The Main Gear R1 Special Edition System: A Boutique Water Cooling Experience

There and then the DDC xres combo pump and Reservoir sits towards the front of the case and it contains most of the loops green dyed liquid from E coolant main gear went with bits power's excellent soft tubing compression fittings throughout the build and they also threw in a couple quick disconnect fittings from coolant at the GPU assembly's uh Inlet and Outlet which should be pretty helpful for future disassembly or maintenance. I also like that there's a ton of room above the reservoir to access it for refilling the loop or topping it off. Rounding out the loop we have two 360 mm radiators at the top and the front with air flow provided by seven thermal take green LED 120 mm fans.

Build Quality and Cable Management are Superb

Build quality throughout the system is superb, a cable management is expert level looks very clean and even though this was rough handled in shipping the loop came completely topped off and leak free thank goodness as for performance I would expect it to be pretty nice given this Hardware configuration and the cooling so here are some test numbers for you guys enjoy. He also as for noise even Under full load this system remains very quiet and that is one of the bonuses of water cooling.

Critique of the R1 Special Edition System

As for my critique of this R1 special edition system from Main Gear it is definitely going to be the cost everything costs more than you would pay at retail when you buy a system like this for instance uh you could select the 1700 X1 parting out this system 1700x retail cost $3.99 if you upgrade to an 1800x though using their configurator it should cost 100 bucks more they'll charge you 150 bucks more that is the upcharge when configuring your system and those examples exist throughout all of the different selections you might choose when upgrading to better Parts I tried to configure this exact build that I have here on Main Gear's website but I couldn't choose all the exact components that I uh that they actually used in this system uh so even though I only chose a single chose a single GTX 1080 uh and I did choose Hardline tubing though instead of soft tubing but the price they issued me was $552 I parted out a build on PC part picker with pretty much the same components even a CPU liquid cooler and a full windows license granted it was not a full C some water cooling Loop so bear that in mind but the cost there was about $2,750 anyway you slice it you're going to be paying a lot more for the full Boutique experience.

Aesthetic Considerations

A small quibble as well but uh just aesthetically this system is very much tied to the green theme meaning that the RGB strip that they put back here only really works when it's set to complimentary colors which is basically green or the sort of greenish yellow that I have selected right here basically there weren't many options. Finally, I would have liked to see some outof thee boox overclocking even with this awesome cooling Loop in place the gpus and CPU are still running at stock unless you go in and tweak those settings yourself Pros are there of course though for instance you're going to get lifetime Angelic service labor and phone support with any Main Gear system that you buy and that is definitely a big value especially for anyone who's not familiar with building or setting up their own system uh you also get a one-year comprehensive warranty on the system itself uh and you can extend that to two or 3 years by paying an extra 100 bucks a year. You also get the entire system delivered to you built and ready to go and that is saying something as well. The amount of Labor that would go into a build like this is definitely worth some money so that's something to consider ultimately though I'm sure there's lots of you guys out there who watch my channel who would never buy a system like this simply because you know how to put put it together yourself that said there's also tons of people who want to get into PC gaming who are interested in high-end builds who just aren't that into building the system themselves and it's great to have an option like this for folks who can afford it and for folks who want the Peace of Mind of having the warranty as well as the service available for Main Gear and they are a very reputable company excellent track record very positive reviews and I'm confident that as long as you're willing to pay the price for it you would be happy if you happened to buy a mang gear system.

