MAINGEAR F131 Gaming PC With Killer APEX Cooling System Hands-On At CES 2018

One of our favorite boutique system builders, MAINGEAR, used CES 2018 as the launching pad for its brand-new F131 Gaming Desktop with exclusive APEX Cooling. The stunning MAINGEAR F131 features an in-house designed chassis, built with premium materials, including a steel core and Japanese brushed aluminum exterior with tinted, tempered glass side panels and customizable RGB interior and logo lighting. Take a look...

The MAINGEAR F131 chassis leverages the mATX form factor, which helps slim things down a bit, and results in a measurably smaller footprint than a typical, custom-built gaming rig. MAINGEAR does not skimp on the internal hardware options, however – the F131 is available with the latest Intel and AMD CPUs, up to and including the 18-core Core i9-7980XE, with up to two NVIDIA TITAN V graphics cards, 64GB of memory, and high performance NVMe SSDs.

Just seeing the MAINGEAR F131 in action reveals the kind of innovative design and craftsmanship the company is known for. The F131 is gorgeous, thanks in no small part to the APEX liquid-cooling system that dominates the front half of the system. Of course, the meticulous wiring and tubing jobs, and elegant chassis design don't hurt either.

The APEX cooling system is a self-contained and fully-integrated cooling solution, developed in partnership with Bitpower. The APEX design includes dual water pumps, pressure regulated parallel cooling for the CPU and GPU, flow-rate and temperature sensors, and built-in lighting. The F131 with APEX cooling system also features a high capacity reservoir, which fills the entire upper section of the chassis. The cooling loop can be configured in a soft tubing open-loop configuration or with the company’s Superstock Hardline open loop, with clear acrylic or metal tubing.

The MAINGEAR F131 with APEX cooling system is available now, starting at $1,599.