MoonGear
05-13-2009, 06:44 PM
I ordered a Prelude 2 near the end of March and received it on April 22.
Specs
Exterior Finish: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: 750W Silverstone Strider Power Supply
Graphics Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForceT GTX 260 896MB GDDR3 w/ PhysX
Motherboard: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
Processor: Intel® CoreT i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz
Processor Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 AT 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base
Memory: 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 1333MHz
MAINGEAR Redline Service: Yes, Redline my system!
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
Hard Drive Three: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
RAID: RAID 1 - Data Redundancy and Protection
Memory Card Reader: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer
Optical Drive One: 22X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology
Optical Drive Two: Lite-On Blu-ray Optical Player
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
Network Card: Onboard Dual Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit Controller
Productivity Software: Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Security Software: Free Antivirus Software
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit) SP1
The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management
Warranty: 14 Month Standard Maingear Warranty
Notes
The GeForce GTX 260 is the Core 216 version, and is manufactured by EVGA. As I understand it, it's factory overclocked. I know for certain that it's way more card than I need right now, so whether it's OC'd or not is probably a moot point.
I didn't want to go nuts on the CPU overclocking because, when it comes right down to it, the stock 965 processor is more than fast enough for me. I also don't want to burn any more electricity than necessary. Rafael, who first called me about my order, suggested that Maingear could bump up the speed as much as possible without raising the voltage, and I readily agreed. Gus, who built my system, got 3.38 GHz out of the CPU under that restriction. So I wouldn't call this thing "redlined," but it does "rev" a bit more enthusiastically.
I got the Zalman CPU cooler just in case the extra cooling might make a difference. And because it looks cool when I have the case open. :D
RAM prices are too low not to go with 12 GB of it. I won't have to worry about having to install more, as I did with my Voodoo. Photoshop loves me now.
The 750GB drive contains the OS and apps. The two 1TB HDs are in a RAID 1 configuration so my laziness in doing full data backups doesn't bite me in the future.
Praise
The case looks great on my all-black AnthroCart table. They look like they were made for each other. The blue lighting in the front grille, which matches the power-on light, is a nice touch. I love this particular shade of blue.
The etching is very nice indeed, and I'm glad I found something to put on the case that I can call my own. (But do see the note below under "Quibbles.")
This thing is quiet. I can hear the front fan, but it's no worse than having a room fan going, and much quieter than my old Voodoo PC. (I can hear the Voodoo over the small TV I have here in Command Central; the TV drowns out the Prelude.) It will probably get louder when I make it work harder, but in my normal operating mode it's a terrific improvement.
Gus did a great job on the cabling. It really is as nice as advertised. I'm afraid to touch anything in there. :D
Quibbles
The DVD drive (an LG unit) does not fit into its opening very well at all. There's about a 1 MM gap all around it. It wouldn't be too noticable except for the fact that the power-on light leaks through the gap. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it, but "ignore it" would be a good guess.
My custom etched graphic fades a little bit toward the back of the case. I can't tell if that's intentional or not, especially since the MAINGEAR lettering on the same panel fades a bit toward the front. But nobody, including me, can tell the custom bit is faded by looking at it in its natural habitat since the area in question is in relative darkness. The bottom line is, it doesn't bother me enough to ask about it. I am mentioning it in case it makes a difference to anyone out there considering having their own graphic etched on.
Try as I might, I cannot find but one Ethernet port. I'm guessing that line is a carryover from the previous Prelude. It is a Gigabit port, though, which has made for a tremendous increase in throughput to my NAS.
When hibernating, the power light on the case blinks at a fairly high rate, and it's pretty bright. At night, it looks like someone is outside my window with a turn signal on. I wish I had some way of having it light briefly at much longer intervals.
None of these things really counts as a negative. I'm not even concerned enough about them to call Maingear about them; I've got more important things to get riled about.
Finally...
When seeking a builder for my new PC, I ran trial orders through a number of the "boutique" builders, as well as Dell. I didn't check out Maingear at first, because I had never heard of them.
I would have considered another Voodoo, but the current HP/Voodoo offering, the Firebird, while gorgeous, is merely a mid-level PC, and those get obsolete way too soon. But a blog from Rahul Sood (top guy at Voodoo and now CTO at HP) about the Firebird mentioned a conversation he had with Wallace Santos, and Sood had high praise for Maingear. So I checked it out, and I'm very glad I did. (I suspect HP will be less pleased if they find out.)
As it turns out, I could not get nearly as much machine for my money anywhere else than I have by buying this Prelude from Maingear. With shipping included, I paid less than $4K for this computer. I don't remember finding anything else for less than $4500 w/o shipping, and even then I would have gotten much less in terms of equipment and performance than what's sitting on my desk right now. That fact, and MG's stellar reputation, got me to finally buy the new PC I'd been promising myself for two years.
So far, so good. Color me happy!
