Acer just took the wraps off a powerful new Predator Orion 7000 desktop, notably running on Intel’s soon-to-launch 12th-gen CPU.
Acer showed off a wide range of new products at its annual Next@Acer global press conference, including new laptops, Chromebooks, displays, and gaming machines.
But the Predator Orion 7000 stole the show with the inclusion of a 12th-gen Intel chip — also known as Alder Lake — which should provide a big boost to performance. Intel is hyping a new brand new core architecture featuring more cache and a new die arrangement that can better split workloads between the CPU’s faster high-performance cores and its less power-hungry efficiency cores.
And while Acer has yet to provide a specific range of 12th-gen Intel CPUs that will be available (Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, etc.), the company has confirmed it will use unlocked chips capable of overclocking.
The Orion 7000’s other specs are equally beefy, with support for up to 64GB of RAM, up to an Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU, a range of storage options (both SSDs and HDDs), built-in Wi-Fi 6E, 10 USB ports (both Type-A and Type-C), and more (though oddly there doesn’t seem to be support for Thunderbolt 4).
That said, some of the Orion 7000’s more interesting features are smaller details like the inclusion of a hot-swappable 2.5-inch USB-C drive bay on the top of its case, and a built-in AIO CPU cooler that uses special ceramic axis in its fans. And for people who love colourful lighting, Acer’s new 120mm and 140mm Frost Blade 2.0 case fans look like technicolor turbines and feature ARGB lighting, so you can customise their output to whatever hues you like.
It’s not cheap, obviously. With GPU prices the way they are, it’s no surprise that the Orion 7000 will retail for $6999 when it hits our shores from Q2 2022. It’ll be available through Acer Online or Harvey Norman, according to a local release.
And while the Orion 7000 might be the coolest thing we saw from Acer, the company also introduced the Predator Gaming Desk, which comes with a cup holder attachment, an included headphone stand, and a 55-inch carbon-fibre top that can be covered by a massive Predator mouse pad, if that’s what you’re into. Acer even made not one, but two different gaming projectors, with the GD711 offering LED projection at up to a 4K UHD resolution and a variable refresh rate, while the GM712 uses a lamp-based projector that can pump out up to 3,600 lumens.
And if gaming isn’t your jam, Acer also released four new Chromebooks headlined by the Chromebook Spin 514, an expanded range of eco-friendly laptops and monitors that are part of the Vero family, and a huge range of business laptops including new Enduro and TravelMate notebooks with anti-microbial silver ion finishes.
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