The prebuild PC market has continued to pick up steam over the past few years, but there’s one brand that has been rising above the rest lately. I’ve heard so much raving about MAINGEAR and its lineup of pre-built PCs that I had to test one out myself, and so over the past few months I’ve had the MG-1 Gold as the centerpiece to my battlestation.
Kids, look away. I’m about the type one of the dirtiest words in all of PC gaming – prebuild. I know the term isn’t as heinous as it used to be, but the idea of just buying a PC off the shelf instead of crafting your own can still come with a bit of judgement from other gamers. I’ve been a pretty outspoken fan of just going with a pre-built PC for ages now. Before, it used to just be an aversion to even trying my hand at sorting through the endeavor of building one. But now even after assembling my own from scratch during the pandemic and conquering my fear, I’m back to just preferring that someone else go through the trouble.
So when the folks over at MAINGEAR asked to send over one of its new MG-1 Gold gaming rigs, I had to take them up on the offer. I’ve been using the company’s flagship release for the past few months and have largely been very impressed by the performance, build quality, and overall flashiness.
Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s at least check out the hardware. The MG-1 Gold is one the company’s more affordable gaming PCs. It rests right above the silver model and below an even more pricy array of machines that all share names akin to competitive gaming tiers. So as someone who is ranked Gold in the ranked Overwatch scene, I thought it was only fitting to check out the PC with the same designation.
All of these MAINGEAR PCs come built in the same case, and it’s up to you to pick which one is going to deliver the performance you want at each tiered price point. The gold version arrives with some pretty robust specs which are noted below.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
- Intel Core i5-13400F
- 16GB RGB DDR4 3600MHz
- 512GB Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD
The actual experience
My actual experience with the MG-1 Gold started when the company told me one was being shipped out. It wasn’t from some special press department hooking me up, but the usual routine as if I had purchased the machine for myself. MAINGEAR really wanted to make sure I got the typical treatment that any other gamer would get, and so I found myself waiting just a few days for the PC to arrive before it hit my doorstep.
Cutting that first seal of tape on the outside of the box and revealing the immaculate packing job on the inside had me almost wanting to leave everything in its perfect place. But alas I had to dive in, and so I got to work getting everything set up. Except there wasn’t really all too much to do. MAINGEAR took care of the heavy lifting ahead of time, with the machine being ready to go right out of the box. Other pre-built I’ve tried out have come with a Windows installation flash drive or something else that stood between me and clicking heads in Overwatch. But no, not MAINGEAR. The MG-1 Gold was up and running in just a few minutes.
My actual experience with the MG-1 Gold has been just as delightful. The hardware I mentioned before has been more than reliable for playing most of the games that I do. It didn’t break a sweat at Fortnite and playing Overwatch 2 just as notable of an experience. This can easily handle playing 4K titles at consistent frame rates, even if it isn’t going to completely max out some titles.
My partner has been helping me test it out lately, too. She’s an avid Clone Hero enjoyer – think a fan-made PC version of Guitar Hero – and has been over the moon at how the performance has been. While I’m all about low latency to make sure I’m getting an edge over my opponents in FPS titles, she has been appreciating the MG-1 Gold’s ability to not stand between her and doing a perfect, full complete run of Cult of Personality by Living Colour. It’s certainly one of the more unique use cases for a gaming PC, but really demonstrates just how versatile the hardware is here.
Swappable plates are such a fun inclusion
Even though performance is going to be the biggest reason to buy a PC, I do have to say that the MG series from MAINGEAR comes with one of my favorite features from a gaming rig. It’s entirely aesthetic, but something that I can’t help but obsess over. The front of each PC has a modular plate on it that lets you change up the design. It’s not just reconfigured designs either! You can customize the build to be personal, and the company demonstrated that by hooking me up with a themed 9to5Toys front plate.
It’s such a novel thing to include as an add-on to the experience and really goes the distance to show that these prebuilds aren’t just for hardcore enthusiasts – but anyone wants to dive into gaming. I spend a lot of time is e-sports circles and it’s more and more common to see or hear of gamers opting for off the shelf models. But normally they’re pretty basic. I don’t mean to gloat (okay, maybe a little) but having such rad PC that’s even customized just for me always feels so fun – especially when it doesn’t mean I sacrificed performance for the flair. Sometimes it feels like I’m one of the few gamers in the hobby who actually care about looks, and so I certainly appreciate MAINGEAR’s approach to at least back its function with some pretty neat form.
Speaking of function, I also love that the MG-1 Gold – like the company’s other machines – is upgradable. I don’t really think I’ll be undoing the incredible wiring job and handiwork of the company’s PC builders anytime soon, but knowing that I can just swap in some extra RAM down the line or easily upgrade the GPU to something more powerful if I ever decide that I need all the bells and whistles required to run games like Cyberpunk on its most life-like settings is such a relief.
I’ve tried out pre-built PCs in the past that are technically able to be upgraded, but the way the machines are actually assembled makes it difficult to get in and swap out or add components. Knowing that I have a really solid machine as is already makes easy to recommend, but the fact that the machine will have plenty of time in the future even past this CPU and GPU generation is just the icing on the cake.
The other big reason that I immediately want to recommend any of the MAINGEAR PC lineup, but especially the MG-1 Gold it sent over is the pricing. The configuration that the company sent over was one of its $1,399 configurations – with a little added flair from the Shroud collaboration. You can get the standard version at $1,299 or less thanks to some holiday sales live at the time of writing this, which feels like such a solid price for everything you’re getting.
9to5Toys’ Take
I’ve been using the MAINGEAR MG-1 Gold PC for a while now, and am once again reminded why pre-built gaming rigs are so good. The whole experience with MAINGEAR has been nothing but enjoyable, from the actual delivery process to my actual time gaming with it. I’ve had about as close to the most console-like experience as imaginable, which is to say a very high piece of praise. There’s nothing better to me than being able to just unbox something, plug it in, and start using it – which is exactly how my time with the MG-1 Gold has gone.
It really speaks to the dedication from the MAINGEAR team in making sure they ship well-built PCs. The cable management is something that completely blew me away, especially as someone who has tried very hard to keep her own build tidy – spoiler it’s pretty damn near impossible. The value you get isn’t just in the hardware, but the fact that these are built and supported by a company like MAINGEAR. Other reviewers have found that it offers some pretty top notch customer service, and while I haven’t had a reason to give them a ring, I buy into the sentiment that the people behind the company are just as happy about making good PCs as I am about playing on them.
Buy the MAINGEAR MG-1 Gold PC
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