Specs
Exterior Finish: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: 750W Silverstone Strider Power Supply
Graphics Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForceT GTX 260 896MB GDDR3 w/ PhysX
Motherboard: Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset
Processor: Intel® CoreT i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz
Processor Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 AT 92mm CPU Cooler w/ Copper Base
Memory: 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 1333MHz
MAINGEAR Redline Service: Yes, Redline my system!
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
Hard Drive Three: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
RAID: RAID 1 - Data Redundancy and Protection
Memory Card Reader: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer
Optical Drive One: 22X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology
Optical Drive Two: Lite-On Blu-ray Optical Player
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
Network Card: Onboard Dual Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit Controller
Productivity Software: Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Security Software: Free Antivirus Software
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit) SP1
The Final Finesse: Flawless Hand-crafted Wiring and Cable Management
Warranty: 14 Month Standard Maingear Warranty
Notes
The GeForce GTX 260 is the Core 216 version, and is manufactured by EVGA. As I understand it, it's factory overclocked. I know for certain that it's way more card than I need right now, so whether it's OC'd or not is probably a moot point.
I didn't want to go nuts on the CPU overclocking because, when it comes right down to it, the stock 965 processor is more than fast enough for me. I also don't want to burn any more electricity than necessary. Rafael, who first called me about my order, suggested that Maingear could bump up the speed as much as possible without raising the voltage, and I readily agreed. Gus, who built my system, got 3.38 GHz out of the CPU under that restriction. So I wouldn't call this thing "redlined," but it does "rev" a bit more enthusiastically.
I got the Zalman CPU cooler just in case the extra cooling might make a difference. And because it looks cool when I have the case open. :D
RAM prices are too low not to go with 12 GB of it. I won't have to worry about having to install more, as I did with my Voodoo. Photoshop loves me now.
The 750GB drive contains the OS and apps. The two 1TB HDs are in a RAID 1 configuration so my laziness in doing full data backups doesn't bite me in the future.
Praise
The case looks great on my all-black AnthroCart table. They look like they were made for each other. The blue lighting in the front grille, which matches the power-on light, is a nice touch. I love this particular shade of blue.
The etching is very nice indeed, and I'm glad I found something to put on the case that I can call my own. (But do see the note below under "Quibbles.")
This thing is quiet. I can hear the front fan, but it's no worse than having a room fan going, and much quieter than my old Voodoo PC. (I can hear the Voodoo over the small TV I have here in Command Central; the TV drowns out the Prelude.) It will probably get louder when I make it work harder, but in my normal operating mode it's a terrific improvement.
Gus did a great job on the cabling. It really is as nice as advertised. I'm afraid to touch anything in there. :D
Quibbles
The DVD drive (an LG unit) does not fit into its opening very well at all. There's about a 1 MM gap all around it. It wouldn't be too noticable except for the fact that the power-on light leaks through the gap. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it, but "ignore it" would be a good guess.
My custom etched graphic fades a little bit toward the back of the case. I can't tell if that's intentional or not, especially since the MAINGEAR lettering on the same panel fades a bit toward the front. But nobody, including me, can tell the custom bit is faded by looking at it in its natural habitat since the area in question is in relative darkness. The bottom line is, it doesn't bother me enough to ask about it. I am mentioning it in case it makes a difference to anyone out there considering having their own graphic etched on.
Try as I might, I cannot find but one Ethernet port. I'm guessing that line is a carryover from the previous Prelude. It is a Gigabit port, though, which has made for a tremendous increase in throughput to my NAS.
When hibernating, the power light on the case blinks at a fairly high rate, and it's pretty bright. At night, it looks like someone is outside my window with a turn signal on. I wish I had some way of having it light briefly at much longer intervals.
None of these things really counts as a negative. I'm not even concerned enough about them to call Maingear about them; I've got more important things to get riled about.
Finally...
When seeking a builder for my new PC, I ran trial orders through a number of the "boutique" builders, as well as Dell. I didn't check out Maingear at first, because I had never heard of them.
I would have considered another Voodoo, but the current HP/Voodoo offering, the Firebird, while gorgeous, is merely a mid-level PC, and those get obsolete way too soon. But a blog from Rahul Sood (top guy at Voodoo and now CTO at HP) about the Firebird mentioned a conversation he had with Wallace Santos, and Sood had high praise for Maingear. So I checked it out, and I'm very glad I did. (I suspect HP will be less pleased if they find out.)
As it turns out, I could not get nearly as much machine for my money anywhere else than I have by buying this Prelude from Maingear. With shipping included, I paid less than $4K for this computer. I don't remember finding anything else for less than $4500 w/o shipping, and even then I would have gotten much less in terms of equipment and performance than what's sitting on my desk right now. That fact, and MG's stellar reputation, got me to finally buy the new PC I'd been promising myself for two years.
So far, so good. Color me happy!