5/5

posted Sep-21-2006

"I just recieved a brand new, shiny, luscious, F131 desktop system, and I could not possibly be happier with the experience or the computer.

I chose Maingear based on the stellar review they recieved over at HardOCP. You see, I'm one of those rare avid gamers who doesn't really know much about computers. Due to my lack of expertise, I decided I needed a system from a company that would back up their product after the sale, and based on every review I've seen, particularly HardOCP's, Maingear seemed to fit the bill.

It took longer than I hoped for to actually recieve the system (~5 weeks), though that very well could be my fault as I specifically told Raphael, who called me a few days after I placed the order online, to take his time with the build as I was far more interested in a quality, rock-solid computer than I was in getting it quickly. As the days passed, I grew more and more anxious, having drastically underestimated my enthusiasm and anticipation. All my angst melted away when the computer finally showed up at my door.

It was well packed, without a scratch on it. The case is a new Lian Li, an upgrade from the case pictured on the site. It's very well-constructed, and solid. The wiring is immaculate. It's obvious, even from my less-than-expert perspective that Maingear put quite a bit of effort into building this machine. They seem to believe that if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

After I had set up the computer, imagine my horror when I flipped the switch and nothing happened. That's right, the computer simply didn't turn on. After checking everything I could think of, I finally broke down and called Maingear. I won't go through everything, but suffice to say that Giovanni (the guy who took the call), patiently walked me through half a dozen different possibilities, from re-seating the memory sticks to re-seating the CPU heatsink and fan and even the CPU itself. Nothing seemed to work. After ~1.5 hours on the phone, we finally identified the problem as a tiny little switch plugged into the corner of the motherboard that needed to be re-seated. The computer has worked flawlessly since. I thanked Giovanni (and I'll thank him again: Thanks!) for his patience and help, and I was off and gaming.

The bottom line is, and I'm 100% in HardOCP's corner on this one, anyone can build a kickass gaming system benchmark-wise. When that's the case, it seems to me that what separates the good companies from the bad is everything else. I went with Maingear based on their reputation for attention to detail and quality in the aforementioned everything else, and I have not been disappointed. They're expensive, to be sure, though not any more expensive than other "boutique" builder, yet unlike most of their competitors, they're definitely worth the prices they charge. If you want a righteous machine and you're not a computer expert or you don't have the time and patience to build it yourself and/or provide your own tech support, you can't go wrong with Maingear."

This review was modified by Sunwolf Enemy on September 21 2006 12:26:56 PM

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5/5

posted Sep-19-2005

"I purchased a hardcore gaming maingear pc and nothing has ever been the same. By far the best gaming system i've owned. I've owned an hp, a dell, even an alienware pc. But in comparison, nothing comes close. I purchased a glossy black F131 tower, microsoft keyboard, Mx518 hardcore gaming mouse and plantronics special edition counterstrike headphones. I recommend a maingear pc to anyone who is a hardcore gamer and i speak from personal experience. The maingear techs put a great system together to my exact specs, just as i wanted. "

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5/5

posted Feb-08-2007

"I pre ordered a F 131 highly customized PC on 12/30/07, but actually paid for it on 1/8/07. The ordering process was great; I had lots of questions, and the tech I was speaking to had all the answers, knowledgeable answers, without pressure, and solid guidance. I normally build my own PC's, but had decided to treat myself to Top O' the Line Custom PC. I had hoped Maingear could build me that dream, could actually care that I was spending good money, that I would be treated better than just a order number.

I found Maingear after looking at the other custom integrators out there, you know the names, then reading a Gold Award review from a trusted tech review site, [H]hardocp.com. I then searched other reviews and other sites, and everyone only had Great things to say about Maingear.

I received the machine on 1/31/07. The machine was very well packaged and arrived in pristine shape. It booted up to the desktop without any need to activate software, install anything, nada. ZERO un wanted software, like the big sites install, just instant SPEED! The F 131 has the free option of Overclocking, while still keeping it under their warranty, and this baby is overclocked from standard e6700 speed of 2.67Ghz to 3.33Ghz! I swear, opening any application is INSTANT. All the drivers were to the moment current. Very stable. I have had ZERO problems. The build quality is beyond amazing! I mean, my baby looks like it just came from the floor of a trade show. A Genuine SHOW MACHINE. Perfectly quiet, PERFECT wiring, PERFECT Automotive Paint job ( included in the price as well )This machine is truly a show stopper.

