Maingear...but why ??!

[jbrown]

hello fellow board members!

As you can tell by my post count I'm one of the new guys. Ive been to this site a few times though, even before this board was here. finally decided to go ahead and join.

I'm sure there has been many topics just like this one, but none the less; here is my story...... :D

I currently have an Alienware PC. ordered it when the 5900 ultra cards came out..so its been a few years ago. so i think its time for an upgrade.
a major one this time.

I'm going to order two systems. one gaming BEAST for me, and one media PC for my fiancée. I'm going to spend a lot of money on it, it will be so fast its insane, and should look better than a ferrari cruising threw miami on a warm day. simply put, i want it to kick ass ! !

Ive been on many, many boards. Ive talked to every company i could think of on the phone, and threw emails. Ive narrowed it down to pugetsystems and maingear. Ive been pretty set on Puget, but Ive always looked at maingear also. I'm super picky and both the afer mentioned companies seem to offer great customer service, awesome machines, and immaculate build quality. (from what i have read/seen anyways...)

I'm sure this has been asked a ton, but i want to ask it anyways.
given you have my situation above. why would or did you purchase from maingear ? Ive talked with Puget quite a bit, and they have been very friendly and helpful. always answering emails, and etc. but...they do not paint their systems, and i cant get out of my head all the great things ive heard about maingear and its customer service, and awesome build quality. i want my wires hidden. as much as I'm paying i expect nothing less.

one more thing, i have read that maingear generally takes about a month to build a system. Puget takes 3-4 days. is that true, ? if so....is it worth it ??


-Jessie

[Ivant_]

I was in the same posisiton as you (or still am). I finally decided on purchasing a Maingear (if they will ship to New Zealand) after reading some reviews of various gaming machines from different boutique pc builders. Maingear have gotten much better reviews than Puget (Puget got low scores on the technical support side) and Maingear also got an editors choice award. Also to me Puget systems look very bland, Maingear systems look much cooler. :D

[jbrown]

I was in the same posisiton as you (or still am). I finally decided on purchasing a Maingear (if they will ship to New Zealand) after reading some reviews of various gaming machines from different boutique pc builders. Maingear have gotten much better reviews than Puget (Puget got low scores on the technical support side) and Maingear also got an editors choice award. Also to me Puget systems look very bland, Maingear systems look much cooler. :D

that is one of the things that has led me here. the puget systems look a little on boring side. even their site seems that way. like i said, they have been super friendly (to me) though.

i sent an email to the CEO of maingear, similar to this topic. waiting to see what he has to say. thanks for you info though, anything else...i would love to hear it. this is a big decision, alot of money being spend.

here is what i have configured, if i order from maingear.

Maingear Ephex pc

Exterior Automotive Color: Electric Blue

Side Window: Translucent Window Side Panel w/ LED Lighting Bundle
Power Supply: 1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Processor: QX6850 Core 2 Extreme Edition (3.0GHz x 4)
CPU Cooling: Maingear Arctic 120mm CPU Water Cooling System
Memory: 4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: NO
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black
Optical Drive Two: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black
Video Card: 2x NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 1536MB PCIe in SLI
Video Cooling: Maingear Arctic Liquid GPU Cooler
Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: NO
Sound Card: Integrated 8-channel High Definition Audio
Network Card: Dual Gigabit LAN
Display One: SAMSUNG 305T Black 30" 6ms DVI Widescreen LCD
Monitor Game: FREE! Guild Wars: Factions PC Game
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-Bit)
Keyboard: Logitech® G15 Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech® G7 Laser Cordless Mouse - Free Paint Match!
Warranty: 3 Year Maingear Warranty
Product Subtotal: $8,305.67

[Ivant_]

Nice system man. I'm getting a similar one but with only 1 8800 ultra and a qx6700 instead.

Btw... all that money and you're not getting a sound card? Or do you already have one or something.

[theDreamer]

Ok before I look at what you want to get I will try to answer a few questions, without stepping on the toes of Puget as I have never purchased from them.

