Enjoying my Prelude

[Kythrian]

After some extensive research and being swayed by some outstanding reviews, I ordered my Maingear Prelude around July 7th. It arrived on Friday July 20th and I am having a blast. Right now the only game I have to push it with is HL2 and Episode 1, but I am tearing through them with all settings maxed out. I am anticipating Bioshock and the Oblivion GOTY release. Also Episode 2 and Portal of course.

I have had a great experience so far, except for the shipping. But that is because FedEx sucks, nothing to do with Maingear. I had to call for a little support on Saturday morning and within 10 minutes I was good to go. I have had great experiences with the support at Maingear, from questions about configuration all the way to support after delivery. That is the main reason I chose a Maingear and I am glad to see I made the right choice.

I chose to find a monitor, mouse and keyboard on my own, so I could feel and see them before I bought them. I ended up with a Samsung 906BW which I believe is the successor to the 941. I also picked up the Logitec MX518 for gaming. I was just wondering if there was a reason that you don't offer these with your systems. Are the 941s better? I haven't tried the G5 so I can't pass judgment there, but the MX518 is very responsive and highly programmable. Also, do you have any widescreen resolution wallpapers? I enjoyed finding those on my machine, but they all seemed to be a 4:3 ratio. Unless I am a moron and didn't look hard enough.

The only disappointment I have is that in the reviews I read at [H]ardOCP, the folks at Maingear asked if they wanted any software pre-installed. I was stunned by this in the review, but it seemed really cool. I am only disappointed because I had to wait for HL2 and its buddies to download over Steam and I couldn't play right away. :wink: I can imagine there would be several reasons that this is not offered anymore, the least of which is that it could take a day to install something like WoW.

I will grab some pictures as soon as I clean up my desk area a little bit. Thanks a bunch for a great experience.

PS- I would like to get my case up off the carpet for better cooling, any recommendations?

[Plan1x]

Glad to hear that everything went well and hope that you can continue to enjoy the machine. If willing, this would be a great review for resellers, which we would greatly appreciate you posting there.


Are the 941s better? I haven't tried the G5 so I can't pass judgment there, but the MX518 is very responsive and highly programmable.

The reason we don't have MX518s are because Logitec seems to have dried out the channels and pushed all of these to the major retail chains such as Best Buy. We can not get them through distribution.


Also, do you have any widescreen resolution wallpapers? I enjoyed finding those on my machine, but they all seemed to be a 4:3 ratio. Unless I am a moron and didn't look hard enough.

I don't think I have any wide screen wall papers to offer. I will put a word into our design team and see if they can put that in their ajenda.

You may want to check the design area of the forums, I know a member has posted wallpapers there that look great. One that I use on my widescreen at home.

Also, you may be able to request a Wall paper there cause I know people like Brink have helped others out before.



The only disappointment I have is that in the reviews I read at [H]ardOCP, the folks at Maingear asked if they wanted any software pre-installed. I was stunned by this in the review, but it seemed really cool. I am only disappointed because I had to wait for HL2 and its buddies to download over Steam and I couldn't play right away. :wink: I can imagine there would be several reasons that this is not offered anymore, the least of which is that it could take a day to install something like WoW.

You kind of hit the nail on the head with that answer. We use to install whatever anybody wanted into PCs but then that got out of hand. Some people were requesting 10 games or more to be installed and we just couldn't do that. We tried cutting it down to a limited few, games which we offered, but even that began to be a headache when we taking our time to perfect each machine, and get a call every 10 mins on why an order is taking longer then expected or something like that.




PS- I would like to get my case up off the carpet for better cooling, any recommendations?

Umm..a table?? :wink:

Just kidding...at home before I was able to get the correct setup, I used a 3/4" thick piece of plywood that I sanded down and glazed with some stain to make it look nice. I also added a 2x4 on its side and nailed it to the bottom of the plywood. It work for the time being to keep it off the ground and elevated it about 3 inchs or so.

[RottynDawg]

Nice review Kythrian, thank you for taking the time to post it up for all of us.

:morepics:

[Kythrian]

Reseller ratings now has my review up. Woo, I feel important. I don't think I could really say enough good things on that rating, considering my past experience with ibuypower.com. :x

Keep up the good work and I promise to tell anyone I know who needs a new computer, whether they want one or not.

[Charly Brown]

Hi there,

I am thinkg on buying a Prelude, but I am not sure on how many USB ports it has and if it has front headphones/mike plugs (important for me). Maingear's web doesn't have any pictures or a detail specifications sheet to look at the system, which by the way I've found strange for a company with such a high reputation and profile

:?:

Thanks for your comments

[Plan1x]

Hello and Welcome to the boards,

We didn't build a reputation by allowing you to answer your own questions, we built it by you having to come and experience our customer support and ask us questions :wink:

For your questions,

The prelude comes with 2 USB ports, firewire, headset, and microphone connection, in the front of the machine. The back has all similar connections and between 4 to 6 USB ports depending on the motherboard you choose.

[RottynDawg]

Welcome to the boards Charly!

