Linus Tech Tips defends ‘unprofessional’ Billet labs review amid controversy

Linus Tech Tips gives Billet Labs a bad review

Billet Labs, a newly founded computer hardware company sent Linus Tech Tips a 3090ti monoblock for testing. Linus Tech Tips (LTT) made a review featuring Billet Lab’s water block intended to cool both the CPU and the GPU in June 2023.

Linus Sebastian gave their product a review that many thought was very harsh. One fan also took to Twitter calling it ‘unprofessional.’ The LTT creator tried to make it work on a 4090 graphic card. One of the company’s owners even called LTT’s review a ‘misrepresentation’ of their product. The co-owner stated the product was meant for 3090ti which they apparently already conveyed to LTT’s crew.

After the prototype did not work properly on the 4090 iteration, Sebastian ended up calling it a “bad product” in their conclusion. “It is a cool product but it is a bad product,” he said.

He further said that it’s bad because “it makes absolutely no sense and nobody should buy it.”

Not only was the Billet Labs’ product ‘misrepresented’ by LTT but it was also auctioned off at an expo. It was given away despite Billet requesting LTT to return the cooler to them. This naturally caused a massive hailstorm in the tech community.

Billet Labs creator responds to LTT’s ‘misrepresentation’ of their product

One of Billet Labs’ founder Felix Lure commented on the tech channel’s video saying, “We love LTT, but it was difficult to watch their criticisms when pretty much every design issue that Linus raised was done for a reason which was all explained to Adam (a crew member) weeks ago.”

Felix further stated that they had told LTT that the cooler “might fit” a 4090 version “but we didn’t have a 4090 at the time and they were welcome to try.” He further says that the company later confirmed with them that “it does not fit” the 4090 graphics card.

He further stated that they had also sent a full instruction manual “that seemingly wasn’t used.” The founder also said, “We assumed we’d have a chance to answer any problems that were raised and explain them before it being publicly misrepresented.”

Linus Tech Tips responds to Billet Labs controversy

LTT’s Sebastian took to their forum and commented on the Billet Labs controversy. Clearing the air on their end, Sebastian notified fans that LTT did not ‘sell’ the monoblock as many had come to believe. He stated that they had auctioned it for a charity.

Sebastian noted that the monoblock wasn’t returned to Billet Labs “due to a miscommunication.” He further revealed that they had agreed to compensate the company for the cost of their prototype.

The YouTube creator further disagreed with claims that there was an “accuracy” issue in their review of Billet Labs’ coolers.

Clearing his side, Sebastian stated, “I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn’t make sense to buy… so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn’t really make a difference.” He further cleared that LTT’s intention was never to “harm” Billet Labs.

Related Topics