming performance with the needs of a professional environment, or are you just kind of giving everyone, like, the best GPU and, like, the most RGB and all that stuff? how you're approaching that? So you don't necessarily need the best for everything.

You know, if you do, then you'll be broke by the end of the year. And I think same thing. You know, I don't necessarily need a $1,900K or a $40.90. You know, I know that you guys have it, but it's like, I think you for that, by the way. Cut those from you. I think Mike and I were the first NTC for business clients. Yeah, no, you guys were. Yeah.

So quick shout out. And now putting a name to the face, I'm always in your chat. But we should say that. We should say that the NZXT podcast is powered by NZEXT for business. Yes, it is. One-to-one service. I lost my train of thought. Dang it.

I was asking you how you balance high-end gaming performance with the needs of a professional environment. Yeah. You don't, yeah, again, you don't necessarily need the high-end power. You know, to give me the budget, I see. what I can try to maximize within that budget and try to see where I can get that performance offset. So, you know, one of my customers, they're in the medical field, you know, and you think that they need the high in equipment, they need the performance gains.

They necessarily didn't. I was looking at you their programs. I was looking into their equipment. You know, they could get away with Player 1. And they would save so much money doing that route rather than, you know, I need this. because I heard it's this, or, you know, based off a lot of people's experience, I need XYZ. But at the end of the day, you know, they had a small budget and it's like, let's maximize it.

Let's get the player one. And let's start from there. And surprising enough, it worked out. Everything worked out, even surpassing their expectations. Nice. Yes. And I'm not too really, I'm not familiar, honestly, with how other competitors. in this market go about it, but how do you think

NZT's solution here stands out from those competitors? Ooh, good question. So like any other businesses, everyone has problems. I'm a problem solver, you know. And basically it's just a type of relationship that you have with someone like me or the businesses altogether. So NZXC already has that name branding. Then there's also me,

which carries that name and then try to just, you know, cater to the customer's needs and be personable. Again, I think with any type of job or even with you guys in the marketing team, it's like you just have to be personable. It's your relationship and just the customer service. You know what's funny you mentioned that is like on social media, like a lot of times people will will send us a message on social and they'll be like NZT. What's the difference between you and X brand, right? And I always tell them, you know, we'll reply to you. And then they're like, wow, you actually replied because they'll tag like both companies. And, you know, sometimes the other company does reply.

I don't want to say no one else does. But I do think you're right, man. I think just being personable and real with people and just being there for them, answering their questions and helping them. And even if they don't end up buying from NCXT, I do think it's important for them to know that we try to help them. And I feel like that goes a long way nowadays because, you know, most businesses, not most, but a lot of businesses are very transactional where it's just like, you know, we want you to buy this, you know, buy it versus, you know, here's what we got and here's how it can help you and, you know, let us know if you have any questions about it, right? So I love that you're taking that approach, man, because that's literally what Mike and I traded.

do every day on social media when people message us is just be there for them and helping them out so let me uh let me salute you for that thank you hey i learned from you guys and again i think when i first started here iven you were the first one on the first ones you get personal so i was like okay i can learn from this guy yeah it's uh it goes a long way nowadays yeah and something as simple as recognizing a person by their name even if you have little to know it interaction with them. I think calling people by their first name definitely does go a long way. And, you know, when you see that person again and say, even say hello, good morning, Mike, or good morning, Ivan, and don't even have to talk for the rest of the day. Wow, he made my day.

Even if you don't know how to pronounce Laurent, you just, you just, you have my attention. People call me Laurent here in the office, too, and Laurent. And I still acknowledge them. As long as you have my attention, you have my attention already. So. you know, I guess for those that also want to, you know, you're always available, you're always, you know, take it, reach out, they start the business. How long does it usually take to, like, get pretty much from like beginning to end and then how long does it take to, like, receive the product? So it can be literally, if we start Monday, you'll probably end up getting the product by Friday.

Wow. So, yeah. But, I mean, I've worked with other businesses where they do have deadlines and we were you know, able to deliver way ahead of time. There's also times where it may take even months to, you know, and it's not anything where we don't have the supply or the resources. It's more on we don't have a space to put these PCs in. And also funding because it's like the million dollars is not readily available, you know.

