Maingear SHIFT Super Stock X79 System Review
The size of the system bundle will depend on how many accessories you dropped into your virtual cart when configuring your rig. Maingear offers a number of peripherals and add-ons, including monitors, speakers, keyboards, mice, game controllers, and more.
Our system shipped with a plastic binder stuffed with items including:
- Maingear branded miniature toolkit
- Maingear t-shirt
- Mousepad
- Free game codes
- Windows 7 Home Premium install disc
- Asus Rampage IV Extreme driver disc
- LG Super Multi Blue install disc
- Various user manuals,
- Invoice
- Benchmark and burn-in report
We don't want to overstate the bundle, but Maingear's binder is the sort of the thing that lets you know you're shopping from a boutique system builder and not a bulk OEM.
;)
Maingear advertises a "Zero Bloatware" policy that's a refreshing change of a pace in this era of loading up pre-built systems with third-party software. Of course, you're paying a premium for this level of PC cleanliness, and performance robbing crapware is how some OEMs can sell their systems so cheap, but if given the choice, we'd rather shell out a few extra dollars for a pristine setup rather than spend the time cleaning up the pre-installed crud.
;)
At the time of this of this writing, Maingear has a number of special promotions going on, including several free game offers. If you remember to check the boxes, you can receive Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Just Cause 2, and Jagged Alliance: Back in Action for free when you order a SHIFT Super Stock X79 system.
The only pre-installed software that shipped with our review unit was Cyberlink's Blu-ray Disc Suite, a utility that ships with the LG optical drive that allows you to watch high-definition Blu-ray discs, burn media, and perform a handful of other tasks. By request, you can also have Maingear pre-install Microsoft's Security Essentials antivirus program. If not, Maingear drops an installation file on your desktop, along with another installation file for OpenOffice.
