Falcon Northwest FragBox review: A compact gaming rig that does everything right
Source: Engadget
Mafia: The Old Country Needs a Big Screen
As much as I love my 32‑inch Alienware OLED gaming monitor, it doesn’t do justice to Mafia: The Old Country’s cinematic vistas of Sicily. I wanted to play the game in its full 4K glory, without the compromises of today’s consoles.
Enter the FragBox, Falcon Northwest’s revamped small‑form‑factor gaming PC. It’s very expensive—starting at $3,997—but it’s incredibly powerful and gives you the freedom to upgrade the hardware down the line.
“A $4,000 desktop, in this economy?”
That price doesn’t include upgrades from the stock NVIDIA RTX 5070 GPU, additional RAM, or larger SSDs, all of which could drive the cost up by thousands. I originally planned to review the FragBox back in early December 2025, before the AI‑induced “RAMaggedon” made memory, storage, and other components dramatically more expensive. Falcon Northwest is known as a boutique, high‑end system builder, so its wealthier clientele can likely weather the pricing storm. If you’re looking for a deal, you won’t find it here.
What Exactly Is a FragBox?
Imagine a typical mid‑tower desktop squashed down to a system that’s only 10.2 in tall, 10.5 in wide, and 15.9 in deep.
- First introduced in 2004, the FragBox was notable for being a genuinely small PC that used full‑sized parts.
- It still fits large NVIDIA GPUs (including the beefy RTX 5090) and either Intel’s latest Core Ultra chips or AMD’s Ryzen 9000 CPUs.
- A 280 mm radiator sits at the top, pulling out hot air and serving as an AIO liquid cooler for the CPU.
At 25 lb, the FragBox isn’t exactly light, but its sturdy metal handle makes it easy to move. Most mid‑tower desktops weigh between 20 lb and 35 lb, but they’re also much larger and harder to squeeze into tight spaces. The FragBox’s relatively squat size makes it easy to shove into a home entertainment center or sit on the corner of a desk.
I do wish the handle were removable; it was about half an inch too tall for one of my shelves.
Design & Accessibility
Despite its density, the FragBox’s elegant design makes it a cinch to access all components:
- Side and top panels unscrew easily, allowing quick removal of the GPU, RAM, storage, and other major parts.
- Storage options: three M.2 SSD slots, two 2.5‑inch drive bays, and a spot for a large 3.5‑inch HDD.
- Power: bundled with a 1,200 W power supply—more than enough for future GPUs and CPUs.
Ports
| Location | Ports |
|---|---|
| Front | 2 × USB‑A, 1 × USB‑C, headphone jack |
| Rear | 4 × USB‑A 2.0, 7 × USB‑A 3.x, 1 × USB‑C 3.2 (20 Gbps), 2.5 GbE Ethernet, HDMI, DisplayPort |
| GPU (RTX 5090) | 3 × DisplayPort, 1 × HDMI (standard for most GPUs) |
| Wireless | Wi‑Fi 6E (Wi‑Fi 7 would have been nice at this price) |
Aesthetic Choices
The FragBox lacks the garish LEDs and cheesy tempered glass you find on more ostentatious rigs. Falcon Northwest’s aluminum case looks and feels stately—like an old‑school luxury car.
If you want something flashier, you can add:
- $400 for a custom UV‑printed case
- $149 for a UV‑printed front panel
Review Unit Specs
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9950X3D |
| GPU | NVIDIA RTX 5090 |
| RAM | 96 GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 2 TB SSD |
| Power Supply | 1,200 W |
Benchmark Results
| Test | FragBox | Desktop (Ryzen 9 9950X3D + RTX 5090) | Desktop (Ryzen 9 7900X + RTX 5090) | Apple Mac Studio M4 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeekBench 6 CPU | 3,445 / 22,787 | 3,366 / 18,950 | 2,822 / 14,216 | 4,090 / 26,394 |
| GeekBench 6 GPU | 390,148 | 381,400 | 358,253 | 116,028 |
| Cinebench 2024 | N/A | 134 / 2,124 | 113 / 1,103 | 190 / 2,066 |
- PCMark 10: 13,810 (≈ 500 points higher than my mid‑tower system with the same CPU/GPU).
- 3DMark Speedway and Port Royal ray‑tracing scores were the highest I’ve ever seen.
- Fans were barely audible under load, and temperatures stayed cool: CPU ≈ 52 °C, GPU ≈ 65 °C.
Gaming Performance
“It ran Mafia: The Old Country in 4K flawlessly, with every graphics setting cranked all the way up.”
- 120‑inch projector setup: native 62 fps at 4K.
- Enabling DLSS upscaling + frame generation pushed it to 120 fps.
- Even the upcoming PS5 Pro can’t match the graphical fidelity of the RTX 5090.
Connectivity & Streaming
I’m no stranger to big‑screen PC gaming, but I’ve previously had to run a laughably long HDMI cable from my desktop—messy and unreliable at high frame rates due to bandwidth limits.
- In‑home game streaming is an option, but it introduces compression artifacts, especially on massive TVs or projectors.
- I still need to test newer high‑bandwidth options, especially after being impressed by NVIDIA GeForce Now upgrades last year.
Final Thoughts
The FragBox also made it easy to jump into recent Steam titles (e.g., Mewgeneics, Arc Raiders) on a big screen. Unfortunately, Windows itself remains a key stumbling… (the original text cuts off here).
FragBox Review – A Compact Gaming Rig That Does Everything Right
Originally published on Engadget
https://www.engadget.com/computing/falcon-northwest-fragbox-review-a-compact-gaming-rig-that-does-everything-right-130000837.html?src=rss
When you’re building a home‑theater PC for gaming, you’ll still need a keyboard and a PC on hand to handle the initial OS configuration. Even after enabling Steam’s Big Picture mode—which offers excellent controller support—I still occasionally had to wrestle with Windows Updates and other annoyances.
Microsoft is currently trying to optimize Windows for gaming handhelds, and it’s reportedly doing even more to make a future PC‑powered Xbox feel more console‑like. For now, though, using a Windows PC in your home theater doesn’t feel much different than it did a decade ago. Steam is your savior; Windows is your enemy.
Or you could simply save thousands of dollars and buy a $500 PlayStation 5 or $700 PS5 Pro instead. The latter will still deliver smooth framerates and a healthy dose of ray tracing—without the hassle of Windows, keyboards, and mice.
If you want a compact, insanely powerful gaming desktop and don’t mind spending a premium, it’s hard to deny that the FragBox gets everything right.