I know over at HardOCP that Puget got some alright reviews, but MG still has been leading the way for awhile now and shows no sign of letting up on what top quality & support should be, among other things. The build time you mentioned can be a bit long, but they many times over estimate.

Reasons for long build time:
~Paint, if you get a painted system it will take a bit longer, has to be painted, has to dry before any part is put inside of it, then the next part beings.
~Building a system, MG does a great job of building each system by hand and with a smaller company they can not shoot through 100 builds a day.
~Next part is testing, something that man boutiques are set above about or shot down with. Now I do not know if Puget does this so I can not comment, but MG will do a full system check along with a 72 hour burn in.

Company Page (http://maingear.com/Company.html/url)

That link talks a bit about the company, and on the bottom right you can see the step by step build process your machine will go through, sort of how I listed yet in more detail.

Now without know much about Puget I can not truly do a apple to apple comparison, but the questions you need to find out, which some you have. Paint, proper wiring (not so much in X goes to X, but how does it look), parts used, Over clocking (if you so desire), burn in process (do that have one?), customer support. There are a few more, but those are some of the top points that need to be looked at on what you can easily compare the two companies to.

I will look over your build in a minute.

[theDreamer]

Ok quick look through your system and it looks good, my suggestions:
~For both the CPU & GPU you need to redline them, if you want. You are paying for the top Water Cooling and you are not going for the best speed possible? Also if you did not know what redlining meant it is there term for over clocking your system.
~As someone else said, the sound card? Reason?
~32-bit OS, you will not get the full 4gbs of use out of that OS, but that is just letting you know. MG will install the 64bit if you call and ask them to and you will get full use out of your ram and then some if you add more later.
~Great choice in monitor.
~You have all the best parts, why no raptor for the OS & programs?

That is all I can see right now, overall a awesome build.

[jbrown]

well... to tell you the truth ive asked many questions about the configuration while i been waiting to make my purchase, and a few new parts have came out. ive asked about the very things you both mentioned. alot of it i have asked on the pugetsystems forum, and of course im still not sure about. here is what i got so far.

sound card

i was going to get one, as i have an audigy 2 now. im only going to be using a 2.1 setup so i feel the onboard would be enough. got a plamsa and surround in my living room w/xbox 260 :D

OS

i thought about getting the 64 bit version, but i have read many times that it has problems. i know vista in general is buggy, but from what ive read the 32 bit version works better.

Harddrives

not sure on this one. right now i have two 120 gb drives. i use one to install games on and the other for the OS and software. should i do the same type of thing for this system.

i was thinking a 10,000 rpm 150 gb for the OS and software, then a slower 7,2000 rpm bigger 320 gb harddrive for the games.
(i wish they made 10k rpm bigger harddrives)


any suggestions, im all ears. oh and as for the redline (Over clocking) i didnt think it would really 'NEED' it. ok honesty, im scaried of it. ive never done it, and afraid it may wear out my parts later or something tear up. or what if i need to do a reinstall of the OS which ive done on this pc quite a few times. ill loose all the OC settings.

[jbrown]

thanks for the replies guys, i appreciate it!

[ginfan]

A couple quick thoughts on this thread.

Onboard sound can drastically reduce system performance in some games.

Add to the "reasons for long build time" that MG is a smaller shop so they are unable to start your system the same week you purchase it.

I have a similar system on order. Based on conversations with MG tech, they recommended a 10k drive for OS and installs and a larger second drive for file saves and back ups... so that's what I did :-)

[theDreamer]

Yeah, sorry if I did not make it sound clear, 10k hard drive = raptor. Raptor is the name of the HD so I just use it instead of typing out 10k etc.

The sound, as ginfan stated, takes some strain off the system, this will leave for better FPS now, and more so in the long run when games are more intensive and your system is showing its age.

