Check out our Falcon Northwest Talon (2024, Threadripper Pro) Review! We’ve highlighted its strengths and weaknesses, detailed its specifications, and provided a thorough analysis. Read and share your thoughts on your own experiences too.
Falcon Northwest Talon (2024, Threadripper Pro) Pros and Cons
Pros
- Lightning-fast performance
- Easy to tailor to your preferences
- Exceptional quality
- Operates quietly
- Comes with a generous three-year warranty
Cons
- Costs rise significantly as you add upgrades
Falcon Northwest Talon (2024, Threadripper Pro) Spec
| Desktop Class | Workstation |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7895WX |
| Processor Speed | 2.5 GHz |
| RAM (as Tested) | 256 GB |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 4 TB |
| Secondary Drive Type | SSD |
| Secondary Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 3.84 TB |
| AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7895WX | Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Pro |
Falcon Northwest Talon (2024, Threadripper Pro) Review – Overview
Falcon Northwest’s Talon isn’t just a powerhouse for gaming; it’s also a top-notch option for professional workstations. With a starting price of $8,724 and reaching about $22,000 for the tested configuration, this Talon is truly impressive. It boasts a 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processor and a whopping 256GB of memory, making it a beast of a machine.
What sets it apart uniquly among others is Falcon’s attention to detail, which is evident in the custom-machined, hand-built chassis. This shows the company’s dedication to quality. In our testing, this year’s Talon proved to be one of the best-performing workstations out there.
What’s even more remarkable is that despite its exceptional performance, the Talon is priced competitively compared to other options on the market.
Design
The Talon by Falcon Northwest is their flagship desktop, offering immense customization options. We’re focusing on its capabilities as a workstation, powered by a formidable 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7895WX CPU. However, it’s versatile enough to be configured with other processors like Threadripper HEDT, Ryzen 7000 series, or 14th Gen Intel Core. Remarkably, it can even be tailored for data center use with a 4U rackmount setup.
Known for their exceptional build quality, Falcon Northwest has outdone themselves with the Talon. Crafted entirely in-house, it exudes a level of quality and uniqueness unmatched by others. Despite its power, the Talon maintains a sleek profile, similar in size to competitors like the HP Z6 G5 A but noticeably smaller than the HP Z8 Fury G5.
The Talon’s robust metal construction instills confidence, with panels that feel like they could withstand anything. While its appearance may not be flashy like some gaming models, the focus here is on professional-grade performance. The absence of RGB lighting and static branding on the case’s front panel reflects this dedication to functionality over aesthetics.
Connectivity is ample, with convenient top ports including USB and audio jacks, while the rear boasts an array of ports on the Asus Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE motherboard, including USB4, Ethernet, and audio, as well as BIOS management features uncommon in mainstream workstations.
Accessing the interior is a breeze, thanks to magnetically secured side doors that swing open gracefully. The interior layout is impressively clean and organized, with the Asus motherboard supporting up to 2TB of RAM and offering extensive expansion capabilities.
To keep things cool under pressure, Falcon Northwest utilizes a custom 280mm liquid cooling radiator, ensuring optimal performance even during demanding tasks. The inclusion of an Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU further enhances its capabilities, with room for additional GPUs for those with demanding workloads.
The Talon also prioritizes storage and power, accommodating multiple drives and boasting a robust Seasonic Prime TX 1,600W modular power supply. Each Talon comes with a personalized nameplate and is bundled with a bloatware-free copy of Windows 11 Pro and a comprehensive three-year warranty, showcasing Falcon Northwest’s commitment to customer satisfaction.
Having experienced Falcon Northwest’s support firsthand, I can attest to its exceptional quality and reliability.
Testing the Falcon Northwest Talon Workstation
The Falcon Northwest Talon workstation is a beast, featuring top-of-the-line components like the 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985WX CPU and the Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada GPU with 48GB of video RAM. With a whopping 256GB of ECC RAM and two 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs in RAID 0, it’s ready to tackle any task thrown its way.
What’s great about the Talon is its flexibility. Whether you’re into high-end gaming or serious workstation tasks, you can customize it to suit your needs. Falcon Northwest even offers specialized add-in cards for workstations that might not be available through their online configuration tool.
In performance tests against other high-end workstations like the Dell Precision 7875 and HP Z6 G5 A, the Talon shines. It excels in productivity benchmarks like PCMark 10, Cinebench R23, Geekbench 5.4 Pro, HandBrake 1.4, and PugetBench for Photoshop. Thanks to its liquid-cooled processor and high-power settings enabled through AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive, the Talon delivers exceptional performance across the board.
Falcon Northwest’s attention to detail, including their liquid cooling solution and BIOS configurations, ensures that the Talon remains at the top of its game. And if you ever need additional customization or support, Falcon’s team is ready to assist.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
When it comes to testing graphics, we put every laptop and desktop through their paces with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations: Night Raid and Time Spy from UL’s 3DMark. Night Raid is a bit more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics, while Time Spy is more demanding and geared towards gaming rigs with discrete GPUs.
Additionally, we gauge GPU performance with two tests from GFXBench 5, a cross-platform GPU benchmark. These tests stress both low-level and high-level routines, simulating real-world gaming scenarios. The higher the frames per second (fps), the better.
While these machines aren’t primarily designed for gaming, it’s worth noting that the Talon’s RTX 6000 Ada GPU outshined the competition in our tests.
Moving on to workstation performance, we rely on SPECviewperf 2020 and Blender. SPECviewperf renders, rotates, and zooms in and out of solid and wireframe models using view sets from popular ISV applications. We also use Blender, an open-source 3D content creation suite, to measure performance in rendering photo-realistic scenes.
The liquid-cooled Talon continued to impress, delivering the best performance in Blender and achieving outstanding results in SPECviewperf. Interestingly, even though our tests don’t utilize multiple GPUs, the Talon’s liquid cooling system proves its worth, showcasing superior performance without significantly increasing costs.
Overall, these results highlight the Talon’s capability to handle demanding workstation tasks with ease, thanks to its exceptional cooling solution and powerful hardware configuration.
Conclusion
Falcon Northwest consistently wows us with their products, but the Talon workstation is on another level, delivering outstanding performance without breaking the bank. With its expert cooling and motherboard setup, the Talon rivals even higher-priced workstations powered by 96-core Threadripper Pro chips. Plus, it offers plenty of upgrade options, superb craftsmanship, a solid warranty, and top-notch customer support. That’s why it’s a clear choice for the Editors’ Choice award in the high-end workstation category.
