MainGear MG-1 Silver gaming PC review

MainGear is a US {custom} PC builder run by {hardware} fanatics, and it exhibits within the firm’s meticulously crafted gaming PC builds. From its tidy cable administration to its use of custom-made, 3D-printed components, MainGear is aware of how you can catch your eye. The MainGear MG-1 Silver gaming PC is not any exception, with a powerful specs sheet for its $1,249 price ticket, in addition to some mighty fantastic lighting.

MainGear is not any stranger to our greatest gaming PC information both, with its Apex Rush wowing us with its {custom} water-cooling system. This rig is a really completely different beast, although, with a really tempting value that buys you an awesome Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU for gaming, in addition to a 10-core Intel CPU.

MainGear MG-1 Silver design

The MainGear MG-1 Silver is a superb instance of boutique PC constructing finished effectively. It’s sensible, but it additionally seems to be the half, bringing RGB lighting to the forefront of its design, regardless of its low value. The black steel and rubber case seems to be flashy, nevertheless it’s not excessive with pointy angles – this easy, minimalist aesthetic will seamlessly match into varied setups, from dwelling places of work to gaming environments.

The vulcanized rubber entrance body is a standout function of the MG-1 Silver’s design. This materials selection is unconventional in PC circumstances, but it affords a tactile, sturdy floor that screams “premium”. This construction on the entrance is designed to carry customizable RGB panels, which you’ll personalize to your liking. A fast go to to MainGear’s web site will permit customers to customise their very own builds and entrance plates in real-time, due to MainGear’s on-site 3D rendering software program.

Hooked up magnetically, these panels permit for simple customization and allow customers to tailor the look of their PC to their private fashion. The magnetic attachment is simple to make use of, and ensures a safe and seamless match, sustaining the glossy traces of the PC’s design. The RGB lighting inside these panels can be totally customizable, providing a spectrum of colours and lighting results due to the onboard software program and included RGB distant. This function allows you to create a dynamic, visually putting look that may be modified at any time.

The tempepurple glass facet panel is a welcome (if commonplace) addition right here as effectively, enabling you to view the interior elements and the neatly organized cables. There’s loads of room to improve the MainGear MG-1 Silver sooner or later as effectively, due to its spare PCIe slots, in addition to room for an AIO cooler within the roof. 

MainGear MG-1 Silver options

The MainGear MG-1 Silver goes for the jugular of the decrease mid-range gaming PC market, offering a roster of strong elements with out a bloated price ticket. The guts of this technique is its Intel Core i5-13400F processor, which supplies you six of Intel’s Raptor Lake P-Cores and, in contrast to the earlier Core i5-12400F, additionally offers you 4 E-Cores.

These ten cores give it an additional edge in multi-tasking (that’s good in the event you do loads of video encoding, for instance), whereas its six P-Cores can enhance to as much as 4.6GHz. That’s not as excessive because the clock velocity of the newest, costlier, 14th-gen CPUs, equivalent to the brand new 5.3GHz Core i5 14600K, nevertheless it’s completely fantastic for gaming.

The CPU is complemented by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which affords an honest steadiness of rasterization and ray tracing efficiency within the newest video games. Not solely that, nevertheless it additionally helps Nvidia’s newest DLSS 3 Body Technology tech, which makes use of AI to create further frames in video games, and easy out the body fee.

In the meantime, cooling is managed by Cooler Grasp Hyper 212 air cooler, which is completely fantastic for the Core i5-13400F CPU, and it’s held in place with a {custom}, 3D-printed MainGear bracket.

The MG-1 Silver additionally rocks 16GB of Kingston Fury RGB DDR4 RAM working at 3,600MHz, which is a fantastic velocity for DDR4 reminiscence, and 16GB is all it’s good to run the newest video games. Regardless of what you may suppose, DDR4 remains to be nice for gaming. In fact, together with RGB lighting on the RAM modules additionally provides an additional visible attraction.