On the over clocking, I would not be afraid of it. The only times I deter people from it is if they are doing it themselves and do not have a guide of some sort. Whether it be another person, a forum for help, or just a general understanding of what steps need to be taken place. Now when it comes to a boutique they will set it all up for you so you do not have to worry about the system.

Also, over clocking will not tear down your system any faster. What tears down a system is an improper OC or an OC that pushes to far and is under high stress all the time. High stress meaning your system is pushing 100% CPU limit 24/7 year round, and even then you might see a slight decrease in speed in 3 years in stead of 3.5. (Note those numbers are made up, but just used to show that it is not a huge lose.)

Also, on the smaller company that I just remembered, I forget if MG does this, but since they are small they many times do not have extra parts or should I say parts laying around for new systems coming in every day. They might have 5 cards on hand, but 15 orders come in that day, so they order 15 cards and start building that way. Smaller boutique companies many times have very limited over supply just because if something is not being used, for testing, an order, or repair part, they are losing money on it.

About the OS, tough choice, but to tell you the truth you should be fine with a 64 bit OS really. Now let me ask you this though, what exactly do you plan on using this for, just games, games/internet/video/photo/etc.?

Many programs currently have had updates to allow there 32bit counterparts to run under a 64 bit OS, but might not take advantage of the full system resources, while in the mean time they are writing a new program for the 64bit OS to sell coming up. Also, many companies have 32/64 bit programs that work under both so you should be fine. Basically make a good solid list of current applications/games you are going to use, beyond that anything coming out in the next months and beyond should or will work under 64bit OS's just because that is the coming standard and where computers are needing to go for more powerful games.

[jbrown]

Yeah, sorry if I did not make it sound clear, 10k hard drive = raptor. Raptor is the name of the HD so I just use it instead of typing out 10k etc.

lol, i know !


Edit*
hmmm.. that has me thinking. alot of what i said up there is what puget has told me, and i have got off of other forums.

i thought if i got a sound card it would have the dedicated memory and help out with the games.

also if i get two harddrives and have only the OS and software on one, it would have less on it, and not be running the game and OS at the same time thus making the PC faster overall.

i use this pc for burning cd/dvd, games, you name it. but this time im going to order two systems. the other will be a media type for my fiancee. so this system we are talking about will be purely for playing games and surfing the net ...thats it !
:D

as for the 64 bit OS, they told me it had a few bugs, and i dont want anything that will give me problems. last thing i want to do is pay upwards of 8k-10k for a system and then have problems. ill be playing games like ghost recon advanced warfighter1,2, company of heroes, half life 2,....
i want this to blow crysis specs away .....cant wait to play that game !

lasty, why would you choose Maingear ? not just over puget so to speak ...for any reason. why ? im liking what i see though, also being smaller may mean a little longer build. but sometimes that also means alot better attention to detail and such.

[jbrown]

also i seen on the config page where you can get 8gb of mushkin ram. is the really possible. i looked on the mushkin site and seen the 2gb sticks. could i really have that much ram. i want this thing to fly ! !

[theDreamer]

If you have not, go to a website called, HardOCP and check out more reviews there. Also Plan1x would be the guy who comes on the boards the most, but he is currently out of the office.

If you want some quick answers from MG themselves, either give them a call or you can email them.

[jbrown]

ive already emailed the CEO of maingear with alot of that.
and i go to the hardocp forums and main site all the time lol !

thanks though.

im building a pc on both the puget and maingear sites right now. seeing which is cheaper and what i get for the money. ive noticed that maingear does not tell the name brand of some of the parts.

do you know what they use for water cooling of the cpu, and gpu(video cards).


edit*
just finished building on both sites.

puget is $9,316.92

maingear is $8,845.60,
but i get the silvestone tj09 case painted blue, corsair dominator ram instead of kingston hyper x that puget uses..(they said i can get corsair, but i have to pay for it of course)
processor is overclocked, both video cards overclocked, logitech g7 mouse, logitech g15 keyboard, logitech z 2300 2.1 speakers.

the puget price up there is NOT including a keyboard, mouse, no paintjob, the tj07 (older) case, no overclocking, and no speakers. the monitor, processor, and the rest are all the same on both.

gee which one would you go with lol !