[Charly Brown]

You really have outstanding customer service. I am also been exchanging emails with you and the time of response has been very fast. Thank you

I think I’ll definitively buy a Prelude and will upgrade the MB to the 680i SLI, but I need to keep my budget under control, as I cannot expend more than or close to 1,800 USD and I still want to play graphic intensive games like Company of Heroes on DirectX10 at a good resolution and performance. This is the configuration I have in mind:

Exterior Automotive Color: Silver Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: MAINGEAR 750W Ultra Quiet Power Supply
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Processor: E6750 Core 2 (2.66GHz x 2)
CPU Cooling: Intel Quiet CPU Cooler
Memory: 2GB Corsair DDR2 PC5300 DDR667 (2x1024MB)
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
Flash Card Reader: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader & Writer
Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCIe
Sound Card: Onboard 8-channel High Definition Audio
Network Card: Dual Gigabit LAN
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit)

This configuration is about 1,900 USD, 100 bucks over my budget, so I need to reduce on something without compromising performance that much. Will I still do well with a slower processor and a smaller Hard Drive? Any suggestions

Or, in the other hand, should I’ll go for 4GB of RAM and reduce the processor speed and the hard drive capacity to a minimum and totally rethink my budget, or would I do fine with 2GB of RAM?

[RottynDawg]

That looks like a really solid build Charly. Personally, I would pick a slower processor to keep your budget and leave everything else as is. I've run numerous Vista systems with only 2GB of RAM and they run fine. If you run into a situation where it isn't enough, you can easily add more later.

[Charly Brown]

Thanks Rottyn,

I though of a few other changes: Instead of one big 320GB hard drive, install two 160 hard drives, you know, the eggs in one basket theory should a hard drive fail

My configuration is coming to USD 1,957 (pretty close to budget) with an E6550 Core 2 (2.33GHz x 2) processor

What do you think?

Also, would it be worth to pay an extra 75 bucks for the 2GB Corsair XMS2 PC2 6400 RAM memory or would I do fine with the one I picked?

[RottynDawg]

My pleasure.

Regarding multiple drives, I would personally recommend an external drive for "backup" purposes in case the system itself has major issues...if we're talking about the best "backup" strategy that is :) The higher speed memory won't really offer you much improvement, if any, unless you plan to OC at which point it is pretty much required for stable performance. The E6550 would be fast for sure...I'm not sure you could go wrong with any of the Core 2 procs.

[spincut]

I didnt know about the Logitech retail channel thing (so you'll eventually not carry any Logitech mice???).

Although, I own an MX518 and it's not all its cracked up to be, but that's my personal preference I guess. It's not that its necesarily a bad mouse, but the "pro" grip it sports doesnt seem to fit my hand very well.

Conversly, logitech has brought back a grip i only remember seeing a very long time ago (with a mouse i dont even see listed in their website anymore) where it's just a very elegant wedge. I think it's a middle rung mouse, but i think once you get above logitechs budget mice, grip, feel and features might be more important than possible performance differences, because i bet they all have pretty good response and performance in comparison to whatever older mouse we were used to using (what with the newfangled "lasers" and "MX engines" and all that).

[Plan1x]

I didnt know about the Logitech retail channel thing (so you'll eventually not carry any Logitech mice???).



I didn't know about it either until I went digging around to see why we didn't carry MX518.
You question is not up to us, that is up to Logitech and how they play their game. I'm sure if we can get it we will list it. However, I was told for this particular mouse the channel is dry in our market.

[spincut]

Oh so it's just that mouse, i thought you meant the supply channel for all Logitech mice. I suppose that's a good thing since Logitech does make great mice in general!

[Charly Brown]

Thanks Rottyn,

I don't even know how to overclock :oops: , so I'll do fine with my choice

Charly

[Charly Brown]

Rottyn,

I have two 1 GB Dell memory modules I bought in an effort to beef-up my old Dell PC, effort that basically failed, my PC is just too old to upgrade and that's why I will buy a Prelude.

I contacted Dell and they are giving me a hard time to return the memory as it's out of their original package and I bought them some time ago. The question is: Can I take those modules and install them on my new Prelude? The tech specs are:

Dell Part# : A0743604. 1 GB Module for Dell Dimension 5150c system
Package Type 240-pin DIMM DDR2
Logical Type 128x64
Speed PC2-4200 / 533 MHz
Description Non-ECC, Unbuffered
Features Units Required: Installation in pairs of modules required

These are Dell branded but I don't think they're done by Dell. Would they be Ok with the Corsairs I'm installing?

[ginfan]

Howdy Charly,

My 2 cents is that the Dell modules might be compatible, but even if they are, they are slower than the memory that would come with your prelude (you stated 2GB Corsair DDR2 PC5300 DDR667 earlier in this thread). Best case scenario, imo, is that they will work but you will probably need to slow down all your memory to the slower 533mhz. Combine that with the fact that a 32bit system would not be able to address all 4 gb, and it would be best to keep the slower dell modules out of the prelude.

[Charly Brown]

Thanks Ginfan, didn't think about Dell being slower

One more thing and sort of general question on Prelude, does the chassis come with wheels? and if so, can they be removed? The place where I'll put it will be a bit dangerous for a chassis with wheels

I've seen many pictures without wheels, but then some with it, so I'm not sure

[RottynDawg]

The F131 comes with wheels but the Prelude does not so you should be fine :)