I purchased a computer through Maingear in late Sept. The day after I placed the order online I got a call from a sales rep to confirm my order and answer any questions I might have. He even helped me tweak my configuration to better suit my needs, and in the process knocked $1000 off the price. Not many companies would do that for a customer. Was told it would be 3-4 weeks before they start building it. Almost 3 weeks to the day, a tech calls me up, introduces himself and tells me he's the one that will be building my rig and asked if I had any questions, comments, or requests. I also emailed him the image I wanted laser-etched on the side window. The next day I get a shipping confirmation that the computer was finished and on it's way. The computer is beautiful. The attention to detail is amazing. Everything works as expected. Grade A experience. Only hiccup in the whole thing was a missing power cable. Luckily I had an extra. MG has sincerely apologized for the oversight. Not a big deal for me, I would buy from MG again anytime.

This review was modified by its author, b18cya, on 10/19/09 5:52 PM.

I ordered a ePhex x58 system pretty much maxxed out except for a custom paint job,over the web.A day later I received a phone call from Maingear confirming my order.I was told it would be a 4 week wait.Some people have a problem waiting that long for a computer.I don't,just as long as it's worth the wait.  
Well let me tell you it was definately worth the wait.Not only was it well packaged,but it was hand delivered by the tech that built it.Now that's what I call smoking customer service.The ePhex runs WOW at the highest settings with no problem.It's also very very quiet,no mean feat considering what's under the hood.I'm very happy with my purchase and will look to Maingear for any future purchases.

Was worth the Money. My only complaint was the long build time and ship time as it toke 5 weeks for me to get the system. They worked within my budget and helped me choose what would be best for me for what I was using it for. I will purchase from them again in the future. A great company to work with.  
Exterior Finish: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish  
Power Supply: 650W MAINGEAR Certified Ultra Quiet Power Supply  
Graphics Accelerator: ATI® Radeon™ HD 4870 512MB GDDR5  
Motherboard: Asus M4A78 Plus AMD CrossFireX Chipset  
Processor: AMD® Phenom™ II 965 BLACK EDITION (3.4GHz x 4)  
Processor Cooling: AMD Retail Quiet Cooler  
Memory: 8GB Kingston PC2-6400 DDR2-800 (4x2GB)  
MAINGEAR Redline Service: yo, Redline my system!  
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA I  
Optical Drive One: 22X Dual Layer DVD�RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology  
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit) SP2 with FREE Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon!  
The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management  
Warranty: Lifetime Labor and Phone Support with 14 Month Hardware Warranty

This review was modified by its author, MyThLoSt, on 10/6/09 11:53 AM.

I have had my computer for 5 days now and I can say I am so far, very happy with MainGear's service and quality of their workmanship.  
 
I originally purchased a PC from Velocity Micro located in Richmond Virginia. Their machine worked for about 20 minutes before the mother board fried itself into oblivion. Being a superstitious guy and having run through the Alienware gauntlet I was not about to let this happen again. I returned it for a loss of 10% and shopped elsewhere. After a few weeks of research and through the use of [H] forums I arrived upon my decision to use Maingear.  
 
I purchased their ePhex gaming rig for about 4300.00. Their sales team helped me purchase what I needed by explaining my original configuration for SLI duel cards was unnecessary for the size screen I would be running my PC on.  
 
Also they threw in a free upgrade to the new Window's operating system coming out even though my order was placed before their special offer.  
 
After that came the wait. I was told well in advance it would take 3-4 weeks before my PC would be shipped and they were right on the mark. The wait may be long but the results were worth it.  
 
The PC arrived swaddled in protective shipping armor and did not appear damaged in anyway. Upon hauling the 50 pound juggernaut onto my desk I connected all of the wires and cords and fired it up. Start up was flawless. There was no bloatware on the PC and everything seemed to run smoothly.  
 
The interior is laid out with precision based wiring that only human cyborgs could have possibly done. Really nice.  
 
