Falcon northwest mach v core i7 2600k12/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Intel's newest chip design feature six physical processing cores with the capability to go to twelve threads overall via Intel's HyperThreading Technology. Our performance charts below spell out where Falcon posts its wins, but at least on some tests, its success is in large part due to its Core i7 980X Extreme CPU. Within that constraint, Falcon Northwest built the fastest desktop we've ever seen in terms of application performance and raw clock speed. In order to avoid a high-end gaming arms race, we've asked PC vendors to stick to a sub-$5,000 budget for all future performance PC reviews. ![]() Short of a wholesale case refresh, however, (and excepting the graphics card issue) Falcon Northwest's Mach V is as well-built as we could want. We've also come to appreciate a case from Origin PC (a new vendor whose employees include a few Alienware refugees) that, like the Acer Predator and a few other PCs, features front-accessible hard drive bays for easy, cable-free drive swapping. Falcon also likes to hot glue its component connections in place to prevent them coming loose in shipping, although frequent upgraders might find the glued-down cables annoying. The case is lined with sound-dampening foam to keep the noise down, and every cable is bound and routed to minimize clutter and maximize airflow. Aside from the damage to the system, the Mach V features all of Falcon Northwest's trademark design touches. We don't know the frequency with which that graphics card will damage a PC in shipping (we've seen other desktops with the same card that survived the journey to our lab, and all the testing in it), and while we're glad that this mishap will hopefully help contribute to a solution to the problem, it's unfortunate that the otherwise pristine Mach V's review score has to suffer for it. If you're unsure based on a particular vendor's Web site, call it and ask directly. For now, we wouldn't suggest ordering the Radeon HD 5970 from any desktop vendor that doesn't taken steps to reinforce the card in its case. We'll take Falcon at its word, but we also intend to follow up in a month or two. According to the company, it plans to re-manufacture its Mach V case to accept a new bracket that AMD plans to install on this (and presumably other) heavy graphics card in order to prevent future incidents. Falcon representatives said this is the first Radeon HD 5970-based Mach V system the company has heard of that has suffered physical damage like we saw, but it is also taking the problem seriously. ![]()
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