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Welcome to The Falcon Northwest Fan Page Letters Page!
Just bought a new Mach V, Talon, FragBox or FragBook? Had a great experience with Falcon Northwest Customer Service? We want to hear from you! Whether your an owner or someone who has longed after one of these mighty machines your whole life, your opinions are important to us! This page is where you can share your thoughts, concerns, criticisms and praise for the fastest and most reliable gaming computers on the planet!
So get writing!
Well... La-Ti-Frickin-Da! What the hell???
There is so much hoopla going on with the Fragbox 2 now. As you recall, I bought mine about 4 months ago and could not wait to get it. To this day I have not had ANY problems at all with my system - AT ALL! And i mean zero...zilch...nada... oh wait, i take that back. My girl has been complaining: "we spend less time together". Well hello!!!... I mean, I love playing on my beautiful awesome frickin BADASS COMPUTER GAMING MACHINE! What am i supposed to do? - turn it off early and go to sleep? I don't think so. (maybe, if there was a bonus round in it for me!)
So, you asked me to write in after I got my system and to let you know how it is performing.
In one word: "Awesome!"
I could go on and on, but lets just suffice it to ask... what's all the bitchin' about? This rig is smokin' hot, blazingly fast and it looks it too!
HardONP (or whoever) can write that up in a review and take that to the bank. And as soon as they approve my registration, I'll tell them so myself. Meanwhile - keep up the the great work Mr Reeves.... and oh yea, THANX!!!
Carlos L Haro
__________
Hey VVega -
I thought you might find interesting the post I promised to send to hardPC. As you will see, the ones who have replied to it so far have been 5 moderators/employees posts and two "regular" (for lack of a better word) posts. Just as I predicted, the moderators just keep on going on-and on. But It is actually quite amusing. Here is my post at HardForum- (by the way, I was not talking about FNW when i said stop all your bitchin) - ok here it is:
Originally Posted by ceencee
Hello Ladies -
After reviewing this whole FragBox2 issue and reading the review and the responses from both sides as well as reading many of the replies posted, I have come to the conclusion that most of the people posting on these threads are a bunch of crybabies.
This is especially true for the guys who run this show and/or call themselves moderators.
Most of the whining comes from "moderators" and I noticed that when others object to their point of view or disagree, the "moderators" (Morely, DNA, Kyle) will go on and on about how they are right and others are wrong and the either "kill a thread" (i.e. stop the discussion because they want the last word) or Ban /Threaten to be Banned others who speak out.
I was going to add my two cents about how awesome my fragbox2 is, but after more careful review of this forum, I see its just a bunch of "moderators" and the same ol' guys writing back and forth to each other - crying about whos right.
So, with the risk of being banned or getting a ("this thread is officially dead!" - because I say so) message from a "moderator", I simply offer: Why dont you Stop your bitchin' - all of you.
Have a nice day
Carlos L. Haro
Just though I would share that. By the way, did you pass on my thanx to Mr Reeves for awesome Fragbox!?
Thanx!
Carlos L Haro
Carlos! Thanks for writing in! Looks like I have some competition when it comes to who is the biggest Falcon Northwest fan! Thanks for all of your support, it really makes it all worth while, and OF COURSE I let Kelt Reeves know about your letter! How could I not? ;-)
Let me just say that I have purchased three and built then upgraded four computers over the last 10 years and my new Falcon Mach V with AMD 4800, dual nVidia 7800GTX and 2 Gb of memory has performed by far the best thus far. It just eats up the games I've tried and runs Doom3 and Half-Life 2 on the highest settings. I'm running Windows XP Pro with 30 programs running in the background on startup including Diskeeper and McAfee AV and this is the first computer on which I've been able to run games such as these within Windows without a clean boot on such high settings. It reboots from a mouse click on restart to the last HD activity in 1min 40sec which is outstanding as far as I'm concerned with all the services and startup software I've got running.
But that's not the best of it. When I called to order the computer I was given good advice about how to configure the computer and not hype. I thought it was absolutely outstanding when the sales guy (Warren) pointed out that I could send you guys my hard drives, CDRW and floppy disk and they could be installed (saved me a lot of cash and hassle) by your technicians. Installing my own Audigy 2 ZS doesn't void my warranty and I was offered help installing it. Nice of Warren to offer. He really knew what he was talking about and I have a much better machine as a result. The techs that put my machine together even left me a molex to hook my backup drives. Now that's first rate service with consideration for the individual customer. I did one image restore with the backup disks to see if they worked and it was a snap. The computer was built and shipped on time and arrived without a scratch on it. This is a solid piece of equipment. When I called support I also got the information I needed immediately on the first occasion and a call back only a couple of hours later on the second. It is really refreshing to talk to both Sales and Support people who are in Oregon, USA instead of another hemisphere.
It is also refreshing not to have to deal with the rebate hype put forth by other computer manufacturers. That is all so much BS.
I've had the machine now for over a month and thought I'd wait to write you guys until I had time to check things out. It's all been a good experience. Keep up the great work. Kudos......
George Richardson MD
Doctor! Thanks for writing in! I've said it once, I'll say it again! Falcon Northwest is all about delivering the WHOLE package! A great product backed up with amazing customer and technical support! Thanks again for writing in! -V.V.
I was one of the lucky ones to have had a second chance after almost making a terrible mistake. I came THIS close to buying an ABS. I actually placed an order but my CC was being delayed (for security reasons) so I took it as an omen and cancelled the order. It was after that experience I decided to slow down and do my research. Thank GAWD that I did, otherwise I'd be stuck with a computer that is not even close to what i am getting now.
After checking out ABS, Alienware and Voodoo I decided to go with Falcon-NW. Through all my research (trust me there was a lot!) I never once ran into anything bad about Falcon. The worst thing I read was that Falcon will make you leave a message if tech support is busy. Hell, I'd rather do that than to get the run around from substandard support any day!
Well, the long of it is I went with the FRAGBOX2. I also got the exotic paint job and the cool side windows. I fretted back and forth about not being able to get SLI but decided that I'd rather have a hot looking rig AND the portability of the Fragbox so that i can play at my buddy's place and show it off. I mean who wants to have an awesome looking rig and not be able to show it off to your friends? Besides... the graphics card I'm getting (nVidia 7800 GTX) and the CPU (Athlon64 FX-57) coupled with the Raid 0 config of my two (count-em, two) 300gb Maxtor hard drives and 2GB of memory will blow away any tower that my friends have... AND... did I mention that it's going to look smokin hot too!
Finally my hats off to your sales rep Warren Bowdoin. He has been professional throughout the entire process, helped me along the way and never once complained or made me feel like i was being a nuisance with all my questions and multiple concerns. My system shipped today and I have to say that i sleep good at night knowing that i spent my hard earned cash on a Falcon-NW. I have been saving up for my dream machine and it is finally arriving. The wait is over! You guys know what its about. Thanks to you all for "getting it".
Your Truly,
Carlos Haro
Carlos! Thanks for writing in! Your story is similar to many that I hear every day; do your research and you WILL buy a Falcon! Let us know how the rig performs once you receive it! -V.V.
I have been reading your site since before I bought my Mach V in July of 2002. It seems that most of the letters come from newer owners of Falcon Northwest products. My Mach V AMD 2100+ is three years old, which seems like a life time ago in the world of PCs. This is the most reliable computer I have ever worked with, both at home and at work. Any problems that I have had have all been software related. I am now looking at buying a new machine and of course it will be a Mach V from Falcon Northwest.
Thanks,
John Caldwell
John, it's great to hear from a long-time owner! Remember, Falcons are not only the fastest gaming machines on the planet, they are also the most reliable! - V.V.
Just want to add this note to the notes in your customer feedbacks, which I rarely do nor have time to do it. I have owned a Mach V for almost 2 years and have no issues with it at all; it has been stellar all the way, fast, efficient and trouble free. The support has been wonderful. When I had a ‘fan issue’ on the video card, it was next day air sent to me and was easy to install with Falcon’s help, even though I am not a techie, nor mechanically inclined. When I had some software issues last summer, I called Falcon for some suggestions….I got a lot more! With even being off of official warranty, a ‘tech’ help me trouble shoot for about an hour, found where the problems were, where Symantec (6 tech’s later & 8 hours w/ them…not with them anymore!) and Microsoft (would not help me at all, got the run around) did/could not! Even being off of warranty, it was not an issue for him. That reflects the company commitment to service, and I really appreciated the tech going out of his way to help me! I will definitely upgrade and buy other computers from you guys, as you stand up to your word and product….kudos to you all!! Thanks for a great product and wonderful service!
Dr. Reg
Wow! Another long time owner singing the praises of their Mach V! Awesome! Thanks for writing in Dr Reg! - V.V.
I've wanted a Falcon computer for a long time and since I've been deployed to the middle east I will finally be able to afford one. I've been researching them almost everyday and I sent an email asking what RAID would do for my game performance and I was told it would make the games load faster, roughly twice as fast. While I was doing some more research I found this article,
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101 , which pretty much says what Falcon Northwest said was a lie. Could you please find out why I was told that? I really want a Falcon Northwest computer, but seeing that article has made me nervous. I know how RAID works and I know in theory that what Falcon said is true but the benchmarks prove it wrong.
Thanks,
SPC Robert Adams
Robert! Thanks for writing in! Not only did I do a little research for you, I asked Falcon Northwest President Kelt Reeves to respond to your questions personally! - V.V.
Mr. Adams,
First, thank you for your service. You guys are kicking butt for us over there and we never forget it over here. We've dug a lot of Iraqi sand out of our notebook repairs for you guys, and it makes us all think about what you have to go through.
Anyway, there was a similar article on RAID in Maximum PC a while ago, basically saying RAID 0 provided little or no benefit. While I don't disagree with their benchmark tests, I can tell you that there's
>something< not right about their findings. I honestly can't explain
it, but the very few non-RAID 0 systems we do here are >visibly< slower at all sorts of loads, installs, and files transfers.
I remember recently I was cursing at a system that was loading a Far Cry level way slower than I remember it should be loading - and then I remembered we'd just set it up with one drive. No RAID 0 was the reason.
I didn't grab the stopwatch or spend the rest of the day running tests, all I can tell you is it was plainly loading slower than RAID, though I have absolutely no hard data to back it up, and I don't disagree with the benchmark articles. Anand's article did only use 2 Raptors as the only RAID baseline. And he was loading the game over and over. All sorts of caches come into play there which may negate the RAID 0 benefit.
Benchmarks and time tests are affected by all sorts of things: Native Command Queuing, cache type and size, platter density, chipset performance...etc. etc. Want an example? Run the DOOM3 Timedemo1 twice. Caching plays a major role in that. I just had a great tech who runs a performance lab at a major component company tell me to turn off NCQ in Windows because although it was great for benchmarks, it killed real-world performance.
And just look at non-RAID zero systems running SysMark. 2 hours of real-world programs made into a benchmark, and RAID makes a visible and benchmarkable difference there.
In short, the jury's still out here. RAID zero has been the way to go for the last decade for performance. Perhaps that benefit is negligible on some configurations. It's definitely no longer double like the theoretical throughput #'s. But that's why we're custom. If you don't think RAID will benefit you, we'll build them any way you want.
Thanks,
Kelt Reeves
I want to start off by saying that I love the letters portion of your site because it comes from people just like me. I have been shopping a lot through the internet for my next notebook. My last one was a Dell XPS and I have passed it down to the next unfortunate owner for obvious reasons. I truly believe in paying for quality and from what I have read but yet experience is that Falcon delivers in spades! Well I have read but one review for the FragBook and didn't read a single one in the letters portion of your wonderful site. I really rely on reviews by magazines and sites because I am a soldier deployed. Am I looking in the wrong places? Do you put up other Falcon's other lines of products are a hotter topic? Well I have to come to a close since my time on the computer is almost up.
Thanks ahead of time!
-Mike
Mike, thanks for the kind words! Letters like yours make it all worth while. I'm not sure why we haven't heard from a lot of FragBook owners (probably because the product is so new), but if you look at the letter below, you'll see how happy one Fragbook owner is! - V.V.
I purchased a Falcon Fragbook DR last fall. I suppose the main reason I went with Falcon Northwest was the fact that I had such problems with Alienware (I also have the Alienware Area51). I've had several horrible experiences with their customer service and tech support, not to mention that at this time (6-16-05) I'm on my third hard drive! Plus, they've taken more than a week to send out my new HD and now the on-site technicians can't seem to find time to come over and fix the damn thing. I paid for the extra 2-year service warranty, which was a good thing I did. The Alienware computer started having problems when it was barely three months old. It was driving me insane. So, I decided to buy a Falcon and glad I did. Since receiving my FragbookDR, I have had no problems with it whatsoever and I absolutely love my machine. I am planning on purchasing a Mach V when I can afford it-- and dumping the piece of crap from Alienware.
My experience in contacting Falcon at the time I was ordering my Fragbook was a good one. I was rarely put on hold or given the runaround. The customer representatives all were very knowledgeable and helpful. I have never had to navigate through a stupid voice menu and/or wait forever because their phone systems were down or busy.
I love the fact that my machine was shipped to me without a load of extra software crap. It was nice and clean.
Can you recommend a bulletin board where fellow Falcon owners can exchange info and/or experiences?
Thanks--
Mollie Abramitis aka "DogNotSpicy"
Thanks for writing in Mollie and letting us know how great your experience with Falcon Northwest was! We've heard similar complaints about the first company you tried to deal with, and it seems they haven't changed! ;-) As far as the bulletin board goes, there really isn't one out there for Falcon Northwest owners. We tried one for a little while on this site, but it just degenerated into one flame war after another from non-Falcon owners, and we had to shut it down. Such is the internet! - V.V.