Feedback

All that said I'd like to hear you guys' feedback of what you think about a boutique system versus building yourself obviously there might be pros and cons that I left out here so leave me those comments down in the comment section below hit the Thumbs Up Button if you enjoyed this video and stay tuned for more videos of course coming very soon on Pauls Hardware.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe master key series of mechanical keyboards from Cooler Master features genuine Cherry MX switches and the flexibility of choice whether you want small medium or large you can pick your size and pick your color with RGB and clear white LED backlighting options click the sponsor Link in the description for more information excellent so about a month ago sometime after the ryzen launch AMD hit me up and asked if I wanted to take a look at a ryzen build from main gear I was a little confused at first do you want me to build build a ryzen system with main gear I asked no they said they'll send the system over already built needless to say I was a little bit confused but it turns out that to get a nice desktop gaming PC you don't necessarily need to put it together yourself main gear is just one of quite a few Boutique system Builders who will build a customized system to the specs that you choose test it pack it up and ship it to you so you can be robbed of the joy of building it yourself with your own two hands even if your hands end up getting a bit bloodied in the process cheating is what I call it but I suppose I can take a quick look at the build that they sent since it is from their special edition R1 line and it does have a ryzen 7 1800x CPU and two GTX 1080s in SLI with a green razor theme and a nicely done custom liquid cooling Loop now to be honest I had no idea they were sending a custom water cooled system I was expecting something that was a little bit more off the-shelf but given the size and weight of the shipment I should have probably been tipped off Main gear does a really nice job with their packing though and you'll get a massive outer box with extra padding for the cases retail box that's inside you'll also find accessories here which for me included a nice main Gear t-shirt a Corsair bag with all the extra cables from the sleeved power supply cable kit that they used an external slim DVD burner strangely enough but okay I guess and a dossier which held relevant accessories such as screws and SATA cables a Kingston USB drive loaded up with a Windows recovery image which is very nice to have a main gear mouse pad a remote for the RGB LEDs inside and documentation it's very new pc userfriendly with a simple yet detailed quick start guide and a QA sheet showing all the steps and checks that your main gear Tech went through when building and setting up the system my Builder was Shawn thanks Sean good job inside the bigger box is your actual case box an NZXT h440 razor Edition in this case LOL even though I could tell the shipment got bounced around a bit uh everything inside was pretty much just fine main gear uses form fitted foam that's inside the system itself during shipping so that keeps stuff safe and there is a warning message on the side panel when you first take it off that tells you to remove all that stuff inside so with the system unpacked and safety foam removed I can finally check out the build and oh my God is it a pretty One Core components again are the AMD ryzen 7 1800x 8 core CPU and two GTX 1080s from Nvidia and SLI with a main gear high bandwidth SLI bridge I like the contrast that the silver finish on the MSI X 370x power gaming titanium motherboard provides uh the memory is a couple couple Kingston hyperx Fury ddr4 8 gig sticks so 16 gigs total rated for 2666 speed and for storage there is a Samsung 960 Pro 512 gig mvme m.2 SSD and a 2 TB seate notebook hard drive the power supply is a Corsair ax 860i with the sleeved cable kit and the case again is the NZXT h440 Razer Edition with green underglow and glowing razor and main gear logos on the front and PSU cover respectively water cooling is handled with components from Ek bits power and coolants EK handles the CPU with the supremacy Evo am4 Edition CPU block gpus with full cover clear acrylic blocks and chrome finish reflective back plates that really look nice with the MSI Motherboard in there and then the DDC xres combo pump and Reservoir sits towards the front of the case and it contains most of the loops green dyed liquid from E coolant main gear went with bits power's excellent soft tubing compression fittings throughout the build and they also threw in a couple quick disconnect fittings from coolant at the GPU assembly's uh Inlet and Outlet which should be pretty helpful for future disassembly or maintenance I also like that there's a ton of room above the reservoir to access it for refilling the loop or topping it off rounding out the loop we have two 360 mm radiators at the top and the front with air flow provided by seven thermal take green LED 120 mm fans build quality throughout the system is superb a cable management is expert level looks very clean and even though this was rough handled in shipping the loop came completely topped off and leak free thank goodness as for performance I would expect it to be pretty nice given this this Hardware configuration and the cooling so here are some test numbers for you guys enjoy he as for noise even Under full load this system remains very quiet and that is one of the bonuses of water cooling here's a test now if I have a critique of this R1 special edition system from main gear it is definitely going to be the cost everything costs more than you would pay at retail when you buy a system like this for instance uh you could select the 1700 X1 parting out this system 1700x retail cost $3.99 if you upgrade to an 1800x though using their configurator it should cost 100 bucks more they'll charge you 150 bucks