MAINGEAR Retro95 crams 90s nostalgia into a classic rig

The MAINGEAR Retro95 is a modern PC with powerful internals that borrows a design from the 90s, complete with space for an optical disc drive and floppy style inserts (just for looks). You also get off-the-shelf upgradeable parts, a high-speed case I/O, whisper-quiet cooling and a retro design that will make your heart flutter.

My Dad was a programmer. He still is, as far as I know. So, I always grew up around computers and technology. One of the first family computers we had, that we could play games on at least was an old-school Gateway. It had classic Windows, but it also had MS-DOS, and most of the games we played were available from a command prompt. Star Wars Chess, Descent, The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, The Incredible Machine, Wolfenstein, Quake, and many, many more. Some of these games are so old you can’t even find them on GOG. It had a giant-ass monitor, took floppy drives and CDs, and the whole thing was adorned in an ugly design that screamed, “I’m what nerds want.”

Well, MAINGEAR has just struck gold because it’s bringing all of that nostalgia flooding back with the Retro95. A limited-edition standalone PC that channels the nostalgia of the 90s era desktops. This time around, no one has to worry about Y2K, though. What’s even better is that it has a 1995 look, but a 2025 set of hardware specs on the inside, and yes, it’s fully customizable.

You can choose up to an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Intel Core Ultra 245K processor, up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, up to 96GB of DDR5 system memory, and up to an 8TB Gen4 NVMe solid-state drive. That makes for one hell of a gaming system, or really, lots of power to use Windows Paint to your heart’s content.

Why go retro?

The Retro95 case straight up looks like it was plucked from the past. Yet, it has some notable upgrades beyond the powerful internals. It has a high-speed case I/O, whisper-quiet cooling built-in, and supports off-the-shelf upgradeable parts, including room for an optical disc drive. Noctua fans and an 850-watt power supply will keep all that hardware performing optimally.

The only downside is that it’s a limited-edition release, and every MAINGEAR PC is hand-built by a master technician. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

If you want to hearken back to your childhood, and LAN parties where you used to lug around huge beasts like this, the Retro95 is right up your alley. It’s also just a really cool computer case that utilizes a design most people would love to have. Sure, you can take old cases and upgrade them yourself. But they’ll probably require a lot of retooling, or they’re just dirty and aging. That off-white plastic casing that was so popular back then tends to yellow over time, and it looks sickly.

If you want one, grab one. Otherwise, it’s game over, man, game over.