Shroud now has his own gaming PC — and a chunk of the company that made it

Maingear has quietly hand-built customized gaming PCs in New Jersey for the previous 20 years, sometimes touchdown splashy partnerships to generate intriguing new programs. Now, it’s teaming up with one of many world’s largest streamers: Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek.

At this time, the 50-person firm just isn’t solely revealing a brand new desktop born out of the Shroud partnership but in addition a brand new firm emblem, in addition to the “first full 3D product configurator”. That manner, you’ll be able to spin round a 3D mannequin earlier than you allow them to cost your bank card for a prebuilt gaming rig.

Oh, and one different factor: Maingear says Shroud is now a co-owner of the corporate, no matter meaning. “shroud now owns a big stake of MAINGEAR and as a co-owner, shroud has labored with us on the MG-1, will work on all future MG merchandise, and as an advisor he’ll assist with strategic and enterprise issues the place his experience is extremely beneficial,” Maingear managing director Ron Reed tells me.

Maingear declined to reply questions on Shroud’s monetary stake within the firm, together with whether or not he invested any of his personal cash in any respect — fairly than, say, receiving shares in trade for his assist. However Reed insists it’s not only a sponsorship contract or a licensing settlement to make use of Shroud’s title on merchandise. “He’s a part of Maingear, chair of our gaming advisory board,” says Reed.

A press launch provides: “Shroud’s expertise permits him to offer key perception on strategic and enterprise issues corresponding to element choice, advertising and marketing initiatives, group constructing, in addition to retail and ecommerce experiences.”

And, the corporate claims, he labored with Maingear on its new PC.

Two years in the past, Shroud revealed he’d obtained a Maingear Vybe PC, and Reed says he truly ordered a number of Maingear PCs himself after musician and producer Deadmau5 really useful the model. Then, this previous 12 months, he obtained concerned with the already-in-development Maingear MG-1, the brand new system that’s being introduced as we speak.

There’s nothing clearly revolutionary concerning the MG-1 when it comes to tech. What you’re typically paying for with a boutique builder is competent labor and an honest case, neither of which seem on a spec sheet. (GamersNexus, probably the most demanding PC reviewers on YouTube, recently called the Maingear Vybe one of many uncommon prebuilts that meets his requirements, whereas additionally being a little bit dissatisfied with its case.)

However the system does look glossy, significantly if you happen to’re paying further for its one cool trick: magnetic hot-swappable light-up entrance panels with your individual customized imagery. That’s prone to be standard amongst streamers who see themselves as the following Shroud. They’re connected with 4 magnets, so there’s no have to unplug something, and you should purchase new ones individually. Maingear gained’t promote the whole case individually, although, Reed tells me.

Talking of glossy, you may as well configure these programs with Maingear’s new infinity mirror 280mm AIO liquid cooler, under, for an additional $15. Talking as somebody who’s a little bit allergic to manufacturers, I don’t truly thoughts this new emblem. Reed says it’s designed to bridge the generations of players, fashionable and retro, and be “versatile and totally different to everybody that appears at it.”

Seems to be extra like a House Invader than an organization to me, and I sort of prefer it that manner. Nonetheless, I’ll in all probability preserve constructing my very own PCs for the foreseeable future.

Because it’s a totally customized PC, costs will fluctuate relying on the parts, however it begins at $1,449 for prebuilt or $1,599 for a choose-your-own-adventure PC. And whereas it begins with an RTX 3050, I’m afraid, it may be configured with as much as an RTX 4090 or a liquid-cooled RX 6900 XT, each Intel and AMD CPUs as much as the i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X, 64GB of DDR5 reminiscence, and as much as 4 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs in addition to as much as 16TB of HDDs. The case measures 19 inches tall, round 17 inches lengthy, and eight inches huge.

The MG-1 must be on sale today. Shroud beforehand partnered with Logitech on a branded mouse and put his title on different Logitech peripherals as a part of a sponsorship.