The one actual draw back of the MG-1 Silver is the SSD capability. The Solidigm P41 M.2 NVMe SSD performs effectively, however its 512GB capability lacks the wiggle room to comprise greater than a handful of video games (or simply Baldur’s Gate 3.) Joking apart, its sequential 3,500MB/s learn, and 1,625MB/s write speeds are completely fantastic for this value.

There are actually quicker and greater M.2 drives that you possibly can set up on this PC at a later date. The MSI Professional B660M-A CEC WiFi DDR4 motherboard is fairly primary, being solely a micro-ATX Mannequin, nevertheless it does have a pair of 4x PCIe 4 M.2 connectors, which means you possibly can improve to one thing quicker just like the WD Black SN850X later down the road.

The whole thing is powered by a 600W EVGA PSU, which is fairly primary however offers ample energy to the system, with some headroom for future upgrades as effectively. The MG-1 Silver is well-equipped in terms of connections as effectively. The USB-C port on the entrance panel helps the USB 3.1 Gen 2 commonplace, which isn’t as fast because the quickest Gen 2×2 commonplace, however does help speedy 10Gbps information transfers.

There are additionally a great deal of commonplace USB 3.1 ports on the motherboard to your gaming mouse, keyboard, and exterior storage. The graphics card’s HDMI and DisplayPort outputs cater to varied show choices as effectively, from high-refresh-rate gaming displays to immersive VR setups. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 make sure the system is prepared for the newest wi-fi requirements as effectively.

MainGear MG-1 Silver specs

MainGear MG-1 Silver efficiency

The MainGear MG-1 Silver’s efficiency is rooted in its fastidiously chosen {hardware}, which is optimized for gaming effectivity and reliability. The Intel Core i5-13400F processor delivers strong multitasking efficiency for the value, whereas the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 is strong for gaming at 1080p.

Within the 3DMark CPU profile check, the MainGear MG-1 Silver clocked up a rating of seven,330 with all 16 of its threads enabled, which is an honest end result for a finances processor. By comparability, its six-core predecessor, the Core i5-12400F, solely scores round 6,000 on this check, so that you’re getting some further multi-threading energy from these 4 E-Cores.

On to video games, and enabling DLSS Tremendous Decision, in addition to DLSS 3 Body Technology, allowed the MG-1 Silver to play Cyberpunk 2077 at 1,920 x 1,080 at over 90fps on its Extremely ray tracing preset – an enormous enhance from round 35fps with DLSS deactivated.

In the meantime, F1 23 fortunately averaged 80fps on the Extremely Excessive element preset, and Warhammer: Complete Warfare averaged 82fps. You’ll don’t have any bother working the newest video games at 1,920 x 1,080 on this machine, even with ray tracing enabled if the sport helps DLSS.

One spotlight of this construct can be its quiet operation compared to different gaming PCs I’ve examined – you’ll be able to barely hear the followers, even once you’re gaming.

MainGear MG-1 Silver software program

Coming sizzling off the runway with Home windows 11 pre-installed and 0 bloatware, the MainGear MG-1 Silver makes an awesome first impression once you hearth it up. The absence of the pointless software program that’s normally pre-installed by producers is a big benefit, permitting for a cleaner, extra environment friendly preliminary setup. With no pointless packages pre-installed, gamers can start utilizing their PC nearly instantly after unboxing. 

MainGear MG-1 Silver conclusion

The MainGear MG-1 Silver not solely has dazzling beauty for its modest $1,249 price ticket, nevertheless it additionally delivers the products in terms of gaming efficiency, even with ray tracing enabled. The RTX 4060 is a formidable GPU for 1080p gaming, and the Core i5-13400F is an honest CPU for its value, offering all of the processing energy you want for gaming.

For those who don’t have an unlimited sum of money to spend, however you desire a great-looking PC and first rate 1080p gaming efficiency, the MainGear MG-1 Silver is a unbelievable choice, particularly with the power to customise the entrance panel.