We were pleasantly surprised to see a small company like Maingear offer a three-year warranty. It doesn't cover onsite service, but you do get two-way repair shipping for the first 30 days after your purchase. We were troubled by a call to the company's sales line, though. A befuddled sales rep told us he didn't know anything about the warranty. Maingear maintains that the gentleman we spoke with was still in training and has since been given more comprehensive instructions. We hope that's the case. At least calls to Maingear are on its own dime; toll-free phone-support lines run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET weekdays and Saturdays.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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BAPCo's SysMark 2004 rating | |
SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating | |
SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Doom 3 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Doom 3 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF |
(Lower times are better)
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Sorenson Squeeze 4.0 video-encoding test (in seconds) | |
Adobe Photoshop CS test (in seconds) | |
Apple iTunes 4.7.1.30 MP3-encoding test (in seconds) |
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
ABS Ultimate X8
Windows XP Pro SP2; 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840; Intel Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI Intel Edition chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB SATA 10,000rpm; Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80 400GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 Intel Edition SATA RAID controller
Alienware Aurora 7500
Windows XP Pro SP2; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (2) Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two Hitachi HDS728080PLA380 80GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Apple Power Mac G5 (dual 2.7GHz)
Macintosh OS 10.4; Dual PowerPC G5 2.7GHz; 4,096MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra (AGP); 250GB Maxtor SATA hard drive
Dell XPS 600
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 3.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 670; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI Intel Edition chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two Hitachi HDS725050KLA360 500GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 Intel Edition SATA RAID controller (RAID 0)
Hypersonic Cyclone OCX Limited Edition
Windows XP Pro SP2; 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-57; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 550MHz; (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Seagate ST3300831AS 300GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Maingear F131 SLI-AMD
Windows XP Pro SP2; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two 74GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA; one Maxtor 300GB 7,200rpm SATA
Overdrive PC Torque SLI
Windows XP Pro SP2; 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-57; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; Seagate ST3200826AS 200GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Velocity Micro Gamer's Edge DualX
Windows XP Pro SP2; 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-57; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; (2) 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe, SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; WDC WD250JD-00HBB0 250GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Silicon SiL3114 SoftRAID 5
Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX
Windows XP Pro SP2; 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 overclocked to 4.0GHz; Intel 955X Express chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition PCIe; two 74GB Western Digital SATA in a RAID 0 array; 400GB Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80 SATA