more that is the upcharge when configuring your system and those examples exist throughout all of the different selections you might choose when upgrading to better Parts I tried to configure this exact build that I have here on Main Gear's website but I couldn't choose all the exact components that I uh that they actually used in this system uh so even though I only choose a single chose a single GTX 1080 uh and I did choose Hardline tubing though instead of soft tubing but the price they issued me was $552 I parted out a build on PC part picker with pretty much the same components even a CPU liquid cooler and a full windows license granted it was not a full C some water cooling Loop so bear that in mind but the cost there was about $2,750 anyway you slice it you're going to be paying a lot more for the full Boutique experience a small quibble as well but uh just aesthetically this system is very much tied to the green theme meaning that the RGB strip that they put back here only really works when it's set to complimentary colors which is basically green or the sort of greenish yellow that I have selected right here basically there weren't many options finally I would have liked to see some outof thee boox overclocking even with this awesome cooling Loop in place the gpus and CPU are still running at stock unless you go in and tweak those settings yourself Pros are there of course though for instance you're going to get lifetime Angelic service labor and phone support with any main gear system that you buy and that is definitely a big value especially for anyone who's not familiar with building or setting up their own system uh you also get a one-year comprehensive warranty on the system itself uh and you can extend that to two or 3 years by paying an extra 100 bucks a year you also get the entire system delivered to you built and ready to go and that is saying something as well the amount of Labor that would go into a build like this is definitely worth some money so that's something to consider ultimately though I'm sure there's lots of you guys out there who watch my channel who would never buy a system like this simply because you know how to put put it together yourself that said there's also tons of people who want to get into PC gaming who are interested in high-end builds who just aren't that into building the system themselves and it's great to have an option like this for folks who can afford it and for folks who want the Peace of Mind of having the warranty as well as the service available for main gear and they are a very reputable company excellent track record very positive reviews and I'm confident that as long as you're willing to pay the price for it you would be happy if you happened to buy a mang gear system all that said I'd like to hear you guys' feedback of what you think about a boutique system versus building yourself obviously there might be pros and cons that I left out here so leave me those comments down in the comment section below hit the Thumbs Up Button if you enjoyed this video and stay tuned for more videos of course coming very soon on Pauls Hardware thanks again for watching guys we'll see you next time stepthe master key series of mechanical keyboards from Cooler Master features genuine Cherry MX switches and the flexibility of choice whether you want small medium or large you can pick your size and pick your color with RGB and clear white LED backlighting options click the sponsor Link in the description for more information excellent so about a month ago sometime after the ryzen launch AMD hit me up and asked if I wanted to take a look at a ryzen build from main gear I was a little confused at first do you want me to build build a ryzen system with main gear I asked no they said they'll send the system over already built needless to say I was a little bit confused but it turns out that to get a nice desktop gaming PC you don't necessarily need to put it together yourself main gear is just one of quite a few Boutique system Builders who will build a customized system to the specs that you choose test it pack it up and ship it to you so you can be robbed of the joy of building it yourself with your own two hands even if your hands end up getting a bit bloodied in the process cheating is what I call it but I suppose I can take a quick look at the build that they sent since it is from their special edition R1 line and it does have a ryzen 7 1800x CPU and two GTX 1080s in SLI with a green razor theme and a nicely done custom liquid cooling Loop now to be honest I had no idea they were sending a custom water cooled system I was expecting something that was a little bit more off the-shelf but given the size and weight of the shipment I should have probably been tipped off Main gear does a really nice job with their packing though and you'll get a massive outer box with extra padding for the cases retail box that's inside you'll also find accessories here which for me included a nice main Gear t-shirt a Corsair bag with all the extra cables from the sleeved power supply cable kit that they used an external slim DVD burner strangely enough but okay I guess and a dossier which held relevant accessories such as screws and SATA cables a Kingston USB drive loaded up with a Windows recovery image which is very nice to have a main gear mouse pad a remote for the RGB LEDs inside and documentation it's very new pc userfriendly with a simple yet detailed quick start guide and a QA sheet showing all the steps and checks that your main gear Tech went through when building and setting up the system my Builder was Shawn thanks Sean good job inside the bigger box is your actual case box an NZXT h440 razor Edition in this case LOL even though I could tell the shipment got bounced around a bit uh everything inside was pretty much just fine main gear uses form fitted foam that's inside the system itself during shipping so that keeps stuff safe and there