Falcon Northwest FragBox SLI: Dare to Dream
by Jarred Walton on May 3, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
System and Application Performance
We'll start with a look at system performance using several common business benchmarks. All of these tests are to varying degrees "synthetic" benchmarks, as user interaction is eliminated from the equation. For some tests (i.e. word processing, email, spreadsheets) the user is the primary bottleneck. In other tests like multimedia encoding, though, system performance can play a more significant role. We've included results for Winstones 2004, PCMark05, and Worldbench 2005. PCMark04 would not report a score on any of the tested systems, but this is a known problem with the benchmark when running on the fastest AMD dual-core processors. The third multitasking benchmark always reports a failure on the grammar test. In our experience, PCMark05 is more demanding of a system than PCMark04, and the scores are relatively similar, so this isn't a serious problem.
Winstones has a margin of error of about 3%, though it can be as high as 5% in regular testing. Most of the scores fall within the margin of error, and the faster hard drive subsystem of the FragBox almost certainly plays a small role as well. The end result is that all three systems, when comparably equipped, perform similarly. PCMark05 stresses the hard drive subsystem even more, with a couple test that measure maximum hard drive performance. There are also 3D rendering tests, accounting for the slight difference between 7900 GT and 7900 GTX configurations. The overall performance of the Falcon Northwest FragBox comes out on top by a small margin, which is important considering the price. We could almost certainly match performance if we used the same hard drive setup in our custom-built desktop system, but the main point is that the FragBox lives up to the promise of delivering performance matching that of the best desktop systems in a micro ATX form factor.
In terms of memory, having 2 GB of RAM versus 1 GB of RAM has little impact on these application benchmarks. That's not too surprising, given that none of these tests are designed to use more than 1 GB of RAM. Someone odd is the fact that the falcon Northwest system scores noticeably (about 10%) higher in the content creation benchmarks when equipped with the 7900 GTX cards. With the DFI system, the reverse is true: the 7900 GT configuration scores somewhat higher. We're at a loss to explain this discrepancy, as Winstones generally isn't affected by graphics card performance, short of using integrated graphics.
We'll start with a look at system performance using several common business benchmarks. All of these tests are to varying degrees "synthetic" benchmarks, as user interaction is eliminated from the equation. For some tests (i.e. word processing, email, spreadsheets) the user is the primary bottleneck. In other tests like multimedia encoding, though, system performance can play a more significant role. We've included results for Winstones 2004, PCMark05, and Worldbench 2005. PCMark04 would not report a score on any of the tested systems, but this is a known problem with the benchmark when running on the fastest AMD dual-core processors. The third multitasking benchmark always reports a failure on the grammar test. In our experience, PCMark05 is more demanding of a system than PCMark04, and the scores are relatively similar, so this isn't a serious problem.
Winstones has a margin of error of about 3%, though it can be as high as 5% in regular testing. Most of the scores fall within the margin of error, and the faster hard drive subsystem of the FragBox almost certainly plays a small role as well. The end result is that all three systems, when comparably equipped, perform similarly. PCMark05 stresses the hard drive subsystem even more, with a couple test that measure maximum hard drive performance. There are also 3D rendering tests, accounting for the slight difference between 7900 GT and 7900 GTX configurations. The overall performance of the Falcon Northwest FragBox comes out on top by a small margin, which is important considering the price. We could almost certainly match performance if we used the same hard drive setup in our custom-built desktop system, but the main point is that the FragBox lives up to the promise of delivering performance matching that of the best desktop systems in a micro ATX form factor.
In terms of memory, having 2 GB of RAM versus 1 GB of RAM has little impact on these application benchmarks. That's not too surprising, given that none of these tests are designed to use more than 1 GB of RAM. Someone odd is the fact that the falcon Northwest system scores noticeably (about 10%) higher in the content creation benchmarks when equipped with the 7900 GTX cards. With the DFI system, the reverse is true: the 7900 GT configuration scores somewhat higher. We're at a loss to explain this discrepancy, as Winstones generally isn't affected by graphics card performance, short of using integrated graphics.
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Pirks - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
Thanks, but that's still very far from what I was asking. If all the PC is made of were just ONE SINGLE ABIT MOBO, then yeah it'd be a close shot :Pislandtechengineers - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
small and powerful; like another has stated; Build my own. being rich and able to let someone else do the work for you = lazy , but i wouldnt mind putting it in my car if i had cash to throw out...Inkjammer - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
"Performance nerd-vana" may have to be one of the best quotes I've seen in a while. =DMissing Ghost - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
What's so special about it?unclebud - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
the review was still interesting, as alwayswhat i was saying is that another group of journalists reviewed the fragbox before and they encountered a very different type of experience... it's also interesting that they sent a fragbox with an evga board now and not the msi/ati 480~
Gary Key - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
I cannot answer directly for Jarred in this case, but my previous experiences with Falcon Northwest have shown they do listen to their customers and will correct any product issues immediately.unclebud - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
"I can't really evaluate the support that comes from Falcon at this time."imagine that...
JarredWalton - Thursday, May 4, 2006 - link
They put a customer sticker on every system. This one is for "AnandTech" - too bad I have to send it back.daftpunkit - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
My parents got me a Falcon NW for college, 4 years later it still runs pretty sweet, and 4 years in the computer world means it's ancient.The support was outstanding too I would say. They are quick too. I think the original had a MSI mobo but it blew up or something about a year into me owning it and I shipped it to them they replaced it with a nice ASUS mobo and got it back pretty quick.
Ryan Norton - Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - link
Man, I remember when I was 10-14 or so and my dad still picked out the family computer, guaranteeing slowness and poor Doom II performance... he subscribed to Computer Gaming World and the Mach V ads always made me drool! I would never buy a FNW system when I can build my own so much easier, UNLESS I get rich one day... then man, I'm gonna beat a path to their door for whatever octo-SLI quad-CPU 32GB RAM madness reigns in the future.