Maingear Overclocked Prebuilt with Liquid Metallic: $6000 Shroud Pre-Constructed Gaming PC Overview
The value improve over DIY elements value was not one among them: It’s 21-40% larger than DIY elements at retail, relying on which GPU you utilize compared. That’s considerably higher than Alienware’s 50% improve, however nonetheless excessive. However there’s good motive it’s this excessive: Shroud’s identify is on the case. This man, apparently known as “shroud” with a decrease case S, we’re instructed, was good at CS:GO and is at present a streamer, and which means this pc prices extra as a result of it makes you good at Counter-Strike…
What’s extra attention-grabbing to us is that Maingear is the primary system integrator we’ve seen to make use of the brand new HAVN HS420 case (learn our assessment), which was a wonderful first displaying from Maingear in our benchmarks. In addition they shoved a display into the aspect. We discovered that Maingear had the cleanest working system set up that we’ve seen in latest pre-built historical past they usually truly did some BIOS tuning, that are nice positives. The selection of a 9800X3D (learn our assessment) can be a welcomed change of tempo from Intel’s bizarre dominance within the pre-built house, however once more, it’s costly they usually do must ship on all of these issues.
Let’s get into the assessment.
We purchased this pc for a number of causes. Certainly one of them is that it has the HAVN HS420, which is without doubt one of the first pre-builts we’ve seen with the case. That alone made it attention-grabbing as a result of it’s actually explicit with the way it’s configured. We’d thought it will be check to see if Maingear was being attentive to the way it must be configured. We additionally purchased it as a result of it was one among their first builds with a 50-series card in it. It additionally occurs to be cross-branded with shroud.
We will see that Maingear likes Shroud a lot that it made a complete line of pre-built gaming PCs named after him. There’s the “Customized shroud Version,” the $7,300 “shroud Signature Version (Mk. II)” that launched extra lately, and the absent center little one that we have now for assessment as we speak.
That is the unique shroud Signature Version from the 5090 (learn our assessment) launch. We’re calling it the Mk. I.
It may solely be discovered through Archive.org’s WaybackMachine regardless of solely being only some months outdated and costing $6,000.
The system has a 9800X3D, RTX 5090, and 48GB of custom-tuned DDR5-8000 that apparently will increase your probability at hitting headshots.
We marvel if that’s definitely worth the probability of system crashes.
Value Comparability vs. DIY
Maingear shroud Signature Pre-built | Half and Value Breakdown | GamersNexus
| Half Identify | DIY Equal Half | DIY Half Value | |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9800X3D | Equivalent | $472 |
| CPU Cooler | MAINGEAR Epic 420 AiO Liquid Cooler | Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB | $130 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Phantom Gaming X870E Nova WiFi | Equivalent | $350 |
| Reminiscence | 48GB (2x24GB) Teamgroup T-Drive Xtreem ARGB DDR5-8000 | Equivalent | $250 |
| Storage | 2TB Teamgroup T-Drive A440 Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD | Equivalent | $134 |
| GPU | NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders Version | NVIDIA RTX 5090 Founders EditionorGigabyte Windforce RTX 5090 | $2000 or $2653 |
| Case | “MAINGEAR shroud Signature Editon”(HAVN HS 420 VGPU) | HAVN HS 420 VGPU | $300 |
| Energy Provide | 1200W FSP PTM Professional Gen5 80+/Cybenetics Platinum | Equivalent | $220 |
| Followers | 8x Phanteks PH-F140D30(R) | Equivalent | $317 |
| Inside Display screen | 12.3″ 1920×720 LCD Display screen | Equivalent / Generic | $90 |
| Cable Extensions | White Cable Extensions | Equivalent / Generic | $30 |
| Pre-built Value: $6,000 | DIY Whole With 5090 FE: $4,293 DIY Whole With Gigabyte Windforce 5090: $4,946 | ||
| Pre-built Premium Over DIY: $1,707 / $1,054 |
Right here’s the breakdown of elements and worth comparability versus DIY. The excellent news is that just about the entire elements can be found at retail. The exception is Maingear’s self-branded 420mm so-called “Epic” liquid cooler, however we will sub-in one other liquid cooler.
Total, the elements checklist largely has elements that make sense collectively, with the potential exception of the ASRock motherboard as a result of ASRock’s points with killing some X3D CPUs. We interviewed ASRock at Computex this 12 months, in case you need to be taught extra about that — they assume it’s fastened, however Reddit reveals it could be ongoing.
