NZXT’s gaming PC rental program made a bit of a splash when it landed in 2024… and an even bigger splash when GamersNexus investigated the terms of the rental setup, calling it a scam. An ensuing lawsuit now appears to be coming to a conclusion in the form of a settlement. The big news? Gamers who’ve been renting for a while will own their PCs, and those in debt collection can get out.
According to an updated video, NZXT and its business partner Fragile have agreed to a $3.45 million settlement for the civil RICO case against the Flex program, which will not proceed to a jury trial if there are no further developments. Just under a million dollars will be delivered to the plaintiffs in the form of up to $5,000 in debt forgiveness, letting renters who are currently being hounded by debt collectors off the hook. Another $1.2 million will go to those who have been renting for two years or more, who will now own their gaming PCs if they make a claim.
Going by today’s cheapest NZXT Flex monthly rate, those customers will have paid at least $1,920 in rental fees for a desktop with a Core i5, an RTX 3050, and 16GB of DDR5 RAM—a bad deal even at today’s insane prices. For the highest “Flex Three Prime” tier, two years of renting would cost over $7,400 for a PC with a recent Core Ultra 9, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 2TB of storage, and an RTX 5080.
As GamersNexus pointed out in the original video, you’d be better off just putting a full purchase on a credit card—or even a predatory loan!—and paying it off over time. At least then you’d own the PC instead of having to ship it back to NZXT when you stop paying.
The last portion of the settlement will be cash payouts for former renters, now done with the program, who seek relief with a claim. In typical class-action form, their individual payouts will depend on exactly how many claims are submitted and verified. GamersNexus estimates that if a high 10 percent of affected claimants submit to the class action, each one would get a $450 to $500 payout.
NZXT
Notably, the NZXT Flex program isn’t going away. The page is still live and you can still rent a gaming PC from the company right now with the poor value that it represents. But NZXT committed to less deceptive promotional materials from its partners (including an apparent instruction aimed at younger buyers to “rent” a gaming PC so they could win a Fortnite tournament to then buy one in a conventional sense), and have stopped the bait-and-switch naming and parting issues.
GamersNexus still calls it a scam. I can’t do that without clearing it with Foundry’s lawyers, but I certainly agree that it’s an exceptionally poor value. Even with the insane prices of hardware right now, even if you don’t have access to inexpensive credit, there are better ways to buy a gaming PC. With current hardware prices still shading towards unattainable for many PC gamers, I can’t help but wonder if NZXT is keeping the Flex program active to try and capitalize on the situation.
