Maingear Prelude Evaluation @ [H]

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i read the whole review and im extremely impressed i may get this pc
More reviews like this would be awesome
 
Pretty solid company it seems, already liking them more than Alienware, or Dell.

I still prefer a Voodoo PC, or the likes.
 
Looks like a nice rig. I like the fact that it has many options for upgrading down the road. To many other pre-built systems do not have 1/2 the upgrade options this one has. If I had to buy a pre-built that would be it, but I still have too much fun building my own rigs :D
 
Borgschulze said:
Pretty solid company it seems, already liking them more than Alienware, or Dell.

I still prefer a Voodoo PC, or the likes.
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So would almost everyone in the world but money doesnt grow on a tree (voodoo's omen pc)
 
Kendrak said:
Looks like a nice rig. I like the fact that it has many options for upgrading down the road. To many other pre-built systems do not have 1/2 the upgrade options this one has. If I had to buy a pre-built that would be it, but I still have too much fun building my own rigs :D
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Yeah, I even learned something new...I used to sell a lot of machines built around Lian Li chassis, and I never thought of reversing the HDD to make for a cleaner cable routing job...
 
Chris how hard would it be to put a 2nd graphics card into this pc? Does it have ample room? and did u say in the review they use XFX brand? And lastly can i buy a different brand (evga, bfg) 7800gt and use sli between a 7800gt from this?
 
Good review. Looks like a pretty slick setup and I love that Lian-Li case :cool:
 
Dan3290 said:
Chris how hard would it be to put a 2nd graphics card into this pc? Does it have ample room? and did u say in the review they use XFX brand? And lastly can i buy a different brand (evga, bfg) 7800gt and use sli between a 7800gt from this?
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It has plenty of room for SLI. You must use the same type of cards (6600GT's or 7800GT's), but they can be different brands (XFX, eVGA, BFG, etc). So in other words, if you want to SLI a 7800GT, you must configure it with a 7800GT to begin with.
 
A 9.5 qualifies Maingear for an [H] Consumer Gold Editor's Choice Award. We will update this space with an appropriate graphic at a later date.
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Heh.


It looks like they really did everything they could think of to make it an attractive purchase.
 
Chris_Morley said:
It has plenty of room for SLI. You must use the same type of cards (6600GT's or 7800GT's), but they can be different brands (XFX, eVGA, BFG, etc). So in other words, if you want to SLI a 7800GT, you must configure it with a 7800GT to begin with.
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thx chris another thing, do u find any of the cards on the site to be great deals. I am considering buying a pc with a 7800 gt and then getting another later once the price drops to around 250-265
Also do think it has good enough cooling for dual 7800 gts or would i need to upgrade that
 
Dan3290 said:
thx chris another thing, do u find any of the cards on the site to be great deals. I am considering buying a pc with a 7800 gt and then getting another later once the price drops to around 250-265
Also do think it has good enough cooling for dual 7800 gts or would i need to upgrade that
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That blower over the cards moves some heat for sure, I believe you'll be fine.

As to bang for your buck, the 7800GT is a great deal. For about $100 less you can get the 6800GS, but it has 8 less pixel pipelines...
 
nice review job as always. keep up the good work! im thoroughly impressed with maingear and now that i've read the review will not hesitate to recommend them to my friends that want a "boutique" computer
 
that's a great review! i recently placed an order for a Prelude 64. IAfter reading this review, i'm glad i picked Maingear.
 
Chris_Morley said:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTMz

Maingear kicks ass, and we show you why their Prelude is now our highest scoring machine on record.
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Great review, I'm very happy to see there is a company out there that places so much importance on the customer!

In all honesty, I can say the extra customer support, etc, is worth a slight price point.

~Thanks
 
Hey Chris Would it be possible if you wrote at the end of ur first post in this thread the next pc review you will be releasing
 
Honestly, I'm not sure what's going to hit next, we have several in queue...but there'll be another one shortly.
 
Great review.
I love my Lian Li case. I wish more OEMs would offer them, and wow on the binder, driver bundle cd, and harddrive install trick. I might even start doing that haha
To think all those things added together would probably only take extra 20mins and 15$ if it's incorporated into the build process of every computer... but I guess the big OEM think 15$x1million = 15million$.

I build my own desktops but when I bought my laptop, the first thing I did was "format c:" and fresh install. I hate large OEM preinstalls. They get contract money for installing them right?
 
hl3395 said:
I build my own desktops but when I bought my laptop, the first thing I did was "format c:" and fresh install. I hate large OEM preinstalls. They get contract money for installing them right?
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It depends on the software packages themselves, but some OEMs are known to use revenue from bundles to offset the costs of production.
 
hl3395 said:
Great review.
I love my Lian Li case. I wish more OEMs would offer them, and wow on the binder, driver bundle cd, and harddrive install trick. I might even start doing that haha
To think all those things added together would probably only take extra 20mins and 15$ if it's incorporated into the build process of every computer... but I guess the big OEM think 15$x1million = 15million$.

I build my own desktops but when I bought my laptop, the first thing I did was "format c:" and fresh install. I hate large OEM preinstalls. They get contract money for installing them right?
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Yeah, you touched on something there...how pathetic is it that we are automatically inclined to wipe the OS from some of the large OEMs out there in order to coax optimal performance out of our hardware? It'd be like having to rebuild your engine on your brand new car before you can drive over 60MPH!
 
