Maingear CEO Patents Gaming PC Innovation That Dramatically Simplifies Cable Management

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, December 16, 2021, 12:49 PM EDT

We recently became aware of Gigabyte's beautiful Aorus Project Stealth PC concept, with connectors and cable routing moved behind the motherboard deck, in what seemed to be a truly innovative gaming desktop design with better air flow and an easier build process. It appears, however, that Maingear patented the design 10 years ago and pitched a number of partner on it at the time. So, what gives? Was Maingear ripped off? And is this the new efficient and ultra-clean PC build of the future?

Show Notes:
06:43 - Meeting Maingear's CEO, Wallace Santos
14:01 - Touring The Maingear Facility BITD (Link In Chat)
14:33 - What Makes A Maingear PC Different
17:24 - Discussing Wallace's Patent
24:25 - How Did Partners React To The Pitch?
27:15 - "Show Us The Business Case"
29:30 - The Reaction To Gigabyte's Leak
35:11 - PC Builders Need To Engage With Customer
36:03 - What Would This Patent Do To Build Time?
40:51 - Have You Continued To Iterate On These Ideas?
47:36 - Why Didn't Mobo And Chassis Makers Get On Board?
49:21 - What Problems Were Found Building A Prototype?
52:50 - Why Aren't We Doing This?
56:35 - Was Gigabyte's Leak A Good Thing?
58:13 - Tell Us What Else Maingear Is Up To...
59:58 - When Will The Shortages End?

Tags: Gigabyte, Maingear, podcast, Geeks, webcast, 2.5 Geeks

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com