Maingear Special Edition Battlebox Starts at $2,999

Maingear introduced special editions of the F131, SHIFT and VYBE gaming "Battlebox" desktops that feature Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card. The VYBE has a starting price of $2,999, the F131 starts at $3,199, and the SHIFT starts at $3,499.

To give you a sense of the base specifications, the most expensive of the three, the SHIFT Battlebox, comes packed with an Intel Core i5-4590 processor (3.3 GHz / 3.7 GHz), 8 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 RAM (2 x 4 GB), Nvidia's GeForce Titan Z with 12 GB of GDDR5 VRAM (2x Titan Z 24 GB GDDR5 in SLI is an extra $2,050), and a 750 watt EVGA SuperNOVA 80 Plus Certified PSU. Other features include a 1 TB Seagate SSHD with 8 GB of caching, a 24x DVD burner, 7.1 channel high definition surround sound, and Windows 8.1 64-bit.

The specs for the VYBE can be found here, and the F131 specs can be found here.

Acknowledging that we're primarily a DIY site, it's always interesting to see what boutique builders like Maingear are marketing to customers not interested in hand-building their own PC from scratch. A starting price of $3,499 seems a little steep, as you could probably buy a decent used car for that money. Still, there are plenty of PC gamers who will pay top dollar to have the top-of-the-line performance machine.

UPDATE: We've reached out to Maingear about the pricing. The cost of all three special editions seems a bit off given that the Titan Z typically sells for $2,999 on its own. Origin, it seems, has a similar discounted deal too on Titan Z systems.

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Kevin Parrish
Contributor

Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.

  • falchard
    Price is pretty good for a pre-built. It looks like a huge price tag, but when you price each component there is not much of a built surcharge.
    Reply
  • utengineer
    The Titan Z sells for $2998 on Newegg. Maingear must be getting those Z cards at a great price considering the other components cost $400+ retail.
    Reply
  • finder
    it's clearly stated on the maingear website that the Titan Z card costs $2050 http://www.maingear.com/boutique/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=2166
    Reply
  • n3cw4rr10r
    Ouch. The sales for the Titan Z must be really low for that huge of a discount.
    Reply
  • anthony8989
    Ouch. The sales for the Titan Z must be really low for that huge of a discount.
    More like non-existent! Lol
    Reply