[jbrown]

correction, maingear memory is 4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
and..

puget is
4g of Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 2048MB


:D

edit* correction AGAIN!!

puget case is the TJ07

maingear is the TJ10..


dang...hahahah ! , maingear is making this look like an easy choice. i havent even recieved an email back from them yet and already finding out all this...wow !

[theDreamer]

Yeah, the bonuses you get with MG can be very good, at some points they are a bit pricey, but overall they are good price.

I believe they use EVGA for the GPU.
The water cooling blocks I know have been mentioned before, but I have yet to find the post again.

[jbrown]

ok thanks a lot. if you find that post, definitely let me know please.

it may take the a little longer, but maybe they would pay more attention to my system specifially and build it very cleanly and stable. as well as worth waiting for the better parts and maybe paint if i choose so.

[ginfan]

Well the orignal question was why maingear, and as it is still 30 minutes till raid time, I thought I would list some reasons why I picked Maingear:
-I read very solid reviews.
-I liked what I saw on the forums.
-I liked that phone sales knew what they were talking about, something I often found not to be true at other "Dellish" experiences I've had with the big boys in the past.
-I liked that emails to MG Sales were promptly answered and answers were complete (often places reply with partial answers requiring follow up communication).
-I liked that they would do custom requests with a smile. Instead of the mainstream answer "sorry we can't configure that system without a modem" I had a phone rep recommend a TV Tuner not in their configuration options, volunteer to confirm online that 64bit drivers were available (btw they are doing 64-bit Vista Home Premium for no additonal charge even though it wasn't in the config tool either :-)). When they build my system they will be doing extra work because of these non-standard config options vs. just ghosting a config version of a drive. They even had to do custom billing outside of their system for the componant--this excellent customer service experience gives me a high degree of confidence.
-I like that a single tech builds your pc vs. an assembly line approach.
-I like that they burn in with the 72 hour stress test and send me bench mark results.
-I like the look of the Ephex system
-Finally they had what I was looking for at what seemed to me to be a fair price


Others I looked at:
- Dell XPS: Their customer service isn't what it used to be (I'm being nice) and their prices seem to yo-yo up and down a lot. At the time of purchase, MG had slightly better brand named stuff, were willing to do a 64-bit Vista at no extra charge and was cheaper.
-Alienware: now a joke version of their former glory. At the time I was pricing systems, they had older componants and higher prices then their XPS brethern. My personal opinion is that now that they are owned by Dell, they are trying to make the business unit unprofitable so they can make a business case to shut it down and shift resources to their XPS business unit.
-Falcon NW: Wonderful, beautiful but simply too expensive for me.
-DigitalStormOnline: a close second for me. Weighing apples to apples/componants to componants they seemed a slightly better value and said all the right things, but for some reason, intutively they didn't instill the same consumer confidence in me that MG did. There were little things like an incorrect answer from sales, the quality of their website and lack of forum community, but ultimately it was a (perhaps unfounded) sense that they weren't as rock solid as MG. That and their cases were not as aethetically pleasing imo :-).

I'm not familiar with and didn't compare Puget

I still think I made the right choice and my confidence level is high that I will be more than pleased. But it will be a couple more weeks before delivery, and I'll know for sure :-)

For reference I ordered an Ephex for gaming:

-Exterior Automotive Color: Black Brushed Aluminum Finish
-Power Supply: 1000W Enermax Galaxy Power Supply
-Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
-Processor: E6850 Core 2 (3.0GHz x 2)
-CPU Cooling: Zalman Ultra Quiet CNPS9500 LED 92mm CPU Cooler
-Memory: 4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
-Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES
-Hard Drive One: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
-Hard Drive Two: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
-Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe
-Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB PCIe
-Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: YES
-Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi™ XtremeGamer Fatal1ty
-TV Tuner: ATI TV WONDER 650 PCI
-Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit)

It came to less then $4k. I already have a Dell 24" widescreen lcd, Saitek Eclipse keyboard and a Logitech Mx510 mouse that I will bring to the party

P.S. I know I've posted my specs before, but well doing so makes me happy so it probably will not be the last time :-p

[Trashman00]

It's a good thing you didn't go with digital storm. I owned a pc from them and their tech support was really bad. I waited 11 days for a return phone call from them. They never answered my e-mails either.

