If you're shopping for a Falcon Northwest gaming laptop, there's no middle ground: Either go for broke or leave the website. Consider the Fragbook DRX ($6,449 direct, starting prices around $4,000); the money you'll have spent by the time you trick it out could avert several foreclosures. This 12-pound tank is one of only a handful of boutique laptops that have enough cooling fans to run a 3.33-GHz, Intel Core i7 975 processor—the top-of-the-line desktop processor, no less. Surround the CPU with an excellent supporting cast—an nVidia GeForce 280M GTX graphics card, 6GB of memory, and three internal hard drives (one of which is an 80GB SSD), and its competitors can only watch helplessly while they get pulverized in performance tests.Fancy Paint Jobs
The mere mention of the phrase "desktop processor" means start looking at carrying cases with wheels, because this laptop is going to be heavy. The DRX is in essence a 12-pound refrigerator, built to cool a ferociously fast processor. Rarely does a gaming laptop cross the 10-pound barrier these days; the 9.4-pound Alienware M17 and the 8.9-poundGateway P-7808u FX Edition seem like lightweights alongside the DRX. The design lacks inspiration, as the boxy plastic frame is absent of any curves, metallic accents, or fashionable LEDs. The style of these particular frames is determined by their makers, Taiwanese manufacturers (Clevo or Compal, in this case) that sell them as bare-bones frames populated with parts purchased separately by these boutique vendors. Falcon, however, does specialize in custom paint jobs: The DRX can be machine-painted with any color imaginable, reminiscent of how automobiles receive their paint jobs. You can also get a custom hand-painted design, depending on the request, for a hefty fee (anywhere from $400 to $600).
Missing Some Trends
Falcon went with a standard LCD. There was no need to add an LED screen, since it wouldn't make this laptop any thinner, and energy efficiency wasn't in the cards from the get go. The 17-inch widescreen is equipped with the best resolution available, however: 1,920-by-1,200 or 1080p. Its brightness levels and viewing-angle range are on a par with other generic screens, and this resolution is available in other gaming systems like the ASUS G71G-Q1 and the P7808u. I don't have any complaints about the typing and navigating experience, as the full-size keyboard, touchpad, and mouse buttons are more than up to the challenge. However, most hardcore gaming laptops feature touch-sensitive media control buttons, more than two speakers (plus a subwoofer), and an illuminated keyboard, which the DRX omits (or has too few of). The Alienware M17, on the other hand, has an illuminated keyboard that's invaluable when the lights get turned off in a LAN party.
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