Opinions of Falcon Northwest??

[TheElectricFox]

I'm seriously(within the next 2 months) considering a new high end PC and was quite turned off with the whole Alienware experience since dell bought them....

I started looking towards small boutique PC makers like Falcon NW and Voodoo PC...but am wondering what you guys think about these companies.

I don't really want to build one myself because I'd rather have a warranty for the whole PC rather than
just the parts...

here is the Falcon Part lists....


Silverstone 850Watt Zeus - Braided
nVidia nForce 680I - SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz
Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU LED
2GB Corsair TwinX 6400C4
nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB PCIE
Integrated On-Board Audio
DWL-G520M 2.4GHz 80211G PCI Adapter

No Raid
Western Digital 250GB 16MB Cache SATA 2
Western Digital 80GB 8MB Cache SATA 2

Lite-On 16X Dual Layer DVD+-/RW
FA404 Int. USB2.0 Flash Media/Floppy


opinions needed on the parts as well, considering this is going to be for FSX

[congo]

Build it yourself unless you are happy paying twice the price.

The "warranty" you get with a new system is probably not worth the paper it's printed on.

Dealers have "ways" of dealing with warranty claims to make sure you never go down that road again, usually this involves tying your PC up in repairs for months at a time

[cheesegrater]

Parts look good, although I don't know what the purpose of that 80GB hard drive is as it is slower than the 250GB.

It all depends how much you pay for it. I would figure out what the individual components cost, and then how much their system costs, and see how much extra you're paying for the warranty and tech support. Sometimes it is worth it, sometimes it is not.

For reviews of computers from various small makers look at:

http://consumer.hardocp.com

You can find reviews of Falcon Northwest systems there:

http://consumer.hardocp.com/reviews.htm ... J0aHdlc3Q=

[ctjoyce]

Your going to pay about $500 for the paint job alone on that comp.

Seriously go to www.newegg.com and www.preformancepcs.com for all your parts (all the UV and the custom case from Preformance). your going to notice that your going to pay about $1000 less by doing it yourself. Ontop of that you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself. And should you screw it up bring it over to staples. We will fix it for ya for only $40.

Cheers
Cameron

[cheesegrater]

your going to pay about $1000 less by doing it yourself

Depends on where you were planning to buy from. Compared to Dell or VoodooPC? Yes, it will be $1000 cheaper.

Although, there are other makers where you pay maybe $300 to $500 more. To some people technical support, waranty, and a pre-built tested system is important.

[Gunny04]

Prebuilts are good for one thing.... and that is?

I NEED A PC NOW BECAUSE I BLEW MY LAST ONE UP


hehe.... its true! I'd rather build my own but I don't have the funds to do it, so I am stuck with the ocassional HP or Acer rip-off things.... Just build it yourself and continually upgrade for 3 years or until technology changes so much its useless. I find computers from stores like that have some catch or another in the upgrading department!

Cheers, Gunny

[ctjoyce]

Well gunny, the walmart special may be good for that, however Voodoo and Falcon Northwest are not at all a quick fix due to the fact that they take about 3 weeks to be built and delivered.

Even with all the tweaks and setting up FN does, its all stuff you can find for free on the net.

Cheers
Cameron

[Gunny04]

all the same to me.... Junk. If you build it yourself you can do whatever you want to it.... get one like that (Off a site where you can custom have stuff in it) its just a load of crud... you can sometimes upgrade them, usually run into some snag or another!

A british friend of mine refused to listen to reason and got one from MESH or somewhere spent 2600 USD on a comp with XP media edition 2 months before vista comes out and has a DX9 card in it and refuses to ever even touch vista with that pc and he wants to game....

So he bought a very nice paperweight if you ask me.... The specs are nice but he doesn't have a clue how to do anything because he didn't learn to do it himself....


Gunny

[ctjoyce]

Just as a heads up gunny, all XP disks are now coming with a Vista Home Premium upgrade ticket.

And as far as DX( vs 10, if he wants to game, he will upgrade, dont you worry.

Cheers
Cameron