But that was a joke or it was a dry joke. but yeah it's just one of those things where funding isn't readily available and it does take time to acquire and all of that. So it could take anywhere from a week if we start on Monday and

you'll receive the product by Friday, but I've seen it go even months or even weeks. But at the end of the day I try to meet their expectations or try to even exceed that. Yeah, I guess depends, right, case by case is here.

case by case So I guess now that we know how NZX for business works Can you share a success story Of how NZXC for business has transformed someone's operations Yeah so I have so many examples UCI for example You know

When we had that conversation with them it was more on this is the budget and we needed by X date. I was able to maximize their budget. They were looking for some high-end performance PCs. I met with them in person. I was able to kind of gauge what they were looking for. And when we delivered, you know, it was beyond their expectation. With their previous vendors, they weren't able to get the same type of

you know, experienced. When I was there for the grand opening, they appreciated that. NZXT was there. And, you know, we still talk to today. I just do a little follow-ups. I jump on their, their Twitch, too.

Watch their little tournaments. But again, I think the overarching story here is just being personable and developing that relationship, maintaining that relationship, beyond a transaction. So I think that definitely did and went a long way.

Nice. Keep it up. Yeah. Oh, one other story too. Red Bull, you know, Red Bull reached out and we made everything happen in a matter of days. They needed PCs and, you know, shout out to our BLT team and the RMA team for making that happen.

That turnaround time was just so crazy. It was a very tight schedule, but we made it happen. So, you know, they still reach out to me. It's like, oh, let's do another event. I'm like, okay. I want to show everyone. I found a video from our Slack of the arena. And, you know, we see it from this angle.

Well, I think this kind of encapsulates how many PCs they really are. And you can just see, like, the rows and rows of all these PCs. and they're constantly going and you can see all the people using it and it looks awesome. Like, it looks like sick. Well done, Laurent. Or Lauren.

Hey, man, thank you. Also, a shout out to Maria for taking the video. I also promised her a shout out today because we had her, you on the podcast before her, so shout out to Maria for that. Shout to Maria. Yes.

For businesses looking to integrate you know, gaming culture into their workspace, Lauren, what advice would you give them? Do it. I think a lot of businesses forget to invest in their people. And, you know, gaming is even a little thing, is one of those experiences where it definitely doesn't go a long way. You know, I was able to game with the CS team. We played Warzone. You know, I'm not telling you what time of day, but we played Warzone together. And, you know, you're able to create this bond that you would never imagine making, right? And, you know, it feels completely out of the norm

to, you know, just game with someone that you'd never game with. But incorporating gaming culture into a professional work environment, it changes everything. You know, when I came to NZXT, I didn't know that I was going to enjoy this. It's like, oh, it's a gaming company. I was like, oh, dude, I don't play much games. Because I remember one of the first questions was like,

hey, do you game? I was like, yes. and do you game on a PC or a console? I was like, console. But when I had the interview question, you know, I was like, okay, this is kind of interesting. And then when I actually got on board, we actually gained, my first game night here was pretty cool,

you know, playing CS, Go with everyone on the company and, you know, seeing that happen, it changes the dynamic altogether. So even if it's just a simple game of Fall Out or Fall Guys or, you know, Fortnite, definitely does go a long way. Gaming does make working a lot more fun. Yeah.

All right, I got one last question for you before we get into my favorite part of the show, which is when Mike asks you the most random possible questions we can think of. Oh, no. You know, how does NZXT plan to evolve its business offerings in the future? So right now we're in its early stages.

in ZXC right now for business we want to be able to pretty much do a self-service catering being able to do these type of transactions on their own and then me still be able to

reach out hopefully grow the team one day so not just one Laurent but like 10 Lawrence imagine I'll be crazy there will be no more food in the office. Lauren 10.

But in the future, I just want to be able to grow this side of the business, being able to still be personable, being able to go on site and help these customers, you know, find the solution through us.

So one, probably self-service, you know, hopefully offer more customization. I'm not sure what else I have in plan, but I do have that roadmap. Love it. Thank you. All right.

Now that the business stuff is out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff. Mike, let's ask a Laurent some random questions here. All right. It's pretty simple. We'll start off. We'll start off easy. What's your favorite game as of now?

Oh. There's people going to roast me for this. I still play Destiny 2. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah, don't ask me what, yeah, don't ask me what class I am too, because that's also controversial. But yeah, I still enjoy playing Destiny 2. I'm in between Final Fantasy 7, but it's between those two.

I like the, I like what Josh said. Lauren, what shoes are you wearing right now? Oh, dude. Yeah, I'm a sneaker head, so if you guys know what this is. is, uh, J. Ports? So, yeah, no, threes, black cement threes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ooh. Oh, damn. I'm getting called out over here. Let's see. What's your favorite game of all time? Ooh. Pokemon Yellow. Oh.

