Web Video / Gamers Nexus

Gamers Nexus is a YouTube channel and website fronted by Steve Burke, which offers almost exhaustingly in-depth reviews of computer hardware, as well as news updates of new hardware goings on in the industry.

Gamers Nexus contains examples of:

• Analysis Channel: Probably one of the computer hardware space's most exhaustive possible right now.
• Author Appeal: The channel prefers to review ATX form factor cases, with only specific exceptions that interest the company coming into the rotation as special interest pieces.
  • Steve's big into downhill mountain-biking, and did an entire video going down a trail, as well as sharply criticizing AMD's promotional mountain bike.
  • Steve was clearly overjoyed and starstruck to be given the opportunity to build a custom PC for the metal band Trivium.
• Berserk Button: Certain short-sighted design trends will always earn a rant from GN:
  • In the late 2010s it was "smart" devices and software which pointlessly bloated the computer.
  • PC cases that obstruct airflow, especially those which have fans on the front which are blocked by glass panels, completely negating the point of the fans being there in the first place except for decoration. Reached its nadir with the Abkoncore Ramesses, which had 12 fans of which less than half had any access to air at all.
  • Incorrectly oriented AIO radiators, since the wrong placement will eventually damage the component and require a pricey replacement or repair. What especially irks Steve is a trend in case manufacturers creating promotional material with radiators mounted incorrectly, which can cause buyers to make the same mistake with their personal builds.
  • As Gigabyte and NZXT found out to their cost, Gamers Nexus does not respond kindly to legitimate safety concerns with products being responded to with willful ignorance.
  • They've been recently quite critical about the state of Graphics Card performance year-over-year, especially in the 2020's realizing that while yes, they are hard to come by, AMD and Nvidia are effectively destroying the ability for people to even access one of the more vital parts of completing their computers.
  • Pre-built computers that use proprietary, incompatible components, on the basis that they can't then be upgraded and are as such destined to eventually be disposed of and become "e-waste".
  • Any and all instances of deceptive sales practice, especially in combination with terrible pre-built PCs.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The channel doesn't hold back on criticism but makes a point of being evenkeeled and polite. However, when they believe that major public figures behave beyond the pale (like Artesian Builds CEO Noah Katz^note who changed the rules of a giveaway on the fly, screwing over a small streamer, Newegg^note refused to honor a refund request and accused the channel of damaging a component, and Linus Tech Tips^note GN had been holding its tongue regarding LTT's testing and reporting and its behavior towards products sent in for review but issued a withering takedown after an LTT employee insulted GN's testing regimen), they will take those figures apart piece by piece.
• Compassionate Critic: Ultimately, what their style boils down to: They are gamers and PC enthusiasts at heart and understand the daunting task of trying to get into the DIY-PC space from the opposite side of the equation. They are extremely hard on PC component manufacturers because they don't want people to get ripped off, have to pay for semi-regular replacement parts, or accidentally hurt.
• Cutting the Knot: Occurred in a Linus Tech Tips Tech Support Challenge live stream featuring JayzTwoCents and GamersNexus' Steve. Both are expected to diagnose and fix numerous defects with a pre-prepared PC, including disconnected or poorly-wired components in the case and deliberate severe performance issues caused by changes in the BIOS. Steve gets around half of it by simply dismantling the computer and reassembling it on a test bench from scratch, then resetting the entire BIOS back to factory settings.
• Deadpan Snarker: Steve's sense of humor is exceptionally dry, with his snarky asides being a key feature of the weekly "hardware news" recaps.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Steve loves cats. His cat Snowflake appears semi-regularly in both videos (most prominently in the the Yeston Cute Pet Case Review) and also in sponsor segments for Squarespace as the "CEO of GamersNexus", with a website built entirely around her:
  Squarespace website: What's the goal for your site?
  Steve, typing: C A T
• Once an Episode:
  • "Before that this video is sponsored by..."
  • The GN actual test system has an older MSI CPU cooler that's nearly impossible to miss.
• One-Steve Limit: They do only have one Steve, but as GN's expanded, they've otherwise broken the trope by hiring two Patricks.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: In HW News from August 28, 2022 Steve says that Corsair markets their Xeneon Flex monitor as "The world's first 45 inch 21:9 OLED gaming display".
  Steve Burke: Just like we're the world's first computer hardware review channel named Gamers Nexus. If you specify it enough, you can always be first.
• Running Gag: Several, usually related to previous targets of the channel's ire.
  • Whenever thermal paste is brought up, they will occasionally use footage of previous videos where they purposefully went overboard on it for science; a Take That! to a common criticism of videos where they often eschewed common rules of thumb when it came to applying thermal paste.
  • For a while after covering Gigabyte-manufactured power supplies that had a tendency to blow up spectacularly under normal loads, references to "Gigabyte power supplies" (typically alongside footage of one going pop) would appear in almost every video. This reached its apogee with the "Disappointment Build 2021" video, where they were shown being used as grenades.
  • In a similar vein, references to fires in cases will typically receive a reference to the NZXT H1 electrical issues that the channel broke the news of.
  • "Back to you, Steve" and "Thanks Steve!" - faux-friendly and contrived handoff from a particularly cringeworthy Intel presentation, inserted randomly into videos thanks to both its forced nature and the coincidence with the channel's host's name.
    • From the same presentation - "You can literally see it!"
  • The disappointment builds have a recurring element of being send ups of horror movies, with BUILD ME being written out in Thermal Paste somewhere on it.
  • Similar to the Intel example, as of June 2023 a particularly cringeworthy and forced Nvidia presentation from Jensen Huang has started being referenced:
    • "I wonder if it can run Crysis... only gamers know that joke."
    • [whooshing noises with mouth] "I'm the sound effect!"
• Shown Their Work: Steve takes great pride in examining and testing components at granular levels and occasionally shows off the channel's lab facilities, which include an enormous sound-isolating chamber, installed at great expense because passing traffic was affecting results. If a video covers issues he can't knowledgeably address, he'll hire subject-matter experts, like lawyers, to come on the channel and provide commentary.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Steve is personally fanatical about integrity, to the point of having specifically written ethics policies for the channel, including refusing virtually all hospitality and reimbursement for travel costs and not allowing sponsor spots for products that the channel's own review process would not consider acceptable.
• Sue Donym: when the company performs sting operations on certain companies, for awhile Steve would just use the name "Beve Sturke" complete with Steve in a bad wig, sunglasses and unshaved for more than a couple days. They had to switch it up after awhile when the channel became bigger and Steve became more known in the industry.
• Take That!: When on LTT's Ultimate Tech Support Challenge, Steve was given a PC to fix and his first comment was that it definitely looked like something Linus had built. A sentiment shared by Jay.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: They are harsh, but if a company they've been especially rough with changes course and makes positive changes in their products for the better or produces a product that actually performs well, they'll be happy to recommend it at the time of review and later down the line if said company makes another product that performs below it.
  • After their ThermalTake video, in 2022 they actually came around to advertising for the specific tower that was a major point of contention for them after it was re-engineered to be a more respectable show case.

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Thanks, Steve.