My 6.5 year old Falcon Northwest Talon is giving me regular blue screens of death for:
"video scheduler interval error"
and
"disk drive power error"
I've just about finished backing up everything.
I did all of the normal diagnostic fixes for the video scheduler interval error but it did not work.
I'm thinking about buying a new Talon with the following specs:
Airboy Falcon Northwest Talon
$3,466
Chassis Talon
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA G3 - 550 Watt
Motherboard Asus® ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming
Processor Intel® Core™ i5-8600K 6 Cores - 6 Threads - 4.3GHz
Overclock No Overclock
Processor Cooler Asetek® Liquid Cooling 570LC
Memory 16GB - 2x8GB - 2400MHz
Estimated Availability:
15 days Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 6GB
Sound Card On-Board Audio
Networking On-Board Ethernet
Operating System Drive - SSD Intel® 760P - 512GB SSD - M.2 - PCI Express
Estimated Availability:
14 days Data Drive - SSD Intel® 760P - 1TB SSD - M.2 -
PCI Express
Optical Drive DVD Writer
64-Bit Operating System Windows 10 Pro
Office Software Office 365 Home Premium
Rescue Drive USB Rescue Drive
Warranty 3 Years Parts and Labor
Keyboard Logitech® K120
Monitor Asus® PB278Q 27" 2560x1440 Monitor (I'll probably get this through Amazon to save on shipping, but I'm including it because it reflects the system and the total price outlay. I include the price in this coming from Falcon).
Couple of Questions:
1] If I try to get my current rig fixed in Auburn, who do you suggest taking it to? Pretty much the only "national" repair group here is geek squad and lord only knows what their staff is like.
2] If you are purchasing, what would you suggest different? Please do not suggest "build it yourself" because I lack the time, energy and skill set to do so. I like Falcon Northwest because every machine I've had from them (my current is my 3rd) has run flawlessly for years until it just died or was technologically obsolete. The liquid cooled systems they sell are just wonderful and quiet.
3] Usually I replace my PC gaming system about every 4-5 years. My current Talon has run 6.5 years with no problems until March, 2018.
Since the old one is 6.5 years old, if I were you I would buy a new rig from Falcon Northwest.
I save my old PCs. So I would also get the old rig repaired and use it to play games that might not run well on it the new rig.
Edit: Edited for clarification.
I don't know Airboy, seems high on the price. I built a new PC last year for about $2526. That did not include a monitor but did include some expanded warranty for the CPU, motherboard and video card, which, in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gotten.
On Newegg, the monitor you have listed is $338. So if I added that monitor, I would have had a total of about $2900.
There are 3 things that really sticks out to me on your specs,
1. There are 2 M2 PCI drives. One for OS and one for storage. I have a 1TB M2 PCI drive for everything. I'm only using half of it and really don't see a reason for a second one just for the OS.
2. The video card is only a 1060. For that price, I would expect a 1080.
3. Power supply is 550. If you want to upgrade the video card later, that may need to be replaced also.
Here is a comparison prebuilt system; http://www.microcenter.com/product/497084/G460_Desktop_Computer
At the end, it all depends on your budget and you've got a good history with this company. So that plays a lot into your decission.
BTW, the last system I built, is still running after 8.5 years. It was just getting old from a tech point of view, but still works well.
I know you're not wanting to build your own and I'm not trying to convince you too. But here is what I got.
Corsair Graphite 760T Case
Corsair H110i CPU Liquid cooler
EVGA Supernova 750g3 PSU
Asus Crosshair VI Hero motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 1600x cpu
EVGA GTX1080 FTW w/ Liguid cooling
Blueray/dvd burner
mouse
Samsung 1TB 960EVO M.2
Corsair 16 GB RAM, 2x8GB.
Corsair gaming keyboad
Windows 10 Pro 64bit.
I would not use Geek Squad and would definitely consider a new Falcon, as you're doing.
If you want to consider other brands, check out Asus.
I wouldn't trust Geeksquad either. Mom and Dad took their laptop there for a checkup. They were told the HD was showing some issues and should be replaced. Since they had a service plan with them, it wasn't going to cost them anything extra. First, they cannot do the work locally and had to send it off. Then, when they got the laptop back, none of the files, including a lot of photos were there. And they didn't get the old HD back, so they could get the photos from it. Very piss pour work.
^Greatest fears realized right there.
Did not think Geek Squad was a good choice. Thanks for the confirmation.
Based on what OJs Dad suggested, here is my new configuration:
Chassis Talon
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA G3 - 750 Watt
Motherboard Asus® ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-8700K 6 Cores - 12 Threads - 4.7GHz
Overclock No Overclock
Processor Cooler Asetek® Liquid Cooling 570LC
Memory 32GB - 2x16GB - 2400MHz
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 8GB
Sound Card On-Board Audio
Networking On-Board Ethernet
Estimated Availability:
14 days
Operating System Drive - SSD Intel® 760P - 1TB
SSD - M.2 - PCI Express
Optical Drive DVD Writer
64-Bit Operating System Windows 10 Pro
Office Software Office 365 Home Premium
Rescue Drive USB Rescue Drive
Warranty 3 Years Parts and Labor
Keyboard Logitech® K120
This has the higher power supply and a 1TB operating system drive.
No monitor is included - I can get it from Amazon with free shipping for less.
Without shipping, this system would cost $3,477
I'm not going to build one. Every Falcon I've had ran flawlessly for years. Their liquid cooled systems are very quiet. My last non-liquid cooled system sounded like a jet aircraft.
I'm leaning on placing an order at the end of next week.