Hands down. Pokemon Yellow was the game. It was a, it was a tie between the original Super Nintendo. No, not Super Nintendo. Was it? The Mario Brothers that slash Duck Hunt on the NES and Pokemon. How's up? Oh, I like that.

Pokemon Yellow is a classic. Classic. The first Game Boy Color game, one of the first few. And you had Pikachu just following you. That was honestly, that's honestly the one of the best right there. And then what is your favorite console of all time? Console? Oh, no.

Damn. PlayStation. PS2 PS2. And what is an underrated game that everyone should play right now? Right now?

Oh, dude, you ask the wrong person. I'm on the business end. Underrated game. Can I say Destiny 2? Can I use that answer again? I mean, you can if you want, if you think so. It's fun.

People forget, you know, I think just the PVP itself is where it's at. Oh, from Sergio. What's your Cologne recommendation? I can't tell you guys that. Then you guys will just be stealing myself, but I use YSL, not just because it's Laurent, but it actually smells good. But, you know, teakwood mahogany from Bath & Body,

that lotion itself is pretty good. I just use dial antibacterial soap. That's the one in the Russian. true. Pretty good. All right, we got a tough one. Everyone hears, I know some people are here watching it, Harley asked,

who's your favorite person at the office? Dude, you can't, you can't tell me. You gotta choose one. You don't like anyone else except this one person. That's basically what you're saying. I got to choose all. No, no, no, you have to choose. You have to choose someone. If Pucci was real, I'd choose Pucci.

But I love everyone here. Literally, everyone worked. I work with is pretty much an awesome person. If you think of them as an individual, but as an organization, everyone's awesome. You know, I walk around and people know you by name, and I can't just pick one person.

It's like picking a favorite kid. You can't pick a favorite kid. The correct answer was Maria, Laurent. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's going to beat me up. Yes, yes. Howling rays or Dave's Hot Chicken from Josh? What? Let me see, let me see, me see, me see.

Helen Rays by far You wear the gloves when you're eating it I had the The halen the hottest one You have to wear the gloves It stays on you It literally just stays on you and if you rub your eyes that's it It's game over

Yeah But yeah it We wear the gloves Recommend But yeah It's funny I had Dave's hot chicken the other night And I was like I was hungry.

Do you have a funny story that you witnessed during either a Zoom meeting or at work? Oh my goodness. I'm not going to say any names. This was my first town hall. I was in the CS office and I looked out the window and I was watching them pretty much set up for town hall. And I heard a loud thud. It wasn't a crazy fall or anything. It was just like on the second rung of the ladder and he fell.

And I'm just like, oh. And I looked over, I asked him. I was like, hey, are you doing okay? He was like, are you hurt? And like, my only thing that was hurt was my spirits. I was like, oh, you're fine. But that was my very first interaction in the story. But there's other, I think Zoom meetings now are pretty fun.

you know, you don't know who's going to be in the room, you don't know what's going to happen in the background, you don't know what's going to happen at all. But, yeah, I think if you pay attention to detail, you know, if you look outside the frame of the person or the subject, you will see some fun stuff. And I've seen a lot already. Within the last four years of doing this, it's like, okay, I didn't expect to see that or I didn't expect to hear that or the kids in the background or the pet's barking. but it's so fun to have these Zoom calls with cameras on. Let's see. What PC part is worth spending more money on? Ooh, PSU.

I think that's so underrated. People look to invest into the GPU, the CPU, the motherboard. But PSU is pretty much the brains of the operations here because it power up everything. You don't want no cheap PSU powering up your two, three, four hundred dollar motherboard or your GPU that you spent a thousand dollars on. But yeah, get that gold rated PSU, you know, make sure that, you know, from a reliable source, and make sure that you have your warranties in line, everything. Again, 10-year warranty on a PSU is crazy, and that's something that we offer. Yeah.

You know what, Brad Bonn, I see you ask you. this question and you know we have the technical guy right here could I get some advice to increase airflow on H1 is it okay to run the H1 with all the panels off you can I I do have some advice on that yeah so do you want to give your advice first or should I give my uh no you go first you go first all right so for those that don't know the NZT H1 is the smallest computer case that NZEC has ever made um and And it's also probably the least customizable because it also includes, you know, like pre-installed AIO, pre-installed power supply, et cetera.

