High-End Meets Small Form Factor: GeForce Titan in Falcon Northwest's Tiki
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 19, 2013 9:00 AM ESTPrice and Final Words
I like the Tiki chassis. It's big enough to accommodate the type of parts I'd want to integrate, yet it's small enough to feel more like a console than a huge gaming PC. The styling is simple and understated, allowing the system's size to be the main thing on display.
I've personally never been a fan of multi-GPU setups, I much prefer the simplicity of a single, high performance GPU. For a user like me, the GeForce Titan in Falcon's Tiki is pretty much as good as it gets. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of performance that could be squeezed into a fairly small chassis, without being overly loud. The Tiki wasn't silent, but the days of having to make a trade off between something annoying and something fast are over. It's sort of absurd that between the Core i7 and Titan there are 8.5 billion transistors switching at ridiculous speeds inside this tiny chassis.
Personally I don't know that I'd ever build or buy something as insane as this setup, but that's not to say that I don't appreciate it. A 4.6GHz Core i7 paired with an single, speedy GPU is just a great combination for a gaming system. The fact that it comes in a sleek form factor is icing on the cake.
Kelt was always hesitant to send a Tiki over for review at AnandTech. The system isn't cheap. In its default configuration with a Core i5-3470 with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB Crucial m4 SSD you're looking at a price of around $1713. You can definitely build something faster for a lot cheaper. When you're spending a clean $1K just on your GPU however, a more expensive overall system cost isn't all that unreasonable. While I didn't have final pricing for the review system, the Tiki system I tested without Titan would retail for $2263. I'd expect the final price with Titan to be somewhere around $3200.
In a world where Apple sells $2000 - $3000 Macs based around their experience, I don't see why the same sort of logic can't apply here as well. What has traditionally kept PC vendors from being able to sell on an experience has really been an issue with the software side of the story. With Steam and Big Picture, Valve is helping to address some of those weaknesses.
Falcon built a system that you wouldn't mind having in your living room, much like you would a gaming console, but I do see a lot of potential in the usage model NVIDIA outlined at CES. With your gaming PC in your office streaming content to your TV when you want more of that console experience.
The quest for more power efficient hardware has done wonderful things for the mobile industry, but I believe the PC gaming market stands to benefit as well. Although we asked NVIDIA for both a 3-way SLI system and small form factor box based on GeForce Titan, we did so out of necessity. When faced with the choice of what we'd rather have personally, both Ryan and I agreed that a single Titan in a small form factor chassis is the way to go.
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c4fusion - Thursday, February 21, 2013 - link
Well it shouldn't be a problem with this system, it's slot loaded. ;)Ryan Smith - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
The granite base is not detachable. It's quite attached, and it's quite heavy (I'd assume to keep the Tiki upright).tonyou - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
According to another review, the granite base is actually removable:<a href="http://www.destructoid.com/review-falcon-northwest...
AtaStrumf - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
Wow this is an impressive system but at what price?!?! Last November I built a HT gaming system based on i3 3225 (3.3Ghz), 8 GB RAM, 120BG Samsung 840 SSD + 1TB HDD and 7850 2GB OC and slimline Sony Blu-Ray for just €650, taxes and postage included. I can run Battlefiled 3 and anything else I've thrown at it at 1080p resolution and good quality settings without a hitch. The price of this Tiki ($3200) is a total waste of money and sooo over-engineered!!Tetracycloide - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
You're making a pretty ludicrous comparison here. Obviously if you can spend less and it still does everything you need it to do then do that but there are things a high-end system will be capable of doing that your system can't. If you want to do one of those things then your system isn't worth it at any price. On top of that you've ignored the entire premise of the article: that for some users the extra cost of having someone build for you is well worth the time savings. In short not everyone's needs are your needs and not everyone's time is worth the same amount.AtaStrumf - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
Building the PC is the easy part, figuring out what bits should go in it is the hard part, but given the price difference it's well worth the investment.If they could build something closer to my spec in this form factor for a bit more money then I paid, I'd be all over it, but at this price point I'm flabbergasted as to who will want to pay this much for a glorified HTPC.
Taft12 - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
i3+840+HD7850?Apples and oranges are too similar to be a valid description of the different universes your system and this Tiki occupy. How about a mosquito vs. a T-Rex?
AtaStrumf - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - link
Well how about asking yourself what this is actually USED for? If you like running benchmarks all day on your HTPC(!) and brag about it on forums then then sure it's no comparison, but Battlefield 3, Far Cry 3 at 1080p resolution (as high as 99.99% of TVs will go at the moment) run smoooooth as silk on my config. Why would I wonna pay a $2.5k premium for something I don't need?!?! Plus it's ugly! They spend all this time and effort in designing a square box. Wow, seriously?!? That granite base is like a fallen headstone. Well at least it's gonna come in handy when they have to bury this thing. I reckon this is gonna tank big time.Death666Angel - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - link
You are going by your own taste and likes and saying this product is bad because it doesn't meet those. All the others are simply stating that it isn't a bad product because you don't like it. You can say you find it a useless and overprice product for your own use cases. That is fine and hardly worth a rebuttal. But you are arguing in absolutes while providing subjective points.HisDivineOrder - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
...one damn well hopes the consoles aren't as smooth. ;)