Maingear just tore back the curtains on a new gaming laptop called the ML-17. Not only is this one decked out with ridiculously powerful hardware, it also comes with much-awaited Thunderbolt 5 support. It’s so hot, I’m surprised it doesn’t breathe fire.
If you’re part of gaming PC circles, you’ve likely heard of Maingear, the company that’s known for designing and building high-performance custom PCs.
Well, Maingear’s latest laptop offering—though powerful and will no doubt deliver blazing fast performance—doesn’t actually stray far from the previous ML-16 laptop‘s blueprint in terms of aesthetics. The one discernible difference? The ML-17’s screen is a little bigger.
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Details on the Maingear ML-17
Maingear
Maingear
Maingear
The Maingear ML-17 has all the bells and whistles you could want. Maingear loaded this beast up with an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile GPU, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to three 4TB (that’s 12TB total) of SSD storage.
Although PCWorld hasn’t given this machine a test run yet, I can confidently say that, given the specs, it will likely chew through anything we throw at it, whether that’s an intensive battle royale game or editing a sappy wedding video.
And did I mention the screen is humongous? It measures 17.3 inches, which I find to be comically large myself, but serious gamers may prefer this bigger screen as it allows you to see more of the game you’re playing in crisper detail.
With the ML-17, you can expect sharp images thanks to its 2560×1440 resolution, and its 240Hz refresh rate should ensure smooth gameplay. The display also supports Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, which helps reduce the likelihood of screen tearing in games.
Other cool features include a full-sized keyboard with per-key RGB lighting, a massive 99 watt-hour battery, a pair of stereo speakers, a durable metal chassis, and dual Thunderbolt 5 ports.
Thunderbolt 5, which is set to replace Thunderbolt 4, boasts faster connectivity speeds and supports displays with refresh rates as high as 540Hz. It’s useful if you have a cutting-edge external monitor.
The ML-17 is a high-performance machine that fits neatly within the scope of Maingear’s brand. That said, while the inclusion of dual Thunderbolt 5 ports is pretty darn rad, I’ve seen this kind of top-tier configuration many times before—it very much falls in the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” camp.
The ML-17 is available right now with a lofty starting price of $3,899.
Author: Ashley Biancuzzo, Associate Editor, PCWorld
Ashley Biancuzzo manages all laptop and Chromebook coverage for PCWorld. She's been covering consumer tech since 2016, and her work has appeared on USA Today, Reviewed, Polygon, Kotaku, StarWars.com, and Nerdist. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games, reading science fiction, and hanging out with her rescue greyhound.