![]() ![]() PCMark8’s storage performance test turned in a score of 4,896, which is solid, but a bit lower than we expected given that our review unit was equipped with two 240GB Crucial M5 drives configured in RAID 0. The Talon is conventional, yet refined, and its performance speaks for itself. ![]() ![]() Falcon only charges $50 for the overclock service, which seems a great value in light of the performance boost it provides. ![]() The smaller Cyberpower Zeus Mini, which wielded an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU clocked at the stock speed, turned in respective scores of 125 and 22,371. SiSoft Sandra’s Processor Arithmetic test earned a score of 152.67 GOPs, and the 7-Zip compression test returned a result of 27,615. The overclocked Core i7-4770K in our review unit was clocked at 4.5 GHz rather than the default 3.5 GHz, an improvement of over 25 percent, and the benefits of the bump showed up in our benchmark results. There’s plenty of room for any video card you could imagine, and while our review unit was water-cooled, there’s no shortage of space for a big air-cooler if that’s what you prefer. A Talon can’t accommodate gobs of hard drives like a Mach V or an Origin Genesis, but it does have room for up to seven if you use adapters to convert the 5.25 inch optical bays. Overall, there’s no challenge here, just a wide-open interior that’s easy to work with and has plenty of room for future upgrades. Anyone who’s opened a PC before will feel right at home, which is great. The hard drive bay is tool-less and oriented towards the side panel, so replacing a drive takes mere minutes. Almost all the system’s internal wiring is woven through cut-outs behind the motherboard, which means that there are no wires in the way of components you may want to replace or remove. That doesn’t mean the layout lacks quality, however. Almost everything is exactly where you’d expect it to be in any ATX-based computer. Once you pop the panel open, you’ll find the layout to be pretty standard. Opening the Talon requires the removal of two thumb screws that attach to the side panel. While the port selection is robust, we wouldn’t call it exceptional. Around back, you’ll find six more USB 3.0 port, one ancient PS/2, two DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet and 5.1 audio. The two front USB 3.0 ports and front headphone/microphone jacks are all top-mounted and labeled, so they’re easy to access no matter where the system sits. Though it’s not cheap, you can choose to slather your Talon rig with metallic, pearlcoat or even color-shifting finishes.įunctionally, the Talon works well enough, though we wish the case door could be arranged to swing either left or right, rather than just to the right. If you want to add some pizazz to the Talon, it’ll cost you $359 for a Falcon Northwest paintjob. Can the Talon claw its way to the top of the pack?Ī white LED-backlit strip along the top-front portion of the enclosure provides some visual flair. Both buyers and builders know a mid-sized tower is the sweet spot of standard PC form factors, so everyone has at least one, and some offer several. Though that’s a lot, the potential of the system is impressive, and its priced far less than an equivalent Mach V, the company’s full tower system. Our review unit, which features an overclocked Intel Core i7-4770k CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 16GB of RAM and two 240GB SSDs, is priced just north of $3,000. While new hardware has come and gone, the Talon, a line which was first sold starting in 1999, is still standing. These computers don’t require a hand truck to move, and tend to offer solid value.įalcon Northwest’s Talon is a veteran in this field. Yet there’s still something compelling about a simple mid-sized tower. Small desktop computers have become more popular over the last few years thanks to huge improvements in processor and GPU efficiency, and new designs from major boutique PC makers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |