There’s one thing particular about constructing a PC by hand. I nonetheless have fond recollections of my first tower. However now we have to face information: Some folks don’t have the time or persistence to determine all of the elements they want after which the know-how to place all of them collectively. Customized PC maker Maingear has been within the recreation for years, and judging by its MG-1, the corporate is aware of what the PC gamer crowd desires: customizability, high-quality elements, and much and many RGB.
Maingear handed me their MG-1 Legendary desktop with a particular shock within the field. The corporate included a flat panel with a military-style inexperienced and black sample for our evaluation unit and Gizmodo’s emblem emblazoned on the entrance. A customized entrance panel usually prices $100 further.
Sure, it was a technique to butter us up earlier than we hung out on their product, however on the very least, it additionally provides a glimpse of Maingear’s philosophy with the MG-1. It’s a typical mid-size desktop case in most ways in which matter. The elements glow with all of the milky RGB lighting you may need as soon as it’s operating, however it simply matches on or beneath your desktop. That customizable, detachable entrance plate is just like the cherry on high of a thick vanilla ice cream cone. It’s factor for Maingear that vanilla is my favourite taste.
Maingear MG-1 Legendary
The Maingear MG-1 is a stable construct from an organization that clearly is aware of what it is doing. The Legendary can deal with just about any recreation you throw at it.
Execs
- Wonderful construct high quality and cable administration
- Lovely, customizable entrance plate
- Quiet even beneath stress
Cons
- LED mild strips really feel too DIY for knowledgeable construct
The good thing about a prebuilt system is that Maingear is aware of the elements work collectively and that they match inside its jazzed-up case with a customized CPU cooler. It seems 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 until you’re staring down on the glass aspect panel from above. If the PC sits in your desk, you don’t should 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 would price beneath $3,400 if you choose all of the elements from Maingear’s web site. That could 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 further advantages to purchasing a PC with customized elements. 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 provides 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 programs just like the MG-1 Legendary begin at $2,800 for what’s ostensibly a stable chip, it’s value critical consideration in comparison with the Intel selection.
Maingear MG-1 Assessment: Construct High quality
Maingear made a degree of telling me they wished to supply as a lot as a standardized Home windows 11 expertise with their PC. It’s packing fairly a number of elements from MSI, and when you’re not cautious, chances are you’ll by accident reinstall all of the lacking bloatware you supposed to maintain off your PC. In case you’re like me, and also you check quite a lot of merchandise directly, akin 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 one LED mild strip operating alongside the underside. It could 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 a bit 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 utterly to entry the screws holding the graphics card in place.
Regardless of that, the PC is effectively put collectively. I eliminated the backplate and located excellent cable administration that saved each wire safe whereas delineating the place every goes. And you need to give Maingear props for its customizable entrance plate. It locks in with a number of magnets and stays safe regardless of unintended knocks or shudders.
This beast is quiet, for probably the most half. The fan programs don’t are likely to buzz with helicopter energy, even when beneath stress. At most, it’s a low growl that solely made my coworkers working on the desks round me look up with curiosity reasonably than annoyance.
Maingear MG-1 Assessment: Efficiency
The Legendary is a system made for high-performance gaming. I didn’t should inform you that, did I? Take a look at the specs; you possibly can already inform this method manages simply tremendous, going as much as 4K native with out upscaling with the 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, however it 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 will not be as top-tier as the most recent AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D that you simply get in the latest model of the MG-1 Legendary. The 4080 Tremendous and the CPU collectively are sufficient that can assist 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 automated, 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 analogous situation in different video games I examined. Horizon: Forbidden West ran easily as butter, and Black Delusion Wukong was no match, even after I turned off the upscaling. A recreation 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 under 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 until 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 current instability points, so it’s truthful sufficient to wish to keep away till Intel lastly confirms every thing is ship form.
Maingear MG-1 Assessment: Verdict
While you look straight on, the MG-1 is a glossy, efficient PC that leaves sufficient room for future customization. Chances are you’ll wish to seize some piece of translucent quarter pipe to make the LED strips vibe extra with all the design, however that’s a niggling difficulty for such a stable construct.
There’s not a lot spare area, and the dimensions would possibly constrain you when you 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 know the way large they may 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 recreation you possibly can’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 provides 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 have to compete.
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