You Can’t Get Extra Customized Than This

The advantage of a prebuilt system is that Maingear is aware of the components work collectively and that they match inside its jazzed-up case with a customized CPU cooler. It appears to be like good, particularly the liquid cooling equipment and infinity mirror. While you open it up, you’ll discover two RGB LED strips operating alongside the underside compartment and the aspect close to the entrance followers. You don’t discover it except you’re staring down on the glass aspect panel from above. If the PC sits in your desk, you don’t must care. If it’s close to your ft, these LED strips look too DIY for the added worth of a pre-built PC.

My model of the MG-1 got here with 2 TB of SSD storage, an Intel Core i9-14900K, 32 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous. It’s going to value below $3,400 if you choose all of the components from Maingear’s web site. That may be a hefty worth, however it’s not out of line, contemplating the RTX 4080 Tremendous is round $1,000. The Intel Core i9 would possibly are available rather less than $500. It’s the price of comfort, however there are additional advantages to purchasing a PC with customized components. The professionals at Maingear have such stable cable administration it places any of my previous makes an attempt to disgrace.

The trendy model of the MG-1 Legendary with none customization begins at $2,700, lower than the worth of the Alienware Aurora R16 with comparative specs and efficiency. It’s a extra upgradable PC with two spare RAM slots and a few spare PCI-e slots.

The corporate additionally affords new variations of its lineup containing AMD’s newest Ryzen 7 and 9 CPUs. When making a purchase order, you’re cementing your allegiance to the AMD or Intel ecosystem, however provided that methods just like the MG-1 Legendary begin at $2,800 for what’s ostensibly a stable chip, it’s price severe consideration in comparison with the Intel selection.

Maingear MG-1 Overview: Construct High quality

Maingear made some extent of telling me they needed to supply as a lot as a standardized Home windows 11 expertise with their PC. It’s packing fairly a number of components from MSI, and if you happen to’re not cautious, chances are you’ll unintentionally reinstall all of the lacking bloatware you meant to maintain off your PC. In case you’re like me, and also you take a look at loads of merchandise without delay, comparable to Razer’s big glowy mousepad, Blackwidow keyboard, and extra, it’s not lengthy earlier than your PC is full to the gills of apps that wish to launch on startup.

As I discussed earlier than, I take pleasure in all of the RGB flooding the cavity of the MG-1, save for the only LED gentle strip operating alongside the underside. It will look a lot cleaner to diffuse the sunshine with a single piece of opaque plastic. In any other case, my favourite added doohickey is the CPU liquid cooler unit with the slick infinity mirror impact. It clicks with MSI’s motherboard to supply a clean-looking inside that doesn’t attempt to fake it’s not a PC. 

The aspect panel is held collectively by 4 thumb screws that take slightly longer to take away than I’m used to with most customized instances. The aspect panel then slides again and out, revealing these annoying LED strips and the customized mounting bracket for the GPU. The mount is made out of 3D-printed plastic, however that 4080 Tremendous is mounted so securely it doesn’t even wiggle after tugging at it. The draw back is you would want to take away the entrance panel fully to entry the screws protecting the graphics card in place.

Regardless of that, the PC is nicely put collectively. I eliminated the backplate and located excellent cable administration that stored each wire safe whereas delineating the place every goes. And you must give Maingear props for its customizable entrance plate. It locks in with a number of magnets and stays safe regardless of unintentional knocks or shudders. 

This beast is quiet, for essentially the most half. The fan methods don’t are likely to buzz with helicopter power, even when below stress. At most, it’s a low growl that solely made my coworkers working on the desks round me look up with curiosity relatively than annoyance. 

Maingear MG-1 Overview: Efficiency

The Legendary is a system made for high-performance gaming. I didn’t must let you know that, did I? Take a look at the specs; you’ll be able to already inform this method manages simply tremendous, going as much as 4K native with out upscaling with the very best attainable settings on a number of demanding video games. No, it gained’t grant you the very fringe of what’s attainable on a PC with out a RTX 4090, but it surely needs to be greater than sufficient.

I performed and benchmarked a number of video games at 4K decision. The Intel Core i9-1400K is a hefty CPU, although it nonetheless is probably not as top-tier as the most recent AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D that you just get in the latest model of the MG-1 Legendary. The 4080 Tremendous and the CPU collectively are sufficient that will help you hit 60 FPS or extra at 4K or ultrawide (3440 by 1400) resolutions. 

That doesn’t imply there gained’t be compromises. With a ray tracing set to extremely, I can hit 50 FPS on Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks at sub-4K with none upscaling or body technology, however after I added the DLSS high quality set to computerized, I used to be pushing previous 100 FPS. At 4K decision, you’ll want the additional enhance from DLSS to succeed in 60 with all of the ray tracing trimmings and settings at excessive or extremely. 

It’s an identical situation in different video games I examined. Horizon: Forbidden West ran easily as butter, and Black Fantasy Wukong was no match, even after I turned off the upscaling. A sport like Warhammer 40K: Area Marine 2 wants the additional upscaling assist at 4K with all of the settings set to their max, however even after I relied on the native, it wasn’t dipping beneath 49 FPS even because the Tyrranids had been swarming throughout.

The CPU in my evaluation unit is now not what you get with the MG-1 Legendary except you construct it your self. Nonetheless, the Intel Core i9-14900K is a stable processor for a machine of this kind. It nonetheless beats the Intel Core i9-14900KF in single-core and multi-core CPU benchmarks with Geekbench and Cinebench. The 14th-gen Intel CPUs are under intense scrutiny for his or her latest instability points, so it’s honest sufficient to wish to keep away till Intel lastly confirms all the pieces is ship form.

Maingear MG-1 Overview: Verdict

While you look straight on, the MG-1 is a glossy, efficient PC that leaves sufficient room for future customization. It’s possible you’ll wish to seize some piece of translucent quarter pipe to make the LED strips vibe extra with your complete design, however that’s a niggling challenge for such a stable construct. 

There’s not a lot spare area, and the dimensions would possibly constrain you if you happen to ever need greater than two SSDs on the motherboard. I’d even be cautious of future Nvidia RTX 50-series releases, as we nonetheless don’t understand how massive they could get. On the very least, the motherboard helps gen-5 PCI-e slots for future, probably monstrous GPUs.

However at this level, there’s not a single sport you’ll be able to’t play on the MG-1 Legendary’s specs. It’s a stable machine that gained’t want a lot upgrades for years on, save for the usual TLC a PC deserves. The customizable entrance panel affords simply the correct amount of aptitude. The MG-1 could appear humble, however that’s solely as a result of it is aware of it doesn’t must compete.