I am your average 18 year old gamer, and I have been paying lots
of attention to Falcon Northwest for at least 3 years. I heave learned
about their awards, their reputation, history, and even the personality
of the company through your interview with Kelt. The company has a great
background, until it comes to prices. So, why are the prices of Falcon
Northwest computers SO high?
If you read the latest Maximum PC, the
Falcon Northwest computer was defeated by the Alienware computer, by a
hair in benchmarks; BUT IT WAS $2000 more with the awesome paintjob than
the Alienware. Sure, you could cut off about $800-1000 w/o the paint,
but how can a Falcon Northwest computer cost $1000 more, and it is not
even the fastest? The Alienware computer was $5000 and had lower tech
parts and less overclocking. The Falcon was $7500 with paint, WAY
overclocked P4, and it still didn't win. I really believe Falcon
Northwest is superior to everyone else, but with this recent turn of
events, I have been left hanging and worrying.
I want to buy a Falcon,
or at least save up for it, and expect the speed and quality for the
premium I have to pay. I have seen and heard from you and other FNW
customers about how grand FNW computers are. Please tell me why prices
are so high by an extra $500-1000, and why did Alienware defeat the Mach
V and if you know Kelt, PLEASE ask him as well. I cannot rest easy
knowing that Falcon Northwest was beaten by the scumbag Alienware (check
out reseller ratings...)!
Sincerely,
Synthix
P.S. This e-mail was never intended to be a flame, but to gain info. I
also apologize about any inconveniences I may have caused to you.
Hey, no worries Synthix! Not only do I have an answer to your queries, but I have an answer from the man himself! Falcon Northwest President Kelt Reeves!
Synthix,
It's quite simple: we came in second because the vast majority of tests Max PC ran were video-card intensive, and we weren't able to overclock our new sample PCI Express video card as much as Alienware was able to overclock their AGP card. Contrary to marketing firms hype, PCI-E cards are not currently any faster than AGP. But it's the bus of the future, and when you want to upgrade your card in a year it's tough to argue against PCI Express.
There were only 2 CPU based tests that Max PC ran and one was from 3DMark03, which says in its own instructions that their test is only valid when comparing the same speed video cards (ergo- it's not a very good CPU test if it's that affected by video). A test like AquaMark, which is better at testing GPU and CPU separately, shows exactly what's going on. Alienware's GPU was faster, our CPU was faster. Most of today's games are GPU-limited. With the coming of SLI, odds are that next year most games will be CPU-limited once more, and you'll really appreciate having purchased a PCI Express based system with a ridiculously fast CPU.
Had Maximum PC run some of their regular benchmark suite showing some other apps such as Photoshop and SysMark, our 4.28 GHz would've been better able to flex its muscle. Almost all the apps Max PC ran were GPU limited, so 10 MHz of video card core made more difference than 2,000 MHz of CPU. However, Max PC said that their rationale for this was games-only. That's fine with me and a perfectly valid ground-rule.
Most roundups frankly aren't run as well as Max PCs competition was and I have complete respect for the way they conducted it.
An interesting side note: Why did we overclock to "4.28" and not 4.3?
Because we found out that Windows literally breaks at 4.29 GHz, and many other programs with 32-bit speed registers do as well. We hit a wall there that no one had really seen before. That system can actually overclock even more!
As for the cost, yes our fantastically painted all-aluminum cases cost a LOT more than plastic cases. Our Falcon Overnight service costs more.
Not farming out our technical support to foreign countries costs more.
Exceptional customer service costs more.
But a lot of the price difference is simply apples and oranges components you're not noticing in the system details that Maximum PC didn't find as valuable as the cost they added. Forward looking PCI-Express systems cost more than AGP. Intel costs more than AMD. 2 gigabytes of DDR2 costs more than 1 gig of DDR1. The new dual-layer DVD-RWs cost more. A 3rd 250 gig hard drive costs more, but we feel 150 gigs just isn't enough hard drive for most people these days. It obviously was for Max PC. None of this expensive equipment we had made a difference in benchmarking tests, but we wanted to show Max PC the best of everything. In the end, that proved the wrong tactic for this review. Unlike how our customers choose their custom equipment, with reviewers you pretty much have to guess what equipment they'll value and what they won't. We guessed wrong, because the final price is evidently what swung their decision.
So, that's an explanation. Not an excuse. Second place is second place, and you can bet I'm not happy about it and it fires us up for the next race. In the end for prospective customers, you've got to make your own decisions, which will probably be based on more than this one review. Luckily, we've got quite a track record there for you to base your decision on.
Thanks,
Kelt
My Falcon Mach V Exotic has arrived! And as I mentioned earlier, I am getting back to you to give an update. The thing is absolutely fantastic! It sits here humming quietly and brightly by my side in the dark - faster than a speeding bullet as I type! The laser cut and lighted side panel provides me with a light so bright I can read in the dark. In the light it is a beautifully painted work of art. My hat’s off to the painter and the laser/lighting guys…the only thing missing (you guys) is that you should sign each case personally as your work of art.
It’s one of a kind- (just like each computer that Falcon NW makes)- so custom built, there is no other just like it in the world.
Over the process of configuring, ordering and now setting up and installing (some of the free games and software that falcon provided as well as my own large collection of programs and files) I’ve gotten to know personally quite a few of the people over at Falcon. From Warren and Brian in Sales to Mathew and Alex in support and even Kelt himself. Everyone has been fantastic!
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to purchase a computer of any level of cost anywhere else. Sales walked me through each stage of the configuration and all of my e-mails were returned. Support has taken the time to answer all of my technical questions and issues during the set-up and I am never rushed. If I’ve had to leave a message for help it has always been returned (even to the point of Falcon getting back to me and leaving a message if I’m not home!) For anyone who may read this letter (if it is posted on your site) I'd ask them "do you expect Dell, HP, Alienware or Voodoo to provide anywhere’s near the quality that Falcon NW does"? This is a friendly, knowledgeable, and completely unique company! I don’t know if many people realize that they frequently make computers for the stars and celebrities in Hollywood!
Whether you want a Mach V Exotic, Mach V or Talon or Frag Box. Whether you want a Gaming, Media Center, Work Station or just a personal home PC…Falcon Northwest is the way to GO!
Sig Persson RN CHPN
Malden, MA.
Great to hear from you again Sig! I'm glad the entire buying process went smoothly for you! As you know, those in the know go with Falcon Northwest! -V.V.
Just wanted to post my letter regarding Falcon. It took about one month for the Falcon Mach V Intel P4 system I ordered to get to me. I researched Vodoopc.com, Dell Dimension xps and considered local stores in building my system. A thing about current Dell.com consumer division support is that they outsource some of their support to India; my brother who has owned his Dimension for about a year recently found India support very hard to deal with. I’m extremely glad Falcon has people that speak clearly and provide excellent support. Believe it or not outsourcing support for a computer company does a great disservice to customers in the United States in my opinion. Last two custom built local system I’d had had major blue screen problems in Windows XP. I’ve been aware of Falcon since they started out in computer gaming magazines over the years.
I ordered a Mach V with the following specs in may 2004 and got it June 16.
I’m impressed with the quality of hardware in the box and the way it was done. All the games that I’ve thrown at it have worked great at 1024x768 resolution (Far Cry, UT2004, etc..) I have called into Falcon technical support five or six times now with leaving a message and them calling me back within a very reasonable amount of time. Not calling about serious problems but questions about things. Each time support was excellent. Another thing I have to say is that the Falcon sales team was excellent all along the way with answering any and all questions I’d ever had and that's very important to me.
The only thing I wish falcon would add in the future would be message forums for customers. I give falcon a 10 out of 10. I bought the system for gaming and business, btw.
Craig
Thanks for your thoughts Craig! It's always great to hear from a customer who has had several systems before taking the plunge on a Mach V. You've tried the rest, now you have the best! Thanks for writing! -V.V.
I recently purchased a FragBox Pro and have been extremely impressed with it. The whole experience with Falcon Northwest has been great right from the start. My system shipped on the day it was supposed to and I received a call with the tracking number that evening (try getting that from Dell or many others..LOL). As a "old" gamer from way back (20+ years...wow am I that old?) I have had an Alienware system and a few Dell's and no one can match the fit, finish and performance that you get with a Falcon. Having had all the sound Blaster cards over the years all the way up to the Audigy 2, getting a system with the on board sound was the only thing I was apprehensive about when I purchased this system. I figured I would have to run out and get a new Audigy soundcard. I have been very surprised and satisfied with the sound. Even the DVD's sound great through my Logitech Z 680's. Playing Battlefield Vietnam with all the settings cranked up is smooth as ice. If anyone is considering getting a FragBox Pro, Get it!... you won't be disappointed...
Paul
It's always great to hear from a gamer that has gone through several different systems from several different manufacturers. It always seems like they end up with a Falcon Mach V, and for good reason! Congrats on your FragBox purchase! -V.V.
Just ordered my Mach V EXOTIX last week.
I of course, haven't received it yet but just wanted to mention the excellent and knowledgeable help I received from both Warren Bowdoin and Brian Kubli (in the sales dept.) in the configuration of what I wanted. Because of the nature of my job, most of the communication in the configuration had to be done via e-mails. Warren and Falcon stayed with me throughout this (probably tedious) process for them without missing a beat. Investigating other Computer companies like Alienware and Voodoo (before I stumbled upon Falcon Northwest) I can tell you this was not the case. My need for assistance in configuring the computer went unanswered with the others and I was told to call to receive the help--------(which would have been quite impossible) and which, more importantly, told me that they were uninterested in my business. Well they lost the sale. If the sales dept of any company shows disinterest in your queries ahead of time, imagine what their technical dept will show you when you call for support (after they have your money and have made the sale). On this alone I say go with Falcon Northwest.
In addition, I was never pressured or "worked" to select something I didn't need or want (and that would have probably meant more income for Falcon). As a matter of fact, Warren saved me some money and helped me configure the computer to more of what I had in mind but couldn't do on my own. If this letter is ever posted on your site I can assure anyone reading it that I'm a salesman (of sorts) myself and I would have easily detected any dishonesty or "being worked" during the sales process and would have dropped Falcon in a heartbeat if I had.
There was none.
I haven't received my Mach V (yes it's an expensive and loaded 8K$ configuration) but just on the face of the quality I detect in both their website and their care for customers I feel good about my choice of Falcon Northwest will write again and update you when it arrives and I begin to use it and the tech support that is included.
Sig Persson
It sounds like you put a lot of thought into your purchase of a Falcon Mach V! I always encourage potential Mach V owners to do their shopping. Falcon is not afraid of the competition because they know they build the best, and if you decide to go with a Mach V, you will not be dissapointed! Thanks for writing in! -V.V.
Best computer I have ever owned. Period. When looking for a system, I considered Falcon, VooDoo, Alienware…..and…….even a Dell. I decided to go with Falcon Northwest. Why you ask? Well, I called all the companies to get a feel for their support, dedication to the customer, and even the company. I called Dell first (this was actually to get something replaced for my parents Dell, which I had been using for about 2 yrs), and I was (naturally) disappointed. It Took forever to talk to a real person, and when I did, it was difficult to understand him. Next, Alienware. Same problems I had with Dell. I remember when Alienware made custom systems, but as I talked to their sales rep (who didn’t speak English well either), I realized that Alienware had sold their gaming soul to Best Buy (where they now sell Alienware pcs), and the like. I get on the phone, kind of disappointed with Alienware, and dial VooDoo’s number, and wow. I get off the phone with them, and I’m sold……….except for the price tag- which is ridiculously high. So, before I sell a kidney to buy a computer, I call Falcon Northwest. The best customer service ever. I talked with Warren, and he made sure I didn’t buy stuff I didn’t need, which saved me about $300. He then told me how I could save EVEN MORE (!!!!!!!!!!) by getting the academic version of Microsoft Office from my school…..which saved about $400. After talking with Warren, I had made my decision. Falcon Northwest combines top-notch computers, with top-notch customer service. I will never own a computer other than a falcon. When my dad saw my computer all set up….he could only stare. Everybody that sees my computer just has this sort of blank look (and I didn’t even get a custom paint job). My dad now wants a Falcon (btw warren- expect a call soon J ), and I’m recommending Falcon to everybody I know who can appreciate the craftsmanship. This is the fastest system I have ever seen, yet alone owned. Everything was custom made to MY specifications. It FAR surpasses any expectations I had for a computer company, and I will continue to recommend Falcon Northwest to everybody.
Jeff Lipes
Wow! Great job shopping around and giving us a read-out on what you experienced! Falcon Northwest prides itself on excellent customer service, and I love to hear stories like this! Thanks for writing in! -V.V.
I got my first Falcon on Feb 4th. From the moment I opened the boxes I knew I was in for something special. The system was packaged much better and the extras a lot nicer than any other system I have had in the past. I have owned many other big name systems from other companies but Falcon blows them away. I decided to go with Falcon Mach V after reading some input from some friends on Gonegold.com and know that Rich Laporte had gotten one from them in the past. This system totally blows away anything I throw at it. Games and progams that used to bog down my system now run flawlessly. Yes you may have to pay a little more but in my opinion the quality of my machine is well worth it. Feel free to post this if you would like and spread the word that Falcon totally rocks anyone in computer manufacturing.
Scott
Thanks for writing in Scott! My favorite letters are from new owners for whom the Mach V is their second machine. It's a great way to gauge just how amazing the Mach V is compared to run-of-the-mill off the shelf machines! -V.V.
I had to wait almost three weeks for my new FragBox Pro due to the high demand and shipping time. However the wait was well worth it from the moment it came out of the box I was impressed.