The only flaw with the machine was the 7 in 1 card reader. It was dead on arrival. This was quickly remedied with a call to the tech support staff who shipped out a new one using UPS next day air. Once it arrived I talked with tech support and they explained what I needed to do. I am no tech geek by far but with such a cleanly laid out wiring job I was able to replace it within 15 minutes even using my ham-fisted approach to electronics.  
 
I have to say so far I am very happy.  
 
The only gripe I have is with the size shirt they mailed me. I am not a fat ass but I have to imagine much of the gaming culture might be. If only an XL or XXL shirt was sent I would say my experience with MainGear was like touching the face of God.  
 
If I could make any recommendations it would be.  
 
1. After a purchase you are sent an email with what you purchased, itemized. Included is also a link to check the status of your order. However when pressed it took me to a dead page. Just my experience I am not sure if this happens normally.  
 
2. Larger t-shirt sizes.  

My Review:  
 
Let me start by saying "I'm a total pain in the a** to work with." I talked to 3 reps before I bought the system, Giovanni and Gus, Raff. At first I was going to purchase a Prelude, I decided it may not be the computer for me. I waited for about a month to call back. I spoke to all three sales reps (also technicians, they actually build the products they support); I picked their brains for hours, I looked at reviews, I asked friends/acquaintances for opinions. I also googled "Maingear" for complaints, and I found none. I researched other companies, and none of them gave me the same post purchase care and attention as the fellows at Maingear. Also, half of the companies I reviewed had a long list of naysayers, and I couldn't find one negative opinion about Maingear.  
 
So...I bought the F131, it looked like the best choice, it had an excellent mix of style, affordability and upgrading options. I ordered the product at the beginning of June. The turn around time was 2 weeks from the day I ordered my F131. I live in southern New Jersey, so I picked it up at their building facilities in Union, NJ. Giovanni met me as did all the staff, including the VP Wallace Santos. All the guys were friendly and accommodating. They included a case of their great energy drinks, a t-shirt and Giovanni even helped me get the computer into my car!  
 
I couldn't wait to get home and get my new F131 up and running. Upon opening the box there was a neatly packed binder with all my disks (Vista CD, Mother Board install disk, drivers). Plus the motherboard documentation and Vista documentation. A box of spare cables and fastening devices.  
 
The Computer itself was black, brushed, shiny and the inside of the chassis was immaculate. Then I looked for the power cable to attach to my power supply and I found out, much to my dismay, that it was the wrong power cable. My Silverstone Power Supply had a proprietary cable. Upon finding this out, I was one cranky bastard. I called up and I calmly and politely expressed my dissatisfaction.  
 
They were unable to ship the power cable that night, so Giovanni decided to drive it out to me! I was pleasantly surprised, I have never witnessed better customer service from any other company. He delivered the part himself and showed top notch accountability for his brand name. I challenge any company or boutique to do the same for its clients. Thanks so much Giovanni!  
 
My computer is beautiful, it's silent, fast and it was built to my specification. When I call tech support I'm treated to knowledgeable, friendly people and I'm satisfied with my purchase. Recently the reset button on my chassis went south and the guys at Maingear repaired it, no questions asked. When I asked if they would honor an upgrade to Windows 7 even though I bought the product shortly before they dropped the ad? No problem. The list of good experiences with these guys goes on and on, so if you want your dream computer and you want it built by people that actually stand by their product and care about you as a customer, go Maingear, it's really that simple.  
 
My Computer:  
F131 Chassis  
6 GB HyperX RAM  
2 Nvidia GTX280 SLI  
P6T X58 Motherboard  
Zalman CPU Cooler  
22X Dual Layer DVD R/W  
DVD ROM Drive  
1 TB Hard Drive 32MB of Cache  
1200W PSU

I recently purchased a Maingear Ephex and my experience has been nothing short of excellent.  
 
Upon receiving my order, I was one of those people who encountered problems - I didn't receive the RAM I had ordered and my system was damaged by shipping. I was prepared for a nightmare, instead, Giovanni and Maingear stepped up and provided fantastic customer service. They were patient, prompt, and took the time and effort to ensure everything was fixed and corrected to my satisfaction. In todays world, good customer service is hard to find - Maingear will not disappoint.  
 
