Today, Maingear has refreshed its North Series product stack and is launching new prebuilts based on the new Fractal Design North XL case. This larger version of Fractal's original North chassis allows for larger GPUs and up to 420mm radiators. The refreshed lineup doesn't change component selection or pricing, essentially making the North XL a free upgrade.
At first glance, the new North XL doesn't seem all that different from the original; it still largely retains the same theme and the colors seem more or less identical. However, the case is much longer and can now support 280mm and 360mm radiators and a triple-fan array at the top of the case, as well as E-ATX motherboards. Previously, 360mm radiators could only be installed at the front. It's also wider and deeper, which allows 420mm radiators to be installed at the front as well. It doesn't appear Maingear has any plans to launch North PCs with 420mm coolers, but instead leaves it as an upgrade option for users.
The case's additional length also increases the amount of room available for the graphics card. Previously, it was a bit of a tight squeeze to fit a top-end GPU inside the North XL chassis, but now there's plenty of room for an RTX 4090 Founders Edition. However, the larger North XL doesn't support vertical GPU mounting, without adding an optional kit.
Maingear's refresh only impacts the case, and no other components or pricing has been changed. This allows the North series to remain decently competitive for value against other prebuilts from companies like Corsair and MSI.
The refreshed North Series lineup is available right now, and it not only applies to North-based gaming PCs, but also its Pro WS workstations. Maingear's North gaming desktops use Intel's 14th Gen CPUs and Nvidia's RTX 40 GPUs, with the exception of the Ruby configuration and its Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Meanwhile, Pro WS workstations only support up to the Core i9-14900K and the Ryzen 9 7950X and not Xeon or Threadripper workstation CPUs, which are exclusive to the Pro WS Max series.
