Entering the headquarters of Maingear, a New Jersey-based gaming PC creator, the building looks like the few that surround it (albeit a bit cleaner): a bespoke auto body shop.
The lobby and reception area are adorned with countless bounties and newspaper clippings, including PC PCs, including Maximum PC: Radar, resting on shelves and hanging on white and red walls.
While featuring a series of custom painted paintings by DC Comics artist Tommy Castillo, co-founder and CEO Wallace Santos, he recalls Maingear's modest beginnings.
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In Maingear's entrance hall, visitors come across a logo that has been covered in predictable plaster.
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The magazine clippings wall includes other Future stores, like Maximum PC.
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These two paintings were painted by DC Comics artist Tommy Castillo.
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Castillo provided the illustrations for Batman Detective and Legends of the Dark Knight.
Newly certified as a network systems professional, Santos became an independent consultant in 2002. Soon after, a custom gaming computer prompted Santos to try building computers, which were already a passion, professionally.
A fluke at CES in Las Vegas and a coup from renowned IT specialist Leo LaPorte launched the Maingear rocket, but not without some improvements in the last 15 years.
Most of you couldn't do that at home
As you can see, Santos is also very fond of cars. Therefore, to bring Maingear systems to life, the founder has incorporated an automatic quality paint into its range of services, among the first to do so in the United States. (Wait to see how it goes).
Therefore, to satisfy Santos' love of computer games and cars, the CEO has created a work environment that is very similar to the custom car magazines seen on shows like Pimp My Ride, but with a 100% less Xzibit.
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Because every technology hardware company has a virtual need for such a domain.
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Your first sight entering the Maingear assembly area. There are three stations of this type.
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Each of these gray boxes contains the components of a custom gaming computer.
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The end results tend to look like this.
Beyond the embodiment of Santos' love for custom cars, the attention to detail and personal service this scene is renowned for is what the founder and his team are eager to capture.
It looks like a large garage behind the Maingear office building. The store vibrates with the sound of hand drills and cable cutters.
The first thing to do inside is that PC creators combine complex desktop systems, but not at record speed. They move quite fast, but with precision. They know about these chassis, removing a gray basket of PC parts at a time and seamlessly integrating them into a variety of original chassis designs. These perfect adjustments become difficult when the customer controls the hard-line liquid cooling, without even choosing the pipe fittings to use.
(Seriously, the management team and system builders sometimes deliberate for hours on which pipe fittings to order - the attention to detail is fierce.)
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Maingear adapts these custom Quadro GPUs to a new motherboard for a quiet rendering system.
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Here's more of this custom GPU work done in-house.
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And this is where these custom Quadro GPUs will finally show up.
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It is one of the two great image platforms.
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One of the many options for shipping your Maingear computer.
When PCs are finally built (which sometimes involves customizing components to work in specific scenarios, such as previous Nvidia Quadro GPUs, entering what will be a silent graphics rendering machine), they are supported by these control screens. to the womb.
This is where Maingear customizes each ordered machine, be it a laptop or desktop, based on your requests and only those. This only applies to drivers that the customer needs or wants. And yes, that includes the HP Omen and Razer R1 machines that Maingear builds and sells in conjunction with these brands.
The images are delivered by an OPK server that can fully install an embedded PC's BIOS and operating system, drivers and all, in just seven minutes. Now it's fast.
When you build PCs with this kind of care, you don't waste time on imaging systems.
See that little black bottle to the right of the counter? We are not joking
When a PC is ready to ship, Maingear offers a variety of boxing options, from straight (yet reinforced) cardboard to plastic boxes and plastic boxes. However, no Maingear shipping container is closed without a new car smell.
It was at this point that we exited the building and crossed the hallway into another garage, but this one is outfitted to be a quality auto paint shop.
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This is where Maingear paints its various custom PC chassis.
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This is how we see ourselves. Does this paint kit look unfamiliar to you?
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These are the same tools and techniques used to paint cars.
Similar to body paint booths, Maingear hired former painters to apply their skills to its PC chassis line.
Except for what is painted, nothing differentiates us from the process of painting a car, they tell us. The result is, of course, a PC worthy of a photo studio, on which all of Maingear's opulent videos are shot.
Maingear's self-inspired approach to building PCs seems to be paying off
Take this superb gaming rig designed for famous DJ and producer deadmau5, for example.
So when you order a gaming computer from Maingear, here you can see where and how your computer is built, with its chrome pipe fittings and more.
Welcome to LaComparacion 2019 Computer Gaming Week. We celebrate the world's most powerful gaming platform with in-depth articles, exclusive interviews, and essential buying guides that showcase all of those PC games you can offer. Visit our Computer Game Week 2019 page to see all of our coverage in one place.
First published April 2017