Looks like a really good company. Question though and if I overlooked it in the article feel free to point it out. When you were having issues with the memory did maingear offer to just send you memory to try at all or did they say they wanted the entire system back? Sounds like you and the tech really didn't go through and verify 100% that was it but it is something worth knowing. I'm one to built my own system but it really seems that they did a good job. Also you said that BF2 was not fully patched. Was everything elce patched all the way?
 
swatbat said:
Looks like a really good company. Question though and if I overlooked it in the article feel free to point it out. When you were having issues with the memory did maingear offer to just send you memory to try at all or did they say they wanted the entire system back? Sounds like you and the tech really didn't go through and verify 100% that was it but it is something worth knowing. I'm one to built my own system but it really seems that they did a good job. Also you said that BF2 was not fully patched. Was everything elce patched all the way?
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We knew it was the memory in the beginning, as we ran Memtest 86 and had errors. After we reseated the memory at Maingear's suggestion it passed Memtest but we had sporatic blue screens after 2 hours of playing. Maingear decided they wanted to just get the whole system back so we didn't complain...we would have taken a memory swap via mail if they had offered. The upside to this is that they of course burned it all back in to ensure that we wouldn't have similar problems. That works for me.

And no, none of the games were patched...which I'm sure is part of the reason this system didn't score higher than a 9.5.
 
Did maingear tell you all to run prime 95 or was that on your own? Yea it seems like overall they did a real good job of handling the setup. Also since the article didn't make it clear but did maingear reinstall the games when you shipped it back to them or did you already reinstall the games after reinstalling windows(which there tech told you to do).
 
Prime95 is part of our torture testing procedure that we perform on all of our systems. It's a CPU stresser.
 
They didn't reinstall the games after we sent the computer back to them, then again, we didn't ask them to, and we really didn't need them to.
 
you mentioned an `overclock` tick box, I assume you ticked it? maybe not, but I cant see reference to it later in the review.

I also like to see a comment from the company, I recall reading one of your first system tests and someone from the company posted and gave his thoughts, I know you cannot force that, but if someone from the company reads this, or are contacted by you to explain what you did, it would be nice to hear their thoughts on your review.

Call me picky, but if the Dell had failed on the 24 hour test, would you have given that the same mark (3d mark after 22 hours)?

It seems, however hard you try, that a well built and presented system can slightly sway your report. I dont mean this as criticism, I think that it shows that if a company takes time to do all they can at their end, like the build quality, binder and driver disks, a customer will be more willing to overlook little glitches, where a company who just send the disks that came with the hardware and offer no extra touches will get treated accordingly.

Maingear go out of their way to try and stand out and you reacted to that in the way we all would. The best analogy I can give is If you bought a car and the dealer filled the tank, decided to give you free mats and some other goodies, you would be more willing to let them sort out any issues you may have, than a dealer who just delivered the car with the minimum acceptable 1/4 tank etc.

Nige.
 
Looks like a nice rig...and a good review to boot. I'd think it would do much better on those game tests with a 2nd vid card tho...2 6600GTs is, realistically, all that you need to get a decent 60fps in most games, imo.

In mine I also have the 1gb pack Mushkin ram. I've had alot of problems with it myself, and although it's speedy and gets fast support on their site, I'll go with OCZ or Corsair next time.

EDIT: Now that I look at it, I wish that they would offer a 1gb Corsair option. Might be something for you to suggest to them :p especially since it is PC3500 instead of 3200
 
Hmm...they look like a great company to buy my next PC. And they sell notebooks too! :eek: Much respect to Maingear... a [H]ard PC builder. :)
 
Nice review.

Nice job guys looks real nice inside. I like the work.

Maingear that includes you.
 
Looks very well built, like something I'd shoot definitely for when building a machine in terms of wire management. It looks a little light in the graphics and storage department (relative), and the PSU is of questionable quality, but other than that, it looks like a pretty well rounded machine.
 
A great review (again and as usual). But... In the future, could you guys mention in the "What we bought" section what interface the optical/hard drives were, ie. IDE, SATA? Assumption would lead many of us to believe the hard drive(s) are SATA and the optical drives IDE, but you mention everything else in so much detail, might as well there too. :D
 
Love the review... Since i'm stuck with "Old-Tech" (Sock A's etc) when i upgrade I have to go all the way, this OEM seems a strong choice, if I don't buy parts.. :) Thanks guys!
 
nigel.pinder said:
It seems, however hard you try, that a well built and presented system can slightly sway your report. I dont mean this as criticism, I think that it shows that if a company takes time to do all they can at their end, like the build quality, binder and driver disks, a customer will be more willing to overlook little glitches, where a company who just send the disks that came with the hardware and offer no extra touches will get treated accordingly.

Nige.
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Dell's presentation of their product, in terms of packaging, etc, is excellent. And yes, when a company goes the extra mile in terms of drivers disks, etc, we are given the warm fuzzies about our pruchase. Goes part and parcel to evaluating the system as a consumer.
 
nigel.pinder said:
Thats what I was trying to say, but couldnt think of how to word it any better. :D
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No problem, it's why we have a section of scoring that relates to presentation and packaging. However, in most cases it does not sway us like stability and support do - each scoring category is not given the same amount of weight. You may see an upcoming article where that is not the case, though.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
A great review (again and as usual). But... In the future, could you guys mention in the "What we bought" section what interface the optical/hard drives were, ie. IDE, SATA? Assumption would lead many of us to believe the hard drive(s) are SATA and the optical drives IDE, but you mention everything else in so much detail, might as well there too. :D
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Just for you, we will. ;)
 
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