[RottynDawg]

The following thread gives some good answers as to why people bought from Maingear:

http://www.maingearforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=616

[Charly Brown]

Even if I just ordered a system from Maingear that is 3 times less expensive than what you are ready to pay, I spent over half a month researching on PC makers after I decided what I wanted. I considered five companies: Dell, Alienware (I should count these two as one, but for the sake for the comparison I will let them as two), Velocity Micro, Falcon NW and Maingear

If you allow me, I would say I’m on a position a bit more challenging than yours: I have a limited budget. With all the money you have to spend, you maybe better getting a Falcon NW as I think it positions itself at a higher end than Maingear, considering the prices they command and I understand they are solid computers. But, why did I pick Maingear?

Falcon was out first as I couldn’t build the system I wanted without paying for things I didn’t need. It was very hard to get something below 3,000 USD without paying for ‘bundles’ of stuff I didn’t want. Maybe they are better than Maingear, the way a Ferrari is better than a BMW, but hey, not that many people can afford a Ferrari. And still a BMW is a great car

Second to go was Alienware: Are they crazy or what? Not only their computers were expensive, but packed with components of not that good quality and as I read here, I think they had components that were not the latest. It is a shame as I used to like them

Then it was the turn of Dell. I have owned Dells for about 8 years (my current PC is a Dell) and I think they are extremely good on budget multimedia computers and laptops, but when they go to the gaming segment, they become expensive and some of the options are puzzling. If, as me, you can’t go to the mammoth XPS 700 series because the cheapest, basic model goes for close to $2,000 with tax, and you cannot compare it with a Maingear Prelude in terms of what you get for the money, you have to settle for the XPS 400 series. I built a 400 series that went up to the 2,500 dollars and it was not as good as to the components I built on my Prelude. That, and I think Dell customer service has declined steadily and my current PC was not built as good as the first Dell I owned, so in terms of quality they have also issues

So it went down to two, Velocity Micro and Maingear. This was hard, as I think Velocity makes very good computers and you can get a very cool looking PC, clear side chassis, light work, etc for less that what I paid for my Prelude, but at the end it went down to two things: reviews from reputable sources and customer service experience and reputation. I sent various emails to Velocity with no answer for about three days, while I sent a couple of emails to Maingear with immediate response. Then you read the reviews, and Maingear achieve higmarks on both, systems performance and post sales services. I think the second is very important considering the speed systems become obsolete (you will need support to upgrade soon) and more complex. Velocity micro is on the lower end of gaming PC, I think, while Maingear is in the middle, and they can afford better support for charging more. At the end it was matter of value

As per the time they take to build the system, I am not sure. When I checked out I picked FedEx two day shipping and according to Maingear I will get my PC on August 14, next Tuesday, and I ordered the computer yesterday, August 11 in the morning. Considering the tests and that I ordered the PC on a Saturday, this would be virtually impossible for Maingear to accomplish unless they built the PC right away and are shipping it tomorrow morning. So, if I get my Prelude on August 14, I’ll be greatly surprised and I’ll take my hat off for Maingear, but if I don’t, I think it is matter to adequate their website to reflect the real deal and as such I’ll make the suggestion. But I won’t make a big deal of it, unless it takes considerably more

[jbrown]

thanks a lot everyone. sounds to me like you guys think just like me. you have all been to the sites, and read the reviews.

at one point i was almost decided on digital storm, then ava direct..now im here. all honestly from everything ive looked at given the reviews and what not...main gear looks the best to me.

its big amount of money being spent, and i want to make the right decision.

oh and digital storm does have a forum now...yet i feel the same way you do. its a hard decision when you talk to all these different companies and etc. they make it sound like they are the best, and they will build the faster machine ever within 2-3 days.

im just another guy, looking to buy a badass pc. i think i may have finally came to the right place, what do you all think ? huh ?! :wink:

again i havent even spoken to anyone from maingear, and yet you guys have me pumped...good job lol !

