Maingear’s Turbo small-form-factor gaming desktop is proof that size doesn’t matter. Though this PC is much smaller than a typical mid-tower, the New Jersey boutique company managed to fit a 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor and a 24GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card into our totally overkill review unit—and cool them both properly. Turbo prices start at $2,162 but climb to a staggering $6,456 for our system as tested with custom hardline liquid cooling for both CPU and GPU. That makes it one of the very fastest and most expensive desktops we’ve ever tested, but we can’t say it’s not worth the dosh: the Turbo’s unique blend of compact design, outrageous performance, and extensive customization is unparalleled. If you can afford it, it’s one swell ride.
If a Desktop Were a Supercar
The Maingear Turbo is roughly half the size of a mid-tower desktop, at 12.3 by 6.7 by 14.4 inches (HWD). Some compromises are inherent in that downsizing, mainly limited storage expansion, but they are surprisingly few.
The tower itself is all steel. Our unit is plain black, but buyers going the extra mile can opt for Maingear’s automotive painting service in any color. Custom artwork designs are also available.
The real eye-catcher on our lavishly equipped unit is its Apex hardline open-loop liquid cooling with chrome tubing. It cools both the CPU and GPU.
A big part of the reason our model is more than $6,000, apart from the core components: Hardline cooling systems like this are entirely handcrafted. The pipes must be precisely cut and bent to fit the Turbo’s challenging confines. There’s nothing off-the-shelf about it.
A pump circulates the fluid—clear in our unit, but Maingear offers many colors—which ultimately passes through a 280mm top-mounted radiator to release stored heat. The cooling fans are quiet even under heavy gaming stress.
RGB lighting from the two fans, an interior light strip, and even the HyperX memory modules give the Turbo a jewel-like glow. The lighting is configurable using the Asus Aura Sync app.
The hardline cooling adds about $1,100 to the bill, which is roughly the going rate for such a service. Much of its appeal is aesthetic; though the baseline Turbo uses a traditional closed-loop CPU liquid cooler and air cooling for the GPU, you can still configure it with the same components as our hardline model.
One downside of hardline liquid cooling is that it makes component upgrades a challenge. At least getting inside is easy: After removing a thumbscrew to slide off the top panel, you can remove either side panel by hooking your fingers under its bottom edge and tugging upward.
The cooling tubes in the tempered glass side makes it impossible to access the memory and M.2 solid-state drive; it’d be wise to talk to Maingear before attempting any disassembly. (Better yet, configure everything the way you want from the factory.)
The other side provides access to the sole 3.5-inch drive bay, which slides out on a caddy after removing a thumbscrew. The Corsair SF750W power supply also resides here; its special SFX format and fully modular cable connections make it ideal for mini-PCs.
The Turbo’s front port selection includes two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and an audio jack. I’d like to see a USB Type-C port here next time.
Meanwhile, the Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming mini-ITX motherboard provides seven more USB Type-A ports (four version 3.2 Gen 1 and three 3.2 Gen 2), one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, and three audio jacks (line-in, line-out, and microphone). The video outputs are disabled (the Ryzen 9 5950X lacks an onboard GPU) in favor of the GeForce RTX 3090 card’s one HDMI and three DisplayPort connectors.
Though the port selection is good, it’d be nice to see a higher-bandwidth USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port. I’d also prefer a wireless antenna integrated into the case for a cleaner look. The external antenna for the motherboard’s Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 card connects to the two gold jacks.
Pulling a Fast One: Testing the Maingear Turbo
The $6,456 Maingear Turbo reviewed here is exceptionally well equipped with a 16-core, 3.4GHz (4.9GHz boost) AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor, a 24GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition graphics card, 32GB of DDR4-3600 dual-channel memory, a 1TB Seagate FireCuda 520 SSD loaded with Windows 10 Home, and a 4TB 3.5-inch hard drive.
This is unquestionably one of the fastest PCs that money—a lot of it—can buy. Direct competitors are scarce; few mini-PCs offer hardware of this caliber and even fewer offer hardline cooling. Falcon Northwest’s Tiki matches the Maingear in craftsmanship, though its GPU choices peak with a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti as I type this. Digital Storm’s Bolt X, which goes up to a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, rings up at $5,305 with hardline cooling just for its CPU.
It’s notable that the Turbo is offered only with AMD CPUs—no Intel “Rocket Lake” silicon here. Gamers looking for more value can safely opt for the Ryzen 7 5800X without missing the Ryzen 9 5950X’s extra cores. Similarly, though the GeForce RTX 3090 is the absolute fastest single graphics card on the market, the RTX 3080 Ti provides almost identical performance for much less money.
Now to light this candle. The Turbo will face the gaming desktops seen in the table below for our performance benchmarks.
The NZXT H1 Mini Plus is an enthusiast mini-PC, while the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is a value-priced mid-tower. The Turbo will likely slaughter them, but they’ll have to do for comparison until more gaming desktops undergo our new benchmark regimen. (See more about how we test desktops.)
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive. Here, the Turbo sailed away with an epic 7,861-point productivity showing (4,000 points indicates excellent Microsoft Office or Google Docs performance) and an equally impressive score in the storage test.
Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our final productivity test is workstation maker Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
Sixteen cores mean multithreaded tasks are a breeze for the Turbo, halving the eight-core NZXT’s time in Handbrake and sprinting away in Cinebench R23 and the other tests.
We also ran our suite of workstation and content creation tests on the Turbo. These include Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Adobe Premiere Pro 15; SPECviewperf 2020, an industry standard for measuring 3D performance in graphics design and CAD applications; and Blender, another 3D modeling test. The Turbo unsurprisingly took the top honors in all the tests. For digital editing and heavy number-crunching, its Ryzen 9 5950X is a sensational performer.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
For Windows PCs, we run both synthetic and real-world gaming tests. The former includes two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Also looped into that group is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance.
Moving on, our real-world gaming testing comes from the in-game benchmarks of F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege, representing simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooter games respectively. On desktops, we run them at their highest quality presets (F1 2021 at Ultra High and Valhalla and Siege at Ultra) at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions.
The Turbo’s stellar numbers speak for themselves. The GeForce RTX 3090’s massive 24GB frame buffer earmarks it for prosumer, AI, and analytical use rather than gaming, though it’s obviously capable.
All Show, All Go
The Maingear Turbo is several engineering feats in one. Not only does it cram full-tower power into a fraction of the usual size, but it does so with hardline liquid cooling for both its CPU and GPU, something not usually seen. This ultra-custom desktop leaves little room for complaint aside from a lack of storage expansion, but that’s an inherent compromise for a smaller PC. Top-notch craftsmanship and a high degree of customization go a long way toward justifying its colossal price. For those with pockets deep enough, the Turbo redefines what’s possible in a desktop this size.
