System76Reviews of system76.com

I bought this System76 Serval WS 17 several months ago. From Day 1 ....I complained to Support that the Laptop was incredibly noisy.... as if a Jet Engine was taking off with the most minimal workload (surfing the internet via browser.) Support followed up with me asking me to perform various diagnostic tests to which did absolutely nothing. 3 months went by and I asked to have my money back. Well, of course it was beyond their Return Policy date. But I stated that I complained about this issue within the first 2 weeks of purchase with no resolve. Ultimately, Support had me send in the laptop computer for technical evaluation. I got the laptop back from support with absolution ZERO solution or fix! WARNING: Do NOT buy this computer. You have been Warned! The Keyboard has an ackward layout that creates many errors when typing..... and the Noise from it's fans are totally Unacceptable and 1000% Unbearable! Up until this point, I'm just using this Laptop to surf the internet... no heavy workload whatsoever! I spent close to 3k on an unbearable product. Totally Unacceptable.

I bought a System76 Serval WS 13 (64G, i9-13900HX, RTX 4070) for about 3k back in June 2023, TL;DR: - Unusably loud fan noise, even on low workload, the fan is always turning at ~3000 RPM minimum and producing ~70dB minimum - Low-quality cheap plastic and flexing casing - Low-quality camera and microphone (unusable: you can only hear the fan noise and chassis vibration) - They are just reseller of Clevo's laptops - Buggy software: black screen, crash on resume, GPU falling from the bus, sound crackling, bugs with wifi that require reboot... - No battery life (at most 2 hours) + extremely heavy charger - Annoyingly weird keyboard layout + No led for numlock - Deceiving performance, everything feels slow and laggy (It takes like 10s to launch the calculator, the text editor, or the settings). And you always have to use battery mode (to reduce fan noise) - Bad customer service. I first contacted them in the first few days after I received the product, tried countless things since then, but ultimately they gave me no working solution and did not want to refund me

I've been using System76 computers since 2016. I've been a Unix System Admin so I prefer Linux based PC's. While the machines are pretty good, not great, System76 has resorted to email or messaging via their web site for customer support. This process will delay a troubleshooting process immensely. I had a boot problem with a laptop that went on, literally, for months while working with their techs. I finally just completely reloaded the machine with a new O/S. I'm currently having another issue with a new machine and communication with System76, again, has gone on for days, with days between contact from them. I cannot recommend their Technical support.