If you're shopping for a boutique computer, I highly recommend Maingear. They will not only design the computer of your dreams, but go that extra mile to ensure your experience is nothing short of amazing.

I recently received my Maingear Ephex system and am completely satisfied in all respects.  
 
The purchase experience was first rate. I spoke with Gus and Raphael several times to configure the system. Both were knowledgable, professional and extremly helpful. Their recommendations on system configuration saved me money. They were also very patient about making some last minute component changes. Their attitude was that I should get my system set up just the way I want it.  
 
A real plus with Maingear is that the system builder also does tech support. When my system was delivered I had some questions about transfering files with a crossover cable. I got through to Gus, who built my system and who picked up on the first ring. He was able to help me figure out how to make the file transfer work and was clearly anxious to help.  
 
The system itself is a work of art. I purchased the black case which makes a very impressive appearance. More importanly, the system is blindingly fast and completely stable. A bonus that I did not expect is that the system is also extremely quiet.  
 
Overall, I can't say enough about how good my experience with Maingear has been. I purchased a first rate, high end system that was considerably less expensive than similarly configured machines from some high level competitors. The sales experience and support are outstanding. This is a company that is devoted to customer satisfaction operated by professionals who obviously take pride in their product and company. I strongly recommend that anyone who is in the market for a hand built computer system make Maingear your first stop. You won't be disappointed.

I have been a consumer for more years than I would rather admit and to this point in my life I cannot recall a better experience than the one I have had with Maingear. Not only was the sales experience a match for the blazingly fast Ephex system I bought, but when one of the drives in the RAID 5 array I bought failed (due to my clumsily hitting the RESET button while the system was powered on) the customer experience continued to be excellent. Not only was there no quibbling about fault, but the drive showed up in record time two days later.  
 
SYSTEM: ePHEX X58P  
Black Brushed Aluminum Finish  
Translucent Window Side Panel w/Green LED Lighting Bundle  
1200W Silverstone DA1200 Powwer Supply  
2X NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 3584MB GDDR3 in Quad SLI w/PhysX  
Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X59 Chipset  
Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz  
12GB Triple DDR3 1600MHz  
System Redline (measured at about 3.7GHz)  
Three (3) Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10,000 RPM with 16MB Cache - SATA II  
RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)  
All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer  
22X Dual Layer DVD-RW Drive w/LightScribe Technology  
Lite-On Blu-ray Opticla Player  
SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series  
Onboard Dual Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit Controller  
Free AntiVirus Software  
Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit) SP1  
Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management ("Flawless" is indeed the correct way to describe it!)  
Lifetime Labor and Phone Support with 3-Year warranty  
 
PROS:  
 
1) Freaking fast. Like Ferrari/Pagani/Bugatti fast - it takes Crysis Warhead in high resolution and makes it its' ..... well you get the idea! ;)  
2) Not as noisy as one would expect given all the fans and cooling systems it has in it.  
3) Neat to look at - and NEAT on the inside - the finest job of cabling and system layout I have seen this side of a Cray Supercomputer lab (and yes, I've seen one!) Gustavo (Gus) was the technician whom built my system - his work went beyond craftmanship and into as close to art as laying out the internals of a computer can get.  
4) Simply wonderful customer service. Never an attempt to "upsell", the emphasis is on honesty and practical advice. Raphael was first-rate in his treatment of me at all times.  
5) No hassle, no quibble customer service from Giovanni when I called about the failed drive. It showed up two days later at my door. IMPRESSIVE.  
 
Cons (more like "conlets" - just small issues: 1) Maybe the customer materials need some more fleshing out, but then again - when you have problems you can talk directly to the tech who built your system!  
2) Hours - wish the hours were longer. By the time I get home from work here in Chicagoland, about 15 minutes remains to call on a regular working weekday. Again, this is balanced out by the cordiality and professionalism of the staff at Maingear and the above-mentioned perk of being able to speak to the very person who built your system.  
 
Summary: I am VERY pleased with the system and just as happy with the professional and cordial approach of their staff. Maingear doesn't just live up to the saying "you get what you pay for", they go far beyond it.  
 