We calculated two totally different DIY totals for this, for the reason that $2,000 RTX 5090 FE is principally unobtainable. With the FE, DIY is slightly below $4,300. With the most cost effective associate 5090 we might discover on the time of writing (the ~$2,650 Gigabyte Windforce), the overall involves about $4,950.
We paid $6,000 for the system, in order that places the distinction at $1,700 with the FE, which is in absolute loopy territory for the delta — however that’s if you may get a 5090 at that worth. The Gigabyte Windforce places it at $1,050 on prime of DIY elements value – nonetheless excessive, however not fairly as insane when seen as a 21% improve. The Alienware Space-51 we simply reviewed was at 50%, and the Origin Genesis was at 34% relying on if you happen to in contrast towards the unique worth or the later $8,400 worth.
Overview and Advertising
To try to perceive why Maingear thinks it’s value demanding that type of worth, we turned to the lifeblood of any trade: Advertising.
The Signature Version is “co-developed” by shroud and Maingear and is pitched as the precise {hardware} and settings utilized in his predominant PC.
It’s bought {custom} decals in varied locations across the HAVN HS 420 VGPU case and a riveted badge that’s “Impressed by shroud’s private pinball machine assortment.”
Weirdly, Maingear neglects to say HAVN anyplace on the web page, itemizing the case as “MAINGEAR shroud Signature Version.” That’s unlucky for HAVN, particularly seeing as its HS420 actually deserves the popularity.
The system is marketed as overclocked proper out of the field, each on the 9800X3D CPU and the aforementioned headshot-boosting DDR5-8000 RAM.
Manufacturing unit OC is uncommon for a pre-built and basically exceptional on RAM, so we’ll validate these claims later. It’s a cool concept. Maingear instantly advertises reliability and the OC in the identical sentence, which is daring, and in addition incorrect.
Additionally attention-grabbing is the claimed use of liquid metallic TIM on the CPU.
That’s attention-grabbing, and we’ll check out that, however utilizing liquid metallic on a lidded CPU has considerably much less influence than utilizing it with a delidded CPU, the place it will actually excel. It additionally introduces danger if not achieved fastidiously by Maingear.
There’s a 1920×720 show inside, masking the drive bay space within the HS 420. It’s linked to the 9800X3D’s built-in graphics through a USB-C cable that routes out to the rear I/O.
Maingear means that it’s good for chat, however the curve within the glass sits instantly between the display and the person within the regular desk place.
That’s high quality although, everybody is aware of these screens are literally for waifus.
As a part of the “MAINGEAR Distinction,” it boasts “100% Zero Bloatware. It’s a complicated idea grammatically, however simple to test in observe. We worth a clear OS, so having 100% of zero could be an excellent p.c share of zero bloatware to have.
Tear-Down
Let’s get into the tear-down.
One of many the explanation why we just like the HAVN HS 420 case is how the panel mechanically slots in.
Pulling the bottom off reveals the cable administration. The PC makes use of cable extensions, which introduces one other level of failure. The 12VHPWR cable is definitely a alternative one, which was good of Maingear. This implies it goes from the GPU to the facility provide and doesn’t use an extension just like the 24-pin. That is good.
The PC makes use of a vertical GPU mount. The glass pane acts type of like a circulate information. The concept is that it shoots the air from the underside up in direction of the glass and again on the GPU, however in our testing, it hindered efficiency, although not in an enormous method. Truly laying the three backside followers down flat carried out higher. This implies the PC makes use of a sub-optimal configuration, although it’s nonetheless okay. The system’s greater downside is that they aren’t using the followers speeds the way in which they need to be.
The hole between the GPU and the glass plate must be a lot nearer. The nearer the GPU is to the highest fringe of the glass, the higher it’s going to carry out. In any other case, it introduces some potential recirculation points.
For the case, HAVN recommends utilizing the decrease again fan as consumption and the higher again fan as exhaust. Sadly, Maingear arrange each followers as consumption. This implies the system integrator isn’t following the case producer’s suggestion. After we examined the case, HAVN’s really useful method did work higher.
Persevering with with the tear-down, we unplugged the facility cable from the video card. We observed that Maingear used a GPU bracket that seemed 3D printed. To take away the GPU, we needed to unscrew its vertical package off and unscrew the GPU from its bracket. We unscrewed the radiator on the prime to offer us higher entry to take away the vertical package. The shroud’s glass made it tough to press down on the video card’s locking clip with our hand, so we used a screwdriver.