And there's like really not much you can do with it to increase the airflow. But there are a few things that I do think can help. First and foremost, keep it elevated on your desk. I have seen, believe it or not, people put that case on the carpet, which, you know, it's small for a reason. It's small so you can put it up. So keep it up from the desk to make sure that you're not getting a lot of dust in there and air is going in and out of there easily. The other thing is to optimize the fan configuration because sometimes people do install fans backwards and they're not, you know, flowing. the air is not flowing through the case, it's flowing out of it.

So you want to make sure air is going in and out of there. You also want to improve the cable management because that case is so compact that air does not travel as freely as it does in a much bigger case. So you want to make sure that the cable management is nice and tidy because that's crucial, not just an H1, but any small form factor case. The other thing I think you should consider,

is the regular maintenance of the case. So unlike maybe like an H9, which is much bigger, you may not have to clean that one as often as a small case like the H1. So regularly clean those dust filters, the fans, the internal components, make sure they're not clogged with dust. And then last but not least, kind of going with the first point of making sure

that the PC is in the right spot. in your room, make sure that the ambient temperature in your room is also at a good level. You know, lower the temp if possible. You don't want to have a computer in a room if it's 150 degrees in there. You know, like the cooler the room, the cooler the PC is going to run. And I don't know if Lauren has any other tips, but those would be, I think, my four or five tips. You hit the nail on the coffin with all of that. I think regular maintenance is so keen to whatever PC build that you have.

you want to make sure that you dust regularly, clean regularly, reapply thermal paste regularly. Only because of the fact that we've seen it all here. You know, I've seen CPUs die because, you know, the thermal paste dried out. Or, you know, these H1 cases going out because, you know, they haven't dusted it or they just left it on the floor. You know, what you said of putting it on the dust, that already reduced, like, a lot of dust going into your PC.

And dusting it regularly, you're maximizing the life of your PC. PC. That's something so simple. Just get a little air can or a dust rag and just wipe it down. I mean, I try to do that at least once a week. You know, you're already cleaning the house. Might as well clean your computer too. Yeah. And

Brandbot, for the second part of your question is, can you use it with the panels off? I guess technically you can. However, I would not recommend it. Because those

those holes on the panels there, they're not just for airflow, they're also to keep dust out. You know, and it's, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to have like a, you know, just, you know, cat hair or whatever, just going into those components. And it's also a lot safer to keep the panel on.

You don't want to accidentally, you know, touch something or maybe you bump your desk and the PC falls and all of a sudden, you know, like your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, you know, Lego or something and just breaks, you know, just keep it safe with the panels on. Yeah.

I mean, one of aesthetics is from the outside. You want to keep the case looking good, but also protecting your investment. These GPs are cheap. You know, I've seen people, even though they have like a 48, or was that, back then they had the 3080s on inside the H-1s. You know, yes, it looks nice, but also I want to protect it. people create static shock and they can just zap their GPU to death

you know so yes you can for airflow but we wouldn't recommend it I mean the case already looks nice with all the panels on but you know protect your investment you worked so hard you invested so much into your PC you know just do the bare minimum

and you know if a PC could talk you know they'll just ask hey just clean me clean me or dust me or whatever So it's just the little things. Even from a business standpoint, and I've talked to these customers about, hey, how do you guys maintain? It's like, yeah, we do dust our PCs on a regular basis.

So, I mean, just a little thing. It goes a long way. Love that. All right. Got final two questions. This is the big controversy one, all right? Is double dipping out of party okay? It is a

Oh man, there's a tree fall in the woods Make a noise Um Uh Dude I'm not gonna say yes or no But I have Yes I'll do it

But it's like okay We're eating a French fry You do it And then you flip the fry On the brand new end that's not touched Okay that's okay That's not double dipping That's disgusting man

But the question is If you do double dip, do you be like, hey, I'm going to double dip? Or do you just do it without telling you just go all in? Why stop? You're already, you're committed. Your motion is already, you're dipping. I'm going to double dip. I'm hungry.

But no, if I have manners, I don't double dip. You get, yeah, you're walking on a thin line. I know, man. I thought we were a gaming company. I don't know we're going to go eat after this. Yeah. All right. Final one.

I love these questions. It's a, it's, uh, it's, uh, which one would you rather fight? Would you probably, fight, rather fight a miniature hippo or a giant cockroach? And both are in a bad food as the question for some reason. Hippo or cockroach. Yeah. A miniature hippo. A mini hippo.

Mini hippo or a giant cockroach. And there's only one of them. Yeah, you can only choose which one you want to fight. I hate cockroaches, so I'll fight a hippo. I feel like I could kick it. I'm just kidding. You're heavy, man. Even if even if little, they're probably heavy.

