Falcon Northwest Talon Evaluate: Constructed Like a Tank, Drives Like a Ferrari

Falcon Northwest Talon 20th Anniversary Version

“The unstoppable efficiency of Falcon Northwest’s Talon 20th Anniversary Version makes this gaming PC value each penny.”

Unequalled construct high quality

Finest at school efficiency

Gorgeous, tasteful LED lighting

Twin-GPU possibility

Beneficiant guarantee

Upgraded configurations are expensive

No Thunderbolt three

20th anniversary. Yup, you learn that proper.

Lengthy earlier than mainstream manufacturers like Alienware, Omen, Legion, and Razer existed, there was Falcon Northwest. Based within the early 1990s, this boutique agency has not solely earned a distinction for being the primary producer of gaming PCs, but it surely’s nurtured a cult-like following for its spectacular consideration to element.

Falcon has spent the larger a part of the previous two years refining the mid-size desktop’s chassis and modernizing its design to make this. The 20th Anniversary Version of the Talon. From its insanely highly effective chip choice to the design of the followers and vents, Falcon’s curation of significant applied sciences for the build-to-order Talon proves that the corporate remains to be in tune with the wants of players in the present day.

The most effective anti-Mac Professional this facet of Home windows

Given its storied gaming heritage, you’d count on possible Talon opponents to be merchandise from different boutique manufacturers, like Corsair-owned Origin PC or Digital Storm, however this desktop has an much more upscale rival in its sight: Apple’s Mac Professional. The unstoppable efficiency of the Talon makes it an ideal workstation for professionals engaged on massive information and wealthy quantities of information, and this desktop’s construct high quality makes comparisons with Apple solely pure.

In contrast to Alienware’s molded plastic designs, the Talon is milled from strong blocks of aluminum, giving it sturdiness not like something that has come throughout our desks within the PC house. Using plastics is stored to a minimal, and in contrast to different metal-clad gaming desktops that depend on thinner sheets of metallic, the 4mm thick slabs of aluminum assist to guard the costly silicon elements inside.

You actually need to really feel the metallic doorways to understand the Talon’s tank-like construct high quality. The beneficiant use of metallic contributes to the Talon’s 40-pound heft, making it greater than twice as heavy because the similarly-sized Origin PC Neuron, with Apple’s aluminum-milled Mac Professional weighing a comparable 39.2 kilos.

For its 20th anniversary redesign, you’ll be able to select both a extra understated aesthetics with strong metallic doorways for a workstation-like aesthetics, or you’ll be able to go for see-through tempered glass facet panels that can showcase Falcon’s new tasteful LED lighting system. Although LED elaborations make the Talon look extra like a contemporary gaming system, Falcon’s implementation of this characteristic is moderately refined.

With a dual-GPU setup behind its suicide-style doorways, the Talon has Ferrari energy behind its Hummer-like aesthetics.

Even with the glass panel choices, the Talon’s design wouldn’t really feel misplaced in an upscale workplace. Make no mistake although, with a dual-GPU setup behind its suicide-style doorways, the Talon has Ferrari energy behind its Hummer-like aesthetics.

Cloaked in a matte bead-blasted end, the thick metallic panels give our evaluate unit the phantasm of a bigger presence on our desk than what you’d count on of its eight.75 x 15.5 x 17.25-inch dimensions. Regardless that you gained’t discover a cheese-grater right here, an angled entrance facade with chunky facet vent cutouts provides the Talon its artwork deco-like stature, not not like that of the Empire State Constructing.

Although there aren’t costly caster wheels to roll the Talon round – just like the Mac Professional – the thick metallic stand on the underside not solely provides to the Talon’s elevated aesthetics however helps with airflow. A wide range of vents, filters, and followers inside hold the system cool, and to Falcon’s credit score for selecting the best cooling elements, the system ran quietly for essentially the most half.

Surprisingly, fan noise was loudest when the system initially powered on. The Talon quieted all the way down to a quiet hum instantly after that and operated at that degree even beneath heavy workloads.

The considerate consideration to particulars make the Falcon stand out.

