Falcon Northwest Tiki

Bottom Line

At just 4 inches wide and about 13 inches deep and high, the Falcon Northwest Tiki is the smallest advanced gaming PC you can buy. It's also one of the most expensive, even though it lags behind some less pricey competitors in tests. And then there's that granite base: You're going to either love it or loathe it.

Performance

Little machine, big power. Configured nearly identically, the Falcon Northwest Tiki and Maingear Potenza Super Stock (*Est. $1,325 and up) run neck and neck in PCMag.com's tests. In a word, the Tiki runs great. It's so slim, it "seems like it shouldn't be powerful enough to play 3D games at true 1,080p HD resolution," Joel Santo Domingo writes. "But it is. It so is."

PCMag.com and CNET evaluate similar $2,800 Tikis equipped with an Intel Core i7-3770K processor that's overclocked to 4.3 GHz, 8 GB of memory, a 2 TB hard drive plus 256 GB solid-state drive and Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics.

Anyone with a single full-HD monitor "would be happy with these frame rates," CNET says after putting the Tiki through its paces on "Crysis," "Far Cry 2" and "Metro 2033." But the little Tiki can't hold two graphics cards, so if you want to game on two monitors, the much bigger Maingear F131 (*Est. $1,695 and up) is still your best bet.

Design

Granite base isn't everyone's taste. Remember the "Saturday Night Live" skit, "Nothing says classy like marble columns?" CNET's Rich Brown can't get it out of his head when he looks at the Tiki's granite-slab base. It's supposed to keep the top-heavy computer from tipping over but "also makes the Tiki look like an employee-of-the-month award," he says. He got the light-gray granite. Matt Smith at DigitalTrends.com says the black granite blends in with the Tiki's black body and looks better. You can skip the granite, but the Tiki does get really tippy.

Slim and sleek, the Tiki is meant to sit proudly on your desktop. It runs quietly, befitting its luxury look and price. If you don't want basic black, you can order its heavy steel and aluminum side panels painted with custom colors and airbrushed designs.

Despite its diminutive size, the Tiki packs plenty of ports. They'll vary based on which graphics card you choose, but expect convenient USB 3.0, headphone and microphone jacks on top of the case, plus more USB 3.0 and 2.0, eSATA, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, line-out, S/PDIF, Ethernet and wireless ports around back. There's also a slot-load DVD writer; Blu-ray is optional.

Access to the Tiki's interior is easy: All you need is a Phillips screwdriver, Smith says. Even crammed into the tiny case, the "brilliant" layout makes almost everything easy to replace. "Only the video card is difficult to upgrade," he notes.

Bloatware is nonexistent, as usual with boutique machines. Critics notice only one ergonomic flaw: The Tiki blows a lot of really hot air, so you have to stay a few feet away from it to be comfortable. It can't slide horizontally into your desk or media cabinet, either; it has to stand upright so it doesn't overheat.

Support & reliability

Robust warranty. Falcon Northwest covers its systems with a strong warranty. The Tiki includes three years parts and labor, with free lifetime phone and e-mail support. Maingear beats it by including lifetime labor.

Value

You pay extra for the slick design. For a better bang for your buck, experts overwhelmingly prefer Maingear's systems to the Tiki. For example, the Maingear Potenza Super Stock costs a few hundred dollars less for identical components, is noticeably bigger but still compact. And CNET points out that you can get the truly awesome, dual-card Maingear for about $50 less.

If money's no object and you absolutely want the best slim-tower gaming PC, "this is that system," CNET's Brown says of the Tiki. But "with competing systems out there that offer more-flexible and more-powerful graphics card configurations in a similar price range, it's hard to recommend the Tiki unless you are unwaveringly attached to its slim-tower design."