[Eternal]

Just think how you will finally feel when you get your new system :).

[theDreamer]

Since these forums have swayed you this much, I would highly suggest you take some time and call Maingear for awhile and talk directly to them about what you are thinking. This way you have made contact with them, and you will also get some straight answers from them on certain subjects.

[ginfan]

Good call Dream.

[blindem]

I think ginfan and Charly pretty much covered exactly what I was going to say, as my experience and reasoning was about the same. I also ordered an Ephex. As for the build time issue, I'd rather have it done right and done well and take a month and be happy than have someone rush the job or do it assembly-line style. The wait is hard though! I'm hoping I'll get my shipping confirmation sometime this week, as the 20-day benchmark they set is this coming Friday. After that, I'll be able to tell you for certain that it was all worth the wait (and I'm sure it will be)!

[RottynDawg]

I second Dreamer's suggestion. If you're going to spend that kind of money, a phone call to talk with a real person really shouldn't be an option.

It wasn't and option for me, and it is what sealed the deal...I ordered at the end of the phone call :)

[jbrown]

thanks guys,

and yes i was/am definitely going to call first. right now im waiting to see if they email me back or not. i emailed the CEO, dont know if they is who i should have emailed or not, and it was really long. i tried not to make it such a long email, but i really wanted to explain myself and situation.
i been looking at everyyyyyyything, and everyyyyyyone you know.

[theDreamer]

Emailing the CEO should be fine, but he may/may not respond quickly as being a CEO is a busy job and he probably gets 100s of emails daily.

[jbrown]

yeah thats just what i was thinking. i didnt know who to email so i emailed him.


i just got off the phone with Giovanni. he seemed pretty nice, and walked threw the whole configuration with me. he was quick with his responses as well, which shows me he knows what he is talking about. i asked him " why should I buy from maingear" he said, "because we are the best" lol !
i told him how i had been waiting for awhile and read all the reviews and forum posts. i told him what made me call really was your forum. i said yo have some really good comments and supporters on your forum. :wink:

so he said it takes about 3 weeks for a system build, and 5 for a painted one.
i think give or take few days a or so, i know how that goes.....you can ever be exact so i wont hold that against him or maingear.

he was very helpful though, i now know exactly what to order. i asked what water cooling they use. he said its custom made for them . it is not any name brand reallly...well i guess it is; its maingear lol !
said they use XFX, and eVGA video cards. i asked if he would email me a pic of a system. i would like to see the water cooling or a ephex model with a window..

so im waiting on that now. if any one wants to see it, let me know and ill post the pic when i get it.


so i should be ordering any day now. waiting on $$$... :D
main im excited as hell haha !

[theDreamer]

Sounds good, yeah pictures of the Ephex have eluded the boards so far, but I know a few members have one on order & they say they would get pictures up quickly so we all know what they look like.

Glad he calmed your nerves a bit it seems about your choice.

[RottynDawg]

Good deal jdbrown...can't wait to hear what you decide on. It can definitely be nerve racking to throw down that kind of money on a system :)

[jbrown]

Good deal jdbrown...can't wait to hear what you decide on. It can definitely be nerve racking to throw down that kind of money on a system

i hear that man. just want to make sure i get a good system.