I considered an Alienware Area-51, but after reading customer reviews and talking with their sales people I realized that Alienware can't live up to Falcon Northwest in the quality of their customer service.
I love my new FragBox! My games run faster and look a lot better thanks to it's 256 MB video card. Plus the system looks great and the blue case lights are a nice touch. All my friends are jealous because I now have the best rig.
Sincerely,
It's good to hear that you are so impressed with the Falcon Northwest FragBox. It's becoming the biggest hit Falcon has ever produced! Thanks for writing! -V.V.
I am nearly 70 years old and still playing games. I have owned several "top of the line" pc's, but nothing can compare to the machine that I purchased from Falcon-Northwest. The quality and craftsmanship exceed expectations and it is very, very fast.
I love combat sims and when played on the Mach V as opposed to my former pc's the visual and sonic clarity warms the heart. I will never deal with any other company. I have also shown the pc to some good friends and I have a feeling that they will soon become customers of Falcon Northwest. All the best from a very happy fella.
Berkley Chappell
I guess you're never too old to play games! Thanks for the letter Berkley, and keep on fraggin'! - V.V.
I've been waiting, trying to be patient. The moment has finally arrived and it's smokin', it's sexy, it's a monster!
Way nice guys...
My wife bought a high end Dell about a month ago. When it arrived, I thought it was a NICE computer. I gave serious thought to cancelling my order with Falcon just to save some cash. But, of course I didn't and now it's at my finger tips. No regrets. Meets and exceeds my expectation. What more could a customer ask for.
Extending the differences between the Dell and the Falcon...a week after my wife's Dell showed up, here keyboard started acting up. Expecting super support from Dell as it is advertised, she's since replaced the keyboard twice and yet to talk to anyone who seems to know anything. BTW...only speaking to warm bodies after the usual patience test (voice jail and terminal hold). I called Falcon's system support twice before buying just to give it test run...to see if it was what they claimed.
This is one of the few cases where you get what you pay for!
Special thanks to Brian Kubli. He steered me away from stuff I didn't really need and didn't sell me on stuff I didn't want. I received a little education before he simply took my order and sent me the bill.
Surfs Up!,
Steve Langworthy
Steve,
A little excited are we? I love that kind of reaction! As far as your wife's computer goes - why didn't she get a Mach V too? ;-) Thanks for writing! - V.V.
I'm a website designer and am working on the computer just about every day, running Photoshop, SoundForge, Vegas Video and other CPU intensive programs, often at the same time. My old machine wasn't cutting it, locking up with that "blue screen of death" more and more frequently. Thinking an upgrade would be the way to go, I invested countless hours in phone calls and site searches only to learn that Compaq had a proprietary motherboard and it could not be upgraded. Ditto on my older Gateway. So, I swore off these boxmakers and decided to get a 'real' computer.
After looking into Falcon and its "competitors" I decided to order a custom Mach V. The price wasn't substantially more than comparible models offered by the boxmakers, yet it was fully upgradeable and came with the best components available, not stripped-down OEM stuff. [If you are considering a competitor of Falcon's I strongly suggest you check out resellerratings.com and epinions.com. The hype with some companies is *not* justified; this from personal experience... ]
I've now had my AMD 2800 system for about 5 months and I could not be happier. This 'puter has *never* crashed.
The pre-sales support, consultation and post-sales support is stellar. Never a wait, always an informed reply, no sales pressure (in fact, I was talked out of upgrading, which I found a pleasant surprise.)
Thank you Falcon - I will recommend your machines, they are without a doubt the best there is... anywhere.
Sincerely,
Eric,
These are my favorite kinds of letters because most if not all Falcon Mach V owners bought their machines out of frustration from an earlier purchase more than likely made by one of the "box maker" manufacturer's you mentioned above. If we can keep just one person from making that mistake in the future, our job is worthwhile. Thanks for writing! - V.V.
I just wanted to Thank You for a very positive experience while purchasing my Falcon Mach V. Thank You for your help, especially when I changed my mind at the last possible minute and requested a different video card and you went out of your way to help. I received my Mach V almost a week ago and it is absolutely the BEST computer I have Ever owned!
I started with a 100 MHz Pentium Compaq (Windows 95), then a 450 MHz Pentium Dell (Windows 98) and finally an 800 MHz AMD Compaq (Windows 98se) before purchasing my 3.00 GHz Pentium (Windows XP) Falcon Mach V. What a jump in performance, stability and Quality! You guys are absolutely the BEST of the BEST. I considered an Alienware Area-51, but after reading customer reviews I realized that Alienware computers aren't up to the standards of Falcon Northwest in quality of their systems or their customer service.
The only thing I could find Anywhere written about Falcons that was not positive was concerning the price of Falcons and the time it takes to receive a Falcon after an order is placed. I'll be the first to admit that Falcons cost a bit more and take about three or four weeks to receive, but in my opinion that's not negative. Falcons are worth Every penny extra. You get what you pay for, and Falcons are built to extremely high standards by technicians who know what they are doing and are computer enthusiast. It does take a bit longer to receive a Falcon after you order it, but it's not taken down off a shelf prebuilt, it is custom built to order and that takes time. Then it's tested with a burn-in period to check and make sure it's up to Falcon standards before it will be shipped. How many other computer companies can make that claim? If you want the best, you want a Falcon.
Thanks Warren for taking the time to make sure I am a satisfied Falcon customer. And I can say without hesitation that I'm a Falcon customer for life! Also, thank you to the technician at Falcon who built my system. I have gone from a Volkswagen to the Ferrari of computer systems. This system is absolutely amazing! Thanks again everyone at Falcon. Thanks Warren. Enjoy your new digs!
Sincerely,
Allan,
Warren passed along your letter to me, and I must say I'm glad he did! It sounds like you had a very typical experience with the Falcon Northwest Sales Department. I get great comments about them almost daily from customers! - V.V.
It's Steve Whitfield with his Mach V update one year after the purchase. Talk about an upgradeable, non-proprietary system. No one needs to worry about a Falcon becoming obsolete before the ink on the purchase invoice is dry.
My Falcon while blazing the day I got it one year ago started to slow down a bit. Time to upgrade, but not time for a new PC, after all, the joy of owning a Mach V is that you are not just buying a PC, you are buying the ability to keep up with new technology. I have updated the video card to the Radian 9800 Pro, The memory to a full 1GB of PC 2700, the hard drive to a 120 GB 8MB Cache 7200 RPM by Wester Digital, the OS to XP Pro, and the CPU to an XP 2400. My computer is even faster now than the day it first came in. I went from a 3D 2001 SE score of 9995 to 12899 a year later...Wow!
I just talked to Alex in tech support at Falcon. Instead of being put on hold, or just as bad getting an automated system with crap elevator music you have to listen to for what seems like forever, I got my call quickly returned. I was not there to take the call so Alex kept trying until he reached me. He then patiently waited as he instructed me to download the latest motherboard bios flash, then talked me through all the settings. I have never met Alex, but it was like a call from a friend. He, like my sales person Warren is a great asset to the company. We updated my bios to be ready for a CPU all the way up to the fastest one AMD makes. Wow, a free upgrade from Falcon! Great customer support. I wonder how many people even know the name of the person who helped them, or tried to, or the person who sold them the computer a year when they walk into a store to buy the system. Plain and simple the folks at Falcon treat new customers like friends, and a year after paying for the system they treat you like an old friend.
At Falcon we consumers are not treated like just "customers", they really know the golden rule. I will be a Falcon fan for life. The mainstream mass produced computer buyers just don't know what they are missing. Thanks to Warren for selling me the Falcon computer a year ago, thanks to Alex for helping me keep it new a year later, and thanks to Vincent for giving me a place to share my wonderful Falcon buying, and ownership experience with the rest of the world.
If you someone who is reading this as you think about purchasing a Falcon, order it and know as the time passes, you can upgrade your Falcon and not have to buy a whole new computer for a long long time.
Happy gaming,
Steve,
I think this is one of the first "year one" letters I have gotten from an owner. It's great to know that Mach V's not only run great out of the box, but keep on going year after year! Thanks for writing! - V.V.
Reading the experiences of other Falcon owners on your site helped me
decide that this many people couldn't be wrong when I was shopping for a
new computer. I'll admit I almost bought an Alienware Aurora system at
first. They had some nice looking machines in their ads and were
offering high-end equipment. Ironically, I ultimately chose not to go
with Alienware after looking over one of their systems at Best Buy.
Let's just say that the systems looked a lot better in the ads than in
real life, and you pay a good amount for those custom colors! I'd been
keeping track of Falcon NW since about 1995 and decided in the end this
was still THE game machine company based on reviews and what people had
to say in comments.
My special demands: old style gameports for my CH Products gear, factory
hard drive partitioning, and [the strange] no floppy drive request were
all accomodated for. The sales rep even called to confirm that I hadn't
made a mistake with the floppy request when it was discovered I hadn't
marked one down. Just before my system went to build I wrote to upgrade
my case from the standard to a Cooler Master. No problems. At one point
I had considered getting an all-in-one DVD-RW/CD-RW drive and although
Falcon didn't carry it the sales rep informed me that they'd be happy to
install any hardware I wanted if I bought it elsewhere and shipped it
to them. That really surprised me. Prospective buyers with really picky
hardware needs should take note of this!
After weeks of waiting I finally got my system, and like all power users-
opened it up, and in the first 20 minutes out of the box, began to install
hardware. I've worked in university computer labs and currently as an
IT/software developer so I've seen lots of machines' innards. The Mach V
is very cleanly laid out and wired. Certainly much cleaner than any Dell
machine of comparable case size that I've seen. The ATC case was worth
the extra bucks not only for the room but for how easy it is to open and
close. If you've ever worked with Dell's insane plastic pressure point
push-and-slide cases you'll appreciate this aspect.
There's no point discussing speed. Can a new Mach V be slow? I doubt it.
It's fast. Period. All my favorite games are suddenly even more fun.
At this point I really can't think of a reason why I'd buy from another
computer company. My congrats to Falcon for truly delivering a wonderful
product and great customer service.
Keep spreading the word!
Carl Tsui
Carl,
This is the kind of fan letter that makes my job worthwhile. I began this site as a testament to Falcon Northwest's greatness, and to make people aware of the finest computers ever made! Apparently that's exactly the message that is being conveyed! Thanks for writing! - V.V.
I'll be sending in the official customer card so you can put it on your
website, but I couldn't wait another minute to tell you how unbelievably
pleased I am with my new Mach V. We've purchased from Dell (an Inspiron),
Gateway (a Solo 9300), and various and sundry resellers over the years; this
is by far the coolest, the fastest, and the B-E-S-T computer I've ever laid
hands on.
I was dreading the inevitable program loads that ensue after a new purchase,
but thanks to the blindingly fast processor and streamlined setup, I was up
and running in record time. It took less than 4 hours to hook up and network
the system, download over 2 GB of needed documents off my old dog of a
laptop, and install NAV, Office 2000 (sans Publisher/Access) and Outlook --
including configuring my 6 email accounts! Most of that time was actually
spent pulling the cables out and around on my desk to hook up in this
hideous little tower cart setup, which is painfully cramped. I was actually
worried about heat buildup when I set up, but the Coolermaster case is
working like a dream, and the system, while warm to the touch, hasn't even
flinched. (I'll be ripping the back off that cart tomorrow morning for
easier access and extra ventilation!) Camelot loaded and patched in record
time (I think it took me 15 minutes end to end). When I logged in today, I
was absolutely tickled pea-green that I could leave names and spell effects
on in RvR without crashing: astonishing!! AND SO COOL!! Neverwinter Nights
loaded like a dream. And best of all, no extra crap on my desktop or
systray! Superlative documentation (it was SOO SWEET to tell my skeptic
friends in DAoC that I didn't *have* to load the Detonator drivers because
you already had -- YES!!). No garbage programs, no stupid M$ built-ins,
driver version numbers actually written out for me ... You guys did
everything but leave a mint on the pillow (and I'm not sure about that,
because I haven't been to bed since I got it LOL).
What I keep coming back to is that this system is *exactly* what I hoped it
would be, and *exactly* what I ordered, and *exactly* what I needed, for a
price I could afford. I could never have gotten this from Dell or Gateway or
any of the other big boys for the same price. Well, I couldn't have gotten
this from them at ANY price. Kudos to all of you (and especially Brian --
thanks, bud!) for concentrating on building the system I needed, wanted, and
could afford instead of trying to upsell me, cut costs, and build
commissions. Thank you for treating me like a human instead of a checkbook.
The only thing missing is that I can't actually shake your hand and tell you
how pleased I am, but believe me when I say that (uncharacteristically) this
is one vendor T-shirt I will wear with pride! This is bar none the best
system I have ever owned, and the best one I will ever own -- until we buy
our next Mach V.
YOU GUYS RULE!!!
Sign me,
Deleriously Happy DeAnna
in CA
P.S. I didn't have room for it, so hubby swiped the mouse surface. He fell
in love with it so fast, I almost got jealous! ;) LOL
DeAnna,
Well, I've got to say, this is one of the most energetic fan letters I have ever had the pleasure to post on my page! Thank you for taking the time to write to us! Now, go get that mouse pad back! ;-) - V.V.
I have never written a letter of praise to anyone. I feel compelled to
express my gratitude to Warren at Falcon for his patience, kindness, and
extraordinary configuration knowledge of helping a consumer, me, put
together a Mach 5 dream machine. I sold my desktop to come up with half
the funds needed to purchase a Mach 5 from Falcon based on rave reviews
of the company. I must insist the customer service is on a different
level, a higher plane if you will than any thing I have ever
experienced. When one gets a Falcon, they get so much more than just a
state of the art gaming machine, they get state of the art, personal
customer service unheard of in these times.
