Problems
We had no real problems to speak of with the F131. It booted immediately upon arrival, which is practically unheard of, and partially attributable to a good packing job (and partially to luck). The system was stable throughout our testing, and other than slight anomalies like the stray noise, we did not observe any problems.
Pricing
Our test configuration of the F131 is available on the Maingear website for approximately $2130 before shipping. The margins on components are quite high, particularly on hard drives and video cards. The cooler used retails for about $140, so clearly the $300 premium over the Intel heatsink goes towards the cost of labor. The closest that we came at Newegg with a very similar configuration was about $1530. This isn't that far off the mark from other system builders, but it would really help solidify Maingear's position if they could reduce their margins on video cards to allow for less expensive gaming upgrades.
Final Thoughts
First off, the good: Maingear builds quality systems without bloatware or clogged installations, ships them well, and all evidence shows they support them 100%. Their website is easy to order from, overclocking is "free" and covered under warranty, and their component choices are solid. You really do get the impression that these systems are hand-built with care.
Now then, here are the negatives. We find ourselves acknowledging that Maingear is a solid contender in this market, and understand why they garner customer loyalty, but this system just didn't clinch us completely. We honestly expected to see a bit more performance at this price point. This is supposed to be "the ultimate custom gaming machine" in Maingear's own words. For instance, instead of water-cooling, we would have opted to spend some of that money on a quad-core CPU (for those into video encoding) or a faster video card (for the gamers).
When paying for a system like this, one wants the performance to back up the cost. We also feel that a system like this should come with a 3-year warranty standard; it's an investment surely intended to last more than one year, and quite a few competitors in this area offer 3-year warranties at about the same price. As a third point, while the Silverstone case is elegant and functional, it lacks the glitz and glamour that some people might look for in a gaming system. The ability to choose a couple case alternatives would help. Customization options are available for most components, but they are more limited than other vendors and the price premiums are higher than average.
As we said when opening the review, we like the F131 and are very pleased with its reliability and by all accounts the huge emphasis that Maingear places on support. They are definitely worth a place on the short list of top quality PC suppliers. However, if support is not number one on your list, you may want to look around at some other suppliers to compare prices.
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gorbag - Thursday, November 13, 2008 - link
I'm not sure why this is a mac v. everyone else debate (again), but I could not let the following pass:"Finally, do you really think engineers are responsible for the look of Apple's computers or most cosmetic designs for that matter? Usually it is an industrial design artist who's job is to make products look pretty. Unless ergonomics are a factor, an engineer wouldn't even come close to the drawing board. Where the engineer comes into the pictures is to fight with the industrial design artist when they try to hinder the functionality of the original design."
I don't consider myself an engineeer (I'm in R&D), but I do work with quite a few of them. Really, a whole lot (100s), and of all kinds: electrical, systems, software, etc. And I would have to say that in a consumer products company, if there is a requirement for "customer experience" that includes, e.g., the internal board layout, disk connection scheme, etc. that I've seen in Macs, then you better believe there were engineers who made it their job to create that experience. Engineering is about balancing trade-offs. I'm not quite sure what you think it's about, but I would suspect you have little professional experience in that area or you would not be making comments such as this one.
I have more respect, not less, for the folks who can not only create a functional but also an aesthetically pleasing design. I'd rather have my office in the Sistine Chapel than in some steel and glass monstrosity out of the 70s, even though both would serve the same primary functional purpose. There are a lot of non-functional requirements (in software, the -ilities) that professional engineers must take into account when creating a system.
mindless1 - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - link
Nice snowjob. Not true, but an admirable effort nonetheless.headbox - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - link
There is more than one computer being compared, and if the main computer in the article was upgraded to Mac Pro specs... oh wait... it couldn't because a Mac Pro is an 8-core system... it would still come in a flimsy box, likely not booting.And stop pretending SPEED is the only thing that matters with a computer. Reliability? Operating system? Tech support? If you know how to build a computer, then you'd build one and save the money and be your own tech support. If you don't know how, you buy a gaming system, and you're screwed when it arrives and won't boot.
If speed were the only thing people cared about, the entire USA would be riding around on 1,000cc sportbikes. You can buy a 600cc sportbike faster than any car for $2,500- yet you only see a handful of these on the streets. They also get 50 mpg and insurance is about $15/mo. Speed isn't everything. Just like in computers.
3DoubleD - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - link
The computer being compared is the one in the article.. I'm not sure what other one you are looking at? You are right though, you can't compare a Mac Pro to this computer as the computer in the article would be ridiculously faster for the intended use (general use and video games). Who needs 8 cores? I have a feeling that if you are using a Mac you might have trouble using software that uses 8 cores (except for the 100 people in the world who actual edit video and use a Mac). Not to mention that Apple wanted to give their customers the best performance, they probably should have gone with two AMD Opterons instead, as I think they are still king in the multi-socket arena. To summarize, the computer in this article is a far better application of technology to meet the end user's needs than the Mac Pro, which offers abysmal value to the customer outside of its small niche market (professional video editing).Why does speed matter... because this is an OVERCLOCKED computer. If speed didn't matter, then the customer wouldn't be looking at this computer! That was brilliant. Again, did you read the article?
This computer is very reliable. You get a 1 year warranty with an option to extend it to 3 years, similar to most computer and Mac manufacturers. Tech support roles in with this one.
As for OS, again, since this is mostly targeted towards users who will use this computer for both general use and gaming. Consequently, there is only one good choice, Windows!
Again, you just sound like a fanatic Steve Jobs follower. Macs have their place in the world. They are great for Grandma who likes to type emails and check the weather. For people who have more serious things to do, more serious equipment is usually needed.
kboom1 - Sunday, December 26, 2010 - link
I thought Maingear's systems were one of the better boutique builders not only from reviews of benchmarks but because of their warranty (angelic service). in feb 2010 I finally took the leap and bought a F131 system and maxed out some of my hardware,It wasn't hard to spend 5g on my system. with in 9 mos. so far I had to have my MB,,RAM,Optical drive,and GPU replaced which I had no probs with the warranty as of yet.One thing that does concern me about MG,upon replacing my GPU I noticed the ssd I paid for and was on my invoice was not the one installed.I paid extra to have this spesific ssd installed.The one installed was a lower model That had problems with the controller and trim, this issue has yet to be resolved. so to sum it up although warranty service has been top notch make sure you check all your hardware when you get your rig.