Digital Trends

FIC Condor

August 5th, 2004 | by Ian Bell

Setup and Testing

The FIC Condor comes packaged in a fairly exciting box that clearly indicates the system is geared towards gamers. The system comes with a software driver CD, manual, two SATA hard drive cables, power supply cable and some screws. Also included is a heatsink/fan for the processor, which is usually included with small form factor systems. While many other SFF systems exhaust the processor heat out the rear, the Condor's heatsink/fan is designed to exhaust up, through vents at the top of the case. Since there are only two fans that circulate the air inside the system - the CPU fan and the power supply fan - to help with the circulation, FIC made sure that the vented holes at the top allowed enough hot air to escape.

The installation manual and software that comes with the Condor is pretty mundane and only gives you what you need rather than a bunch of useless software. The English translation of the manual could definitely be better.

Using the slider located on the front of the system, we opened the Condor to install our hardware components. Once the system folds open, there are two latches which connect the sides of the system. If you undo the latches you can separate the two sides completely. The motherboard is vertically mounted on the right hand side of the system chassis — which is another departure from other SFF systems, which usually locate the motherboard on the bottom panel. The cables are cleverly organized and tied together to maximize system cooling on the inside.

Installing our system drives was simple enough. You will want to make sure that your DVD/CD drive has mounts to hold the media into place since the drive sits vertically. We noticed while installing our DVD drive that the front door closes using two springs that are visible when the door is open. The two springs resemble the same type of springs that are found in ball point pens. They appear to be very fragile and look like they could come undone fairly easy if the user is not careful. In our opinion, this is a poor design since most gamers use their systems very heavily and would be popping discs in and out of the drive. MSI, for example, makes sure to hide the spring loading door mechanism in their systems.

Another major problem we had was that occasionally we could not get the main door closed on the system. No matter how hard you pushed, the latch simply would not catch. Our test system was like this right out of the box and only after continually messing with it where we able to get the door to remain shut. Wondering if this was an isolated case, we headed over to our local Fry's to test out the FIC Condors there. According to the Fry's sales rep, they have had many returns due to a faulty door latch. We eventually found out that the door would not latch unless the two sides of the system were lined up perfectly. So if you open then close the system as if you were going to access the motherboard, this might fix the problem if your door latch is not working.

Conclusion

The FIC Condor is a step in the right direction for FIC, but there are many improvements that need be implemented in future system development. This includes fixing the buggy door latch on the front of the system, building a more robust spring mechanism for the DVD/CD drive door, including a more powerful power supply, and relocating the digital audio out port to the rear.

Is the FIC Condor the perfect system for a gamer that wants to be semi-portable or doesn't have enough room? If it wasn't for that measly power supply the answer might be “yes” but since the Condor can't support the latest video cards power requirements, we have to say “no.” But with support for the latest Intel processors and with a slick design and form factor, the system just might be attractive enough for the casual gamer.

FIC has always been on the forefront of design and the Condor does not disappoint. But for them to market this system towards the gaming community just doesn't make much sense. Almost anyone looking for a small yet powerful Pentium 4 based system, that doesn't plan on hardcore gaming, should consider the Condor. But FIC needs to put a bit more work into the product for it to be popular among the power users.

Home Theater enthusiasts may want to look towards offerings from MSI or Shuttle while hardcore gamers not adept to building their own systems might want to consider the Monarch Hornet or Falcon Northwest Frag box systems instead.