Falcon Northwest FragBox SLI: Dare to Dream

Final Thoughts

How does the Falcon Northwest FragBox SLI stack up against the competition? If the overall purpose is to match full ATX desktop performance using a micro ATX motherboard and case, I have to conclude that they've succeeded in that goal. However, there are still reasons to consider going with a full ATX system. Expansion options will always be better with the larger case.

With the FragBox, if you want to install two of the fastest graphics cards on the market, you're stuck with whatever integrated components come with the motherboard. All of onboard options will get the job done, but we really would like to see something better than the ALC850 audio codec in the future. If you're hoping to add something like a TV tuner down the road, you'll have to go with an external solution. These problems aren't serious enough that people should avoid going with the smaller systems, of course; small form factor computers have always traded features and expansion options for size. As a whole, then, the FragBox does an excellent job at meeting the demands of a niche market.

I can't really evaluate the support that comes from Falcon at this time. We're working on trying to come up with some reasonable ways to conduct "tech support benchmarks" for the future, but for now all I can say is that Kelt Reeves was more than happy to help out with any questions I had, and hopefully that same level of dedication is present in the rest of the company. Such attitudes often start at the top, though, so it's good to know that Falcon's President and founder is sincerely interested in helping out when possible. Interplay Productions (R.I.P.) used to have a slogan: "By gamers, for gamers." Based off my contact with Kelt Reeves, FNW has a similar attitude: these are systems built by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.

In many ways, the results are almost a foregone conclusion. The Falcon Northwest FragBox SLI is fast - very fast. In fact, it's the fastest computer I've ever used/tested! It's also the most expensive system I've ever tested. For the DIY crowd, the price/performance offered is almost laughable. Any serious enthusiast can build an overclocked system that will come very close to the performance of the FragBox SLI - and perhaps even exceed it - for about half the cost. However, there are many people out there that have no interest in overclocking, and they don't want to bother assembling the system on their own.

Some people enjoy buying a sports coupe and modding it until performance can come close to the most exotic cars on the market. Others prefer to just go out and buy a factory built Ferrari and not deal with any of the dirty work. Neither choice is right, and it's a matter of determining how much time you want to put into upgrading and maintaining your car vs. the money you spend. Of course, both of those groups are a tiny minority in comparison to the vast numbers of people that just want a decent, reliable car for a reasonable price.

That analogy applies relatively well to the computer industry. There are people that want the best pre-built system money can buy, others that want to build the fastest overclocked system possible for minimum cost, and a huge group of business users that wouldn't know a benchmark if it walked up and bit them on the face. (Ed: That happened once!) For the first group, Falcon Northwest is among the elite when it comes to building exotic systems, and they can help interested buyers put together a screaming fast system. FNW also happens to get access to limited release technologies (7800 GTX 512 MB and Quad-SLI, for example) that may be difficult to pick up on the retail market.

Not everyone needs or even wants that level of performance, and more importantly few people are willing to pay the price. We're certainly not going to tell all of you to go out and spend a small fortune on a top-performing computer that will be middle-of-the-road in a year's time and merely average in two years. Then again, we're not going to suggest that everyone out there stick with moderate performance for a moderate price either. As the saying goes, if you have to ask how much it's going to cost, it's not for you. If you're more interested in how fast you can make it run, Falcon Northwest can surely help you reach performance nerd-vana. The rest of us can only dream.