I initially ordered a Falcon Talon, a fine machine to be sure, but I
decided to bite the bullet and go for a Mach 5. Warren could not have
been more helpful. I even suggested one upgrade, which he deemed prudent
not to go for, and I was amazed. What I discovered was a company, smart
enough to hire guys like Warren, that cared more about me getting the
most stable, fast, and dependable gaming machine money can by than
milking a consumer for every dime. I have praised Falcon for it's
customer service to everyone in earshot. If every employee at Falcon
Northwest is as caring and sharp as Warren all I have to say is, why go
elsewhere? I have learned that at Falcon, it's the only place where they
care more about your name than your customer order number.
Thank you Falcon, and thank you Warren.
Steve Whitfield
HI,
I just had to tell you how great your site is, and how great I have
found Falcon's customer service to be. Falcon has got to be the only
company where you talk to a live person instead of going through a
recording to get business done. If the pros at Falcon are busy assisting
others, they really do call you back. When I ordered my Talon from
Warren at Falcon, the experience was more like talking to a new friend
than placing an order. I called back several days later to upgrade my
Talon order to a Mach 5 machine, because I had gained so much confidence
in this small company's products, thanks to your website and Warren. The
amazing thing is Warren remembered our first conversation. Wow, at
Falcon you are not just a number. Falcon customers are treated like they
are part of an elite family. Falcon is smart enough to obtain the
services of guys like Warren, who know a great deal about gaming,
instead of some clock punching order taker. I have requested this Friday
and Saturday off. My Mach 5 is scheduled to arrive at my door on Friday,
and I will be in gaming heaven for at least 24 hours straight, taking
out time for beer and wings of course.
Thanks again for your site, and thank you Falcon and Warren,
Sincerely,
Steve,
Wow! I've never had anyone go to the trouble to write TWO fan letters! Especially about the same experience they had with Falcon Northwest. It's great to hear that Falcon Northwest is continuing it's great tradition of superior customer service, and Warren seems to be a great example of that ongoing dedication to customers that Falcon has had since day one! Thanks for the compliments on the fan site also, it's makes it all worthwhile when I hear that Falcon owners appreciate it! - V.V.
I really don't know how to start this letter, since I am not usually the kind of consumer who mails back survey cards or sings praises to anyone but people I know personally. That being said, it amazes me most of all that I have been praising Falcon NW to anyone who will listen.
Most of the people in my IRC channels are sick of hearing how much better my computer is than their's, or how my customer service actually calls me back instead of making me sit on hold for 2 hours. Anyone who is even thinking of buying a new PC I either send to Falcon's main page or yours.
I could go on about how disgustingly fast my computer is (and it is, trust me), or how I actually have all the documentation that came with every part of my machine (even the software bundles), or how incredible a step this computer is from my old horrible Presario (which I will probably have to slam at least one more time in this letter).
But no, the main focus of this letter is to sing praises of the people who run Falcon. The first problem I had was with my soundcard. You see, it wasn't really a problem - it was more like me forgetting temporarily most of the things I spent the last 6 years learning about computers. My speakers wouldn't work. So I called Falcon the day I got my machine up and running. Problem solved in a kind and courteous manner in less than 10 minutes. Recently I had some issues with video/audio problems in some of my games. In an attempt to fix the problem, I kept a poor Falcon employee working late for over an hour. The entire time I felt bad, but not once did he seem the least bit irritated. It was incredible, and I can honestly say I have never in my life met with customer support that was as kind to me, and that goes for any industry, not simply computers.
People go on and on about how powerful gaming rigs like Falcon are, but they forget to mention that all the power in the world really accounts for a small portion of a computer because eventually it will be outdated. What matters most to me as a consumer is the kind of help I get when something happens to mar that performance. And Falcon is incredible with that kind of help. More than just providing help, they made it seem like I was just calling one of my buddies to help me fix a problem. We even stopped working on my PC for a while to talk games. I've never had an experience like it.
Here's the part where I slam my old system. I got my Falcon to replace the buggiest, shoddiest made Compaq ever designed. I routinely had to run Quickrestore to fix errors I would get. And by routinely I mean 3 or 4 times a month, depending on how troubling my system wanted to be. I gave up on Compaq's support about the same time they told me they wouldn't be able to help me with my computer problems anymore unless I agreed to pay exhorbant amounts of money for tech support, that TO THIS DAY, has yet to fix a computer problem I had without ending up at a Quickrestore.
Needless to say, my eyes are open. No more Compaqs. Never a Dell, Gateway, or Alienware....Nothing but a Mach V will do for me from now on.
I don't know if I have fully expressed how incredibly impressed I am with this little Falcon company, but I tried. And if anyone contacts you with doubts about Falcon NW, send them my way. I'll convince 'em or die trying.
_Matt Reba_
--Btw, great site! Keep up the good work.
Matt,
Thanks for writing in! I hate to say it, but your story is becoming more and more common amongst Mach V owners. Everyone thinks that they can save a little here, scrimp a little on hardware there, and get the same experience from a no-name brand as you would get from a Falcon Mach V. Wake up people! Falcon Northwest Mach V's are the finest gaming computers on the planet. Period. You want the best? Go Northwest! -V.V.
Just after I hit the Buy button on my order, I got an email -- "call me." Frankly, I was expecting
a sales pitch. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I called Warren back per his
request regarding my order with Falcon Northwest, and am I ever glad I did. Warren took the time
to go over my system configuration with me in a way that both surprised and delighted me. I'm no
stranger to computer innards, but Warren was on top of every component and potential issue, which
is a vanishingly rare thing among sales staff -- at least it is at other companies. With Warren's
help and candor, I was able to choose a computer configuration significantly different in four
respects from the system I originally setup and hit the Buy button on. In the end I not only saved
money, but averted a potentially crippling cooling problem. Thanks to Warren, I now have a system
built to my custom specifications (including the fact that I've added a hard drive) with exactly
the right hardware for my needs. In short, Warren helped me get a better system than I had chosen
for myself, and for less money at that!
When the system arrived I was stunned. It is beautiful, and not just outside. Inside it is a study
in perfect computer assembly. I couldn't build it better myself regardless of resources. Every
ribbon cable has been neatly folded over and tucked down, held in place by a cable tie every few
inches. All the components are the very best. The case defies words. It is beautifully machined
aluminum with five fans -- front, top, and rear. Drive bays run the entire height of the case, and
there is no clutter anywhere. Only one memory bank is used for its 512MB, leaving two others free.
All screws, including those holding in the cards, can be turned by hand, and are, due to the soft
aluminum case. My old Gateway looks like a snake pit of cables, just a mess that you're afraid to
deal with. And I have had to, again and again, for one reason and another, and it is hard to get in and out of there without breaking something. This computer has the cleanest interior you've
ever seen. Lots of room. Everything is in easy reach. Free air flow. I, um, words fail me. It is what has been lost by other manufacturers in the price wars. It's what all computers should be, only no one ever took the time, felt the pride, or just plain cared enough.
Dell? Gateway? Hewlett-Packard? Never again. Never. Not even close. Every system I buy from now on will be a Falcon.
Oh, and it's worth mentioning that I also received full documentation -- real manuals, real CDs, including that increasingly rare OS CD. Documentation comes in a real (gasp!) three-ring binder, not the rinky-dink arrangement the whitebox makers shoot out.
I've been putting my new computer system to rigorous use since it arrived, and have been
overjoyed. Despite being a hot doesn't-get-faster-than-this Athlon XP, and having the eVGA 4600 video card, it runs cool as a cucumber -- again, thanks to Warren. As for its performance -- I honestly haven't found its limitations yet. But I'm working on it. Speaking of which, it's time I go.
Flabbergasted and overwhelmed,
Sean,
Thanks for writing! I really appreciate you taking the time to express your satisfaction with your Mach V! Customer Service only comes in second to performance when dealing with Falcon Northwest. Customer Service, when you get right down to it, is the only thing that really differentiates companies from each other these days, and Falcon Northwest has simply mastered it, in spades. I too was a "generic" computer owner before I bought my first Mach V, and I would rather live without a computer than go back to that nightmare! - V.V.
I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for the difference Falcon
Northwest has made in my life. Ever since I heard about FNW (by reading
gaming magazines) and since I owned my first Falcon (just about two years
now), your company has made me feel special. I am not a technical genius,
but I had every confidence that the care and quality that your employees exercise
in building gaming computers, and in servicing your customers, meant
that I could have more time to enjoy my main pastime, gaming, without
worrying so much and being so frustrated when I couldn't figure something
out, or when something went wrong.
And I especially wanted to say that your technical guru, Matthew, is the
most pleasant, and helpful, person that I have ever dealt with in trying to
resolve issues with computers. He has a friendly, relaxed approach to
troubleshooting that makes people like me feel comfortable even though we
don't know some simple basic things that could have easily resolved our troubles. He
is courteous, and patient, and helpful, all at the same time. As a person
who deals with my own clients, I know that can be stressful, and difficult, and
Matthew has shown me a thing or two about how to deal with a difficult
situation and to achieve a good outcome at the same time.
I am betting this isn't the first time you have heard from your customers
about the excellent service that Matthew gives your clients, but I just
wanted to pipe up myself to let you know about my own personal experience. I know, in my
line of work, sometimes I work with clients and my co-workers for years and
nobody stops to say "Say, you did a nice job on that project", or to lend an
encouraging word. So I wanted to take the time to say a special thank you
to both you, and Matthew, for making my gaming life richer.
Nicholas Cheronis
Nicholas,
Thanks so much for your kind words! Yes, Matt is the best.
Unfortunately, all our attempts to clone him have failed. He does have
a baby boy though, so as soon as he learns to speak we'll get a headset
on him and have him start training ;-)
I'm very pleased you're happy with our service, and that you took the
time to tell us so.
Thank you!
Kelt
As promised, I am writing again to exclaim my complete satisfaction with my relatively new Mach V and with Falcon Northwest as a company. Indeed, I believe I experienced something which I imagine few others have, and as such can offer a perspective on the company which others cannot. First, however, I shall recap my Falcon NW experience.
When I was contemplating buying a new computer, as I mentioned in my earlier letter, your web site was an important part of the decision process. I was comparing Mach V's to your more "popular" computers (I presume that these computers are so popular because the general public doesn't know what they are missing) from companies like Dell, Gateway and Compaq, and also to products from Falcon-NW's closer competition, Alienware. Many of my friends thought that the amount of money I was going to spend on a Mach V was unreasonable; some even tried to justify that it was a blatant waste of my money. No surprise to me, however, the one friend of mine that completely (and jealously) supported my Falcon NW decision also happened to be the most computer literate of the bunch. He's the kind of guy that doesn't buy computers from retailers; he get all his parts at computer shows and the like, and puts together his own machines; and he's been doing this for over a decade. As such, he really knows what he's talking about when it comes to what makes a machine good, and I trust his opinions on software and hardware more than those of all my other friends combined. (Thanks again, Brian!)
So I bought the Mach-V, with as near top of the line as I could get without getting over-doing it (well, at least not TOO much). The basic specs are: AMD Thunderbird 1.4 GHz processor, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, two 40 GB Hard Drives with Raid 0 controller Card, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 X-Gamer, Visiontek GeForce3 video card, and Klipsch 4.1 speakers. It's a fine piece of machinery, and EVERY ONE of my friends wanted to see it in action, especially the nay-sayers!
Especially when compared to my old Pentium 1 200 MMX computer, the Mach V (with a very smart look thanks to the Coolermaster case) was a powerhouse. Installs and level loads were easily four times as fast, choppiness was gone and animations were exceedingly fluid. It was wonderful, and I was very pleased. Then, the unthinkable happened - about a month after getting it, my computer went on the fritz. I couldn't believe it! Inexplicably, it started crashing and failing to re-boot! I couldn't believe it! Naturally, I called tech support.
However, as all Murphy's Lawyers know, when you talk to tech support is when the problem stops occurring. It became impossible to diagnose, although Falcon did try. After running a few tests, it was determined that if it happened again, I should contact them. Well, it happened again not long after, and so I contacted tech support via e-mail. (As a note to all proud Falcon owners, try to take as many notes as you can if you ever encounter a problem. Relating specific error messages and steps you performed can be invaluable for diagnoses.) Falcon determined that my problem was hardware, most likely a component that had gone bad. While not being certain, they anticipated it was a bad video card, a bad piece of RAM, or a seating issue between one of them and the motherboard. To my surprise, Falcon acted promptly. In the same e-mail as the tenative diagnosis, they provided two options they were ready to do: a) ship me a new video card and new RAM, so that I could install it with their help over the phone, or I could send the computer back overnight as per the warranty. Given my lack of hardware aptitude, I chose the latter. The next day the computer shipped out, and they got a look at it.
As it turns out, there was indeed a bad RAM stick in the machine which caused the intermittent failures. As I suspected, it was no fault of Falcon's, only the memory board manufacturer. After replacing the RAM, they discovered it had corrupted some visual driver/display facets of the machine so (with my permission) they wiped the hard drive, performed a new set of tests as if it were a new machine, and made me a whole new set of recovery disks based on my current machine's hardware. Then, a week later, it was sent back to me overnight. If it wasn't for the blasted weekends, I'd have had the machine the same week I sent it out! The Mach -V is as good as it's ever been, possibly even better (aside from the obvious lack of crashes, of course).
