Maingear Vybe 2019 Review: Fast, Quiet, Clean, And Ready To Ship

One of the advantages to owning a custom PC from a boutique builder is the meticulous attention to detail. Tight cable management is not just a perk, it is an expectation when paying a premium for a boutique shop to assemble your rig with off-the-shelf components, and having to wait a bit longer compared to buying from a bulk OEM is an inherent trade off. Or is it? Maingear, a stalwart in the boutique space, would argue otherwise.


Earlier this month at PAX East, Maingear announced what it is calling the Vybe Enthusiast Platform. You might already be familiar with the Vybe name -- it is the least expensive line of desktop PCs in Maingear's stable, with prices starting at an affordable $699, albeit for a setup with integrated graphics. Higher-end configurations are available too, with discrete GPU options starting at $1,049. That's still a sane price to pay for gaming PC.

So what's with the Vybe Enthusiast Platform? Well, the Vybe has morphed from a singular line of custom PCs to wider array of purchasing options. As with before, buyers can hop onto Maingear's website and pick out a set of components, and if going that route, prices start at $899. New to the Vybe (and Maingear as a whole), however, is a second option -- pre-configured systems that are already built and ready to ship within 2 business days of ordering.

There's also a third option called Vybe DIY, which is a fancy way of saying you can buy the custom case Maingear uses for its Vybe PCs, sans components. There are two versions, one with an acrylic side window for $75, and one with a tempered side glass window for $119. Buyers can also add one of Maingear's liquid cooling loops when buying just the case.

What we have in for review is one of the ready-to-ship Vybe PCs. This is the highest end "Stage 4" configuration, priced at $2,499. It comes loaded with Intel's 9th generation Core i9-9900K processor nestled into an MSI Z390 A-Pro motherboard, paired with 16GB of DDR4 memory, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card, and a 512GB Intel 660p M.2 NVMe SSD + 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD.

Before we go any further, let's have a look at the full spec sheet...

Since these systems are assembled and ready to ship, there is not much flexibility in the component selection. For example, on the Stage 4 configuration, there is a $249 "Boost" option that doubles the RAM to 32GB and bumps the SSD storage drive to a 1TB model. Beyond those core upgrades, the only additions available are external accessories. That's to say there is no option to upgrade or downgrade the graphics card or go with a different CPU. To change the core makeup of the Vybe, a buyer would either have to select a different "Stage" configuration, or utilize the completely custom option (i.e., not already assembled and ready to ship).

That is a totally fair way of approaching this, because the ready-to-ship PCs are not replacing the customizable configuration option, they are supplementing it. From our vantage point, it's smart timing on Maingear's part too -- PC gaming is not only alive and well, it is thriving with a growing esports category. Streaming has taken off as well, to the point where a 14-year-old can pull in $200,000 per year on YouTube by playing Fortnite. That sure beats having a newspaper route!

Our question is (and probably yours as well), can a ready-to-ship system maintain the high quality standards that we have come to expect from the boutique category, and for which Maingear has spent over a decade-and-a-half building a reputation in? Let's have a look...