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Walmart's Overpowered Gaming Desktop DTW3 is tougher than you'd expect, running demanding games at respectable frame rates, even in 4K. For $1,699, you'll also get access to this machine's popping RGB-lit fans as well as easy-to-remove glass panels for future upgradability.
The downside is that you get stuck with a somewhat bland design, outdated components, no included peripherals and a rather slow SSD. Overall, the Overpowered Gaming Desktop DTW3 is a strong performer, but you can get a much better gaming PC for the money.
Design
Despite the bland Overpowered logo that plagues the front and side of the desktop, the DTW3's design is redeemed by its sleek glass panels and RGB-lit fans.
There are two glass panels on the face and left side that are accompanied by the company's logo. The left side showcases the components and glowing Gigabyte GPU, while the face features three RGB-lit fans that take center stage. The only lighting element you can change is the fans' RGB lighting, and that's through the LED button at the top of the desktop or via the PC's included lighting remote. There is no software to customize the lighting.
Meanwhile, the right side consists of a plain, matte-black panel, and the top of the desktop is just as empty, aside from a few ports and the control for the fans' RGB lighting.
At 18 x 16.2 x 7 inches, the Overpowered DTW3 takes up slightly more space from front to back than the Asus ROG Strix GL12 (18 x 15.7 x 7 inches), and while the Alienware Aurora R7 (18.6 x 14.2 x 8.35 inches) cuts down on depth, it's slightly wider.
Ports and Upgradability
The Overpowered DTW3 covers a wide variety of ports, but I'm a little disappointed that the front of the gaming desktop doesn't include a USB Type-C connection. The top includes a button for the LEDs, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, headphone and microphone inputs, and the power button.
On the back, the motherboard features three USB 3.1, two USB 2.0 and one USB Type-C ports, along with an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a VGA port, a DVI port, a DisplayPort, S/PDIF-out audio ports and a PS/2 port. Meanwhile, the GPU provides an extra HDMI port, three DisplayPorts and another DVI port.
Four simple hand screws hold the left glass panel in place. Once you open this panel up, you'll have access to the GPU, RAM, a slot for Intel Optane memory, the four fans and the CPU (which is blocked by the CPU cooler).
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Meanwhile, the right side has two hand screws and gives you access to the power supply and SSD and HDD bay (one for each), which are slightly annoying to get to due to the army of cables surrounding it.
Gaming, Graphics and VR
The Overpowered DTW3 is packed with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU with 11GB of VRAM, which ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 30 frames per second on Highest settings at 4K as I scrambled through the woods in the game and harvested the succulent fruits of my survival. There was, however, occasional screen tearing as I sporadically panned the camera from left to right.
On the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Very High, 1080p), the Overpowered DTW3 nailed 93 fps, sailing over the 71-fps gaming-desktop average. The ROG Strix (GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM) averaged 74 fps, while the Aurora R7 (GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB of VRAM) landed just behind the Overpowered, at 86 fps. When running the same test at 4K, the Overpowered DTW3 (30 fps) beat the Aurora R7 (28 fps) but couldn't surpass the 37-fps category average.
The Overpowered DTW3 blazed through the Hitman benchmark (Ultra, 1080p) at 142 fps, overtaking the 93-fps category average and doubling the ROG Strix's score (73 fps). While the Aurora R7 beat the average, it lagged behind the Overpowered DTW3, at 97 fps.
The Overpowered DTW3 ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 30 frames per second on Highest settings at 4K as I scrambled through the woods in the game.
In benchmarking the chaotic metropolis of Grand Theft Auto V (Very High, 1080p), the Overpowered DTW3 achieved similar results, at 114 fps — well above the 86-fps gaming-desktop average. The ROG Strix (50 fps) couldn't make half of the Overpowered DTW3's score. When we cranked the game to 4K, the Overpowered DTW3 fell below the 47-fps category average, with a score of 38 fps.
Both the Overpowered DTW3 and Aurora R7 hit perfect 11s on the SteamVR Performance Test, showing that Walmart's PC is well-equipped for virtual reality. The DTW3 also topped the 9.6 category average and the ROG Strix's result (7.1).
Overall Performance
Powered by an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU with 32GB of RAM, the Overpowered DTW3 easily juggled 40 Google Chrome tabs and four 1080p YouTube videos, all while running Shadow of the Tomb Raider in the background.
On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the Overpowered DTW3 scored 23,722, climbing over the 20,153 gaming-desktop average and the result from the ROG Strix's Core i7-8700K (19,290). The Aurora R7 scored a higher 24,196 with its 8th-Gen Core i7-8700K.
The Overpowered DTW3 matched 65,000 names and addresses in 33 seconds on our Excel test, matching the ROG Strix's time and beating the category average (0:34) by 1 second.
On the HandBrake benchmark, the Overpowered DTW3 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, which is slower than our 6:59 gaming-desktop average. The ROG Strix took even longer, completing the test in 9:16.
The Overpowered DTW3's 512GB SSD copied 4.97GB of data in 29 seconds, for a rate of 175 megabytes per second. That's very slow compared to the 359-MBps category average. The ROG Strix (256GB SSD) and Aurora R7 (512GB SSD) both did better than the Overpowered PC, hitting rates of 231 and 382 MBps, respectively.
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One annoying aspect of the Overpowered DTW3 is that its 2TB HDD is inexplicably partitioned into four separate drives, which naturally take up four times the storage that a normal hard drive would use for formating.
Configurations and Warranty
The Overpowered Gaming Desktop comes in three flavors. I tested the highest-end DTW3 model, which costs $1,699 and comes with an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU with 11GB of VRAM, a 512GB SSD, a 2TB HDD and 32GB of RAM.
The DTW2 costs $1,499 and drops you down to a GTX 1080 with 8GB of VRAM, while the DTW1 goes for $999 and comes with a GTX 1070 GPU, a 256GB SSD, a 2TB HDD and 16GB of RAM. Most competitors are already rolling out 20-series GPUs and 9th-Gen processors, putting the Overpowered series at a severe disadvantage, since it technically has out-of-date specs.
Walmart includes a two-year limited warranty with the Overpowered DTW3.
Bottom Line
With Walmart's Overpowered Gaming Desktop DTW3, you'll get strong performance and graphics packed into a relatively easy-to-upgrade chassis accompanied by colorful, RGB-lit fans. However, we're not a fan of this machine's uninspired design and lack of included peripherals. On top of that, the SSD is a little on the slow side.
If you're looking for more power at a small price bump, check out the Aurora R7 with an RTX 2070 GPU and 8GB of VRAM, which Dell is currently selling at $1,749. You'll benefit from that machine's slick, customizable design; convenient port layout; and free Alienware peripherals.
The Overpowered DTW3 isn't the best gaming desktop around, but it'll get the job done if you're on a budget.
Credit: Tom's Guide
