22 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
THETITANFALCONis aprebuilt PC that
takesadvantageofAMD’s brilliant 2019
output, with aRadeon RX 5700 XT graphics
card and aRyzen 73700X as the CPU. This
octa-core chip alsocomes overclocked to
4.2GHz, up from its 3.6GHz basespeed.
This performance is at first outshoneby
oneofthe most rainbow-heavy RGB settings
we’veeverseen. Thecase, the GPU, the
motherboard and RAM sticks are all equipped
with full-spectrum RGB lighting that gently
but vividly rotatesthrough different hues.
This is abold designchoice, which won’tbe
to everyone’s tastes. It’s notanugly PC:we
like how the whiteinterior chamber contrasts
with the black exterior,and thetempered
glasssidewindow addsclassevenasseveral
million LED colours are beamingthrough it.
CLIMATECONTROL
Thelack of an exhaustfan is unusual.
There’s asingle120mmcase fanatthe
front,for introducing coldair to the system
even if nothingisdedicatedtoventing it out,
but it’s positioned so low that the airflowis
directed straight under thegraphicscard.
TheCPU cooler,amiddle-sized aircooler,
also hasalot of work to do with an
overclocked processor on itshands.
Thankfully,there wasnoevidenceof
overheatingorthrottling in our performance
benchmarks.The Ryzen 73700X, together
with ahealthy16GB of RAM, scored 186inthe
image test, 322 in thevideo test and 401 in the
multitaskingtest, foravery strong 339 overall.
OVERCLOCKERSTitanFalcon
★★★★★
£1,400•Fromwww.overclockers.co.uk
VERDICT
Colourful and capable,the Titan Falcon is a
very good-value Ryzen 7system
DESKTOPGAMING PC
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Dirt Showdown
Metro: Last Light
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core4.2GHzAMD Ryzen73700X•
RAM16GB DDR4•FRONTUSB PORTS2x USB3•
REAR USB PORTS5x USB3,2xUSB3.1, 1x USBType-C•
GRAPHICSCARD8GBSapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT Nitro+•
STORAGE500GBSSD,1TB hard disk•DISPLAYNone•
OPERATING SYSTEMWindows 10 Home•WARRANTY
Threeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.overclockers.co.uk•
PART CODEFS-1CT-EP
Compared to theCCL
Paladin (Shopper381),
which hasthe same CPU
but runs it at stock
speeds,the TitanFalcon’s
overclock produces more
of amodestimprovement
thanagreat one: itsimage
test score was afew points
lower in exchangefor its
video,multitasking and
overall scores all being afew
points higher.Awinisawin,however,and
while thisparticularchip doesn’thavealotof
overclocking headroom, the Titan Falcon
demonstrates that gains canbemade.
Theboosted clockspeed also appears to
helpout in games, but while theTitanFalcon
performs betterthan thePaladin–which
again hasamatching componentinthe RX
5700XT–it’sonlybyapractically invisible
number of frames per second, usually
between one andfour. Regardless,thisis
goodGPU performancefor the money: Dirt
Showdown managed avelvety 186fps at
1,920x1,080, only dropping to 181fps at
2,560x1,440 and 115fps at 3,840x2,160.
Ascore of 100fps at 1080p in Metro: Last
Light Redux is nothingtobesniffed at either,
and theTitan Falcon’s 60fps at 1440p shows
how well it canhandletough gamesathigh
resolutions.4Kistoo high to continue using
the best possiblesettings, with the frame rate
falling to 26fps, but the usual trick of disabling
SSAAbumps thisall theway up to 53fps.
LITTLE BIRD
It also aced theSteamVR
PerformanceTest,scoring 11,so
there’s no doubt this is afine PC
forhigh-end gaming, especially if
youwanttokeepbelow the
£1,500mark. TheCCL Paladin is
£275 more expensive,sothe
Titan Falcon beats it on valueas
well as pure performance.
That said, oneofthe Paladin’s
biggest strengths wasits superior
storage: amassive 1TBNVMe
SSDalongsidea2TBhard disk.
The Titan Falcon takesamore
economicalroute, with a500GB
SSD–this occupies oneofthe
two M.2 slots, but onlyrunsat
SATA speeds–and a1TB hard
disk. As such,itdoesn’t come
closeoncapacity,and SSDspeed is
well behind:wemeasured
asequentialread speed
of 427MB/s and awrite
speed of 435MB/s, both
less than one-fifth of the
Paladin’sspeeds.
At thesame time,this
dual-drive setup is decent
enough foreverydayuse.
Youcould also addafaster
NVMe drive in thefuture,via
the second,spare M.2slot.
Thereare also acouple of empty 2.5in and
3.5in drive bays apiece, although oneofthe
latter is already occupied by the1TB hard disk.
Forother potential upgrades,there aretwo
emptyPCI-Ex16 slots andone PCI-E x1 slot;
thereare actually threeofthese on the
motherboard,but two are obscured by the
graphicscard.You can installx1devices in the
x16 slots, and with two spare RAM slots, there’s
room forextra hardware where it counts.
SAVINGGRACE
The motherboard also contributes anicely
equipped rearI/O panel,which offersfive
USB3 ports, twoUSB3.1 ports and aUSB
Type-C port, not to mention S/PDIF andC/
SUB audiooutputs forhi-fi speakers. There’s
no integratedWi-Fi butGigabitEthernet is
included, as is alegacy PS/2 port and –afew
inchesdownwards –two HDMIand
DisplayPort outputsapiece,courtesy of the
graphics card. That’sagood range overall.
We’d have likedbetter cooling, NVMe
storageand possibly atouch less flashiness,
but ultimately the TitanFalcon cuts the
rightcorners in ordertocompeteeffectively
with more expensive systems.
JamesArcher
339
100fps
186fps
401