So, to all current and prospective Falcon-NW computer owners, let this prove as testimonial to the quality of both the machines (which are exceptionally powerful machines) and to the integrity of the company. Falcon-NW keeps their word! Much more rapidly than I would have expected a "major" pc dealer to suck up cost by sending a repair-person (at best) at the tech's convenience, Falcon backed up their warranty with immediate action; no delays, no days of arguing the problem and making me examine every minor thing. One call, and one e-mail exchange, and the computer was on its way back at no cost to myself. Further, instead of just fixing the problem, they both adjusted the display issues AND re-tested the whole machine as if it were new, including the new checklist for my records. The tech support service Falcon Northwest provides is really second to none. (At the same time, I might add, Falcon didn't insult my intelligence. By offering to send me new components, enough to cover the most likely issues, they gave me the option of saving myself the time of shipping the computer back. As it is, I'm glad I sent the machine back, but it's nice to know that the other option existed.)
While most of you will never experience the kinds of problems I ran into, it's good to know that Falcon-NW does indeed have your back. I'm a Falcon-NW customer for life!
Regards,
Eric Wagg
Thanks for writing back Eric! I really appreciate the follow-up! It's unfortunate when something goes wrong with a brand new Mach V that neither you or Falcon can control (in your case, a bad piece of memory). But to have a company step up and fix your problem the first time and on their dime, is satisfaction enough that you have made the right purchase! It's Great to hear you are having so much fun with your monster machine! - V.V.
I just wanted to thank you for maintaining your Falcon fan site. Just recently (a little over a week ago) I ordered a near top-of-the-line Mach-V, and my decision to choose a Falcon computer for my next machine was due in part to your web site. Please allow me to explain.
I first heard about Falcon-NW computers years ago when I picked up Aliens vs. Predator for my then aging machine. (I needed to get a new video card in it so that I could run the AvP game.) I thought that the idea of a gaming machine was particularly sweet, but I knew that it would probably be out of my price limit, so I only admired them from a distance, so to speak. My computer, however, has grown more and more obsolete (it's a Pentium 1, 200 MMX, with a 3 gig hard drive and a (now) non-functional 3d Card), and I recently came to the decision that I needed to start shopping for a new computer, as wonderful games were passing me by. With luck, my current financial situation allowed for a bit of leniency in my computer shopping, and the concept of owning a Falcon seemed less alien than ever before. However, as I wanted to make sure I got the best computer I could, and since it was a major purchase, I decided to do plenty of research on Falcon-NW and it's competition before making the purchase. All my research demonstrated that Falcon was the way to go, and your site was a critical part of my research.
Falcon-NW's site was thrilling to visit, and its staff patiently (and repeatedly) answered my questions in what may have been the friendliest no-pressure sales technique I've experienced. The system reviews which Falcon displayed on their website were reassuring, particularly because (unlike other companies I investigated) when I traced the review to its original source, I found that the Falcon-NW site hadn't skewed the review summaries at all. I even checked and double checked technology reviews for all the hardware that Falcon offered, to find which were the best pieces on the market, and to learn that everything Falcon sold was of fine quality, if not the best on the market. But on top of all that, your website clinched the deal, to use a cliche.
Your web site had what I couldn't find anywhere else - a collection of fan admiration for their computers and the company which made them. There is nothing more reassuring to a shopper than hearing from people that love the product. A timid shopper might be wary of large purchases regardless of what computer gaming magazines, technology reviews and no-pressure, educated staff might tell them. Your fan site, however, showed the respect and satisfaction that consumers had not just with the product, but with the company as a whole. That made a big impact with me. While I can't guarantee that your site was the deciding factor in whether or not to buy a Falcon Mach-V, I assure you that it gave me the confidence to order one as early as I did and to never look back!
The hard part now, of course, is waiting for my computer to be built so that I can experience what I've been hearing about for years.
Thank you for your wonderful service!
Eric Wagg
PS - I'll most likely write you another e-mail when I have had a chance to appreciate my own personal machine!
PPS - I'll be sure to let Falcon-NW know that your site made was a major factor in my decision, just in case they'll give you a perk or two.
Eric, thanks for the kind words! The letters page is a hugely popular part of the site, and I think one of it's most important and unique features. I'm glad that I could be a part of your decision to buy a Falcon Northwest Computer. They are the best, and you'll soon find out that you have made the right decision. I'm looking forward to another letter once you've experienced the majesty of a Falcon Mach V! - V.V.
I would would like to begin this letter with my apologies, accusations, and thanks. Let me elaborate. I have just taken the time to fill out my customer reply card almost 3 months after I took delivery, but it's not really my fault. If you wouldn't make these damn things so well, and so blazing fast, I would have gotten around to it much sooner. Since I fired this beast up (on my lunch break) the day I got it, I have been absolutely entranced. I didn't really think that I would see such a drastic improvement in all of my games. From the flying, driving, and hunting sims, to first person shooters, every super cpu intensive game I've thrown at this thing have simply been put through the fps wringer. I thought my cable connection was pretty darn fast, but I didn't realize how much my old box was actually slowing me down. My frag counts have really gone up. Quake3 Weapons Factory, and Fortress are my games of choice and I used to play online a few hours a night. Now I'm lucky to get to bed by 2 a.m. (during the week). On weekends I don't get to bed before daylight. I'm blaming FNW for my lack of sleep, loss of cash from buying up every hot graphics intensive game on the market, and being humiliated by my peers for being such a diehard (34 year old) gamer. Thank you for these problems you have bestowed upon me. Thanks also for the whole experience. The purchase was very unpressured and Jesse my sales guru was extremely helpful. I was confident I was getting just what I wanted. My order arrived a few days early and in good condition. I live in a very small town and there are no gamers around here at all. A friend of mine who works at a very large state agency asked me what kind of system I got and I told him Falcon Northwest......."a what?", he asked. He was at work the next day and talking to the IT manager, the local computer genius. He told him I had gotten a new computer and was asked what kind. When he told him, he said the guys eyes lit up and he said "now he's got something there". That made my day.....and I hope it makes your's too. Thanks again.
Alan Holley
Alan, I'm, uh, sorry? Hmmm, I apologize for your loss of sleep and cash, but unfortunately, these are the kind of things that go along with being a Mach V owner. ;-) Once you're presented with the best gaming machine on the planet, why waste time doing mundane things like working or sleeping? Thanks again for the letter, and hey, try to get some sleep, O.K. ? ;-) - V.V.
For starters, I must say that your page is the perfect thing for Falcon owners, and even for propsective owners. I know that I received much useful information about Falcon from this page before I even bought my system. Anyway, in August of this year I ordered a Talon 2.1 system from Falcon; my old machine, a Hewlett Packard Pavilion, had been performing badly for about a year, and I knew it was time for a replacement. I checked out several names, first Alienware and then Hypersonic, and finally Falcon. I noticed the Talon line had been improved exponentially (most importantly, the Voodoo3 was gone, and had been replaced by a GeForce), and I decided that, as soon as I got the funds up, I would buy that machine. As I am but a wee lad of fourteen, it took me a bit of time to secure the money. I finally did, and called Falcon. Now, you must know that I have a bit of a problem talking with people on the phone; I am rather shy. But the Falcon salesperson, whose name I am sad to say I cannot recall at the moment, made ordering the system a breeze. He was very friendly with me, and waited patiently while I got some of the billing information from my father. He told me I would get a call when the system shipped, and, sure enough, I did. The day the system arrived was one of the most exciting of my life. After being wowed by the immense checklist Falcon systems must pass, I actually set up the sucker. The first thing I noticed was that Windows Millennium Edition was the OS, in lieu of Windows 98SE. The next thing I noticed, and that I still marvel at, was the sheer power of the system. It runs on an AMD 750MHz Thunderbird CPU, and performs better than I thought any system could. It's been shocking to me to be able to play Team Fortress Classic on 1024x768 resolution at 72 fps, as my older machine could barely manage 640x480 at a steady 30 fps. My games run better than ever, and I am happy to say I never need to glance at system requirements for new games anymore. This happy experience with Falcon has insured that they will be who I call when I'm ready for my next system.
Sincerely,
Chris Coda
Chris! You da man! I love receiving letters from people who actually had to save up to buy their systems. You could have gone with a much cheaper computer and had the instant gratification of that, but you decided to hold off and wait until you could get the best! Good call, and thanks for writing and sharing your story! - V.V.
About three years ago I was just heading off to college and got a brand new Dell 200Mhz MMX PC which was quite exciting for me at the time. I put that thing through three years of heavy duty use, playing all sorts of games and it served me quite well. For the past year or so though I have been limited in what I could do by the speed of the system. I was able to run Unreal Tournament at 640x480 with about 10 bots and not suffer any real slow down. Of course all the features were knocked down to the lowest or second lowest settings. I slowly came to the realization that I needed a new computer, and fortunately had the funds to buy a very nice one. I did some pricing at various sites and got a good idea about what I could get for the money I had, and gave Falcon Northwest a ring. The gave me an initial configuration with what I would like to have and see where that ended up, and my sales rep (Brian Kubli) said to think about it and call back when I'm ready. No pressure is such a nice thing.
I was able to knock off a few things that I could easily get later on my own (mainly a CD-RW drive) and ended up very close to my price point. Satisfied with the current configuration, I asked them to go ahead and build it for me. About two weeks later, I found another configuration for less from one of their competitors and I had some reservations about my order. I called Brian back up and told him my concern, and he said to email him the configuration I found and he would take a look at it.
A few hours later, he came back with a thorough, component by component break down of their competitor's system and how it compared to Falcon's. Needless to say, Brian pointed out a few things I had missed. It was then I realized that if they were willing to go to all this trouble to allay my concerns I would be an idiot to go with their competitor. You really do get what you pay for.
About two weeks later, I received my system where I was working at the time (a summer job) and was very excited. Of course I opened the box to look but thought I better not set it up it will be too much effort. About thirty minutes later, I had it hooked up to a spare monitor (I had to get a larger one because the 15" I tried to use just to check it out was rejected for being too small!) and was playing UT in 1024x768 with high detail on for everything. I had no idea what I'd been missing! I finally could see how UT was meant to be seen. My coworkers were in awe of the system I had purchased. I've since had games with 60 bots (60!) running at once with no slow down what so ever. I've now had the system for about three weeks and am still amazed at the pure speed of it. And of course, I bought a set of Klipsch THX speakers and nothing is better than the sound of a rocket flying by your head as you run through a level. I could not be happier with this system.
In case you were wondering....here are the specs:
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 900Mhz
It's basically the same system that PC Gamer reviewed except I have a 900Mhz Athlon as opposed to the 1Ghz one they tested. When I had ordered my system, the configuration included Win98 SE but when I opened the box I saw the WinME disk and was pleasantly surprised since this was before it was even officially announced by Falcon! I could not be happier and the money was definitely worth it. To anyone thinking about buying a Falcon...do it you'll be extremely happy with it!
Ryan Spengler
Ryan, excellent letter! That just goes to show that what may appear like a good system on paper (the competitor's system you described above) may not be as it seems to a trained eye! Always shop around and get as many expert opinions as possible before buying. You'll find in the end that you'll end up with a Falcon! Thanks again for your letter, I'm sure it will help a lot of people make up their minds on a Mach V! - V.V.
I have bought Gateways and Dells over the years, and have been an avid gamer since Doom took the world by storm. I have also built my own systems, and upgraded all of the aforementioned systems as new technologies arrived, particularly video cards. But all in all, I have never had a trouble-free environment until I got my Falcon. Here's a bit of the nightmare story that really doesn't do justice to the years of hair-pulling I've had when I could have been enjoying myself with a Falcon:
In the last few years, the Gateway systems were particularly troublesome. Over a year ago, I purchased a so-called "Performance" P3-500 from Gateway, paid extra for a full tower and expansion capability, and got a system that I struggled with for 13 solid months, crash after crash after crash on games. No matter what, I couldn't play Quake3, for example, without it crashing after no more than 10 minutes of play - and that was at the lowest settings and vertex lighting mode. Nothing would fix it, hardware upgrades (up to GeForce DDR), drivers, nothing. I suspected the power supply - I was shocked to see that their full tower "Performance" system shipped with a 200Watt power supply. Industry, magazine, and web site folks supported my ascertion that 200Watts leads to nothing but system crashes, but Gateway would not admit it. When I finally got through to their black ops of technical support (customers are never supposed to be able to contact these guys directly per Gateway's policy), what they call a "case worker," he told me that he builds his own gaming systems, recognizes that Gateways aren't good gaming platforms. He goes on to tell me that 200Watts is probably not enough, and that I should go to my local PC hardware store and buy a 300Watt supply (admittedly inexpensive), because, get this, the motherboard they shipped with my performance system isn't rated for a power supply greater than 200 Watts and that therefore they can't support such an upgrade, and that of course such a purchase would void my warranty. Can you believe it? I salvaged some parts for my drawer and threw the 1 year old Gateway in the trash - right where it belonged. I've been reading internet posts about gamers suffering the same thing with Dell PC's, which are also configuring systems with 200 Watt supplies.
Now, my wife is no fan of computers or computer games, but the years were so apparently frustrating that she was tired of seeing me suffer, tired of the frustration that permeated the household. She said, "Get the Falcon." I had been reading about them over the years and thought them too expensive, thought I could get by with my homebuilts, my Gateways, and my Dells. I was wrong. I considered Falcon and Alienware, and after my years of torture, I prioritized "reliability" and called Falcon. I could tell from the sales person that Falcon knew their stuff. They knew as much or more about brands and models than I did, and I could not sense one bit of false assertions or the typical stuff you get from salespeople misquoting features and capabities. They helped me zero in on an EIDE configuration which wasn't as expensive as I thought, with an Atlon 950MHz, and a GeForce GTS2 64MB video card.
Now the story really gets interesting, where the rubber hits the road, and Falcon's sales and service stands out in ways that other companies don't even touch - and after dealing with Falcon, I realize that this type of service is fundamental for gamers, a real deal-breaking must-have. First, I shipped my Hauppage TV card, and my favorite game CD's to Falcon, and they configured them into the new Mach V - for free! They tested them, they burned them in, they documented them. Who else does that? Get your best games preinstalled and tested, delivered to your door. You can't even pay Gateway or Dell to do that, let alone get it free. Gateway doesn't even test games on their systems - other than the kiddie packages they bundle and sell, and they don't support anything they don't sell you. If Gateway did test them (which they acknowledge that they don't), they'd find that they don't work. Isn't all that fundamental to gamers? It is to me. Falcon reps even said that if I upgraded hardware later from a 3rd party, they'd still help me with technical support, and after my TV card experience, I believe them.
The technical support test came when I bought the new Diablo II game and tried to install it on the Mach V. It didn't work, and the game literature spoke to problems with Creative sound cards and GeForce video cards (nice job, Blizzard! - sarcasm), and recommended updating the video and sound drivers. I did that, as well as the new Hercules GeForce GTS2 flash bios upgrade, and the game not only still did not work, but now my system started to crash on bootup infrequently, and my TV card stopped working as an additional bonus. I tried to get it to work for three days, and finally called Falcon hoping for help. Falcon had my system perfected in 20 minutes, and guess what, they even got Diablo II working properly !!! This is huge. Who else does this?
Other than the above Diablo-related problem, this system has not crashed once. I play Quake3 endlessly until "I" decide when to stop, rather than have it decided by a system crash. The resolution is indescribable - but I'll try :) There are some internet-play maps where the weapons have been modified to hyper-fire at multiple rounds per second, and I don't know what players with other PC's are seeing onscreen, but I'm seeing a sureal environment where rail gun tracer fire are splaying all over the area in majestic glory - blood flying in buckets and running down walls as the players explode and fall. No skipped frames, the smoke is wafting in the air from explosions. It is beyond belief. I didn't know it could be like this. Honest to goodness, my Quake scores have doubled. I had some guy yelling at me (typing onscreen) that I had an advantage because I was "obviously" playing with a cable modem while most were with 56K modems, but it's really the Falcon PC that has made the difference "overnight". I tried telling them, but I think they were too mad to listen. If Falcon continues with their sales and service performance as I'm experiencing, I will never buy from anyone else. Why would I? I love the reviews (sarcasm) in mags and web sites of other brand name systems that they highly recommend, or their self-built parts recommendations, which I've tried, and somehow they get these great performances out of them. I'd like to know how, because when we average Joes get the same systems home, they don't work. They must have ways to get support or expertise that we gamers don't have, because I honestly don't know how they get those things to work. Well, I don't have to worry about it, because I can count on Falcon to have me playing, laughing and scoring large, and that's what it's all about, isn't it? I can't tell enough people about Falcon, let's keep it up. I'd like to get Gateway's marketing staff in a Quake map, so I can give them payback for the years of trouble that they gave me!
Thanks for the great site,
Tom Ewing
Every time I get a letter like this, I am reassured once again that running this page is worth all the time and effort that goes into it. This is the reason I started this fan site, to encourage everyone to buy a Falcon Northwest Computer. They are the best. Period.
Thanks for the letter Tom, an inspiration to us all. - V.V.
Thanks for running this great site! You do a excellent job and it's one my
daily stops on the web. I really Enjoy the letters page. So, I though I
would share my own experiences with Falcon being a new Mach V owner!
Previously I had owned two laptops, very reliable and portable but terrible
for games! These were given to me by my high school to use as I am disabled
and cannot write. However, since I just graduated they wanted them back. I
had been drooling over a Mach V for a few years, so I decided to put up the
money and buy one. My biggest concern was stability and reliability. I had
ordered a computer for my brother through a mail order company. It was very
unstable and needed four trips back to the place before it was finally
fixed. I even had to send my own games for them to test it on because they
had none! This ended up costing much more money because shipping wasn't
free. ;-( I knew though that Falcon employees are gamers themselves so I
felt reassured.
I called Falcon up one day and ordered my computer. I didn't have $5,000
like some of you to spend but I did want a Mach V and not a Talon. This was
because of the 133/4X AGP motherboards for the Athlon that had just come out
and the Geforce 2. I reached Jessie who was very helpful and I configured my
system in less than 15 minutes. Fast was a good thing in my case. I knew
exactly what I wanted and did not need a salesperson selling me extra stuff.
Since I had some components already, like a monitor, modem, etc., I was able
to configure a system for just under $2,000. It is not the most top of the
line: Athlon 700, 128 Megs 133 SDRAM, 48X CD-ROM, 20 Gig Hardrive,
SoundBlaster Live Value, Geforce 2 32MB Graphics Card. However it does show
that Falcon can build a quality Mach V for a very affordable price.
The wait was very painful! :) Falcon must be selling a lot of computers as
it took 4 weeks to get mine. That's fine with me, happy to hear they are
doing great business! Finally the UPS man arrived and I was like a 10 year
old at Christmas! I opened the box up to see a very week packaged computer.
I also did not know you get a free T-shirt too! I use a touch pad so I gave
the Everglide to my brother. Big mistake as his Starcraft and UT skills
seemed to have improved! The poster make setup very easy to set up and I was
up and running in under 5 minutes.
I have now had the computer for 2 weeks. People warned me that the Athlon
Geforce combo would give me nothing but problems. LOL :) This has been the
most stable computer I have ever owned. The speed is unbelievable as well! I
blow my friends computers out of the water and crash less to boot. Falcon as
been the only company whose computers work exactly as advertised! This
computer and company are the best and I feel very proud to be in this
exclusive club of Mach V owners! Thank you Mr. Reeves for making the
computing experience enjoyable again instead of a headache. Thanks Vince for
your time and keep up the great work!
Matt Willson
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times! Most Mach V owners are people (like myself) that made the mistake of buying another brand of computer the first time around. That's why we need to get the word out about Falcon Northwest Computers! Buy the best first, and save a load of money on down the line! Thanks for the letter Matt, an awesome story that just reiterates the greatness that is Falcon Mach V's! - V.V.
My name is Norwell9. I am a fellow Falcon Mach V owner and have
enjoyed your sites focus on the benefits of being a Falcon owner.
I was going through your letter section and thought I would
add some comments on Falcon's quality rigs in a new and different
light. A torture test of the Mach V! This story is a real life
testament to the high quality standards of the Falcon NW crew.
I know because I put my Mach V to the ultimate torture test.
If you are familiar with the LAN party circuit then you may have
heard about my world record LAN party streak. I have currently
been to a LAN party each weekend for 43 consecutive weekends.
Traveling locally, as well as around the country, by car and
plane. All the while brining my Mach V rig with me.
As you can image taking your rig to a LAN party you have the
possibility of damaging it. At first I babied my Mach V because
I thought one wrong move and my system would be trashed. Then
the unthinkable happened. While unloading at a party I accidentally
dropped my rig down a flight of stairs. Yeah, you heard me.
End over end down a flight of stairs. I was in a panic. The
corners of the metal case rounded and the side panel screws tore
off. In a panic I quickly reseated everything on the motherboard
and plugged it in. The old baby fired right up with no problems.
Holly snikies! It was fine. At that time I was debating an
upgrade, and told myself that if anything happened to my rig
I would enjoy the pleasures of buying a new one. From that point
on I have pretty much abused my rig hoping that it would crash
and burn so that I could upgrade. However, the crew at Falcon
NW had a different idea in mind. They build the Mach V so well,
and put such strong components into it, that my rig has not had
one problem. Each and every weekend it fires right up for the
LAN party.
Right now my poor Falcon looks like it has been through the beach
scene in Saving Private Ryan. The case has multiple dents thanks
to United and Delta. The case screws are stripped out and the
side panel just hangs there. It smells a little since I accidentally
had it laying in over an inch of melted snow overnight (don't
ask). I spent the afternoon with a hair dryer and it was fine.
It has fallen off tables, carts, out of the back of my car,
and dropped by red caps. Once on a bet I pushed my rig off
a table just to prove to a LAN party buddy that it could take
it. All I had to do was reseat the CPU and I won that bet hands
down.
Through all of that torture over the past 43 weeks I have been
able to rely on my Falcon. I am currently going to end the streak
at 52 weeks. At that point I think both my rig and I deserve
a rest. It has been a faithful friend and it deserves to go
out in style. As a result of this non-intended torture test
I tip my had to the gang at Falcon NW. You guys build one hell
of a rig. Dam fast, and dam strong.
At the end of the streak I plan on sending my rig back to Falcon
so that they can evaluate the wear and tear it has been through.
I think they will learn even more on what they have done right.
I don't think they will learn much on what is wrong. I am looking
forward to putting my old friend out to pasture and getting my
next Mach V! If anyone reading this is debating on getting one
then stop...it's worth every penny!
Thanks!
Norwell9
What an amazing letter! Thanks for writing Norwell! I passed your letter along to Kelt Reeves, President of Falcon Northwest, and he wanted me to pass along that although Mach V's and Talons can be dropped down stairs and
used to shield yourself from bomb blasts in Nairobi - we can in no way
warranty such abuse. ;-) Thanks again for writing! - V.V.
I received my Mach V a couple of days ago and am very impressed with
it. About a month and a half ago, I was trying to decide whether I
should purchase a Mach V or an Alienware system. All I can say is that I
have no regrets in purchasing the Mach V. The customer service was very
friendly and helpful, and I can finally purchase games without having to
worry about how it will perform on my pc.
What first drew me towards Falcon was their customer service. I
didn't get an automated system, they didn't put on me on hold, and the
person who answered the phone knew what he was talkin about and could
answer all my questions, as opposed to past experiences of being put on
hold so they can find somebody who knows how to help me. They kept me
informed on the progress of my Mach V as it was being built, and they
have provided me with a folder full of documentation on how and what
they used to build it.
I used to believe that running a game set on the highest resolution
possible AND still have no hint of lag whatsoever was reserved for those
who play their games on multi-million dollar mainframe computers. Well,
not anymore! As far as graphics and speed performance goes, this system
kicks butt!
I would highly recommend getting a Mach V to anyone. My experience
with the company has been excellent. The customer service and the
performance of the machine they built for me is definitely unparalleled.
Keep up the good work! They will definitely have my business when I am
ready to upgrade or purchase another system.
William O'Connor
Thanks especially for praising the customer service at Falcon Northwest! I always felt these guys don't get enough credit! Sure, Falcon builds the fastest gaming machines around, but without that "personal touch" that you get from great customer service, the experience wouldn't be half as great! Thanks again for writing! - V.V.
Great job on keeping up your Web site so well. It always feels current and has become one of my regular stops.
I've been drooling over the FalconNW site for several months now, and have had some initial Email conversations with FalconNW regarding an eventual purchase of a Mach V.
As you are no doubt aware, we're on the verge of interesting times for Athlon based systems. We've just arrived at the 1 Ghz mark, and the new KX133 Motherboards (133 FSB, 4.0 AGP) have started to ship.
I'm holding off purchasing a Mach V until FalconNW begins to offer this hardware.
Perhaps you could keep an eye out for interesting previews of FalconNW beginning to offer this architecture. I would think a few comments from Kelt Reeves on FalconNW plans for these new hardware offerings might make excellent news on your site.
Steve Schreiber
Hey Steve, great question! It always kind of confuses me that AMD and Intel announce these processors, and then only make them available weeks or even months later. I really didn't know the status of when the 1Ghz processor will see the light of day, so I passed your question on to Kelt Reeves, President of Falcon Northwest, and the following is his reply:
"There has been a lot of confusion about availability of the the recently
announced CPUs and earlier announced KX-133 chipsets. With the speed wars
in CPUs, there have been a lot of what is referred to as "paper launches" of
products. To answer all of your questions from Falcon Northwest's vantage
point:
According to AMD's official press release the only Athlon 1 GHz parts are
all currently going to Gateway and Compaq. We spoke with AMD this morning
and while the date they gave us for receiving bulk shipments was not
official yet, OEMs other than those two won't be seeing the higher speed
processors for some time. They've only cleared us to say "the end of
April". You may see reviews of our systems with these new processors
earlier than that, but they should all be printed with the understanding
that expected availability of these systems will be "the end of April".
We'll give you dates on the newer AMD processors when we can. As for the
intel 1GHz.... don't expect to see them from us anytime soon. An intel rep
was quoted on AMD Zone saying that bulk shipments wouldn't be until Q3 of
this year.
As for the KX133s, the only board we can currently obtain in any volume is
the Epox brand. While we'll certainly put this board through its paces in
testing, we prefer to offer our customers motherboards from manufacturers
with longer track records of good support. FIC and MSI were first out of
the gate with the original AMD boards, but Gigabyte and ASUS's later
offerings we found to be more reliable.
As always, we don't offer new products just because they are announced.
When they actually ship we'll evaluate the options and offer our customers
the best."
Kelt Reeves
January 25, 2000
Dear Kelt,
Thanks for the personal reply to my January 6th letter that Vincent Vega forwarded on
to you. I was really surprised when an email message from the president/CEO of
Falcon Northwest arrived in my mailbox! Being an occasional fan page visitor
for about a year now, it was interesting to find out about
Vincent Vega. He's doing a great job keeping us informed of all the latest
Falcon related news which is why I decided to write to him about that review
article and my recent purchase.
I wanted to let you know that my Mach V arrived on schedule (Thurs., 1/13).
The set-up poster (very cool graphics!) and the well labeled ports on the back
panel made everything very easy to set-up. When I popped open the hood to
check out the hardware, I was really impressed by the nice
workmanship...especially all of the attention given to the details like neat,
secure wiring/cable routing, sturdy mounting brackets on all the internal
drives, plenty of room for additional hardware and upgrades, etc. Nothing like
the mass marketed PCs I've been using at home and work (i.e. Gateways, Compaqs,
& Dells)!
When I ran the Half-Life demo to test out the system, I was really impressed
with the speed and performance! I've been playing the full version of
Half-Life on my old system (a Gateway w/120MHz Pentium, STB TNT video card,
128MB EDO-RAM), but I had to set the resolution to its lowest setting with most
of the special effects turned off in order to crank out enough framerates just
to keep the gameplay running smooth.
This past weekend I finally had time to connect all of my CH controllers
(combatstick, prothrottle, and rudders), so I was able to test out some of my
flight sims. I installed one of my favorites, Wing Commander Prophecy. Well,
all I can say is that playing WC Prophecy on a system with all of the maximum
system requirements and the Cambridge DTT2500 is really an incredible
experience!
I did encounter a minor glitch when I tried connecting my Iomega Jaz drive to
one of the two external SCSI ports. Well, I guess even a new Ferrari can run
into a problem once in a while. After exchanging a few email messages with
tech support, they indicated that it was most likely a faulty wiring problem
with the connector (it's attached to the internal ribbon cable). They shipped
out a replacement cable right away and I'm happy to report that everything is
working fine now. I was really impressed by the timely responses I received to
my email messages!
In closing, I have to say that Falcon Northwest and the Mach V have lived up to
my high expectations. Your sales, customer service, and tech support staff
have done an excellent job.
Thanks for building another great gaming PC!
Kane Ikeda
Thanks for passing this letter on to me Kane! It Sounds like you're VERY satisfied with your purchase. It's always good to hear from another happy Mach V owner, and thanks for the compliments on the page! - V.V.
Kelt -
Greetings! Ryan McCaffrey here, Mach V owner since August of '98 and
you may also know me as the game reviewer over on the Fan Page.
I have a question for you that I ask for my own information, but if you
feel like it, you may elaborate and with your permission I'll forward it
to Vincent to post on the Fan Page for other Falcon owners to read. Here
it is:
What is Falcon Northwest's opinion of Windows 2000? There really hasn't
been much hoopla over it despite the fact it'll be out in two weeks.
It's more secure, more stable, and most importantly for Falcon owners,
it supports DirectX 7.0 and, thus, games. Does Plug and Play work well
in it? How is the driver support? Will most components you guys use in
your systems be supported in the OS? 3dfx seems to support it, which is
a big factor for gamers. What about the future of it--will future
versions of DirectX be released at the same time or shortly after the 98
version?
In short, would Falcon recommend it? Would your systems ship with it?
I don't think anyone would miss DOS anymore, except for an occasional
nostalgia trip with DOOM, but then again, a Windows version exists.
I trust your judgement, because you guys are gamers. As an aside, I
recently wasn't sure whether the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer would
be better than my Logitech Mouseman, but after you guys started shipping
it with Mach Vs and then PC Accelerator magazine gave it a 10/10, I
picked one up and I absolutely *love* it.
I've taken enough of your time and I think you get the gist of my
question.
I appreciate your time, Mr. Reeves, and I wish the best of luck to
Falcon, the greatest computer company around.
Ryan McCaffrey
Hi Ryan,
I've got a copy sitting on my desk, but I haven't installed it myself yet.
Let me pass on your questions to Bradd Berdelman, our GM, who has been
running it both at home and here in the office for some time. Keep in mind,
Win 2K is the replacement for NT 4.0 - and is not really aimed at the Win 98
upgrade crowd (great name then, huh?).
Windows "Millennium" is supposed to be out later this year as the consumer
level product. Keeping that in mind, we have no immediate plans to switch
operating systems. Even if Win 2K currently supports Direct X 7 - NT has
had a long history of lagging way behind in supporting the latest versions
of Direct X.
Anyway, that's my quick take, but I'll have Bradd give you some feedback
from the trenches.
Kelt Reeves
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Ryan,
Windows 2000 appears to be extremely stable. I've been able to get quake
III working very well on it, it has direct X seven support but who knows if
it will support future versions of direct X. The real stumbling block is
the lack of really good drivers for most of the video cards we support.
Once more mature drivers are available we will be better able to gauge the
gaming promise of Windows 2K. Right now I have no problem selling a system
in a dual boot configuration (Windows 98SE/Win 2K) as long as the customer
is aware his gaming in Windows 2K will be limited by driver availability
and other issues. As it stands I would not recommend using Windows 2K as
your ONLY gaming platform.
I believe as we get closer to the ship date of Windows 2k more hardware
manufacturers will provide better drivers for their products, so this may
change...
While it needs those drivers to be a good gaming OS, it is already an
excelent OS from all other prospectives.
Bradd Berdelman
Hello,
I too recently read the Gamespot review, and as a new Talon
owner I take issue with it. It seemed as though the reviewer was going
out of his way to bash the system. Admittedly, I am new to the world of
PC Gaming and not familiar with the Benchmark Tests, but when I was
shopping around, it seemed that only the newer and more expensive
systems had a 32 bit card and from what I can tell, when magazines such
as PC Gamer review systems, they mostly test for 16-bit graphical
performance. So does it make sense to base a review on whether a system
with a 16-bit card can run 32-bit graphics? Unbelievable.
Next, he goes on to say that it runs Unreal Tournament and Ultima IX
well, but had performance problems when the graphics in Unreal
Tournament were cranked up past, I think he said 800X600. So I looked at
the resolutions I was currently playing my favorite games at: Rogue
Spear: 960X720, Half Life: 1280X960, Homeworld Demo: 1024X768, Unreal
Tournament: 1024X68, and surprise, surprise they all have been running
really well. I could probably even crank Rogue Spear up a notch. I paid
fifteen hundred dollars for the Talon 1.2, I doubt I could run these
games, at these resolutions, on a comparable Gateway, Dell, or Best Buy
Special and get acceptable frame rates. So did he even test Unreal
Tournament at a resolution higher than 800X600?
This leads to the next problem I had with his review, he states that
the Talon will run most of the current generation games. To support
this, He states that USAF and Panzer Elite scored low frame rates, and
Quake III looked washed out. Arguably, this is the fault of the
software. The article describes USAF and Panzer Elite as being "CPU
intensive", it stands to reason then that any game relying mostly on the
CPU will not score as well as a game that utilizes both the CPU and
graphics card (As a side note, when he states that they did not score
well- what is he comparing them to?). As far as Quake III is concerned,
when hasn't a game in this series looked washed out? Unreal Tournament
is just as sophisticated a game, why does it look so much better? The
graphics engine.....maybe???
Lastly, if he was having a problem with the steering peripheral- did
he call Falcon and ask them about it? Who knows. He only called to ask
whether they could swap out the graphics card, so that he could report
to the reader that they can't. This is what really bugs me, he
completely missed the point of Falcon-NW starting this line of machines.
I am still in school and would not have been able to afford a decent
computer, which played games, if it wasn't for Falcon. These were
designed for gamer's on a budget, and I think they did a fine job.
Moreover, they are pleasant to deal with and very accommodating. I plan
to send my Talon only to them when upgrade time comes around.
Concluding, I feel that 4 to 4.5 stars would have been a more
representative score. I am done prattling for now and are off to play
games, but since my machine won't run Panzer Elite all that well, I
guess I will be settling for Rogue Spear, Unreal Tournament, System
Shock 2, and Half Life!
Sincerly,
Roland
Roland, wow, thanks for the letter. Probably a lot of Talon owners feel the same way you do. Gamespot really didn't give the Talon a fair shake when it comes to performance. I hope anyone considering buying a Talon will take your words to heart when they make their final decision. The Talon is an excellent low-budget gaming machine and it should in no way be expected to perform as well as Falcon Northwest's higher perfomance Mach V's. However, as the review and yourself plainly stated, it runs all the latest games superbly, which I think is a great achievement considering it's cost. Thanks again for writing and standing up for all the Talon owners out there! - V.V.
October 20, 1999
Subject: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
Dear Mr. Berdelman,
Allow me to further introduce myself. Perhaps you have heard someone around the office make mention of “The No-way Guy”(name changed for obvious reasons). This would be me. Let me explain:
Though I posses all the documentation necessary to support my claim, because of the highly politically charged atmosphere of the company in question, I cannot tell you the brand name. I will simply refer to them as “No-Way Computers”. To make our horror story brief, Kay and I recently went thru four so-called performance systems in five months, only to never own one that was at the least dependable or stable. The first PC was DOA out of the carton, and the problems just get worse from there. After four attempts at ownership we had no choice but to ask for a refund and were forced to position ourselves for legal recourse before we were offered our money back, in exchange for termination of our client ID at the insistence of a “No-Way Computers” representative.
I am writing to thank you for permission to include a Falcon Northwest Logo/Link in an upcoming project of mine. It is indeed an honor to do so. It is because of your speedy response, as well as many other reasons that have made us absolutely your proudest owners of a Falcon Northwest Mach V Gaming Personal Computer! I can happily inform you that our Pentium III 500 based system is noticeably faster than the Pentium III 550 based systems we endured. This high performance Hot-Rod leaves scorch marks on everything that falls within its path. Furthermore, after owning our rig for nearly six weeks of extremely demanding use, I can honestly say that the computer itself is entirely stable. Our Mach V performs all our gaming and business applications with ease, due to the finely tuned, hand crafted construction.
I am sure you are aware we asked Brent all the usual questions: “Why no 1-800 tech support, no extra software, no OEM parts?” etc., and of course, “Why does it take two weeks to build?” I can tell you now the reasons are quite obvious. Usually the only time I call tech support is with the occasional software bug we all endure, or to pass an idea by Matt or Ira. All the software that came with other systems we owned were not worth the trouble they caused by being pre-loaded to the hard drive, and as it happens were usually worthless stripped down versions anyway. As for the build time, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” either!
I have been told that I am classified as a “1% shopper”. I have literally seen salespersons leave the vicinity when they see me coming there way because they have learned the hard way that I come armed to the teeth with as much knowledge of my intended purchase as I can acquire. This is why I am proud to spread the word of “The Bird” to all will listen for one reason. Simply put, Falcon Northwest creates the finest work of art in the industry today, the Mach V Gaming PC!
Please let me say in closing that Kay and I never expected the level of honesty, integrity, attention to detail, and support before, during, and after the sale that Falcon NW employees have and continue to provide. Not only is Falcon NW a credit to the personal computer industry, but the benchmark as well.
Thank you, Matt & Kay
Well, that's quite a story Matt & Kay! I'm glad you've finally got the system of your dreams! I love everything about the letter except the part where you call yourselves the "proudest owners of a Falcon Northwest Mach V Gaming Personal Computer". Well, I'd have to say that's debatable! ;-) Thanks again for writing! - V.V.
Hi Vincent,
Just wanted to let you know that today I purchased my first Falcon computer.
I had previously bought Gateways, and after having an absolute nightmare of a
session with a tech support guy there (in which my computer was set back to
all its original settings, when all that turned out to be wrong was a file
name needed to be changed), I decided the time was right for something new.
I had seen the ads and reviews for Falcon for many years now, but always
the cost had kept me away from them. I was //this// close to going with
Quantex, but two things kept me from going with them. A less than
satisfactory email experience with the Quantex customer support, and your web
site mentioning the upcoming Talons.
I finally decided to go with a Mach-V (with that new 700Mhz Athlon
processor that just came out yesterday-talk about good timing!) even if it
cost more (a lot in this case compared to Quantex). I had dealt with two
unsatisfactory companies in a row, and I was tired of it. Your web page
finally swayed me to go with Falcon. I emailed one of the sales staff Brian
Kubli several times, and while he might have missed answering a question here
and there, he was extremely helpful in the information he gave, and he
followed up with the missed questions later on. Getting to talk to him on the
phone instead of a generic sales rep who didn't know me from Moses was also a
delight.
So I just wanted to thank you for your web site, which has to be the only
computer fan site in existence. I appreciate all the work you do on it,
especially because it finally made me give in and get the computer I wanted
all along!
Now I have to wait 2 weeks or so to get the thing! Ah the agony and
expectation!
Thanks so much!
Dan, Wow! You have a long history of computer purchases under your belt! I assure you, this time around, you've made the right decision. Falcon Northwest will never let you down when it comes to customer service, besides the computers themselves, this is their strongest point.
Thanks for the compliments, it's always nice to hear positive feedback, especially from Mach V owners! As far as this sight being the only one dedicated to a computer, you are right! The Falcon Mach V is the only computer that deserves a fan site! ;-) - V.V.
Hi,
I just saw the pic of the new AMD system. I was wondering what the
speaker system was that was hooked up to that. Thanks.
Dave
Dave, I've been getting a lot of mail about these speakers! They're the brand-new Cambridge Desktop Theater 2500's. These little beauties pack quite a punch and come with a Dolby Digital decoder for your DVD movies. Very cool. Just another great set of speakers for you to consider when buying that new Mach V or Talon! - V.V.
Vincent,
I have been a Falcon Owner since May of 98 and I can say that I am a proud
owner. I read your web page a couple times a week to get updated news, you
do well.
Will Falcon continue to use Intel processors in addition to the new AMD
Anthlon?
I think that Falcon NW is really great, the machines, the sales people and oh
those support guys are truly super. Very supportive and glad to assist you.
I have upgraded my system with parts that Falcon changes to and they always
help me if I have trouble installing the part, ie the Xentor 32 TNT2 card.
I have the Viewsonic G810 monitor and have been thinking about switching to
the P815, do you have an opinion whether or what I could expect to gain.
I'll use the G810 on my wife's system which I made from the old Falcon parts
from my system.
I really enjoy your information, keep up the good job.
Have a great day.
Phil Repchinuck
Hello Vincent.
