Maingear Builds

[ViktorStagnetti]

First off I realize building my own computer would be much cheaper so let's skip over that suggestion right off the bat. With tax money coming in I have no problem with shelling out the extra cash just to get it done and over with. Besides its nice to have a warranty to fall back on if things go awry. Basically I'm finally getting a new PC after close to 4 years. My current one is fine except for the fact that it's simply outdated when it comes to next gen gaming. I mean the ol' GTS 250 just isn't DX11 compatible which is kind of a must for now and the future.

I've shopped around numerous custom builders like Falcon NW, Digital Storm, iBUYPOWER, CyberpowerPC, etc. I've read a lot of positive reviews about Maingear especially when it comes to customer service so I thought I'd configure some builds and see what I can work with.

I've narrowed my choice down to 2 and just wanted to get some input on which is the better machine or the better value.

Build #1 - $2,270

Chassis: F131 with VRTX Cooling Technology (19")

Chassis Modification: SilenX 15dB Fan Package (2x120mm, 2x80mm)

Motherboard: Asus® Gryphon Z87 2x SLI/CrossFire

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 4670K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4600

Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

Enhanced Thermal Interface Material: MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 Rev2 Metal Alloy Thermal Interface Material

MAINGEAR Redline Overclocking

Memory: 16GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x8GB)

Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

Hard Drive Bay One: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

Hard Drive Bay Two: 250GB Samsung® 840 EVO SSD (w/TRIM) [540MB/s Sequential Reads]

Power Supply: 600W Corsair® Builder Series 80 Plus Certified PSU

Optical Drive One: 8X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Slot Loading SATA

Audio: Asus® Xonar DGX PCI-Express 5.1 Audio Featuring Dolby Technology

Ethernet Adapter: On-board Gigabit Ethernet

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Angelic Service Warranty: Lifetime Angelic Service Labor and Phone Support with 1 Year Comprehensive Warranty

Special Promotions: FREE! Batman Arkham Origins
Special Promotions: FREE! Call of Duty: Ghosts
Special Promotions: FREE! Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag AND Splinter Cell: Blacklist!


Build #2 - $2,150

Chassis: Potenza with VRTX Cooling Technology (14.75")

Motherboard: Gigabyte® Z87N-WIFI Featuring 8011.11N Wireless

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 4670K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4600

Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

MAINGEAR Redline Overclocking

Memory: 16GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x8GB)

Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780 3GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

Hard Drive Bay One: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

Hard Drive Bay Two: 250GB Samsung® 840 EVO SSD (w/TRIM) [540MB/s Sequential Reads]

Power Supply: 450W Silverstone ST45SF 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU - GeForce GTX TITAN Approved

Optical Drive One: 8X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Slot Loading SATA

Ethernet Adapter: On-board Gigabit Ethernet

Wireless Network Adapter: Integrated 802.11b/g/n Wireless - up to 300Mbps!

Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth Technology Module

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Angelic Service Warranty: Lifetime Angelic Service Labor and Phone Support with 3 Year Comprehensive Warranty

Special Promotions: FREE! Batman Arkham Origins
Special Promotions: FREE! Call of Duty: Ghosts

 

[nicspits]

The Maingear stuff is way overpriced, stick with corsair and you'll be a lot happier (case and watercooler). Also, might as well spend the extra $25 and get a corsair 750w psu, especially on the gtx 780 build (notice you got a lowly Silverstone 450w for a build where the gpu is going to pull 30 more watts, makes no sense).

You can easily shave $500 off of these builds, just buy the parts and take it in to a local shop that will assemble it for you. You'll still have 3-5 year warranty's on all your components so no ACTUAL benefit to having maingear rape you on their prices for assembly and markup on the same corsair hardware, bet you could get a local builder to do it for $200 or less.

Google newegg ITX build, etc. and you'll find published carts of people who are either building their own or sourcing components for others to assemble, otherwise, your Value level is going to kind of suck by 30%/$500-600

 

[ViktorStagnetti]

I'd rather spend the extra money and get the guaranteed warranty. I live in a small town and the only PC repair shops aren't very professional.

Regarding the 450W PSU. I talked to a guy at Maingear and they did a number of tests with the Titan (which draws more than the 780). At full load it only uses around 350W with an OC'd i7 4770k. They wouldn't offer a Titan, 780 TI, or 780 with a mATX if it wasn't possible.

 

[MongGrel]

Just sound like you're taking your windfall with the tax money and throwing it in the wind really, but if your going there why ask ?

If it's just a question of 1 or 2, I'd go with 1.

