Maingear Shift Limited Edition DIY Kit

By Matthew Murray

How much style are you willing to pay for? If you're in the market for a PC case and you're thinking "high end," this is a question Maingear wants you to consider seriously. The company's Shift Limited Edition DIY Kit does not up the ante Thermaltake previously set a couple of years back with its original Level 10 , which was priced at $799. No, the Shift rings in at only (only?) $649 direct, which is only enough to make it the second most expensive case we've seen. This isn't to say that it's not worth the money. Like the Level 10, this is a spectacular piece of hardware that's equally worthy of our Editors' Choice Award and the attention of die-hard enthusiasts?assuming they have the piles of spare cash on hand needed to purchase it.

It's worth mentioning at this point that we've covered the Shift before in a slightly different guise. When first this case, with its unusual Vertical Exhaust cooling technology that vents heat out of its top panel rather than its rear (to better take advantage of heat's natural tendency to rise), appeared in 2010, it was in the form of a finished desktop. We've reviewed it twice?in its original form, and a few months ago in another Editors' Choice?winning Super Stock configuration?and been impressed with it both times for its sturdiness, its immense but understated attractiveness, and its depth of features. So it should probably go without saying that this bare version is every bit as good as the others, and even better for the intrepid DIYers who are unwilling to settle for any company's idea of what their ideal system should be.

Should you happen to need a refresher, the Shift is a full-tower case measuring 24 by 8.6 by 21.5 inches (HWD) and clad entirely in brushed black aluminum. It bears a look more austere, mature, and even minimalistic than most cases on the market, but it also radiates authority. A vertically oriented Maingear logo is stamped into the bottom half of the front panel; a swing-out door hides the top section and the four external drive bays (three 5.25-inch, one 3.5-inch) located there. The power and reset buttons are placed right between the sections; the rest of the front-panel connectivity options are found in a pop-up unit on the front section of the top panel: a multiformat card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and headphone and microphone jacks.? All of this is fairly standard.

What has always distinguished the Shift is the rest of its design. It was crafted to hide most of your unsightly cables (whether for your mouse or to the wall outlet), and maintain the cleanest lines possible across the maximum number of surfaces. Remove the top panel (you'll need to unscrew it before you can pull it off) to reveal, in addition to the traditional "rear-panel" paraphernalia (seven expansion slots, grille covering the port for the exhaust fan, additional vents), two switches that lock in place the side panels (both of which are emblazoned with Maingear logos). Just press one to release the top part of the corresponding door, then lift it off to gain access to the inside. Once you do, you'll discover an intricately, even beautifully, designed interior that facilitates building as few other cases do.

Cut into the motherboard tray are plenty of different standoff holes for accommodating motherboards of numerous form factors, a generous hole for simplifying the addition of an aftermarket heat sink (which you probably won't need?more on that in a minute), and a few grommeted channels for routing cables and wires out of the way to improve airflow and cleanliness (though these are on the small side). There's also a thick barrier between the motherboard area and the vented power supply bay, containing one fan dedicated to cooling the video cards and motherboard positioned immediately above it and a second located just below the 3.5-inch drive bays.

These bays are vertically oriented and contain sturdy removable caddies that provide unusually robust homes for your hard and solid-state drives. We have no problems with these, although we should point out that the external bays are not tool-free: You'll need a Phillips screwdriver to secure your drives in them.

Just in case all this isn't enough for you, Maingear has thrown in one more extra: its Epic 180 closed-loop liquid cooler. Given that Intel's Sandy Bridge?Extreme CPUs (like the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition , Core i7-3930K?, and Core i7-3820 ) don't come with their own coolers, this is a thoughtful bonus that adds much-welcome value to the Shift. It's smartly configured, too, with the radiator positioned just below the 3.5-inch drives so the fan wicks heat directly out the vented floor panel and keeps your build almost entirely mess-free.

Still, $649 is $649?which is an enormous hurdle for an empty case. This means that this Maingear Shift Limited Edition DIY Kit is an obvious vanity buy?not that there's anything wrong with that. If it lacks the one-in-a-million flair of the Level 10 (which Thermaltake created with BMW Group DesignworksUSA), it's in some ways even more friendly to those who plan on not just building but also rebuilding their PCs. You need to give serious thought to what you're doing before pulling out your credit card and risking its running away in terror, but if you're positive you can't be happy with a less-expensive case?like two of our current sub-$200 favorites from Thermaltake, the Chaser MK-I ?and Armor Revo Snow Edition ?then we're sure you'll love the Shift.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/cGkFj-1AdC0/0,2817,2408337,00.asp

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