Rear-hinged doorways that keep shut with simply the correct amount of magnetic drive make the internals extra simply accessible than the competing Origin PC, which shares the same design however is hampered by an excessively sturdy magnetic closure. It’s this considerate consideration to particulars that make the Falcon stand out. The omission of Thunderbolt three ports is a letdown, however you’ll discover USB-C and an assortment of USB-A and different ports situated round again and in addition on the highest of the case for straightforward entry.

Falcon Northwest’s consideration to element extends far past the thick glass and aluminum facet panels. In contrast to different PC distributors, the Talon 20th Anniversary Version was immaculately packaged, with doorways, hinges, and movable components taped to stop scuffs and scratches whereas the unit is in transit.

Other than with the ability to select from Falcon’s fastidiously curated assortment of inner PC elements in your construct, there are a number of customization choices that make the Talon really feel like a bespoke PC. Case colours, customized brand jobs, and UV printing assist to offer the Talon a really customized really feel. Our evaluate unit comes with a metallic plaque beneath the precise facet door with Digital Developments’ identify and serial quantity engraved.

All the way down to the core

With a beginning value of $2,432, the Talon isn’t essentially the most inexpensive gaming PC in the marketplace — even on the base configuration. The premium you’re paying on the Talon comes all the way down to the high-end supplies, rigorous testing, and craftsmanship.

The value of our $7,037 evaluate unit might increase a couple of eyebrows.

And should you’re taking a look at Falcon Northwest, chances are high excessive that you just gained’t be shopping for the bottom configuration. In truth, it’s tempting to load the system up with all the most recent choices when going by way of the configuration instrument on Falcon’s web site, and upgrades rapidly add to the price of the system.

Our $7,037 evaluate unit might increase a couple of eyebrows, however Falcon’s pricing is aggressive with different boutique PC producers.

For this value, you’re getting a liquid-cooled 12-core AMD Ryzen 3900X processor, twin Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics playing cards related by NV Hyperlink, a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO solid-state drive, premium CableMod cable administration system, and 64GB G.Talent DDR4 reminiscence together with each glass and strong aluminum doorways packaged within the field.

Unbridled efficiency

The twelve CPU cores coupled with the four,352 CUDA cores on every of Nvidia’s flagship RTX graphics card pack unstoppable gaming and workstation degree efficiency. The Talon is by far one of many quickest techniques we’ve examined, beating out even bigger rivals, like Digital Storm’s Aventum X, particularly with multi-threaded workloads.

On condition that the Ryzen 9 3900X processor helps 12 cores and 24 threads, it readily beats out the competing Intel Core i9-9900Okay discovered on competing premium gaming desktop configurations, with the Talon scoring 48,814 factors on Geekbench four’s multi-threaded benchmark in comparison with roughly 30,000 factors. On Geekbench 5, the Talon scored 13,129 factors on the same benchmark, putting it greater than four,300 factors forward of techniques configured with the Core i9-9900Okay.

The Ryzen processor on our Talon configuration additionally edged out a competing system outfitted with Intel’s Core i9-9900Okay processor when examined in Cinebench R20. The bigger variety of cores on AMD’s design signifies that our Talon’s 7,100 point-performance positioned it greater than 2,500 factors forward of the i9-9900Okay. Video editors and content material creators can have a heyday with this sort of multi-core energy.

The hole was a lot nearer when taking a look at single-core efficiency, with the Ryzen scoring 492 factors in comparison with the 500 factors on Intel’s gaming chipset. Since single-core efficiency performs way more closely into framerates in video games, which is why this processor is overkill for many players.

Given the sturdy outcomes posted by the AMD silicon, the Talon scored throughout the prime one percentile of gaming desktops in 3DMark and PCMark exams. The Talon is ready to juggle video exporting whereas engaged on massive Photoshop information and opening up large Microsoft Workplace Excel information with ease – it is a system that refuses to decelerate, no matter what you throw at it.

The 7nm CPU’s assist for PCIe four.zero additionally helps to make information, video games, and purposes launch extraordinarily quick. When benchmarked utilizing Crystal DiskMark 6’s instrument, our Samsung 970 EVO drive scored 2,151 MB per second on the learn take a look at and slightly below 1,900 MB per second on the write take a look at, that are among the many quickest speeds we’ve encountered.