With the GPU eliminated, we will transfer ahead with the remainder of the disassembly. We tugged on the entire cables and noticed that they have been all safe and correctly linked, which is nice. Cable administration was additionally tidy with good consideration to element, which is what you need to see from a pre-built.
Eradicating the pump for the liquid cooler exposes the extraordinarily lackluster liquid metallic utility on prime of the CPU, which is de facto disappointing. It wasn’t utilized throughout the IHS. We additionally noticed a droplet of liquid metallic off of the IHS. We observed that the pads on the CPU have been lined, which protects the elements. The explanation they need to do it’s because liquid metallic is conductive, and may trigger a brief in any other case. Maingear’s liquid metallic utility was not the perfect and we expect if they are going to do it, they need to do it proper.
Wanting on the underside of the cooler’s copper coldplate, it’s not clear if Maingear utilized liquid metallic right here, which it’s presupposed to do. Regardless, there’s not sufficient liquid metallic right here. Liquid metallic must contact liquid metallic from each side to correctly mate, in any other case there’s potential for gaps, and poor efficiency consequently.
The issue with attempting to scrub up liquid metallic is that it tends to get in all places. And we needed to wipe down elements of our system after we took off the cooler to eliminate traces of it within the case. When you don’t do that, it will probably probably trigger a brief.
Subsequent, we checked to see if the entire screws within the motherboard have been correctly screwed in. We found that one among them was torqued too tight and principally sure a screw to its standoff. We had to make use of the assistance of pliers to unscrew it.
With that eliminated, we have been in a position to pull the ASRock motherboard out of the case.
We then took the NVME SSD out of the motherboard and noticed that Maingear had eliminated the tape off the thermal pad, which we’ve seen Starforge fail at previously and not like Alienware’s Space-51 PC we lately reviewed, the drive wasn’t bent both.
With the tear-down achieved, let’s get into the remainder of the system.
Thermals
Thermals – Regular-State
We’ll begin with thermal benchmarks. A full system load at regular state has the GPU at 80 levels Celsius and GPU reminiscence at 96.5 levels Celsius, which we expect is unacceptably excessive for the reminiscence. The core is OK right here. Regardless of NVIDIA’s FE design being so good general, its reminiscence can typically run too sizzling in some configurations. That is one among them. As this method ages, the pads age, and mud enters the system, we fear concerning the reminiscence temperature long-term. The CPU temperature was 84 levels Celsius with a 420mm liquid cooler, with the chipset at 74 on the hottest on account of getting dumped on by the GPU. We’ll want to have a look at noise ranges and the facility consumption from the overclock to higher perceive if these numbers make sense.
Different assorted temperatures have been high quality.
Thermals – CPU Over Time
Now we’ll briefly plot CPU and chipset temperatures towards the fan speeds to see how Maingear’s {custom} fan curve performs out.
CPU temperature quickly rises at the beginning of the check and finally hits the 80s. The AIO pump stays fixed for RPM, whereas the primary CPU followers stairstep earlier than settling in slightly below 1,600 RPM. Total, this sort of curve largely is sensible. The largest draw back is that the chassis followers aren’t doing a lot at underneath 700 RPM, rendering them to principally be RGB ornaments and restrict their usefulness for one thing like GPU reminiscence thermals.
Including the “Chipset 2” sensor to the chart once more illustrates the final warmth dump from the GPU with the flow-through design.
Thermals – GPU Over Time
Shifting on to GPU thermals over time reveals an attention-grabbing begin as core and reminiscence temperatures steadily improve through the preliminary idle interval of the check, then a steep decline because the followers kick on. After that, they climb to unacceptably sizzling on the reminiscence and about 80C for the GPU temperature. 80 is okay for the GPU core.
The identical goes for the followers – the preliminary rise to 30% and subsequent fast ramp to 50% are anticipated.
CPU Frequency
It is a bar chart evaluating the common all-core frequency efficiency for the 9800X3D at steady-state in a separate all-core Blender workload. Maingear’s overclocking claims fall brief because the pre-built configuration ran at 5157MHz common, 68MHz slower than in our unique assessment of the CPU when it was examined inventory and out-of-the-box with none overclocking. Maingear’s overclock is just not truly overclocking the CPU. It’s truly performing decrease than the expectation.
Maingear’s web site states: “Amplified by liquid metallic TIM and AMD 3D V-cache expertise, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D makes use of 104MB of on chip reminiscence to ship huge gaming efficiency boosts to the overclocked 8-core processor, maximizing body charge output on the preferred and demanding video games.” So for all that liquid metallic, 420mm liquid cooler, and use of aggressive PBO settings, Maingear falls wanting truly delivering its promise. A part of that is due to how Maingear used PBO with out fine-tuning, however the advertising and marketing units clear expectations. They should have good acoustics to be value this trade-off.
