MAINGEAR Caves to Demand; Sells SHIFT Chassis on its Own

Of all the available computer chassis on the market, a personal favorite of mine is the SHIFT, from MAINGEAR. First touted as being the base to a “supercomputer”, the company has remained ardent in keeping the chassis exclusive to those who purchase a complete PC. For those who have craved owning one but prefer to go the DIY route with everything, MAINGEAR’s reluctance has been unfortunate.

That changes today, however, as the company has finally made the SHIFT available for mass consumption (well, “mass” but not be the right word). As expected, it doesn’t come cheap, starting out at $899 for the base chassis, or $1,028 for a version with a replacement door that features a large window (it’d almost do a disservice to the chassis to not have a window, in my opinion).

Further, the SHIFT can be configured with different external and internal color schemes. Any external color will add $599 to the price, with some choices including purple, orange, blue, red and green. Of course, black and gray are also available. Internal color choices remain much the same, with a white option added. Adding a color here will add on another $349. Whew, we’re now up to $1,976. Can we go further? Well, going with a real carbon fiber exterior in lieu of a color will bring the price up to $2,577.

Other options include sound dampening, custom engraving and GPU cooler. Included with all SHIFT chassis is the company’s own EPIC 180 liquid CPU cooler and the just-released EPIC Audio Engine, an add-in card that ‘enhances audio fidelity without adding gain‘.

This SHIFT might be pricey, but it sure is sexy.