Falcon Northwest FragBox (2013) review: Big gaming in a (relatively) small package

Many years ago, I was one of those guys who would build my own gaming-oriented desktops from the chassis up (my first had a 3dfx Voodoo2 graphics card). But in recent times, I've been fairly satisfied by off-the-shelf gaming laptops, even with the compromises inherent in those systems.

8.2

Falcon Northwest FragBox (2013)

The Good

The hand-assembled <b>Falcon Northwest FragBox</b> is highly customizable and aims for superior performance while keeping its physical footprint small.

The Bad

The basic look of these smaller systems has changed little over the years, with few concessions made for newer developments, from Thunderbolt to Windows 8, and no matter what configuration you put together, it's going to be expensive.

The Bottom Line

High-end, high-price gaming desktops are an even rarer beast than ever, but with the latest Intel and Nvidia parts inside, at least the significant money you'll put into a Falcon Northwest FragBox will be well-spent.

With the component calendar page for both CPUs and GPUs flipping at about the same time, the introduction of new parts from Intel and Nvidia seems like an opportune moment to take another look at a dedicated gaming machine, in this case the FragBox from Falcon Northwest.

This is a small-chassis desktop, which means it's about the size of a bread box (to use a particularly dated reference). Full-tower desktops, gaming and otherwise, still exist, but I can't imagine carving out the space for one of those. This smaller size feels like the most appropriate compromise between power and semiportability.

The main reason we're looking at this particular FragBox is that it features one of Intel's new fourth-generation Core i-series CPUs, also known by the code-name Haswell. We used the FragBox, and its quad-core Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, in our initial performance testing of Haswell chips in June, and its performance was, as one might expect, very impressive. Note that in those earlier tests, we took the overclocked CPU back to its stock speed, but this time you'll see the overclocked performance scores in the performance charts below.

As an added bonus, the FragBox system also includes the very latest new Nvidia GPU, the GeForce GTX780. You can actually fit two of these cards inside in an SLI configuration, but for our test unit, we stuck with a single graphics card. Few PC games really need this kind of power, even to play at higher settings, but I admit I appreciated it when I connected the FragBox to a 2,560x1,440-pixel-resolution display, especially after topping out at 1080p in laptops for so long.

Of course, all this doesn't come cheap. The FragBox starts at $1,663, and our configuration cost $3,468. That's a lot, especially when PC prices are dropping steadily at the lower end of the field, and even Apple's flagship 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display is under $2,500.

But the competitive landscape in gaming PCs seems to have transformed over the past few years into one where there are a handful of players at the very top end of the market (including Razer's new laptops), and some less expensive systems with entry-level GPUs, but fewer choices in the middle.

I can't imagine mainstream consumers wanting or needing this kind of power, and those shoppers are more likely to look for a laptop or all-in-one anyway. The FragBox isn't much interested in 2013 trends, from touch screens to Thunderbolt to NFC, although it does come with Windows 8 by default (Windows 7 is an option as well).

The hardest of hard-core PC gamers strike me as the kind of people most likely to want to build their own systems from scratch, but sourcing, assembling, and overclocking an increasingly complicated array of components is not a task for the faint of heart, or anyone with a time-consuming day job. That's where the FragBox really shines: with each unit hand-assembled and tested, you get the feeling Falcon Northwest is putting together each unit (which can take weeks to build) the same way you would if you had the time, talent, and tools to do so yourself.

Design and features
The basic look and feel of the small desktop have changed little over the years. While once the much smaller cousins of traditional tower desktops, even "small form factor" systems look big and bulky compared with the laptops, hybrids, and all-in-one systems that make up the majority of PCs consumers are shopping for today.

The current version of the FragBox keeps the basic black metal frame of previous versions, but the front panel is new, with a slot-loading optical drive and a Falcon logo cut right into the metal face and backlit. There's a sturdy carrying handle as well (removable if you want to permanently install the box somewhere), and while you could definitely carry this with one hand if you had to, I wouldn't go for an extended walk with it either. Different component choices can affect the overall weight, but the configuration we have weighs 23.4 pounds.

More so than in any other Windows PC we've seen this year, Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system feels like a tacked-on afterthought here. With an emphasis on gaming and almost no chance that you've got it hooked up to a touch-screen monitor, you'll spend most of your time in the traditional Windows desktop mode. Falcon even offers a Windows 7 option if you're hard-core about hating Windows 8. On the plus side, the Windows 8 install on our test system was very minimal, with no spammy tile clutter.