I have to go out-of-state for my father-in-law's funeral. [Not a tragedy. He was 89 and suffering. My wife lost both parents within 10 months - and this comes as a relief more than anything].
Quote from: Gusington on March 23, 2018, 09:05:52 AM
I would not use Geek Squad and would definitely consider a new Falcon, as you're doing.
If you want to consider other brands, check out Asus.
I have heard good things about Asus as well. If nothing else they seem to deliver very clean OS installs. No bloatware, etc. I have an Asus netbook I have been happy with.
My newish Asus desktop (2015) is very good. Minimal bloatware and reliable.
Dude...where are you getting these prices from? You can do MUCH better. Yes, a 1TB SSD will increase cost, but I'm positive I could find you a comparable system in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. Any company that would charge you $3500 for an i5 with 16GB ram and a GeForce 1060 is committing a crime.
I recently saw a system on newegg that was an 8th gen i7, 32GB RAM DDR4, 512GB SSD with a 3TB SATA, GeForce 1080ti with 11GB RAM...$1,800. I had to physically restrain myself from hitting the buy button.
I recently (<6months ago) got an Alienware
There are a lot of strong opinions on Alienware (cost/visual etc) but I have always liked them. Here is a review that helped me decide and cost was not a major differentiatior between making my own and buying.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/alienware-aurora-r7,review-4889.html
In all seriousness Airboy, if I was going to spend that much, I think I would look at a laptop. At least you could take it with you when you travel. You could still connect a good monitor to it.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/484529/Blade_Pro_173_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Black
I have two good laptops. I like older games also, so my laptop situation is great.
I need quiet and reliable. This means water cooled and a deserved reputation for reliability. My latest falcon ran 6.5 years with no problems. Previous falcon ran 5 until technology made it obsolete.
I'm delighted if anyone can suggest a reliable, quiet system with similar performance at a significantly lower cost.
Asus.
I'd stick with Falcon. I'm buying rock-solid performance every time, and customer service that knows what they're talking about (when I rarely need it, which has never once been due to a design or implementation problem on their side).
A computer is more than the cost of the components; and they know a lot better than I do how to (safely!) wring every drop of advantage from a design. When the day finally comes that our shop has to migrate off the old Mac system architecture (which will probably be this year since our payroll will no longer be supported), I'm going Falcon there, too.
Go for Agat-9. Is superior product.
Quote from: Con on March 23, 2018, 12:40:34 PM
I recently (<6months ago) got an Alienware
There are a lot of strong opinions on Alienware (cost/visual etc) but I have always liked them. Here is a review that helped me decide and cost was not a major differentiatior between making my own and buying.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/alienware-aurora-r7,review-4889.html
How quiet does it run?
I looked at the auroras and I'd have to configure in a number of things beyond the standard system. My last alienware looked great, but sounded like a net aircraft and weighed a ton.
Quote from: airboy on March 24, 2018, 08:21:47 PM
Quote from: Con on March 23, 2018, 12:40:34 PM
I recently (<6months ago) got an Alienware
There are a lot of strong opinions on Alienware (cost/visual etc) but I have always liked them. Here is a review that helped me decide and cost was not a major differentiatior between making my own and buying.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/alienware-aurora-r7,review-4889.html
How quiet does it run?
I looked at the auroras and I'd have to configure in a number of things beyond the standard system. My last alienware looked great, but sounded like a net aircraft and weighed a ton.
I had the first generation alienware Aurora (with the flaring vents and lighting on the outside). this was a solid steel case and was built tank heavy. Loved the case but noise when the PC exhausted did make it sound like a jet spooling up.
New Aurora is much smaller footprint (Id estimate half the length and 2/3ds the width) of the original. I used to keep the older Aurora under the desk because it was so heavy/big and the noise when exhausting was pretty intense. The new Aurora is actually sitting on my desk now (so the lighting customization is now visible).
Noise is negligible with one big caveat
When i received the new Aurora it had a high pitched annoying whine that emanated from the PSU. I looked it up and saw there were a lot of threads on Alienware support about this and it was called a coilwhine. Many opinions and solutions were offered on how to mitigate it with the prevalent theory it was from a particular batch/man year/type of PSU that Alienware was using in the new Auroras. Alienware was also aware that this was an issue and they sent me a replacement PSU. After about two weeks it too started experiencing the same coil whine. It only occurred at heavier graphic intense moments when I guess the computer needs all the electrons getting pushed and fans blowing.
I had read that people experiencing this problem while appreciative of the support were finding themselves in this loop of getting replacements from Alienware/having them work for a period of time/then at some later point coilwhine reappearing. I followed the crowds advice and purchased and installed a much higher quality recommended PSU unit into the PC - Corasair AX860 for $170 from Amazon.
Consider that if you are looking at an Aurora - The vast majority of customers dont seem to have any problems but if you do have coilwhine it might be easier on your hearing and time to just go ahead and get the non-stock PSU. The extra cash was worth the not having to go through multiple rounds of PSU replacements from Alienware.
Now mine is whisper quiet (I cant hear it at all and its about 2 feet away from my head on my desk), great to look at, much smaller and incredibly fast.
Con
At this point in time due to cryptominers jacking vid card pricing I cannot support build your own. The major builders all have locked in hardware pricing.
Always wanted a Falcon. I've heard nothing but great things from those rigs but they have the price tag to match.
I decided to get the Falcon. The performance of my previous 2 were so good and I don't want to have more things to worry about.
I am grounded computer wise until my new rig arrives. On the bright side, I need to do my taxes.