It's like a bowling ball. There's no way Laurent would get his cement three's dirty by kid. Yeah, thank you. I'm not going to get my shoes dirty. But it's like, okay, a cockroach? Is that bigger than me? I mean, a lot of people are taller than me already, but I don't know. I feel like I get still step on it and then I don't know.

I'll fight back or something. But yeah. I'm gonna stick with the hippo. I've seen it in Zelda where you can just cook it afterwards. And I think I'm gonna win. A baby hippo weighs 50 to 100 pounds at birth. What the? What?

At birth? That's a humid. That's half of me already. Dude. Nah, man. Yeah, I think I could take on a baby hippo. I thought you were gonna ask if, like, can you take 10, like, middle schoolers or? you know

how many those stories take in a fight I'll take Mike Tyson I'm just kidding all right Mr.

Double Dipper I think that's it I guess we'll go into the announcements but first we want everyone

here to follow Laurent Laurent sorry he's like Lauren you're fine you're fine but we're going to go ahead

post your Twitter in the chat right now everyone go follow this beautiful man like look at this look at this profile picture.

Pucci is real. Pucci is real. Just let you know when I did the studio picture. And I had hair back then. Look at a beautiful smile. Direct your free PC inquiries to Lily. Yeah, yeah. Please.

Any, any, for the people that spam, like, hey, day 300, day 50 of asking for free, go send it over to Lauren. I think, I think he'll appreciate it. Yeah, I think I need activities now. I think I only have a handful of followers. you know, you guys, Johnny. That's all you need, man.

That's all I need. So, yeah, let's make it active. Start following me. Just shoot me a hello. You know, these DMs are open. I love it. Okay, so first, I'm going to go into a couple announcements. We just launched a bunch of new stuff, so I got to go through this.

We just launched our brand new function two keyboards. I'm actually going to show off the keyboard right now. It's pretty dope. I even have, like, the ripple effect on it, which is pretty. sick. So we just launched these function to keyboards. We have a white air black and in full size our mini TKL. They are equipped with linear

optical switches and AK polling re, adjustable actuation and hot, swappable keys. Do estimation point function 2 in chat or just look on our website, n6c.com. We also have the lift two mice, which I'm using right now, I'm using to ergo. We have

the two types. We have to ergo or the sim. Ergo's for right-handed. Sim is for either. Symmetrical. They have another 8K pulling rate, a 26,000 DPI sensor, so you can click heads to your liking, or you can blame your mouse for it when you miss shots. A. Exclamation point lift 2 in chat over again and ZC.com. Like we are doing a giveaway four, we have the, I'll show it off, we are doing the start, we have a StarCraft, or sorry, StarField craft project that we have. We have a PC, a case, a mouse pad, and a mouse, or mouse in a mouse pad.

We're giving way to case, mouse and mouse pad right now. So go ahead and take a look at these things. Honestly, this is probably one of my favorite designs because I love the simplicity of it. It just looks so sick. So if you love Starfield, go ahead and take a look at our stuff. Esclamation point Starfield in chat or, again, nzix.com. We also, God, we're launching so much stuff. We just launched an N60 Flex subscription.

So this is really dope. So if you guys just don't want to buy a PC upright and spend thousands of dollars on it, we have different types of PCs you can go for. You have like a $50 player one, $110 player two or $169 player three. It's just a month. It's super easy. You know, there's, you can cancel any time. You can also upgrade every two years, if I'm correct.

that also comes with a warranty. So it's really easy. And as time goes on, you can get free upgrades in it. So it's pretty dope. And again, cancel any time. Honestly,

it's really, yeah, like brand of it's actually one of the most interesting things. I didn't realize that this was not something most people did. And a lot of people love it. Like a lot of people loved it. And you're like, hey,

I just want to play games like hell divers. They just want to play hell divers for like a month or two. Boom. Rented out for $100. Then returning after a month. Super cool. Yeah, there's a, there's a lot of different use cases for this. Like, you brought up a good one.

