14 DAY TRIAL // There are three desktops in Maingear's product lineup that use Intel's new central processing units, so we may as well cover them here, like we did with Digital Storm's and Velocity Micro's machines.
We should have probably mentioned HP's dvt6 and dvt7 workstations, but those things are laptops so they don't count here.
That said, the trio of third generation Core-based Maingear desktops is composed of the Shift, the F131 and the Potenza.
The Potenza is small, relying on a mini-ITX motherboard and still packing enough performance to breeze through games. An EPIC 120 CPU cooler can be installed and, for graphics, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680 is chosen. Storage is provided by a 3.5-inch and/or a pair of 2.5-inch drives.
The MAINGEAR F131 also has the EPIC 120 CPU cooler, but is a bit larger than the Potenza, with a microATX motherboard and two graphics cards. A hot-swap storage bay holds HDDs or SSDs.
And the third one, of course, is the biggest and baddest, MAINGEAR SHIFT, a full tower with many customizable bits. Expect lots of card layout choices and the VRTX (Vertical Exhaust) Cooling Technology.
All three products are available through the company's online store, so go here and check them out. Just don't expect the prices to be friendly: Potenza starts at $899, F131 has a beginning price of $1,049 and Shift sells for $1,552 or more.
That's 678.49 Euro, 792 Euro and 1149 Euro, respectively (exchange rates say so anyway), not that it matters that much.
For our part, if we do decide to get an Ivy Bridge machine, we'll make our own PCs from individually acquired parts. Too bad we won't get to take advantage of those huge discounts ($50-70 off).
Finally, as a side note, the Alt and eX-L series notebooks are also getting Ivy Bridge upgrades, so look them up too.