Unhesitatingly and highly recommended - you want a fast computer backed by people who care about service - buy a Maingear.

This review was modified by its author, Riffster, on 6/5/09 11:58 PM.

I ordered a Prelude 2 near the end of March and received it on April 22.  
 
Specs  
 
Exterior Finish: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish  
Power Supply: 750W Silverstone Strider Power Supply  
Graphics Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForceT GTX 260 896MB GDDR3 w/ PhysX  
Motherboard: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset  
Processor: Intel® CoreT i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz  
Processor Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 AT 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base  
Memory: 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 1333MHz  
MAINGEAR Redline Service: Yes, Redline my system!  
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II  
Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II  
Hard Drive Three: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II  
RAID: RAID 1 - Data Redundancy and Protection  
Memory Card Reader: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer  
Optical Drive One: 22X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology  
Optical Drive Two: Lite-On Blu-ray Optical Player  
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series  
Network Card: Onboard Dual Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit Controller  
Productivity Software: Microsoft Office 2007 Professional  
Security Software: Free Antivirus Software  
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit) SP1  
The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management  
Warranty: 14 Month Standard Maingear Warranty  
 
Notes  
 
The GeForce GTX 260 is the Core 216 version, and is manufactured by EVGA. As I understand it, it's factory overclocked. I know for certain that it's way more card than I need right now, so whether it's OC'd or not is probably a moot point.  
 
I didn't want to go nuts on the CPU overclocking because, when it comes right down to it, the stock 965 processor is more than fast enough for me. I also don't want to burn any more electricity than necessary. Rafael, who first called me about my order, suggested that Maingear could bump up the speed as much as possible without raising the voltage, and I readily agreed. Gus, who built my system, got 3.38 GHz out of the CPU under that restriction. So I wouldn't call this thing "redlined," but it does "rev" a bit more enthusiastically.  
 
I got the Zalman CPU cooler just in case the extra cooling might make a difference. And because it looks cool when I have the case open.  
 
RAM prices are too low not to go with 12 GB of it. I won't have to worry about having to install more, as I did with my Voodoo. Photoshop loves me now.  
 
The 750GB drive contains the OS and apps. The two 1TB HDs are in a RAID 1 configuration so my laziness in doing full data backups doesn't bite me in the future.  
 
Praise  
 
The case looks great on my all-black AnthroCart table. They look like they were made for each other. The blue lighting in the front grille, which matches the power-on light, is a nice touch. I love this particular shade of blue.  
 
The etching is very nice indeed, and I'm glad I found something to put on the case that I can call my own. (But do see the note below under "Quibbles.")  
 
This thing is quiet. I can hear the front fan, but it's no worse than having a room fan going, and much quieter than my old PC. (I can hear the old over the small TV I have here in Command Central; the TV drowns out the Prelude.) Working with Photoshop causes an internal fan to wind up momentarily on occasion, but that doesn't add much to the overall noise. It may get louder for a longer timewhen I make it work harder, but in my normal operating mode it's a terrific improvement.  
 
Gus did a great job on the cabling. It really is as nice as advertised. I'm afraid to touch anything in there.  
 
Quibbles  
 
The DVD drive (an LG unit) does not fit into its opening very well at all. There's about a 1 MM gap all around it. It wouldn't be too noticable except for the fact that the power-on light leaks through the gap. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it, but "ignore it" would be a good guess.  
 
My custom etched graphic fades a little bit toward the back of the case. I can't tell if that's intentional or not, especially since the MAINGEAR lettering on the same panel fades a bit toward the front. But nobody, including me, can tell the custom bit is faded by looking at it in its natural habitat since the area in question is in relative darkness. The bottom line is, it doesn't bother me enough to ask about it. I am mentioning it in case it makes a difference to anyone out there considering having their own graphic etched on.  
 
Try as I might, I cannot find but one Ethernet port. I'm guessing that line is a carryover from the previous Prelude. It is a Gigabit port, though, which has made for a tremendous increase in throughput to my NAS.  
 
