The Maingear Experience (Review)

[DannyGT]

I have always been a HardOCP fan and have read many of the reviews on this site. In fact, I value and absolutly enjoy reading it's reviews so much that I will try and use a similar format to write my own. I'll just make it ALOT shorter :D

Purchasing, Packaging, and Presentation (9/10)

The website was straight forward and choosing a system was fairly easy. Overall, the turnaround time wasn't bad at all and from time of purchase to arrival it was all of 4 weeks.
The packaging was also what you would expect from any other high-end boutique/Dell/HP.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2716/hard1dm0.jpg

Presentation was well done. The thick semi-transparent binder that came with the system was clean and informative.

System Build, General Use/Gaming, Conclusion (10/10)

This is the good part! Ok, lets start with the specs...

Black Brushed Aluminum Case w/ window
750W PSU
NVidia 780i Mobo
Intell Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0ghz x 2) 45nm 6mb
Maingear dual 120mm X20 CPU Water Cooling
Redline: YES! -- CPU OC'd to 4.0ghz
4GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800
NVidia GeForce GTX 260 896mb GDDR3
500GB 16mb Sata II Hard Drive
Multimedia Card Reader
20X DVD-RW w/ lightscribe
Razor DeathAdder & Lycosa

The inside had some flawless hand-crafted wiring and cable management. The case is HUGE! You get a new found appreciation and can fully realize how this case can be so effecient with cooling when you see the art that they have managed to create inside of the case.

General use from word processing to web surfing to photoshop/video is amazingly quick and to be expected for a system running @ 4ghz

My goal from the beginning was to be able to play just about anything @ 1680x1050. I currently have a 22" monitor and have no need for anything bigger.

All I can say is WOW!!! I have installed WoW, CoD4, CoH, Juarez, Rainbow 6 V2, Lost Planet and so far I can play anything and everything at max. I'm confident I'll be able to run crysis/farcry 2 at this reso without a problem. Everything is just so incredibly smooth. I havent experienced any stuttering in any games and the graphics looks great.

So with that said, I am extremely happy with my Maingear system and would recommend this boutique to anyone interested in spending the extra cash to have a system as gorgeous and refined as this one!!

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8818/hard2go5.jpg
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/3953/hard3pp9.jpg
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5294/hard4ev6.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/4990/hard5xx9.jpg

Overall score 9.99999% :D:D

[Shawnasee]

Do you mind if I ask you how much it cost?

[flurp]

Nice looking rig! I like MG's window

Shawn, you could spec it at maingear. I've looked at MG and Puget extensively. What he has would run around 2700. Then again, he did go for the watercooling which is a couple hundred extra and the mouse and keyboard.

If you just went with air and had your own peripherals, it's down to 2250 give or take.

If you do the 4870 on an X38 and DDR3 setup in their fourth of july rig it would be closer to 2300 for the full rig but that's just a short term offer.

[kilgore777]

Watch that bird with the top vents! :eek:

Beautiful rig - congrats!

[DannyGT]

Thanks for the comments guys. The PC rocks!

I think the bird likes it as much as I do. You should see him trying to get inside via the window.

[lamboman]

Overall score 9.99999% :D:D

For having a system like that, you don't seem that happy with it :D

Looks great, and the wiring job is great. Even better than the last system from Maingear that I saw. Love the white lighting. I presume you aren't going to any benchies, you'll be too happy playing games with that thing.

[DannyGT]

3DMark06 = 16k
3DMark Vantage = 7900

[Shawnasee]

Nice looking rig! I like MG's window

Shawn, you could spec it at maingear. I've looked at MG and Puget extensively. What he has would run around 2700. Then again, he did go for the watercooling which is a couple hundred extra and the mouse and keyboard.

You know you are absolutely right...off to Maingear. :D

Edit: Oh wait...Maingear is the only boutique site I can't access here from work.

Edit to the Edit: I CAN access Maingear from work now! Flurp you were dead on...cost was just a little under $2700.

[DannyGT]

Good luck with your order and be sure to post up your results.

Been playing CoD4 with everything max'd and the game is just so fluid and fun to play!