Falcon keeps the FragBox II’s price at
$1,500 by using a GeForce 8800 GT and
a new Wolfdale Core 2 Duo chip.$1,500, http://www.falcon-nw.comFALCON NORTHWEST FRAGBOX IIMATCHBOX
A Falcon Northwest PC that
doesn’t break the bank.HOTBOX^8
Windows Vista still suxors,
and the rig isn’t suited for
high-res gaming.http://www.maximumpc.com | MAY 08 | MAXIMUMPC 75
but interestingly, the dual-core Penryn holds
its head up high in the ProShow Producer,
Photoshop CS3, and Premiere Pro CS3
tests. The extra 575MHz and faster Penryn
design is just enough to achieve parity with
the older quad Kentsfi eld.
We couldn’t compare the FragBox II’s
performance against that of the $1,500
PC we built for the April issue because the
OSes are different, but we can compare
specs. Our desktop machine outdoes the
FragBox II in just about every category:
RAM, graphics, storage, and CPU; how-
ever, that comparison may be unfair since
a desktop is still cheaper to build than a
small formfactor rig.
What we have here is a reasonably fast
small formfactor box that’s good for stan-
dard-resolution gaming. You don’t want to
pair this wee rig up with a 30-inch panel—
and really, who wants to lug a 30-inch LCD
to a LAN party. The bad news is that we
probably wouldn’t use the FragBox II with
even a 24-inch panel, but that’s because
we’re used to the smoking performance of
GTX cards in SLI.
We certainly don’t think the FragBox
II is perfect. We would have preferred a
quad-core Penryn inside and perhaps a
GeForce 8800 GTS 512 card, but then
it wouldn’t be a $1,500 box or nearly
as quiet. Of course, we’re still not sold
on Windows Vista, but we’re getting as
resigned to it as a 2-year-old is to a new
baby sibling. We know that Mom and Dad
just aren’t taking the new kid back to the
hospital, even if he is Chucky.
Falcon’s FragBox II is not as sexy as
what the company normally produces, but
for a $1,500 small formfactor machine, it’s
pretty damned solid.
—GORDON MAH UNG