When hibernating, the power light on the case blinks at a fairly high rate, and it's pretty bright. At night, it looks like someone is outside my window with a turn signal on. I wish I had some way of having it light briefly at much longer intervals.  
 
None of these things really counts as a negative. I'm not even concerned enough about them to call Maingear about them; I've got more important things to get riled about.  
 
Finally...  
 
When seeking a builder for my new PC, I ran trial orders through a number of the "boutique" builders, as well as Dell. As it turns out, I found that I could not get nearly as much machine for my money anywhere else than I have by buying this Prelude from Maingear. With shipping included, I paid less than $4K for this computer. I don't remember finding anything else for less than $4500 w/o shipping, and even then I would have gotten less in terms of equipment and performance than what's sitting on my desk right now. That fact, and MG's stellar reputation, got me to finally buy the new PC I'd been promising myself for two years.  
 
So far, so good. Color me happy!

This review was modified by its author, MoonDarter, on 6/2/09 6:59 PM.

I purchased my Ephex early January. I received a call from Rafael the next day. Rafael reviewed my order and helped me make some changes. Believe it or not, he undersold me. I was purchasing 3way SLI to run on a 22" Samsung LCD. Rafael explained to me that 3way SLI was overkill for the resolution I was running. I would get similar performance with 2way SLI for way less $$$$. I had never heard about MG before. Now I know why people stand behind them.

This review was modified by its author, LittleRui, on 2/10/09 10:31 AM.

I received my computer just about 1 month after I placed my order. My computer arrived in perfect condition. I must have emailed them about 10 times before handing them my hard earned money. They replied to every single email. I purchased an F131 system. I had to pleasure to speak to Giovanni and Raphael, they were both very helpful. Thank you Maingear!

This review was modified by its author, superstarme, on 11/29/08 4:26 PM.

Hello I want to say sorry it's been quite a while since I ordered and I didn't quite get to writing a review until now. But getting to the point.  
 
Last November 30th 2007 I happened to come across a company called Maingear and overall I am quite impressed of this PC called the "prelude"  
 
1.The staff is very friendly, and is highly capable.  
 
2.My PC arrived in no time.  
 
3.The packaging was excellent for a 600+ mile. journey they took care with preparing it :)  
 
4.My experience with the computer I ordered was awesome I didn't buy a real expensive computer just one in my price range.. but I must say it was well worth my money.  
 
And furthermore I would recommend this highly capable company to anyone who is interested in nice looking and well built custom PCS  
 
My apologies to Maingear for taking so long to write a review for such a beautiful PC.  
 
Peace...  
 

I am 100% delighted with Maingear. They met and exceeded all my high expectations.  
My expectations were; 1) the best high-performance specifications for my needs including customization if necessary, 2) superb build quality 3) polite, courteous, knowledgeable salesmanship.  
Maingear delivered 100% on all of these, and believe me, I am not that easy to please or impressionable.  
Maingear is for real and know how to do everything right. I cannot remember a better customer experience in my entire life.  
Here are my ratings, broken down by category;  
10/10 for the salesmanship and service provided by Raphael.  
10/10 for the build quality as executed by Giovanni.  
10/10 for Raphael's patience with me while trying to finalize the specifications.  
10/10 for delivering the system on time relative to promised delivery date.  
10/10 for the quality and effectiveness of the packaging.  
10/10 for working perfectly right out of the box.  
10/10 for customization.  
10/10 for speed.  
10/10 for reliability.  
10/10 for the best looking wiring job I've ever seen.  
10/10 for aesthetic appeal of the machine.  
10/10 for being a complete pleasure to deal with.  
My sincerest thanks to Raphael, Giovanni and the entire team at Maingear.  
For those in love with specifications, my new computer from Maingear included Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (4.0 GHz X 4), 1200W Silverstone power supply, 8 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 memory, Asus P5E3 Premium WiFi X 48 chipset and, 4 Western Digital Velociraptors 300 GB 10,000 RPM.  