Acoustics – dBA Over Time
Acoustic testing is carried out in our hemi-anechoic chamber, which we constructed a pair years in the past for round $250,000 and have used repeatedly since then. The chamber has allowed us new insights into circumstances and coolers in evaluations and in addition will get quite a lot of use for prebuilt evaluations.
For noise over time, the system began out at a really low 16.9dBA through the idle interval, earlier than rising to roughly 25-26dBA through the first couple of minutes of load when measured at 1 meter, then operating at roughly 27.1dBA at steady-state.
We’ve no complaints concerning the noise within the shroud Signature Version – Meangear did effectively right here, however the trade-off is evident in our earlier thermal outcomes. Maingear has some room acoustically to get just a little extra aggressive on noise to fight these thermal issues with the VRAM, significantly in a number of the under-utilized chassis followers.
Whole System Energy Consumption
Full system energy consumption through the full-torture load began out at a mean of 153W when idle. That’s larger than the Origin Genesis’ roughly 125W idle, and that had a full-size water cooling pump. That is as a result of inside display taking energy along with all of the LEDs.
After the load was established, the system shot as much as about 840W and stayed there, very slowly rising to 860W at steady-state.
BIOS
We have to perceive what Maingear did for this overclock.
Leaping into the BIOS for the primary time was extraordinarily laggy and sluggish, and maddeningly, not the entire inputs went by way of. A reboot fastened it a minimum of.
We checked out the ASRock X870E Nova WiFi’s BIOS model 3.17 that got here on the system. This revision isn’t accessible publicly on the time of writing, however analysis pointed to it being launched in January 2025. The PC was constructed close to the very finish of February, which means that model 3.20 (launched 2/24) ought to have been put in. The potential exception is that if Maingear has an precise thorough course of to verify the OC settings work on newer BIOS variations, probably requiring validation. Model 3.25 didn’t exist but in order that’s high quality that it’s not on right here.
It got here with two profiles already saved. The default profile (named “MG SHROUD OC”) units AMD’s PBO to its most aggressive settings and has quite a few tweaks to the system reminiscence that point out a genuinely {custom} OC, which is fairly cool. Voltages, miscellaneous settings like “DDR5 Nitro Mode,” and even tightened timings of 34-48-48-86 with a 1T command charge present guide tuning.
The intense reminiscence profile for this package makes use of major timings of 38-48-48-84, so Maingear did truly manually modify the settings, which is fairly cool.
We will respect that and credit score to them for being extra like precise fans.
But additionally like precise fans, this isn’t absolutely steady. And sure, we did simply roast all the viewers, type of like how the VRAM roasts on the FE GPU.
We didn’t expertise any crashes throughout our earlier thermal testing, however workloads are extremely assorted and don’t all the time set off issues. Explicitly testing the reminiscence revealed instability and precipitated a crash after we set it to run over a weekend. We additionally noticed a number of errors inside minutes underneath MemTest64, and a full system crash inside hours of launching OCCT’s RAM check.
So at greatest, this OC is likely to be known as “recreation steady” by individuals who need to cope, however it’s not truly steady, and which means it’s solely a matter of time earlier than you run into some type of recreation the place additionally it is not steady. You additionally wouldn’t need to do any significant, precise work on a system with unstable reminiscence as a result of it might lead to a lack of information. It is a big fumble that signifies Maingear’s testing isn’t rigorous sufficient.
The opposite profile, “MG STOCK OC,” switches the CPU to auto PBO as a substitute of the extra aggressive settings on the shroud profile. It additionally drops a number of the reminiscence associated voltages and loosens the RAM timings again to the XMP numbers. This isn’t the default profile, although.
The BIOS confirmed different indicators of care, just like the auto driver installer being disabled, which we actually recognize, and {custom} fan curves throughout. SIs usually go away followers set to the motherboard defaults, so that is cool to see. Maingear is doing cool stuff in BIOS, however they should carry out extra exhaustive stability testing.
Software program and OS Setup
Home windows is subsequent.
Maingear wins factors for organising the Home windows 11 installer to routinely embrace the “I don’t have web” button on the primary go. Maingear will need to have custom-made the set up to permit this, and that’s nice as a result of it’s the one strategy to make an area account, and Microsoft retains taking steps to make the workaround harder. There have been no extra agreements or information harvesting makes an attempt tacked on on the finish, both. This is without doubt one of the greatest issues Maingear did for the system.