Game play is..well..Mind blowing. I play MMORPGs like EQ and Wow, and it screams. Applications open at the speed of light.

Even as an aside, a small gesture, showing their Amazing attention to details, I ordered my F 131 in Yellow from their available colors. I playfully started calling the yellow "Sponge Bob Racing Yellow" in my signature block on a few tech forums. Well, when I received the machine, the first thing I saw was a giant 3' Sponge Bob doll i the box! The doll is irrelevant, but the GESTURE ( learning something silly about me, and my purchase, without my intervention ) was truly a level of personalization you just can't find, or even buy. Choosing Maingear is to become part of an extended family of enthusiasts.

Sincerely, THANK YOU Maingear for exceeding my dreams! "

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5/5

posted Feb-08-2006

"Just wanted to drop a note about the great experience I had w/ the crew at Maingear. I placed the order online for a F131 computer, the next day one of their tech's called me to obtain verbal response. The tech asked some questions as to what I would use my system for, what kind of games that I would play and if I wanted my system partitioned in any way. He even asked if I would like some games pre-installed from factory (with my cd keys of course). I'm not a big gamer, but in my opinion, their attention to detail is pretty amazing. It's nice to see companies that actually care about their customer. Once I received my computer, I imediately proceded to poping my side pannel open to install my wireless nic. I couldn't believe how neat my system was inside. Every little wire was completely folded, tucked away, zip tied out of the way. Once again, I was just amazed how much attention they put into my $3500 computer system. I actually regreted in not choosing a side window. I would recomend these guys to anyone. Great product, great customer care and great warranty. Good job Maingear. "

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5/5

posted Jun-05-2009

"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 Riffster on June 05 2009 09:58:08 PM

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5/5

posted Jan-31-2007

"I ordered a computer from Maingear based on web and print reviews. Order was placed on the 6th of december and was delivered to me on december 31 by courier. System was stable with the exception of a Bios update that was needed after shipment. Maingear sent a courier to pickup my computer at a time of my choosing with no hassle or complaint. System was returned in 6 days. This is amazing for any company let alone a small business. I would recommend Maingear to anyone looking for a custom PC with name brand parts and the best customer support I have ever had the experience of being involved with. "

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5/5

posted Nov-14-2009

"We purchased an F131 and we will probably replace our other computer with a Maingear.

The Maingear sales model is the best I've experienced. The machine is also darned good, there being only a couple of quibbles (and they are very small): the wiring isn't quite as clean as I thought it would be and the filter on the top air-intake of the Silverstone case looks like it's going to be a pain to take out and clean.

The original version of this review was posted to the MG forums. MG quickly responded to it, asking for photos of the wiring, which I provided offline, along with a comment that the immaculate wiring that was advertised wasn't so very immaculate. After a week without receiving an answer, I posted to the MG forums, asking for follow-up to the email that I had sent. A big plus for MG is that the posting was responded to in (probably) under an hour. A not-so-big plus for MG was the reply that the photos sent had been primarily of the dirty side when in fact there were two photos of each side sent to them. The explanation for the dirty side wiring was reasonable and the explanation for the pretty side, might have been reasonable too; however, my Dell XPS is definitely cleaner and that was the baseline I used (and in my view, a boutique machine that's advertised as immaculate, should certainly beat the Dell).

That said, the MG machine is much better than the Dell and despite the slightly sour exchange, highly recommended.

We got the non-overclocked i7 950 w/12gb ram, ASUS P6T X58, 2 X 10K HDD raid 0 + 1 X 7200 HDD, a single GTX-285 (driving a pair of Dell 2408wpf monitors) and the 1000 watt power supply. With the Zalman 9500, the system idles (according to coretemp) at 35C to 40C, which given how warm the office is (we live in AZ), isn't too bad.
"

This review was modified by vinsrouges on November 16 2009 12:00:15 PM

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5/5

posted Nov-29-2008

"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 superstarme on November 29 2008 02:26:34 PM

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5/5

posted Oct-20-2008

"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.
"

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5/5

posted Nov-29-2009

"So I'm the guy who never writes reviews but decides where to buy stuff based on other customers' reviews. And because I have no review-writing skills, I'm going to leave it at this:

If you find yourself wondering if Maingear actually lives up to the stellar reviews of both customer service and system performance, they do.
"

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