Buying Experience: In a word Maingear is outstanding! I had my choice narrowed down to Maingear or Digital Storm. The genuine, knowledgeable advice and guidance provided by Maingear (Raphael) was far superior to my experience with Digital Storm. I had a lot of questions and always received practical answers. I was never rushed off the phone as if I were just another customer. It took about 30 days to actually receive my F131 which was exactly what I was told up-front. Another compelling reason I chose Maingear was proximity. I live in Massachusetts so I received my computer in 2 days, (though FED-EX indicated it was an overnight transit time). The computer was well-packaged and there wasn’t a bunch of extra junk and paperwork that tends to overwhelm – just a clean, nicely constructed binder with the critical documentation and a small box with the power cord and leftover connectors, etc. The white gloves (and t-shirt) are a nice touch as well! I also liked the comprehensive checklist that included benchmark scores for my computer. Screenshots of the scores were saved in my document folder too!  
 
Using the Computer – First Impressions: Again, outstanding! Craftsmanship: Excellent! Everything is clean, neat and nothing out of place. See the link to photos and see for yourself. Operation/start-up: No set-up required. I pushed the power button and everything worked flawlessly including the Office software I ordered. All the drivers are up-to-date and everything I’ve tried so far works without a glitch. The only thing I haven’t tried is recording with the DVDRW.  
 
I was concerned about three things during the ordering process: 1) Whether I made the right choice with Vista 64-bit; 2) Onboard sound quality and 3) Computer fan noise.  
 
1) Vista 64: I have to say Vista 64 is impressive and has worked flawlessly so far – no hang-ups, blue screens, etc. The only thing I’ve discovered is Flash Player is not 64-bit compatible however this isn’t a big deal because 32-bit Explorer and Firefox work fine. I did my homework before specifying 64-bit in terms of drivers. Just make sure Vista 64-bit drivers are available for your hardware. While searching the internet for my needs, I found more comprehensive 64-bit compatibility than I expected. Here’s a list of the software I’ve loaded so far – it all works fine. Some of these programs have separate 64-bit .exe files, so make sure you look for that.  
 
MS Office 2007 Small Business  
PC Pitstop Optimize  
HW Monitor (Free)  
Opanda IEXIF 2.3 (Free)  
Firefox (Free)  
7-Zip (Free)  
Adobe Reader 9 (Free)  
Desk PDF 2.5 (Free)  
AVG 8.0 (Free)  
Zinio Reader (Free)  
Ad Aware 2008 (Free)  
Nero Smart Start Essentials (was already loaded by Maingear)  
 
Bottom line: Vista 64-bit is great! Don't be afraid - go for it!  
 
2) Onboard sound quality: I can only compare this to my old computer that had a Sound Blaster Audigy system. I thought that sounded great. The onboard sound on the 780i is just as good to my ears. I personally don’t need anything more. If you’re on the bubble trying to decide, I suggest you save a few bucks, go with onboard sound and see what you think. You can always add a sound card later.  
 
3) Fan noise: I’m spoiled because my old computer is an Antec Sonata that I customized with insulation and a fan controller. It is nearly silent, albeit not nearly as powerful as my F131. In any case, while the F131 is considerably louder than what I’m custom to, I am getting used to it. The TJ10 case is really nice and quite a bit lighter-weight than I expected.  
 
Final thoughts and comments: 1) Do your research before making the investment. 2) Invest wisely and buy from Maingear. You will be happy.

This is a review of my MAINGEAR F131, 4th of July Special. It has been abridged from the version found on the MG forums at  
 
http://www.maingearforums.com/showthread.php?p=14584#post14584  
 
My 'High-end' Dell melted a few months ago. It had served me well enough for a couple of years, but I decided to treat myself and spring for a boutique gaming desktop.  
 
Unfortunately, I had a price cap of $1,500.00, which a few years ago would have put most boutiques out of my budget. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these days many shops offer more affordable selections.  
 
Pre-Build: 9.9/10  
 
Like many in the market for a boutique rig, I did extensive research before purchasing.  
 
In the end I decided on a MAINGEAR Prelude. MG impressed me with its clean, sleek website and configurator, though a couple of sections needed updates.  
 
I also like the look of the builds. None of MG's builds are over-the-top plastic monstrosities, they all use functional, elegant Silverstone cases with minimalist exteriors.  
 