On 2/18/2022 (warenty ending 02/2023) me and a coworker bought two Gaze16 for $1,626.00 USD a piece. This review will be broken down into three sections: The Buying Process, the Usability, and Final Thoughts Buying Process - 0/10 While my co-worker was in town for an on-site event, we thought it would be awesome if we both ordered System76 laptops. We saw the price at $1,626.00 and figured for the user-freedom we were willing to pay the slight markup to get GNU/Linux laptops with 3060s. This apparently is considered "fraud" by the team at System76, while we were working at our on-site event System76 called us 1 time, while we were working. When we woke up the next day we found out that System76 had refunded our order. We had paid extra money for the expedited build process (which essentially was wasted, since it took them over a week to get our order back on track). Another issue was my co-worker used a European credit card, resulting in the loss of a few hundred dollars due to exchange rates on the refund and having to pay a second time. This could have been avoided if System76 reached out in a reasonable way (like by email). Another disturbing fact is that we never provided System76 our phone number. To this day it is unknown how system76 got a hold of our phone #, nor why they felt the need to cancel our order after calling a phone number they were not authorized to call. Getting a call from a business you did not give your phone # to leaves a bad taste on your mouth. More so when they cancel you order after you didn't answer the phone to an unknown number, on a line you do not give out to ANYONE. I found this business practice unacceptable. I have asked system76 how they got my phone #, and they have refused to answer. It is not publicly listed, and does not show up on google searches. Maybe 5 people in the world have this emergency line, and system76 was not one of them. Very unsettling. A few weeks after the laptops were supposed to come, and having to pay them twice the laptops did come. No real compensation was given for the extra trouble system76 caused. They gave us the "Expedited build" for "Free" - but its hard to see this as compensation weeks after it was supposed to be shipped. Usability - 3/10 Both laptops appeared to be what we paid for. However in less than a year my laptop had major GPU issues with their 3060s causing them to freeze every 10mins, making it unusable. The error was "GPU had fallen off the bus" - Which research shows is a complete GPU failure. A few months later, my co-workers laptop had the same "GPU had fallen off the BUS" error, making their laptop unusable. System76 had a warranty program, the laptops were repairs. Since the laptops shipped with these issues it does not feel like any quality control has been taken on their end of any kind. While my co-workers laptop developed this issue a few months in, mine was shipped with this complete GPU failure on day 1. It took me a few months to debug, research, and report this to System76 as I was traveling, and was unsure why my laptop was crashing daily. I was unsure if I had messed up the drivers, or if the laptop was a lemon. It turned out to be the latter. We are both less than two years of ownership, and there are now new critical failures happening to both machines that are no longer under warranty. These failures are: My Laptop: Hinge broke, shortly after returning from repair. Since no longer under warranty had to 3d print replacement parts. Very sub-optimal. When repairing the broken hinge, I noticed there was NO THREAD LOCK on the hinge screws. What happened was the hinge screws got loose during shipping, and created additional leverage against the push-ins, causing them to rip out and completely destroy the mounting system on the screen side of the hinge when opening. This could have been prevented with proper repair and assembly. Co-workers laptop: The laptop is completely out of service due to a failed GPU fan. The fan was reported as an issue during the last usage of the in-warranty repair feature. And started hard failing with in 1 month of receiving the laptop again. Either system76 replaced the fan with a broken fan, or they completely ignored the fan replacement request, knowing that by the time the laptop was returned, the warranty would be over. No matter the cause, the end result is a broken GPU fan that should have been replaced under warranty but was not. The laptop is a brick until they can replace the entire heat-sink assembly. System76 does not list part numbers for customers nor-publicly, they are gated behind their support desk. There support desk does not work weekends nor holidays, so be aware that simply getting a part # can take over a week. Final Thoughts - 0/10 (Will never buy again) Major build quality issues, RMA issues, bad customer service. Would never buy again.

I bought the top Oryx 4K device in 2023. At the start, the Wi-Fi was bad, while all my other devices worked fine with the Wi-Fi I have. Over time, some updates happened and it became better. Also, the desktop GUI was extremely sluggish on battery — I couldn’t use the laptop at all without the power cable connected. After some updates back and forth, that issue got fixed. Fan noise: It’s terrible. No fixes helped. I tried what the internet suggested — it still sucks. Updates: Sometimes updates happened, but then the device wouldn’t boot. I had to manually clean up the boot sector or run repair commands. Given that the company controls the full device stack, I wouldn’t expect such issues to happen at all. The above is enough reason not to buy their devices. But it gets worse. I bought it from the US to the EU. It took a month to deliver the device, so the warranty started when they shipped it — effectively giving me only 11 months. On top of that, the EU has a law that sets the minimum warranty at 2 years for such devices (AFAIK), so I’m not sure how they’re even allowed to operate in the EU. After 10 months, the laptop died. I checked — I was sure the motherboard was dead. At first, they claimed the laptop was broken before the warranty period — a first attempt to dodge responsibility. But after I pointed out that it wasn’t, they agreed. I reported the issue (with a ticket, uploaded video, etc.) while the laptop was still under warranty. But because shipping took time, they claimed it was out of warranty by the time they received it. They charged me for diagnostics and said they would replace the display for $600. I asked directly if that would fix the problem — no answer. I also pointed out that other people had exactly the same issue. I decided to avoid this obvious scam. They asked for $200 to send the laptop back. I got the device back and gave it to a local diagnostics shop — they confirmed it was not the display, but the motherboard. Conclusion Given the timing, payments for delivery and taxes, and the clear scam attempts, there is no reason to ever buy from them in the EU.