Maingear’s ROG-Certified Rush Desktop Delivers Updated Apex Cooling in E-ATX Case

(Image credit: Maingear)

Whether you’re working from home, spending your socially-distanced downtime gaming (or like us, both) it’s a good time to have a high-performance desktop (HEDT) at your disposal. And Maingear is ready to deliver with its latest Rush tower.

Packing your choice of current high-end components (up to an AMD Threadripper 3990X or Intel Core i9-10998XE and dual-RTX Titan graphics cards), alongside an overhauled version of the company’s impressive Apex custom liquid cooling, the Rush is housed in a Lian Li 011 Dynamic XL case. It’s also ROG-certified, meaning Maingear worked with Asus to assure the system’s lighting works with Asus Aura Sync software for a unified light show.

Available starting today direct from Maingear, the Rush will start at $1,899, though expect to pay much more if you want high-end parts and that pretty, high-performing, solid-machined-acrylic Apex cooling solution.

Expect only Asus motherboard options with this ROG-certified system. As for other components, the company says a fully-outfitted Rush tower can fit up to four graphics cards (though with Nvidia SLI/AMD Crossfire effectively dead, gamers should stick to one high-end card), 128GB of RAM, multiple 2TB SSDs and your choice of high-end CPU/motherboard platforms, including large E-ATX options. 

(Image credit: Maingear)

If you’re wondering what’s changed with the Apex cooling setup since we looked at it in the Maingear F131 back in 2018, Maingear said it’s integrated a custom quiet pump, a flow-rate sensor and a high-capacity reservoir, along with parallel bridges to the GPU and radiator for greater cooling/overclocking potential. 

While it’s tough to validate the company’s claims that Apex is the “best performing” cooling solution on the market (especially from a press release), the clear acrylic design is  certainly the most visually striking custom cooling setup we’ve seen. If you’re looking for a desktop that delivers both high-end performance and the looks to match its muscle, the Rush might be tough to beat.

A maingear rep told us that the Rush won’t replace the company’s existing R1, Vybe, or F131 systems but will live alongside them as the go-to option for the “ultimate gaming PC.” With support for the top HEDT platforms and up to four GPUs alongside impressive custom cooling, the Rush is certainly a strong contender for that title. We look forward to putting it through its paces in a full review as soon as one lands on our test bench.

Matt Safford

After a rough start with the Mattel Aquarius as a child, Matt built his first PC in the late 1990s and ventured into mild PC modding in the early 2000s. He’s spent the last 15 years covering emerging technology for Smithsonian, Popular Science, and Consumer Reports, while testing components and PCs for Computer Shopper, PCMag and Digital Trends.