The desktop itself was clear, with no bloatware on the desktop or within the begin menu, or tray. We guess this actually is what “100% zero” appears to be like like: Scientists have mentioned people can’t conceptualize nothingness for hundreds of years, and but right here we’re, seeing it on the Home windows desktop. And that’s factor. There have been no lacking drivers and the NVIDIA driver model was 572.60, which was launched February twenty seventh, in order that’s as updated because it might be when it was constructed.
Total, we’d put Maingear’s OS setup into the “nice” class.
Sadly, the inner display gave us bother. It didn’t even detect on the primary boot, which is an enormous downside and it was a toss-up if it will come on with subsequent boots. Unplugging and re-connecting the rear USB-C cable will get it going once more, however even then we needed to manually change the display orientation in Home windows. That is annoying and disappointing for a predominant characteristic. The upside is that there’s no {custom} software program. The draw back is that counting on Home windows to guess the suitable setup isn’t going to work. We expect the problems stem, a minimum of partly, from utilizing the IGP.
Packaging and Equipment
Packaging was easy, with comfortable foam inside to guard the PC. Ours got here with a gap within the field, however there wasn’t any harm to the system. We’d have appreciated to see extra safety for a $6,000 pc. It doesn’t should be an Origin wood crate, however sturdier cardboard bins could be good for security.
Apart from the PC, there was a QA guidelines, some stickers, and the usual case, motherboard, and PSU extras. We like when the businesses embrace the element equipment that they wouldn’t in any other case have a use for.
The fast begin information was a combined bag. On one hand, it had good fundamentals like a warning to take away any foam contained in the construct (although there wasn’t any in our case), and directions to verify the PSU was switched on.
However, it says “join secondary monitor to USB-C right here,” referring to the motherboard I/O. It is a very unusual instruction. We’re fairly positive it means the inner display, however it’s not instantly clear primarily based on the imprecise language.
It’s not till we went to the hyperlink on the QR code that it grew to become clear. Maingear ought to replace this part of the information.
Commerce-In Program
Lastly, Maingear has a trade-in program particularly for this PC. The corporate says that when it upgrades a element in shroud’s private PC, it’ll notify all Signature Version prospects through an e-mail that particulars the improve and its alleged efficiency increase.
Cynically, we expect the purpose of that is to make use of FOMO advertising and marketing on parasocial whales. There’s solely a 14-day choice window, so clearly time stress is a part of the plan. We haven’t acquired a proposal like this so far as we will inform, except it went to spam or one thing (which is feasible with a promo e-mail), however the at present marketed signature Version has a higher-end CPU versus our unique mannequin. We really feel like that ought to have certified as an improve alternative, though it doesn’t appear value taking.
CPU, motherboard, and PSU upgrades require sending the PC to Maingear, whereas RAM and storage will probably be dealt with by mail. Labor is free for the shroud-specific upgrades, however prospects have to purchase transport labels and elements from Maingear. They need you to maintain the unique field and foam to ship in, too. Maingear doesn’t present transport bins.
Conclusion
The Maingear shroud Signature Version pre-built PC is an attention-grabbing mixture of highs and lows. From a price standpoint, the $1,000-$1,700 markup over DIY is tough to swallow, however is way from the worst we’ve seen for this caliber of construct. Once more, Alienware and Origin set the bar at terrible ranges for that.
There are some severe negatives to this method, but in addition severe positives. We haven’t run right into a prebuilt like this shortly:
The working system setup is great, with further steps taken to allow native accounts with out the customers needing to know find out how to modify the OOBE parameters is sweet as a result of most customers received’t know that.
Tuning in BIOS is effectively appreciated, however the stability points are problematic and unacceptable. Thermals are largely OK, excluding the FE’s VRAM temperature. This might be partially combatted by Maingear with higher configuration of the case and fan speeds, as we confirmed in our HS420 assessment, and with higher utilization of the chassis followers that principally function decorations at their present speeds.
From an aesthetic standpoint, we additionally assume the customizations to the HAVN HS 420 are general high quality if you happen to’re a fan of shroud with out going overboard.
On the unhealthy aspect, the prominently-featured inside display must be babied into working constantly.
Worse is the unstable RAM OC. It’s a singular promoting level, so we’d prefer to see the corporate nail this subsequent time. Value can be fairly excessive, however much less offensively than Alienware’s.