As lengthy as you fork over sufficient money, the Maingear Turbo gaming desktop hosts a tremendous quantity of energy inside its small-form-factor chassis. And although it appears to be like businesslike and industrial from the entrance, the corporate’s Apex liquid-cooling system supplies a shocking visible counterpoint that retains high-end parts like an AMD Ryzen 5950X and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 chilled, quiet and operating at prime pace to your 4K and heavy-duty-simulation gameplay.
LikeBeautiful (and efficient) watercooling systemCan configure it to be insanely highly effective for its sizeQuiet
Don’t LikeNo Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4 (as a result of AMD)You’ll most likely want to make use of the exterior Wi-Fi antennas or wired EthernetMini ITX means no open slots
Maingear does not supply any preconfigured fashions of the small-form-factor Turbo, solely of its bigger brother, the Vybe, and incorporates solely AMD CPUs. The base configuration of a Turbo runs $1,409 geared up with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. That’s costly for the parts, however not for the dimensions; just a few compact fashions with comparable specs or higher, such because the MSI MPG Trident 3, run underneath $1,000. Our roughly $5,000 take a look at configuration is not even maxed out — you may bump it as much as an RTX 3090, 64GB RAM and a complete of 14TB of storage for about $7,000. And that does not embody any of the corporate’s customized paint jobs.The lighting and design of Maingear’s Apex liquid-cooling system is mesmerizing.
Lori Grunin/CNET
I would not advocate Maingear for people within the UK and Australia. There’s no worldwide checkout; you’d have to contact the corporate and get a customized value quote, plus you are answerable for transport and customs prices.
Maingear Turbo
Price as reviewed
$4,922
Size
Mini ITX (12.3 x 6.7 x 14.4 in/312 x 170 x 366mm)
Motherboard
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming with a PCIe slot for GPU (no empties) and 750w PSU
CPU
3.4GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Memory
32GB DDR4 SDRAM 3,600MHz
Graphics
10GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition
Storage
1TB SSD (1 NVMe slot free), 4TB 7,200 RPM HDD (this configuration is now not supplied, so value displays a 6TB HDD)
Ports
9 x USB-A, 1 x USB-C (relying upon GPU could have one other USB-C); on GPU 3 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0, on mainboard 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0
Networking
1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (802.11ax)
Operating system
Windows 10 Home (2009/2H20)
In common, if you are going to get a system utilizing liquid cooling, I recommend you purchase as in the event you’re not going to have the ability to improve it. Removing liquid cooling to get to the opposite parts is a ache, and chances are high any new graphics card you set in would require a brand new cooling block. That’s to not say it is not upgradable, simply that it is a problem and you could not be capable of do it your self — particularly if it is not closed-loop, which can imply you have to drain the coolant as properly. In a DIY system the place you have chosen and put in it you may discover it somewhat simpler, however in a customized construct, caveat emptor.For a configuration that’ll final you some time, I’d go for Maingear’s $3,199 Turbo Stage 3; the most affordable configuration I’d advocate from Maingear can be $2,246, with (amongst different issues) a Ryzen 5 5600X, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and Maingear’s lower-end closed-loop liquid-cooling. You can definitely get cheaper fashions, however in the event you’re involved about value I’d look for a bigger chassis, since you can get higher parts for the cash in the event you compromise a bit on fashion. For instance, that very same configuration in Maingear’s bigger Vybe chassis prices solely $1,870.The waterblock on the CPU, with the RAM sticks to the correct; getting in there to interchange the RAM is a nontrivial activity. But fairly!
Lori Grunin/CNET
Maingear additionally affords a Turbo Pro RTX Studio Edition… which is similar factor, simply with not one of the AMD Radeon RX GPU choices or lower-end element decisions and with Nvidia’s Studio driver preinstalled, relatively than the Game Ready driver.
One of the larger tradeoffs for the higher-performing Ryzen processors over Intel’s, and due to this fact different compact programs over the Turbo, is the dearth of Thunderbolt 3 (or USB 4) assist of all AMD-based motherboards. This mannequin solely has a single 10Gbps USB-C port, which might get annoying in the event you’ve obtained numerous exterior SSDs or newer gaming equipment which use USB-C charging (you should utilize a USB-A to USB-C cable or dongle). It solely has a pair of USB-A and a combo audio jack on the entrance facet, which is not terribly handy if you wish to join three units (in my case, USB mouse, keyboard and headset or exterior drive) to the entrance.Because it is filled with liquid and has a steel-sided chassis, the Turbo is way heavier than you’d anticipate; it is constructed like brick… speedhouse. The case does vent out scorching air by means of the highest grille, which might get fairly heat in the event you’re operating full bore for some time. It’s simple to take away the highest panel — there is a single thumbscrew — however there isn’t any detachable filter between it and the highest followers. It stays to be confirmed whether or not a filter is critical, however in my dust-overwhelmed residence it would not damage.The lighting is fairly out the again, too.
Lori Grunin/CNET
As with most PCs, you may at all times get pace in the event you’re keen to pay for it, however the Turbo’s top-notch parts reside as much as expectations. In reality, in the event you’re searching for a artistic energy system — or a system that may deal with each gaming and artistic duties — a quick, high-core-count Ryzen just like the 5900X or 5950X is nearly excellent. For Adobe Lightroom Classic, it simply dealt with import with 1:1 thumbnail technology quicker than virtually another system I’ve examined. The bottleneck was really the 32GB RAM relatively than the CPU. They could also be overkill for many gaming, so if you wish to avoid wasting cash for all however probably the most CPU-intensive video games, like those who have to calculate behaviors for total battalions, dense sky battles, advanced cities and so forth, the CPU’s a strong place to chop again. The Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming motherboard has Intel AX200 Wi-Fi built-in, however you may undoubtedly need to use the equipped screw-on antenna to spice up the sign. That’s not unusual for desktops and I’ve had points with the AX200 chipset (which appear to have been fastened in AX201, at the very least for cell chipsets); on this case, it may barely detect my 5GHz sign. I ended up switching my wi-fi bridge’s Ethernet connection to the Maingear from my principal system consequently.I like the highly effective processing and the dimensions of the system, however the cooling design is admittedly what places this excessive for me in contrast with a number of different programs I’ve used. It’s an in depth second to my Corsair One Editors’ Choice (although the parts within the lower-end fashions may stand an replace), particularly for players who like somewhat extra visible flash than the Corsair supplies.Geekbench 5 (multicore)
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
Geekbench 5 (single-core)
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
Cinebench R20 CPU (multicore)
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency
3DMark Time Spy
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
NOTE: Longer bars point out higher efficiency
Shadow of the Tomb Raider gaming take a look at
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency (FPS)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider gaming take a look at (4K)
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Note:
Longer bars point out higher efficiency (FPS)
System configurations
Corsair One Pro i200
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (1909); 3.3GHz Intel Core i9-10940X; 64GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,667MHz; 11GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti; 2TB SSD
Maingear Turbo (late 2020)
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (2009); 3.4GHz Ryzen 9 5950XT; 32GB DDR4 SDRAM 3,600; 10GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080; 1TB SSD + 4TB HDD
Maingear Turbo (mid 2020)
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (2004); 3.8GHz Ryzen 9 3900XT; 32GB DDR4 SDRAM 3,600; 11GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti; 1TB SSD + 4TB HDD
Origin PC Chronos
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (2004); 3.7GHz Intel Core i9-10900Okay; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 3,200; 10GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (EVGA); 1TB SSD + 500GB SSD