is a warning message on the side panel when you first take it off that tells you to remove all that stuff inside so with the system unpacked and safety foam removed I can finally check out the build and oh my God is it a pretty One Core components again are the AMD ryzen 7 1800x 8 core CPU and two GTX 1080s from Nvidia and SLI with a main gear high bandwidth SLI bridge I like the contrast that the silver finish on the MSI X 370x power gaming titanium motherboard provides uh the memory is a couple couple Kingston hyperx Fury ddr4 8 gig sticks so 16 gigs total rated for 2666 speed and for storage there is a Samsung 960 Pro 512 gig mvme m.2 SSD and a 2 TB seate notebook hard drive the power supply is a Corsair ax 860i with the sleeved cable kit and the case again is the NZXT h440 Razer Edition with green underglow and glowing razor and main gear logos on the front and PSU cover respectively water cooling is handled with components from Ek bits power and coolants EK handles the CPU with the supremacy Evo am4 Edition CPU block gpus with full cover clear acrylic blocks and chrome finish reflective back plates that really look nice with the MSI Motherboard in there and then the DDC xres combo pump and Reservoir sits towards the front of the case and it contains most of the loops green dyed liquid from E coolant main gear went with bits power's excellent soft tubing compression fittings throughout the build and they also threw in a couple quick disconnect fittings from coolant at the GPU assembly's uh Inlet and Outlet which should be pretty helpful for future disassembly or maintenance I also like that there's a ton of room above the reservoir to access it for refilling the loop or topping it off rounding out the loop we have two 360 mm radiators at the top and the front with air flow provided by seven thermal take green LED 120 mm fans build quality throughout the system is superb a cable management is expert level looks very clean and even though this was rough handled in shipping the loop came completely topped off and leak free thank goodness as for performance I would expect it to be pretty nice given this this Hardware configuration and the cooling so here are some test numbers for you guys enjoy he as for noise even Under full load this system remains very quiet and that is one of the bonuses of water cooling here's a test now if I have a critique of this R1 special edition system from main gear it is definitely going to be the cost everything costs more than you would pay at retail when you buy a system like this for instance uh you could select the 1700 X1 parting out this system 1700x retail cost $3.99 if you upgrade to an 1800x though using their configurator it should cost 100 bucks more they'll charge you 150 bucks more that is the upcharge when configuring your system and those examples exist throughout all of the different selections you might choose when upgrading to better Parts I tried to configure this exact build that I have here on Main Gear's website but I couldn't choose all the exact components that I uh that they actually used in this system uh so even though I only choose a single chose a single GTX 1080 uh and I did choose Hardline tubing though instead of soft tubing but the price they issued me was $552 I parted out a build on PC part picker with pretty much the same components even a CPU liquid cooler and a full windows license granted it was not a full C some water cooling Loop so bear that in mind but the cost there was about $2,750 anyway you slice it you're going to be paying a lot more for the full Boutique experience a small quibble as well but uh just aesthetically this system is very much tied to the green theme meaning that the RGB strip that they put back here only really works when it's set to complimentary colors which is basically green or the sort of greenish yellow that I have selected right here basically there weren't many options finally I would have liked to see some outof thee boox overclocking even with this awesome cooling Loop in place the gpus and CPU are still running at stock unless you go in and tweak those settings yourself Pros are there of course though for instance you're going to get lifetime Angelic service labor and phone support with any main gear system that you buy and that is definitely a big value especially for anyone who's not familiar with building or setting up their own system uh you also get a one-year comprehensive warranty on the system itself uh and you can extend that to two or 3 years by paying an extra 100 bucks a year you also get the entire system delivered to you built and ready to go and that is saying something as well the amount of Labor that would go into a build like this is definitely worth some money so that's something to consider ultimately though I'm sure there's lots of you guys out there who watch my channel who would never buy a system like this simply because you know how to put put it together yourself that said there's also tons of people who want to get into PC gaming who are interested in high-end builds who just aren't that into building the system themselves and it's great to have an option like this for folks who can afford it and for folks who want the Peace of Mind of having the warranty as well as the service available for main gear and they are a very reputable company excellent track record very positive reviews and I'm confident that as long as you're willing to pay the price for it you would be happy if you happened to buy a mang gear system all that said I'd like to hear you guys' feedback of what you think about a boutique system versus building yourself obviously there might be pros and cons that I left out here so leave me those comments down in the comment section below hit the Thumbs Up Button if you enjoyed this video and stay tuned for more videos of course coming very soon on Pauls Hardware thanks again for watching guys we'll see you next time step\n"