Falcon Northwest Talon review: you get what you pay for

Even more than other boutique system integrators, Falcon Northwest doesn’t even offer cheaper mid-tower designs. Digital Storm, for example, has the entry-level Lynx, but they also have the Lumos and the Velox. The Velox is the closest comparison to the Talon, but it’s over a thousand dollars cheaper than the Talon when similarly configured.

With all that said, the Falcon Northwest Talon is as expensive as it gets. My configuration came with the Intel Core i9-14900KS and Nvidia RTX 4090 — and those parts ain’t cheap in and of themselves. But Falcon Northwest is selling them for fair prices. The company charges an extra $1,530 to jump from the PNY RTX 4060 to the Nvidia RTX 4090. A quick look around online will reveal that you’re getting the RTX 4090 for a decent price.

Even with prices dropping on the RTX 4090 over the past months, Falcon Northwest is still selling it to you for cheaper than elsewhere.

Obviously, Falcon Northwest sent me the most decked-out version of the Talon imaginable. And to be honest, if you’re going to buy one of these systems, there’s no reason not to go for something more expensive. You’re already paying the premium of working with Falcon Northwest for even the cheapest version of the Talon as is.

So yes, my configuration came with an RTX 4090 and even a Core i9-14900KS, putting the total price at $6,217. That’s about as expensive a PC as you can buy — and probably more than you even realized you could spend.

The Talon is immaculate. When it comes attention to detail, precise cuts, high-end materials, and cable management, there’s hardly anything else like it on the market. The black mid-tower case uses a very thick, 4mm metal with a cool, smooth touch. It’s not unlike the feeling of a Hydro Flask bottle — and I mean that as a compliment. Very few cases dare to use materials this premium.

It’s not just the materials and build quality that make this so impressive though. It’s the attention to detail. It’s the thoughtfulness behind its everyday usability. It’s the tiny spot for your finger at the bottom of the glass panel. It’s the meticulous cable management that is not just organized but also convenient for swapping or adding components. Or consider the large metal chunk on the bottom that makes it suitable to more safely sit on carpet. And possibly most importantly, it’s the careful design of the thermals.

None of that is to say this is a particularly flashy design — at least not these days. Compared to some of the more extravagant and eye-catching designs out there, the Talon is a bit more old-school. It uses flat front and top panels, and although mine came with tempered glass side panels, you can also opt for aluminum walls for a complete box look. In a world where everything is mesh, glass, and fully transparent, the Talon looks quite a bit like a conventional mid-tower PC. And that makes sense because although I haven’t reviewed this particular version of the Talon until now, it’s been around for quite a few years.

All that to say, there are certainly some reasons to be concerned about a box like this in terms of thermals. With the solid front cover and top, you might assume there’s not enough airflow coming in. But this is Falcon Northwest we’re talking about. It knows what it’s doing. There’s less mesh and holes and air intake than you’d expect, but according to its own prototypes, tighter and more precise control of airflow resulted in lower temperatures than with a bunch of extra air intake. Falcon Northwest’s solution is much more subtle. The front panel has strips of mesh and is open underneath — but that’s about it externally.

You can’t talk about the Talon’s design without talking about paint jobs. Our review unit didn’t have anything customized outside of the small Digital Trends logo at the bottom of the front panel. Of course, Falcon Northwest is expert at producing high-end, custom paint jobs that no one else can do. I’m guessing that most people won’t opt for one, as a more minimalist look is more the trend.

Speaking of which, you should know that the light-up Falcon Northwest logo is featured prominently on both the front panel and the CPU cooler. That’s not so unusual for prebuilt systems, but the Falcon Northwest logo isn’t exactly subtle. It feels noticeably old-school. That feels unfortunate for a system this customizable, and I actually would have preferred the modernized company logo found on the fans. Even if you were to get this entire system custom-painted to a particular theme, there’s no getting around the falcon.

There’s plenty of room inside the Talon, enough to fit a large ATX motherboard and the monstrous RTX 4090. Not all cases can fit the ridiculous size of that graphics card without making your internals completely inaccessible. But the Talon is properly-suited to squeeze it in, and even if you opt for a smaller GPU, you’ll appreciate the extra space. And in terms of size, it’s still smaller than options like the Origin Genesis.

Despite that extra room, the internal thermals are fairly simple. There aren’t a thousand fans in here, nor is it covered in RGB. The custom AIO 280mm liquid cooler is the only cooling option you can configure it with.

Internally, there’s one fan below the GPU to pull in new air, which cycles through the bottom intake of the RTX 4090. The Talon also includes an extra fan on the back to pull hot air out of the GPU. All that might be surprising, especially considering these hot components inside. You can’t get more heat than this.

But yeah, given how good the thermals are and how fast these parts are, performance is unbeatable. Whether it’s under full-tilt multi-core loads in content creation or spikey tasks like games, the Talon is an absolute speed demon. Under the 10-minute stress test of Cinebench R24’s multi-core benchmark, the Talon’s CPU did rise up to 97 degrees Celsius — but remember this is a far heavier load than normal applications and games.

Also, remember that the Core i9-14900KS is absolutely audacious, and it is all on its own. The new chip is identical to the Core i9-14900K in nearly every way, except that it pushes frequencies higher, up to 6.2GHz, as claimed by Intel. The single-core score I saw in both Cinebench R23 and R24 is record-breaking compared to even the best competition from AMD.

As you can see above, you can play most games in 4K at well over 100 frames per second at max settings. It takes a lot to stump this beast. The only true barrier I encountered was the Overdrive mode in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS turned off. I was only able to get 37 fps in 1440p. But really, path tracing just isn’t possible without upscaling, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise. But the DLSS Balanced mode looks quite good, and you can still get over 100 fps in 4K. It’ll be a long time before the age starts to show on this set of components.

Having the best of the best is likely important to those investing in something like the Talon, so I imagine configurations with the latest and greatest silicon are the most popular option. I should say, though, that dropping this to an RTX 4080 Super would still be fantastic, as would downgrading to one of the cheaper Intel chip options. You’d certainly be cramming less into this case and generating less heat for the system to deal with.

Is the Falcon Northwest Talon worth it?

The Talon is glorious. There’s no question about it. The craftsmanship is second to none and the performance is fantastic. Throw in the best warranty and support in the business, and you have a PC that’s worthy of its price.

As you may have guessed, this is an increasingly niche demographic. PCs are easier to build than ever, and there’s never been more resources for picking compatible parts and building your PC. Of all the PCs that the company offers, the Talon is perhaps the most exemplary of this. The smaller options, whether it’s the Tiki or the FragBox, would require a bit of skill to build yourself — and, therefore, have a bit of a different demographic.

Even more so, there are prebuilt PCs with an RTX 4090 that are thousands of dollars cheaper than the Talon. There’s no getting around that.

However, if you find yourself in the niche that wants a high-end, powerful gaming PC and would rather pay someone to build it than buy it yourself, the Talon is as premium as it gets.

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