It doesn’t get more custom than this
There’s something very special about building your own PC. I have fond memories
of my first tower. We have to admit that some people do not have the patience or time to find all the components they need, and then to put them together. Maingear, a custom PC maker, has been around for years. Judging by the MG-1 it offers, they know what PC gamers want: customization, quality parts, and lots of RGB. Maingear included a flat-panel with a military style green and black pattern on our review unit, and Gizmodo’s logo embossed on the front. A custom front panel costs an extra $100. Yes it was a way of getting us to spend time with their product before we did, but it gives a glimpse into Maingear’s philosophy for the MG-1. In most respects, it’s your typical mid-size case. It’s a mid-size desktop case that fits easily on top of or under your desk. It’s like the cherry on a vanilla ice-cream cone, that customizable and removable front plate. It’s a good thing for Maingear that vanilla is my favorite flavor.
Maingear MG-1 Legendary
The Maingear MG-1 is a solid build from a company that obviously knows what it’s doing. The Legendary can handle pretty much any game you throw at it.
Pros
Excellent build quality and cable management
Beautiful, customizable front plate
- Quiet even under stress
- Cons
- LED light strips feel too DIY for a professional build
The benefit of a prebuilt system is that Maingear knows the parts work together and that they fit within its jazzed-up case with a custom CPU cooler. The liquid cooling system and the infinity mirror look great. You’ll see two RGB LED strips along the bottom compartment as well as the side near the fans when you open the case. It’s not noticeable unless you are looking down on the side panel glass from above. You don’t need to worry if the PC is on your desk. The LED strips are too DIY if they’re near your feet. They don’t justify the price difference between a pre-built computer and a custom one. If you choose all the components from Maingear, it will cost less than $3,400. It is a high price but not unreasonable, given that the RTX 4080 is priced at around $1,000. Intel Core i9 could be a bit less than $500. The cost is convenience, but buying a custom-built PC has additional benefits. It’s less expensive than the
- Alienware R16
, which has comparable specs and performance. The company
also offers new versions of their lineup that contain AMD’s latest Ryzen 7, and 9 CPUs. When making a purchase, you’re cementing your allegiance to the AMD or Intel ecosystem, but given that systems like the MG-1 Legendary start at $2,800 for what is ostensibly a solid chip,
it’s worth serious consideration compared to the Intel variety.Maingear MG-1 Review: Build Quality(c) Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Maingear made a point of telling me they wanted to offer as much as a standardized Windows 11 experience with their PC. If you are not careful, it may reinstall the bloatware that you wanted to remove from your PC. You may be like me and test a number of products, including Razer’s big glowing mousepad and
Blackwidow keyboard
. Before you know it, your PC will be stuffed with apps that want launch at startup. It would be cleaner to diffuse light using a single opaque piece of plastic. My favorite additional doohickey, however, is the liquid cooling unit for the CPU with its slick mirror effect. The interior is clean and doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a PC. It’s compatible with MSI’s MSI motherboard. The side panel is attached by four thumb screws, which take longer to remove than most custom cases. The side panel slides out and back, revealing the LED strips as well as the custom mounting bracket. The mount is 3D-printed, but the 4080 Super is so tightly mounted that it won’t wiggle when you tug on it. The downside is you would need to remove the front panel completely to access the screws keeping the graphics card in place.
Despite that, the PC is well put together. The PC is well-built. I removed the backplate to find a superb cable management system that organized and arranged all wires. Maingear deserves praise for its customizable frontplate. It is secured with magnets, and will not move or shake even if you accidentally knock it. This beast is mostly quiet. Even when stressed, the fan systems do not tend to vibrate with helicopter force. It’s more of a low growl, which only caused my coworkers to glance at me with curiosity instead of irritation. Maingear MG-1 Review: Performance(c) Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo The Legendary is a system made for high-performance gaming. Did I have to tell that to you? You can tell by looking at the specs that this system is capable of running multiple demanding games in 4K native resolution without any upscaling. It won’t give you the edge that a RTX-4090 can, but it will be enough. The Intel Core i9-1400K CPU is a powerful one, but it may not be up to the same standard as the AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D found in the MG-1 Legendary’s latest version. Together, the 4080 Super and CPU are sufficient to achieve 60 FPS at ultrawide resolutions (3440 x 1400). It doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t compromises. With ray tracing at ultra, I was able to hit 50 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 without upscaling, frame generation or any other enhancements. But when I set the DLSS to automatic, I was able to push past 100 FPS. If you are using 4K resolution and all the ray tracing settings on high or ultra, DLSS will give you the boost to 60 FPS. It’s the same scenario I experienced in other games that I tested. Even when all settings were set to maximum, a game like
Warhammer 4K: Space Marine (2
) needed the extra upscaling support at 4K. But even with native settings, the FPS didn’t drop below 49 even with Tyrranids swarming everywhere. The Intel Core i9-14900K processor is a good choice for a machine in this category. The Intel Core i9-14900K still wins the single-core and multiple-core CPU benchmarks in Geekbench, Cinebench. The 14th-gen Intel CPUs are
under intense scrutiny for their recent instability issues, so it’s
fair enough to want to stay away until Intel finally
confirms
everything is ship shape.
Maingear MG-1 Review: Verdict
(c) Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
When you look straight on, the MG-1 is a sleek, effective PC that leaves enough room for future customization. It’s possible to use a piece of transparent quarter pipe in order to blend the LED strips into the overall design. However, this is a minor issue. There’s very little space on the motherboard, and you may have to compromise if you want to add more than two SSDs. I would also be cautious of future releases Nvidia RTX50-series as we don’t yet know the size they will get. The motherboard at least supports gen-5 PCIe slots, which could be used for future GPUs that are monstrous. The MG-1 Legendary is a reliable machine that will not require much upgrading for many years, except for the usual TLC PCs need. The customizable front panel adds just the right touch of flair. It may not be a competition, but the MG-1 isn’t trying to be.
