The Mach V sports a spanking-new (Nehalem-based) that's been overclocked from 3.2 GHz to 3.8 GHz using only air cooling. Added to this is more RAM than we've ever seen in a desktop machine--a whopping 12GB of DDR3-1066 memory--along with an Intel 80GB solid state drive for booting and a 1-terabyte, 7200-rpm for storage. Although it didn't factor into our rating or system rankings chart (we rated all the gaming PCs in our current roundup on performance alone, excluding bundled monitors or peripherals), Falcon will also throw in a high-quality for an additional US$400 on top of the system's $7395 price (as of November 11, 2008).

Although that premium price places it among the most wallet-crippling systems we've reviewed, you definitely get amazing bang for your buck. The Mach V achieved a score of 163 in our test suite. That's the highest result we've ever seen, but one that's equaled by two other new gaming machines: Hardcore Computer's Reactor and Xi's MTower HAF-SLI. The Xi pushes the limit for overclocking by cranking an older 3.33-GHz Core 2 Duo E8600 to an eyeball-popping 4.5 GHz, while the Reactor completely submerges its components in nonconductive oil (including a 3.2-GHz QX9770 CPU overclocked to 4 GHz); stay tuned for full reviews.

Helped out by dual 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards in CrossFire mode, the Mach V beat the frame rates of these and other recent gaming PCs for all the games (and resolutions) we threw at it. It even produced a smooth-playing average of 145 frames per second (fps) in Unreal Tournament 3 (under high settings) at 2560 by 1600 resolution. Next best in that taxing test: the Hardcore Computer Reaktor, whose three overclocked nVidia GTX-280 boards (in tri-SLI mode) achieved 113 fps in the same test.

This particular Mach V configuration includes an , in addition to a Lite-on DVD writer. For expandability, four external 5.25-inch drive bays are open for upgrades, as are four internal 3.5-inch hard-disk bays. Overall, The Mach V's internals are well put together, with all cables neatly grouped and concealed where possible.

The Mach V's Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard holds a good number of ports: eight USB, two Firewire 400, and one eSATA. You also get built-in 5.1-channel audio and two ethernet ports. The front of the case is a touch more anemic, hiding four USB ports and a single Firewire 400 port beneath a locking door. At least there's plenty of room to plug in the Mach V's Logitech G15 keyboard (included). We'd almost rather not plug in its companion mouse, as the Logitech G9's misplaced DPI buttons are hardly satisfying for the kinds of games you'll be playing on this sweet rig.