I greatly admire the site you have made to honour Falcon Northwest. I have
been an avid gamer since the days of pong when I was a child. Through to
Atari, Intellivision, Coleco Vision, Com Vic20 etc...You name the system, I
gamed on it. Hehe...except for the Apples that is. Anyhow, I am from
Vancouver, Canada. So you can imagine, I have to contend with the exchange
rate in order to purchase a top of the line machine. I know that the Mach V
is the machine for me. I know this from constant research that I have done
over the past few months. Others may claim to be the "ultimate" but we know
better. Hey, if you've got the funds why not?
This brings me to my point. Do you know of many Canadians who have purchased
a Falcon? I've phoned Can Customs, and they have informed me that there will
not be any duty as the purchase of computer equipment is covered by the
NAFTA free trade agreement. However, do you have any friends from Canada
that you could pass my email addy to so that they could tell me of their
experiences of cross-border mail ordering? Or, if you yourself knows of any
answers that would be great too.
Currently I am making due with my custom built PII 400. But, I keep itching
to upgrade to a Falcon. I may soon be working for the Film Industry in
Vancouver, so I will have extra money to burn and I'll be able to write off
this purchase. I am therefore looking at purchasing towards the end of the
year or beginning of the millenium. This is probably when I will have
sufficient funds to purchase what I want.
Just thinking about what will be out in terms of video cards, and CPU speeds
makes me itch even more. Any "roadmap" information you may have on projected
systems? LOL boy, I guess it's the late night dreaming I'm starting to do
again.
Anyhow, thank you for your time. Keep up the good work on your webpage. I
keep telling everyone to buy a Falcon. One day, they'll listen when they see
mine.
R.F.Grey
Dear Vincent,
First off, I just wanted to let you know that I found your site extremely informative. I WAS looking into buying a Mach V....now I WILL be buying one =)
Also, it's great to see a site dedicated to true gamers and the machines that work best. I've been hooked on computer games since I was eleven playing "Blue Baron", "F-15" and "Phantasy" on my Commodore 128. I didn't know anyone who spent nearly as much time "playing" as I did. Family and friends weren't shy when it came to ridiculing the time spent in front of a monitor and wouldn't acknowledge it for what it was: a legitimate hobby. To my mind, a hobby is anything you enjoy putting lots of time and money into. Some people bird-watch or collect stamps - I win campaigns, participate in a little on-line mayhem, or become a Paladin questing to save a realm. Which would you choose? BTW, those friends that used to wonder why I wasted time on a computer? They're now burning almost as much midnight oil as I am!
Well, thanks again for all the info and reviews. Like I said, I'm going to buy a Mach V. Actually, I'll be giving F-NW a ring tomorrow =D. Any tips for a dream machine under 4k? And is that Voodoo 3 SE available yet? Keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
Mike Johnson
Vince, Sent this to Falcon earlier, they suggested you might like to see it.
I've worked with computers since the late 70's. I built my first system from Heathkit. I currently have a Timex Datalink which has more memory than it did. My first class involved keypunch. I've worked on mainframes such as VAX and CRAY systems.
I've owned Apples, Ataris, IBMs, and clones.
Now I have a Falcon. There is no way in hell I'ld ever have anything else on my desk again. Not only is it the best built machine I've ever worked on, It's the most reliable.
I have friends with Dells and Gateway. They now bring their software to me to make sure it is the software and not the system they own. It seems that the Dell doesn't like Half-Life much, and the Gateway can't seem to stomach I-War. Except for the problem with the transfer rates on my Plextors, which was my fault when I installed the second drive, I have not had a single glitch. I've never had a piece of reputable software fail to work.
I've actually had a software tech tell me I had a problem with my system. I then informed him that I had a Mach V, not a Compaq. I received an apology and we then resolved the problem. It was the software.
Thanks again.
Namaraque
Hey! Another letter from a gaming veteran! You back up everything we're trying to accomplish with this fan page: To let people now that Falcon Mach V's are the fastest, most reliable computers on the planet! Period. Thanks for writing! -V.V. Vince, Hey man, great site!!! I visit it almost daily and get disappointed when there is no new info! Just joking! I realize that you have a real life. Wanted to ask you a few questions. When I read about Ultra 66 they mentioned about SCSI going to 160/MB sec. Just wanted to know if this is still on tap and if Ultra 66 means 66/mb sec or just a peak output. For my new system, I don't see the cost advantage vs performance if 66mb is a max vs the 80 mb SCSI now. But if the new 160/mb standard will be released soon.... Also wondered if Falcon has something along the lines of Alienware's Parallel Graphics Connection. I see the special TNT Ultra special but wanted to know if the current leader, Falcon, has something more up it's sleave. I was concerend about the Talon system. Can this built in graphics capability be upgraded? Seems to me a mail order computer with the capability of being expanded with a newer graphics card might tempt buyers away. The 143 MHZ or so is along the VOODOO 2 standards. Well, thanks for your time. Get back with me if you can. Keep up the good work! Brian P.S. I only ask you these questions as Gaming Publications seem to ignore the public. I asked a certain magazine a question about a graphics card back in the Voodoo (1) days and never got a respose back. Do you think I subscibe to them? ;-)
Thanks for sending in your thoughts Brian! After reading your letter, I decided that the best way to get all of your questions answered is to pass it along to an expert!
The Following is Falcon Sales Manager Brent Caldwell's response:
Brian,
Thanks for your interest in Falcon Northwest. Vincent Vega passed this
email on to us so we could answer your questions.
The real issue with Ultra DMA versus SCSI comes down to cost. Everyone
would use SCSI components if it wasn't for the $800-ish price difference
between the drives and controller card in equivalent systems. SCSI drives
take up much less of your system's resources while being used, primarily
because the SCSI controller card handles functions that the CPU has to
handle in a UDMA system. This is especially important for artists,
engineers and software developers who "multi-task" (running several
resource-intensive applications simultaneously) a lot with their systems.
It becomes less important to gaming because that doesn't require a lot of
multi-tasking, but SCSI does help your load times. It's not important at
all to general every-day users that never multi-task and don't run any
resource-intensive applications like games.
You're essentially correct about the ATA66 versus U2W SCSI (80mb/sec) being
a "peak output" issue. The 66mb/s of ATA66 and the 80mb/s of U2W SCSI
really refers to the maximum "throughput" of the drives/busses. You'll
never get 66mb/s or 80mb/s data transfer in one application under Win '98.
The way that Win '98 accesses blocks of memory itself is a bottleneck that
prevents anywhere near this kind of data transfer for a single application
(it's more like 7mb/s to 10mb/s on a good system). If you had several
drives transferring data at the same time, theoretically you can have 66mb/s
or 80mb/s transferring over the bus. The typical product cycle of SCSI has
been 2 years for awhile now. Since U2W SCSI isn't much more than a year
old, you're just hearing pre-hype about 160mb/s SCSI devices. I'd be very
surprised to see U-whatever-SCSI controller cards out before next spring,
and the drives come out after the controller cards usually. These things
get hyped to death before they're actually on the market and this is the
first of the hype that I've heard.
PGC sounded interesting four months ago when Metabyte started hyping it,
but we're a "prove it to us" kind of company and we're still waiting. Since
the hype started, here's the basic history of PGC:
PCXL magazine did an article "previewing" PGC and dooming 3dfx because they
were going to make their own video cards so only Nvidia (and the board
makers using their chips) would capitalize on the wonderful PGC idea. Then
Nvidia mentioned that they weren't interested in pursuing the PGC technology
at this time. Then Alienware got exclusive first rights to the PGC idea.
Then Metabyte announced that they're not doing hardware anymore. Then
Alienware announced that they will use 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 cards for their PGC
systems. Then 3dfx told Alienware that they'll do everything in their power
to stop them from selling PGC Voodoo cards. (Important Safety Tip: don't
hype something until you have the support of the people that make the
hardware).
In short, for every question that gets answered about PGC, two more serious
questions get raised. The Killer right now is that nobody except Alienware
is actually supporting PGC hardware. Last I checked they're not a video
card company and they have a long way to go if that's the direction they're
going to take. Not many serious computer buyers are going to put down money
for physically modified video cards with no support from the card
manufacturer and/or chipset developer. Only technology that is fast,
reliable (this means excellent technical support) and compatible go into
Falcon systems. Until a product or technology meets all of these standards,
we're not interested.
What we "have up our sleeve" is already on the table. The best video chip
makers are coming to us wanting to show off their highest end products in
the fastest PCs made. The Falcon Special Editon cards are recognition of
the hard work and performance that we've provided in our gaming PCs over the
past 7 years. There are only a limited amount of these high end chips
available, so what better way for video card makers to show off their best
moves than inside the best system?
Talon systems aren't aimed at the same market as the Mach V computers that
we build now. We'll continue to build the Mach V series the same way that
we always have. Talon's will be upgradble, but not as upgradable or high
end as Mach V's. Hence, the lower price. People that want the fastest and
best system will still get a Falcon Mach V as always. People that can't
afford Falcon Mach V's will soon (Talon coming mid-summer '99) have a fast,
reliable option made by the company that makes the best gaming PCs. As the
Talon project gets closer, we'll release more details.
The gaming publications get hundreds, if not thousands, of questions a
month from their readers. I think that most of them do a pretty good job of
answering these questions, but I don't think it's possible for them to
answer every individual's questions directly. What they do is gear their
articles and "letters to the editor" section to give general answers to many
people asking the same questions. Magazines are still the best way to do
research on the products that you're interested in buying. They can save
you a lot of time and headaches. You should also read more than one
magazine if you can, to get different viewpoints. The web is also helpful,
but there are way too many unqualified/uneducated people spamming
information that they know very little about. It's more difficult to find
intelligent opinions on the web because of the sheer number of self
proclaimed experts on the internet. The more research you do, the better
chance you'll have of making good buying decisions. Also, you should hold
your information sources responsible for their advice. If someone says that
a product is coming out on April 15th, and it's still not available until
late May, you should remember that the next time you read something from
this source. If someone tells you that you should get brand X, then brand X
goes out of the consumer market in North America, it's probably best not to
follow that source's recommendations.
I hope this answers all of your questions. Let me know if you need any
more information about getting your own Falcon system.
Thanks,
Vincent: Not trying to "butter" you up, but I think kudos are still in order for the great way you handle your Falcon Fan Page. I am still waiting on my "new" machine......(it was due to be shipped yesterday, but some kind of back-order is delaying the burn-in a couple of days........yuk! Everett has since received his Falcon and sends along this comment: "I have been busy with my new PIII......God, I love it!" -V.V. Anyway, first, your latest interview with the Falcon Technician was "great".....Really informative......exactly the reason why I have now added your Web-Page to my BookMarks!!......Behind the scene stuff at Falcon is always interesting....at least to me! Two, Yeah, the Web is full of idiots.....sometimes I think the whole thing will fall in under it's own weight. Yet, responsible, articulate, advocates of the Genre, like you, keep the system functioning........Most of us out here on the other end are just "lost" looking for a leader......Thanks for providing the "leadership" Looking over all of the above, I really don't know what I am trying to say....other than the fact that you don't have to apologize for the ignorance of the masses....... Everett wrote to me asking why I took down the messageboard, I told him it was because of all the goofballs ruining the experience for everyone else.-V.V. Speaking of other brands of computers.......I certainly don't brag about being fortunate enough to own two Falcons......(Hell, Visa still owns one of them!), but it took me about ten thousand dollars and four different makes (models) of computers to finally realize just what Falcon Computer is........The Ultimate Gaming Machine!!!! There, I admitted it.......I've come "out of the closet"...........I PLAY GAMES, AND I LOVE EM......To hell with all of the other "great" applications we can use this marvelous machine for.......I use it to relax and play games. I am 53 years old. 30 years in Law Enforcement (still active, by the way......a SWAT team commander..... and no, I do not play police games!), and by god, when I get home at night, I get lost in the complexities of a good Role Player or "First-Person Shooter" and forget for several hours the misery of "real Life".... Vincent, I think a lot of us out here are sort of still "in the closet".....Certainly nothing shameful about loving games........certainly better than wife-beating or drugs..... Guess what I am trying to say is that notwithstanding the "idiots" who will always try to ruin a "message board", I think the majority would be better served......(easy for me to say, huh?.....I don't have to sysop it!) Phooy.......Sorry to bore you with all of this.......I'm late for work.......suffice to say, no matter what you do......PULEEZE continue to do it the way your doing it!!! I know you are busy, don't feel obligated to reply Vincent.....
Everett Thrall Thanks for writing Everett! It's always nice to know that my work is appreciated!-V.V.
Just wanted to say thanks for maintaining a great
site dedicated to a great company -- I just ordered
my first Falcon two weeks ago -- I can't wait.
Thanks again.
Glenn Walker
Congratulations on your new Falcon Glenn! And thanks for the support!-V.V.
Hi my name is Nick Baker and I've been looking to buy a Falcon computer for a long time. But your page helped me realize that the falcon computers are really superior. You have a lot of valuable information on that page, and I commend you for updating it as frequently as you do. The interviews were excellent. Just thought you could use that encouragement.
=)
Nick
Thanks for writing Nick! Yes, all encouragement is greatly appreciated!-V.V.
Vincent:
I appreciate the information you put on your site. Since Falcon doesn't have a big marketing department, it's good to have someone educating the market. And you're obviously a big fan.
Anyway, I was wondering if you had any concerns that quality of support might slip after Talon computers come out. Are Falcon's lines going to be overwhelmed with people who can't figure out where the speakers plug in, to the detriment of Mach V owners who have paid big bucks to avoid such problems. Thanks for your thoughts.
Regards,
bion
KELT REEVES RESPONDS:We'll be intentionally making Talon simpler to set up. And since it will be both pre-built and simpler to use, it should make our job of making manuals much easier.
-Kelt
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