Connections, performance, and battery
As a gaming desktop should be, the FragBox is packed with ports and connections, including 10 total USB ports, and audio jacks for headphones, an optical cable, and surround-sound PC speakers. The exact number of video outputs depends on how many (and which) video cards you choose. The sometimes trendy extras we see on some laptops, such as NFC and Thunderbolt, are missing here -- this is essentially the same connectivity setup you'd see in any gaming desktop from the past several years. You can add a Wi-Fi dongle as an option, but I snaked an Ethernet cable over for big game downloads.

To say the FragBox is highly configurable is to undersell the concept. It starts at around $1,600, but for that you're getting an Intel Core i5 and Nvidia GeForce 650 video card. If those are the type of components you're interested in, then you're probably not in the market for a FragBox in the first place. Our $3,400 configuration traded up to an Intel Core i7 CPU, one GeForce 780 GPU, and two 960GB solid-state drives (SSDs). That latter addition really drives the price up, and you could go with a single traditional or hybrid hard drive and get the cost down.

This will shock no one, but the Intel Core i7 -770K in our FragBox -- which is one of Intel's new fourth-generation Core i-series chips -- gave excellent performance in our benchmark tests. As shipped to us, the CPU was overclocked to 4.5GHz, which Falcon offers as a no-cost option. We also reset the CPU to its stock 3.5GHz speed and it was still an excellent performer. Its closest competitor was a Velocity Micro desktop with an overclocked version of the previous-generation Intel Core i7 in it, which may be a reminder that the improvements in Intel's Haswell generation of processors are more about power efficiency than raw performance.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX780 graphics card is also a new part, and ran our very challenging Metro: Last Light test at high settings at 40 frames per second, and BioShock Infinite at more than 90 frames per second (or 180fps if we dialed back the visual settings to medium). One of the fun parts about testing this system was hooking it up to a 2,560x1,440-pixel 27-inch display and really cranking games up to a very high resolution. Anecdotal performance was, of course, amazing, but there are at least 10 video card options you can order with this system, and dual-card setups for many of those, so your performance will vary widely depending on what you choose.

Keep in mind that the benchmark scores reported here represent our exact configuration, and even more so than with mainstream PCs with limited options, your experience may be different.

Part of the appeal of getting a high-priced system from Falcon Northwest or another boutique PC maker is the extra layer of service and support you get along with it. Falcon offers in-house phone support, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. PT, seven days a week, as well as e-mail support. The default warranty is three years (for parts and labor, but you get lifetime tech support access), which is increasingly rare in the PC world, and the company notes that while having your CPU overclocked will void your component warranty from Intel, you'll still be covered by the Falcon warranty. You also get a USB rescue drive and a binder filled with helpful system information.

Conclusion
The Falcon Northwest FragBox should be one of your first stops if you're thinking about making a major investment in a dedicated gaming desktop. It's somewhat more stylish than a full tower, and the performance blows away even the most high-end gaming laptops. Our review configuration was ritzier than some, less than others, but it certainly satisfied our gaming needs for under $3,500.

More so than the components, you're really buying the Falcon Northwest service and support, as well as the hand-assembly and testing. For a big investment such as this, I think that's a smart move.

My only constructive criticism is that the physical FragBox itself feels a bit dated, and I'd like to see some more forward-looking designs from gaming PCs in general, especially now that we're seeing new, inventive designs for laptops, hybrids, and all-in-ones every month.

Cinebench 11.5
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering single CPU

Rendering multiple CPUs

Falcon Northwest FragBox v3 (May 2013, overclocked)

2.11

Velocity Micro Edge (May 2013, overclocked)

1.95

Falcon Northwest FragBox v3 (May 2013, stock)

1.75

Razer Blade 14

1.44

Toshiba Qosmio X875

1.39

System configurations

Falcon Northwest FragBox v3 (overclocked)
Windows 8 (64-bit); 4.5GHz Intel Core i7-4770K; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,800MHz; 3GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 780; (2) 960GB SSD RAID 0

Falcon Northwest FragBox v3 (stock)
Windows 8 (64-bit); 3.5GHz Intel Core i7-4770K; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 3GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 780; (2) 960GB SSD RAID 0

Velocity Micro Edge
Windows 8 (64-bit); 4.5GHz Intel Core i7-3770K; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 2GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 680; HD1 120GB SSD, HD2 1TB 7,200rpm

Razer Blade 14
Windows 8 (64-bit); 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ; 8,192MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 2GB (Dedicated) Nvidia Geforce GTX 765M; 500GB SSD

Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390
Windows 8 (64-bit); 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-3630QM; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 3,072MB (Dedicated) HD1 1TB Hybrid Toshiba 5,400rpm, HD2 1TB 5,400rpm Toshiba