Yesterday, MAINGEAR Computers in Union City, New Jersey launched a new radically redesigned high-performance desktop supercomputing lineup which it calls the SHIFT. The series is the company’s latest attempt to maximize system airflow with what it claims to be a “revolutionary design” as well as to provide fully accessible ports, and server-grade storage all encapsulated within an elegant chassis.
Upon first observation, we were easily convinced that SHIFT is the company’s response to SilverStone’s Raven series lineup, particularly the Raven RV02, which was the first enthusiast-oriented chassis to successfully implement a 90-degree motherboard design with elegant contours and appropriate aesthetics. On the other hand, the SHIFT series chassis is embodied in an aluminum skin devoid of unnecessary bling which adds a necessary element of simplicity to its modern design. However, it can be easily observed that the case design is noticeably more vertical than the Raven series, which might be beneficial for longer GPUs but may hinder the ability to run high-performance Triple-SLI + PhysX configurations.
In terms of airflow, the design is almost identical to the Raven series by SilverStone. Airflow is vented from bottom-to-top, making its way through critical system components and heatsinks and finally being dissipated out the top of the case. By rotating the internal components of the system 90-degrees, the case is able to work more efficiently with the "rising heat" property of thermodynamics. In addition, the peripheral connections to speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor and USB devices are all protected and concealed by a machined grill with ventilation holes. This allows hot air to exhaust from the back of the motherboard and out of the chassis.
“The SHIFT bucks the trend of plastic, bloated, commodity PCs. It's a statement of our commitment to performance, reliability, and support.” said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. “Featuring vertical airflow, all the cooling necessary for today's high performance, and backed by the best technical support team in the business, MAINGEAR is committed to maintaining our lead in the market. The SHIFT Personal Supercomputer is positioned to take advantage of all the next generation technology in GPU computing to greatly enhance the customer experience.”
MAINGEAR is making the SHIFT available on both Intel P55 LGA-1156 and Intel X58 LGA-1366 platforms running Windows 7 and a choice of ATI Radeon HD 5xxx or Nvidia GeForce 200-series graphics cards. In particular, the baseline custom P55 configuration comes equipped with a 45nm Intel Core i7 800-series CPU, Asetek closed-loop liquid cooling, an Intel Kingsberg P55 Extreme Series motherboard (SLI and CrossFire ready), up to 8GB of low-latency DDR3 1600MHz, up to twelve Solid State Drives, and up to a 1200w SilverStone industrial-strength power supply. Pricing starts at $2199 for this configuration and is now available directly from the company’s site.
On the other hand, the baseline custom X58 configuration comes equipped with a 45nm Intel Core i7 900-series CPU, our personal favorite EVGA X58 SLI Classified motherboard (Tri-SLI + PhysX and Triple-CrossFire ready), up to 24GB of DDR3 1600MHz or 12GB of DDR3 2000MHz, up to twelve Solid State Drives, and up to a 1200w SilverStone industrial-strength power supply. Pricing starts at $2599 for this configuration and is now available directly from MAINGEAR’s site.