[jbrown]

definitely. i feel good about ordering from maingear. especially after looking at those pics. same as the rest, ill post mine after i order and recieve my system. ill make a topic when i order it and post the process there.

here are the specs for what im going to order:

Ephex system w/ Intel + Nvidia

Customizations:

exterior automotive color : black brushed aluminum finish
side window: translucent window side panel w/LED lighting bundle
power supply: 1000w enermax galaxy power supply
motherboard: Nvidia nForce 680i Galaxy power supply
processor: QX6852 Core 2 Extreme Edition (3.0GHz x 4)
CPU Cooling: Maingear artic 120mm CPU water cooling system
Memory: 4GB Corsair XMS2-8500 DDR2-1066
Do you want us to Redline™ your CPU?: YES
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Raptor Enterprise 150GB 10K RPM 16MB Cache - SATA
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
Optical Drive One: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology - black
Video Card: 2x NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 1536MB PCIe in SLI
Video Cooling: Maingear Arctic Liquid GPU Cooler
Do you want us to Redline™ your GPU?: YES
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi™ XtremeGamer
Network Card: Dual Gigabit LAN
Speakers: Logitech® Z-2300 2.1 Speakers
Display One: SAMSUNG 305T Black 30" 6ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
Game: FREE! Guild Wars: Factions PC Game
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-Bit)
Keyboard: Logitech® G15 Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech® G5 Laser Mouse - Free Paint Match!
Warranty: 3 Year Maingear Warranty

here are the pics Giovanni emailed me. man are they awesome at wiring or what !? :D

http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/24718/2002108517307689331_rs.jpg

http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/24795/2002192223889331653_rs.jpg

http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/25934/2002174912890850396_rs.jpg

posted the pics anyways, they are worth it .. :D

[theDreamer]

Very good choice, and those pictures look very very clean.

[jbrown]

dont they ! thats what makes me excited. just thinking about how awesome my machine will look, and how freakn fast its going to be...man i cant wait !

[Eternal]

That could be the best wiring I have ever seen. Congrats again man!

[jbrown]

thats just what he emailed me, i havent ordered it yet.
when i do ill post the pics though.

[Gsquared]

That's beautiful. Wait till they hook up the coolant tubing; then your eyes will REALLY pop!

[blindem]

I'm also glad that you felt the forum was helpful. I share that sentiment with you, as I felt (and continue to feel) that they've built a really good community here.

By the by, I also just (20 July) ordered an Ephex very similar to yours (your processor is faster; I went slightly below the highest end just to save some cash, but I have a higher-end sound card to plug my mics, keyboard and guitars into), but otherwise our systems look almost identical. I think that says something about the advice they're handing out as well, as you and I also will be putting these systems to similar uses (though, obviously, I'm going to use mine for mixing music as well -- though I'm really buying it to be a big, expensive toy for myself!). It's a good sign when we have two different techs/builders giving us the same advice at two different times when what we're looking for is the same.

Way to go MG! (now get my system built! :lol: )

[jbrown]

yeah that is pretty awesome man.

what are you talking about hooking up your guitar. i been playing electric guitar for about 13 years man, i hook it up to my PC now but i have to use a headphone adapter. what where you referring to ?

[RottynDawg]

Awesome pics for sure...thank you for posting those! Nice to see the systems I can only dream of buying one day :)

[jbrown]

your welcome. i love looking at the pics. alot of people dont ever post theirs. i cant wait till i order my system, then the pics will be of MY machine.

dont worry though, ill share..haha !

[theDreamer]

your welcome. i love looking at the pics. alot of people dont ever post theirs. i cant wait till i order my system, then the pics will be of MY machine.

dont worry though, ill share..haha !

You say that now, but many many times people say they got there machines and disappear for months on ends...where they go, no body knows. :twisted:
No, it is just they get so happy with their computer they forget about pictures, which we completely understand & actually it is better to see that.

[blindem]

I run my guitar and keyboard in through the elite pro soundcard cause it has digital and analog external hookups and can then run through the Protools software for record/mixing. It's almost as good as having a home recording studio.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14064

[jbrown]

thanks guys, im finally fixing to order my pc. ...right now !!

ill make a topic on it in a bit. .