Continuing our interview series with gaming PC makers we check in with Kelt Reeves, the head of perhaps the first company that made gaming PCs their speciality, Falcon Northwest.

FiringSquad: First, Falcon has always been a leader in gaming PCs but the competition has never been as charged as it has been now. How do you think Falcon's products stand up to all of your fellow gaming PC makers?

Kelt Reeves: I usually like to let others tell us how we’re doing, as that’s what really matters. From our customers who’ve tried other brands and come back to us, we hear a lot about how our quality and service is doing. For speed, we have to let the PC competitions answer that question- the kind of competition where they get a bunch of PCs in the same room at the same time, evaluate and benchmark them. We’ve won PC Magazine’s annual competition the last 3 years, so I guess we’re still doing alright on the key fronts.  

FiringSquad: The Mach V is Falcon's high end gaming PC line.  How hard is it to pick the right components to put into one of the Mach V PCs?

Kelt Reeves: Mach Vs are actually the easiest of our line because they are all custom built. Our customers tell us which components to put in each machine. Of course, we narrow the field down to parts that we know are the best in their class in terms of speed, stability, and reliability. Picking them is easy. Integrating them so they all run fast, stable, and cool is the tricky part.

FiringSquad: Case design for PCs has undergone lots of changes in the past few years. How important is it to have a design that not only works well but looks good?

Kelt Reeves: From the variety of case colors and artwork our clients choose, it’s easy to see how important it is to have exactly what they want. A PC is a very personal thing to an enthusiast. That’s why our basic, unpainted case is just the starting point. Some people love the plain brushed aluminum look, but beyond that we can make our PCs look like anything the customer would like. A look through our gallery shows that about the only common theme is the wide variety of looks people like.  

FiringSquad: Falcon's custom paint designs for its case remain among the best for PCs. What have been some of the more challenging paint jobs the company has had to create?

Kelt Reeves: The custom airbrush art jobs on laptops are always the toughest, mainly because of the time and painting skill it takes, and in the end art is such a subjective thing. Several times we’ve been tasked to “re-imagine” a client’s favorite piece of art onto a PC. You can probably imagine your perfect painted laptop. But communicating that to someone else effectively, and then having the reality of things like the keyboard and touchpad taking chunks out of the “canvas” of your imagination – it’s tricky. Luckily, our airbrush artist is phenomenal and consistently exceeds our client’s imaginations.  

FiringSquad: In your column you mention that having a big display is becoming more important for PC gaming. How long will it be before PC games really start to take advantage of 24 and 30 inch monitors?

Kelt Reeves: I’m pleased to see it’s actually happening quite quickly. A large number of new games coming out not only have widescreen support, but even 2560x1600 XHD support. It’s really refreshing to see. Even some new games you wouldn’t expect, like Heroes of Might & Magic 5, are supporting it. I think a lot of has to do with the fact that demoing on 30” monitors at tradeshows has become the norm recently, so there’s an incentive for the game designers to show off at those high resolutions these days.  

FiringSquad: What can we expect next from Falcon Northwest in terms of new products and services.

Kelt Reeves: This is going to be a big summer for change in the enthusiast gaming hardware. We’ve already been shipping Quad-SLI for a few months now, and the next version of that with the new 7950GX2 cards will be enabled thru system builders like us soon. PhysX cards are a very interesting add-on and we haven’t seen 1/10th of what could be done with their power in gameplay yet. And of course, Core systems… soon.  

FiringSquad: Where does Falcon Northwest see the PC gaming market going, especially when more and more attention is being paid to console gaming?

Kelt Reeves: I see the PC market continuing to thrive among the “older” (i.e. 20+) gamers. I own consoles and enjoy them, but like most people in their 30’s raised on consoles, the PC was always where the more complex games were. Anything that could be better played with a keyboard and mouse, and looks better at 2560x1600 than on a 480P TV, will always provide the PC market with a sales opportunity. It’s important for those of us who are in the PC industry to keep innovations like XHD resolution, Quad SLI, and Physics acceleration shown off as something for console gamers to aspire to.  

FiringSquad: How will the addition of Intel's Core 3 Duo chip in July affect gaming PCs?

Kelt Reeves: I think it’s going to be big. How big, I can’t say just yet, as I’m under NDA.  

FiringSquad: What impact will Windows Vista have on PC gaming when it is released?

Kelt Reeves: I’m not sure. DirectX 10 will of course give game designers new tools to make even more realistic games, and give the graphics card makers a whole new set of features to design special hardware support for. The biggest thing the OS has to do is not interfere with the games or hog too many resources. And of course compatibility with older titles has always been an issue with a new OS. We’ll see how it looks when they’re finally finished… around 2012 the way it’s been going.  

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else that you would like to say about Falcon Northwest and its role in promoting PC gaming?

Kelt Reeves: From 1992 to about ’96 Falcon Northwest ran unopposed in this market. No one thought it was worthwhile, and it wasn’t easy for most people to admit they used their $3,000 business PC mostly for entertainment. A "gaming PC" was a tough sell back then. Nowadays, with so many big PC companies jumping on the "we can make money off gamers" bandwagon, I can only hope Falcon Northwest’s longevity can lead by example. We have a great respect for gamers and PC enthusiasts. It’s not just a “market” to us – it’s what we love ourselves and the only thing we do. I just hope some of the companies now attempting to sell to gamers understand that a PC means more to us. It’s not just another product, it’s an important tool for an enthusiast and needs to be sold, constructed, and supported with a respect for the people who take PCs so seriously.

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