Potenza
Latest
Maingear fits 3-way GTX Titan graphics into (un-priced) gaming PC
If you're a high-end gaming PC manufacturer, why not just time your desktop launches for when the latest pixel-blasting GPUs come out? That's exactly how Maingear rolls, so it's just announced three new machines based on NVIDIA's freshly launched GeForce GTX Titan. The new flagship graphics card borrows its name (and some of its tech) from the Kepler-based Titan supercomputer and packs 2,688 CUDA cores and 7.1 billion transistors, along with 6GB of GDDR5 RAM and a 384-bit interface. That lends it 4,500 Gigaflops of horsepower, displacing the company's GTX 690 model at the top while letting modders overclock and overvolt the cards with "higher limits than ever," according to NVIDIA. Maingear will ship three units armed with the Titan: the SHIFT, which will be available in dual or three-way GTX Titan configurations, the F131 with one or two cards and the single-card only Potenza. All feature a 90 degree rotated motherboard design to vent hot air out the top for better cooling, along with with AMD or Intel processors up to the Core i7-3960X six-core model, SATA 6G, USB 3.0 and up to 64GB of RAM. You'll also get 4K max resolution on four simultaneous displays, thanks to two dual-link DVI, HDMI and Display Port 1.2 connectors. There's no word yet on pricing, but for a three-way SLI SHIFT PC? Think big.
Maingear outfits desktops with GeForce GTX 650 and 660, drops prices to lure us in
Whenever there's a new video card or processor, Maingear is almost always on the scene with an upgrade -- sometimes within seconds of its hardware partners. A plan to use NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 650 and 660 graphics chips from day one proves that rule in style, although Maingear is going the distance with some incentives beyond just shiny parts. Along with making the mid-tier GeForce technology an option for every desktop, the PC builder is offering special GTX 650 and 660 versions of its F131 and Potenza gaming rigs that knock as much as $150 off the price. The base prices of $949 for the limited-run Potenza and $1,199 for the F131 keep either system in serious gamer territory and preclude us from calling them tremendous bargains. Nonetheless, it's difficult to grouse very loudly: it's not often that a price drop and a hardware upgrade walk hand in hand.
Hands-on: Maingear Shift running Saitek flight-simulation hardware (video)
Custom PC builder Maingear had something pretty nifty up its sleeve at Pepcom tonight: versions of its desktops configured to run Saitek's flight-simulation hardware -- in this case, with a full cockpit setup. In partnership with Mad Catz, the company developed configurations of its Potenza, F131 and Shift desktops optimized to work with the Saitek line of flight-sim systems. Tonight we saw the Shift paired with some pretty heavy-duty hardware: we're talking 18 USB connections for the full Saitek cockpit. Maingear's pro-certified system packs a Core i7 CPU clocked at up to 3.9GHz and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics (with four GPUs), and with an experienced pilot behind the wheel, that translated into a smooth landing in Flight Simulator X. Maingear says the whole setup -- hardware controls plus the Shift desktop -- will go for $5,500 starting tomorrow. That's the top-of-the-line configuration, mind you; if your piloting aspirations are more modest, you could opt for the more affordable Potenza, which starts at $1,000. Check out a video demo below.%Gallery-158862%
Maingear reveals more heat-dissipating desktops, keeps those new Ivy Bridge internals cool
Maingear gave us a quick nudge to say something was coming. Now it can reveal that -- alongside Intel's third-generation processors inside all of its desktops and laptops -- it's further updated two of its tower models. The F131 ($1,049), the middleweight option, now houses the same vertical heat-dissipating design found on Maingear's Shift model, alongside hot-swappable storage. It's followed by the Potenza ($899), the company's "mini-ITX gaming solution." It's 45 percent smaller than the F131 with the same heat dissipation design, but still capable of squeezing in NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 and support for a liquid cooling setup on the side. Phew. So pick your size, pick your processor and hit up the source for all the custom desktop options.