Because of its dual-GPU setup, gaming efficiency was no slouch. The Talon constantly carried out at effectively over 155 FPS on Fortnite, even in 4K with Epic mode turned on, which is the very best rating we’ve seen by a giant margin. Efficiency was equally stellar in Civilization VI.

The Talon was additionally a robust performer in additional demanding titles like Murderer’s Creed Odyssey and Battlefield V. The place different high-end gaming rigs we’ve reviewed started to stutter in increased recreation settings in 1440p decision, the Talon maintained constant efficiency till 4K with medium settings on each video games. In Murderer’s Creed Odyssey, the sport carried out with none lags or ghosting by way of all modes in 1440p, and uneven frames have been solely noticeable in Excessive mode with 4K decision. Few techniques are as 4K-ready because the Talon.

Guarantee

Along with a 30-day money-back assure, Falcon Northwest affords a really beneficiant three-year restricted guarantee that covers components and labor. In the course of the first of the three years, Falcon will even cowl in a single day transport prices ought to any issues come up, guaranteeing as little down time as attainable. After the primary yr, you’ll need to pay to ship the unit to the corporate’s restore middle, however Falcon will cowl return transport to you. The three-year protection is lengthier than what’s lined by most gaming corporations and is extra typical of enterprise techniques.

Enterprise customers trying to undertake the Talon for knowledge evaluation and workstation use could also be disenchanted that Falcon doesn’t supply any guarantee improve choices. Mainstream PC producers, like HP, Dell, and Lenovo, all supply non-compulsory prolonged guarantee upgrades that assist to delay the anticipated lifetime of a system.

Our take

In reimagining one of the crucial profitable gaming desktops twenty years later, Falcon Northwest has created a novel bespoke gaming PC with unequalled efficiency and construct high quality within the Talon 20th Anniversary Version. Milled from strong metallic, the Talon is arguably one of the best imaginative and prescient of what a Mac Professional might be if Apple’s desktop didn’t run MacOS.

However magnificence isn’t simply skin-deep, and the Talon comes outfitted with one of the best processors and as much as a twin graphics card setup inside its tank-like craftsmanship — these PC elements convey agile efficiency to this hefty desktop. The Talon is mostly a Ferrari disguised as a tank, and players with the money to splurge and an eye fixed on design will certainly not be disenchanted with this desktop, even when it means sacrificing a number of the work in constructing your personal rig in favor of one among Falcon’s build-to-order configurations.

Is there a greater various?

Dell’s Alienware Aurora R8 and Aurora R9 desktops will also be configured with a dual-GPU design. Although Alienware’s Aurora R9 begins at a extra modest $799, upgrades will also be costly. A extra comparable configuration with an Intel Core i9-9900Okay processor and twin RTX 2080 Tremendous graphics take the value as much as $four,675. In comparison in opposition to the $7,000 Talon, the greater than $2,000 premium on Falcon’s design could be attributable to the Talon’s reliance on extra metallic components as an alternative of Dell’s embrace of molded plastics.

Considered one of our prime picks for gaming PCs this yr is Origin PC’s Neuron, a boutique gaming desktop that gives related configurations because the Talon with the same rear-hinged glass door design. Just like the Talon, the Neuron delivers loads of efficiency — as anticipated giving Origin PC’s high-end configuration tops out at $13,000 — however should you care concerning the finer particulars, Falcon Northwest delivers unsurpassed consideration to element in its building. Configured equally to our upgraded $7,000 Talon evaluate unit, the Neuron would price $four,000, or $three,000 much less. This offers the Neuron higher efficiency per greenback than the Talon for players on a tighter price range.

How lengthy will it final?

With its efficiency, the Talon is constructed to offer you years of gaming pleasure. Even because the know-how inside fades, the rear-hinged doorways present loads of entry to carry out your personal upgrades. And should you select the Talon mannequin with strong 4mm-thick aluminum doorways, this rig’s case will possible outlast you.

Do you have to purchase it?

Sure. Though it’s not essentially the most inexpensive PC in the marketplace, the Talon’s strong efficiency and design particulars make this a flexible PC that can delight players and creatives alike.

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