Like, let's say you're a console gamer and you're interested in the PC, you know, before taking that huge leap into spending a couple thousand dollars, you could just rent a PC for $49 and try it out for a month. And if you like it, you can send it back and buy a PC or maybe you just want to keep reading it for a while because the beauty of renting it is that you're always going to have the latest and greatest because whenever you want you can just send it back and upgrade to a better PC which is really cool like because then you're not stuck with like an old PC you know because I have seen some people on social say like why would I rent it if I because you know if I rent this thing for

a couple of years I could have it paid off already and own it well the biggest reason is you know if you buy it a couple of years that hardware is already going to be probably outdated so you know you're stuck then owning a PC that's outdated versus renting one that's new. So, yeah, I see a few people in the comments here saying that it's a, they don't know what the thing and that it's pretty cool. So yeah, the word is spreading and I'm excited to see where it goes. Yeah. I remember some people in a Discord chat, we're like, hey, why, why don't I just finance it by it?

Well, it's like you said, you know, it's like, oh, I just want to just test it out for a little bit, just to see. also a great one is if you're traveling and you know like you're going to be out of place like for you know you're going for an internship for like two to three months. You don't want to actually haul a full PC or buy a whole PC just to play games when you're working or whatever like for most of my friends that when they had an internship for like three months

they would move to like a different state. You can just do it for three months just play games and then just return or maybe you're a business like a game developer or game studio or something and you're going to be at a gaming event and you need 50 PCs and you don't want to deal with Laurent and his his sales tactics, you know, you can just say, I'm going to rent 50 computers and then take into this event and then we'll send them back and we're done with them. So, yeah, there's a lot of different ways to use this program. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty dope. Let's see.

Oh, far one of the final announcements, a lot of people. here if you're into discord. You guys are really excited about this. We're bringing back the wallpaper contest. Finally, we're bringing it back. So thank you, Ivan, for saying that up. So every month, we're asking you guys to submit your NCXT-themed wallpaper, art piece, masterpieces.

And go ahead and take a look into hashtag wallpaper-dash-contest channel. Submit it. Please read the rules. like please please please read the rules make sure it's your own artwork and not you know AI based and you know if you win you win some dope prizes so

you either get some free wallpapers or you win something so it's a win-win it's awesome I love it yeah we love it too because we get free backgrounds for our Zoom calls so it's big takeaway yeah huge huge takeaway already and real quick I also want to mention that

the people that win, they're going to get a free Poochie plush, a free month of Discord Nitro. Ooh! And we're going to feature their artwork on the NZXT blog, as well as our NCC social media channels. So if you want to get your art out there, that's the way to do it. Oh, that's like kind of dope. I didn't realize where to show it off there. That's awesome. Yeah.

Well, go ahead, Discord.org.org. slash nx t join the channel anyways because it's dope it's awesome so yeah uh okay so the ones that people are waiting for the giveaway so right now we have the poochie plush giveaway for podcast 179 with laureate right here so the secret code for this one i even you have a really funny joke with it so i'll go ahead and send the code over

the secret code for the poochie giveaway is serious business. What was the thing, Ivan? It was like, uh, Lauren is a business. I said Laurent. Laurent is not a businessman.

He's a business man. Yeah. Yeah. I love that one. All right. So that is the thing. This is our way to say thank you guys for joining us live and, you know, chatting with Lauren and, you know,

telling him he looks beautiful. I saw a lot of comments about that. Like, look at that smile. Thank you. Thank you. So that's our way to say thank you guys. And then also we're doing a Starfield giveaway. So let me go ahead and show the star field again.

We're giving away a case, a mouse, and a mouse pad to three winners. So three winners will get each of these. So super dope. It's a esquish point, a craft 12 giveaway in the chat. and again, just always saying thank you guys for joining us live on the thing.

Let me go ahead and get the code. Serious business. The code for the Starfield giveaway is Starfield Burger. Because if you guys don't know about the Starfield Burger thing, where was,

here it is. Look at this beauty. Look at this beauty. You guys still promise me those burgers after this, right? I'm just kidding. But that is our way. Thank you guys for Jordanius.

Lauren, do you have any last words you want to say before we go? One, thank you for maybe on the podcast. I'm running a little bit late from my one on one with Lauren. But, you know, it's okay. She understands. But follow me on Twitter,

NZXT, Lawrence. Reach out to me. We had the landing page. I think we had the link posted on the chat. NZXT.com slash about slash NGXT for business. No, yeah, everyone just game a little bit more. Be kind to each other, you know, and have fun. Everything's about having fun, so don't forget to have fun.

I love it, I love it. So thank you guys for joining us. So remember, tune in live every other Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on the official NCC Twitch. And don't forget the list of previous episodes on Up, Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Got any question for us? Send an email to podcast at nc.com or tell you. at nccc on social media thank you laurent aka business man uh so thank you for joining us

thank you ivan and thank you all for joining and talking with us and we'll see you guys soon goodbye