But there a lot of variables there to begin with, and you're just asking for a choice between the two rather than actually building.

 

[Mandrake4565]

ViktorStagnetti, most of us on this forum build our own rigs so you're probably going to get more people saying just build it yourself then anything. I know you said take that off the table but looking at both builds they are really overpriced. If you're really against building yourself maybe consider buying one from Cyperpower pc?

I will always suggest building one over buying it, yes you may have issues with hardware failure but you will learn how to replace the parts while building. There are plenty of people here that are more then willing to help you along with the building process, as well as troubleshooting if any issues arise. You'll save yourself some coin, learn how to put one together and also be able to pick quality parts so the chances of failure lessen.

 

[nicspits]

Not sure why you're asking for value advice when the warranty offered by a local shop that you can actually go in and talk to if you have a problem as opposed to have to pay for shipping to get support.

For some reason in your two builds, the one with the $190, 25% better graphics card, is $120 cheaper...

You really trust a place that has "angelic" describing its warranty: lifetime labor and phone support... but 1 year if anything actually breaks or they made any kind of mistake at all... So they don't tighten a barb in the cooling loop and after a year of vibration and operation it breaks loose and sprays all over everything and your recourse is zilch.

Read the fine print man, you're going to be taken and online builders, if they really guarantee their products, would guarantee it for the period of the warranty on the costly components that they would be replacing: Motherboard 3 years, Hard drive 3-5 years, graphics card: if it's evga, lifetime, others 2-3 years, corsair power supply 5 years... Why is their warranty only one year?!

Not trying to be rude, but think, and check out your local places BEFORE dumping this money. Hell, even Best Buy Geek Squad wouldn't rape you as bad and like I said: Build #1 cost = $1640 off newegg and a better package than the MITX #2, so put the 780 in build #1 for $1830 and go have GS put it together with a 2 year warranty (that you can drive to for service btw) for $300 and not have to worry about paying $100 shipping the thing if it break under a year or spending $$$$ if it breaks in year 2.

Lastly, you really need to not listen to whoever you spoke with over the phone. I can drive my car in 3rd gear at 90 miles an hour and until the transmission breaks I won't think it's a bad thing to do, that's what you're talking about pulling 280 watts for your graphics card and at least 85 watts for your cpu, leaving 90 watts total for EVEREYTHING ELSE: Memory, hard drive, cards, mice, optical drive, fans alone are going to be 30 watts man... and not overclocked. I think you've found why they do a 1 year warranty, cuz they're throwing in PSUs that last 18 months constantly running at 100% load capacity.

You asked, there's your answers, spend your money how you like, but if you came here to just be shined on, should have stuck with the Maingear sales for(ce)ums.

 

[nicspits]

ViktorStagnetti, most of us on this forum build our own rigs so you're probably going to get more people saying just build it yourself then anything. I know you said take that off the table but looking at both builds they are really overpriced. If you're really against building yourself maybe consider buying one from Cyperpower pc?

I will always suggest building one over buying it, yes you may have issues with hardware failure but you will learn how to replace the parts while building. There are plenty of people here that are more then willing to help you along with the building process, as well as troubleshooting if any issues arise. You'll save yourself some coin, learn how to put one together and also be able to pick quality parts so the chances of failure lessen.

You may even find a zealot in your area who would make it a point not to give the money to Maingear and drive to assemble it for half the price.

 

[nicspits]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103853

4 year extended onsite brings total to $1339... Sure beats #1, did I mention it's an I7?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229498
$1800 + 20S&H for this, again 4 year warranty, and it's also watercooled...

 

[Jart]

All of the parts you buy have warranties. Usually very good ones. If a part breaks on a computer you build, you are probably now experienced enough to know what is broken. If you can use a screwdriver and invest in a decent case building a computer is pretty easy. Thir are a lot of good youtube videos. Here is one I recommend from ASUS

 

[nicspits]

haven't heard back, so if you're thinking about it, going back to your value point...

Hours to build, install OS, update OS, download game, and start playing: Build 4 (being very very careful), Install OS 1.5 we'll just say you took a lunch break here, update OS 3 (and are on 5mb dsl), download game 5 (again, bad dsl, and we'll go with Payday 2 on steam). 4+1.5+3+5+2=15.5 hrs, saving $500 = $32.25/hr you're paying yourself to do it yourself and have a 4 year on-site warranty on the rig, that's $65K annually....

Now I don't know your income level but if you make less than 65k a year, well, you're paying yourself to do this more than you make at actual work where you don't have the non-quantitative benefits of learning something new and making something yourself.

(halve that for local builders, still making a lot more than minimum wage).