Finally, MAINGEAR had a great rep both among reviewers and the enthusiast community. Questions on their forums were answered quickly and enthusiastically, usually by other customers but also by company reps. Most importantly when I came across situations where MG had made past mistakes they were very quick to correct them in the customer's favor.  
 
The impression I was receiving was that MG would cheerfully spend a great deal of time and effort to make sure their customers were happy *after* they received their computers.  
 
The Order: 10/10  
 
After receiving great input on build and components at the MAINGEAR forums, I was ready to order my Prelude.  
That's when I got lucky A couple of days before I was to place my order, MG put up a special on the F131 which put it within my budget. The F131 is the Prelude's bigger brother, with free overclocking and sweet components, I jumped at the chance to grab it instead. Again, the MG forums were very helpful with component selection.  
 
I placed my order as follows:  
 
F131 Fourth of July Edition  
Customizations:  
Exterior Automotive Color: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish  
Power Supply: 750W Silverstone Strider Power Supply  
Motherboard: Intel® Bonetrail DX38BT X38 Chipset  
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9300 (2.5GHz x 4) 45nm 6MB L2 Cache  
CPU Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 LED 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base  
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3-1066  
Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES  
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II  
Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black  
Video Card: Visiontek ATI Radeon™ HD 4850 512MB GDDR3  
Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: NO  
Sound Card: Integrated Sound  
Network Card: Integrated Gigabit Network Card  
Game: Yes, Give me 3 FREE Games!  
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit) SP1  
The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management  
Warranty: 14 Month Standard Maingear Warranty  
 
With shipping it came in at a bit over $1,700.00, more than I had initially intended to spend, but also a whole lot more computer than I thought I could afford.  
 
The Wait: 10/10  
 
20 minutes after my order I decided to update the order to 64 bit Vista, with the idea that I would upgrade my RAM sometime soon...The MG website made this very easy, and it was changed on the invoice by the tech processing my order, Raphael, the same day.  
 
I was in contact with MG several times during the wait, and each time I was impressed with the friendly professionalism the company reps showed.  
 
I ordered ground shipping, so we would see how well the system held up on its 2k mile journey.  
 
Receiving the system: 10/10  
 
I received the system 3 weeks after ordering it. The chassis was secured in its box by two simple but effective foam restraints, it took a little bit of strength to work it free (which is good).  
 
Along with the system there were several extras, games, backup discs, and a T shirt.  
 
The Aftermath: 10/10  
 
My first impressions of the case were that no pictures could do her justice. The Silverstone chassis is a beast, brushed black aluminum pierced at strategic intervals by meshed venting.  
 
I felt like I had just gotten the Dark Knight's computer.  
 
The side panels are removed by popping handscrews at the back of the chassis. Every stray wire was neatly bundled and tucked up against the chassis wall.  
 
I quickly determined that every connection was solid, and that all cards, etc. had maintained their seating, that, in fact, the PC seemed to be in perfect shape.  
 
Performance (Don't she purr, though): 10/10  
 
Aside from scrapping a Tablet PC application, I couldn't find anything on the normally bloated and inefficient Vista OS that needed tuning, as MG had already done it for me.  
 
So far, my PC handles like a dream. Programs and games load immediately, and the quadcore makes multitasking a joy. I've only had the system for a few days, and I'll update this review if any problems arise in terms of performance it exceeds my expectations and earns a 10/10.  
 
Conclusion: 10/10  
 
Every aspect of the order process, from the useful forum advice to the slick website interface, was excellent. The system arrived on time and in perfect condition. The wiring/cable management is superb and the exterior is unique, solid, and elegant. Finally, every aspect of my interaction with the MAINGEAR staff and technicians left me feeling like I was valued, and could easily come back with concerns or even in search of simple advice.  
 
Minor details of weakness really only serve to highlight the overall fantastic product and service MAINGEAR offers. It's a good feeling, after months of research and careful budgeting, to know you made the right decision after all. It's even better to know you couldn't have made a better one.  
 
Thanks, Kestrel