Acer Predator G1 710 Gaming Pc

Early Verdict

Acer's Predator G1-710-70001 gaming desktop is priced as high every bit custom shop machines with unlocked processors and watercooling radiators. Although information technology appears to offering everything a PC gamer could enquire for with its stylish pattern, RGB lighting, and extras, an enthusiast eye knows that y'all can find better operation for similar (or lower) prices. However, if looks and convenience are your driving forces to a gaming PC purchase, the Predator G1 tin can provide infrequent gaming performance with all the peripherals you need and a rolling conveying example to haul it around.

Pros

+
Stylish SFF Chassis
+
Accessories

Cons

-
Toll
-
Performance
-
Power Supply

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Introduction And Product Tour

Introduction And Product Bout

Our previous gaming desktop reviews have focused on peak stop, custom-built gaming machines with overclocked CPUs, water cooling, and GTX 1080 graphics under the hood. When Acer offered us a chance to see what its Predator G1-710-70001 could exercise, we weren't certain if it would be a fair comparison to our recently-tested gaming rigs because of its locked Intel Core i7-6700 processor. However, at $ii,149, it'southward certainly priced like a custom-congenital PC, so nosotros put it through our test suite. Is the Predator dominant or is it the casualty?

Specifications

Exterior

The Acer Predator G1 features a custom small course gene (SFF) chassis, with plastic covered side panels brandishing the Predator logo (which resembles the Decepticon symbol from Transformers). The design is clearly meant to attract gamers, with angular and contoured cherry and black plastic panels, RGB LED lighting, and a spot to hang your headphones (or VR HMD) with the retractable artillery at the height of the instance.

The Predator G1 has a simplified I/O, with four USB three.0 ports on the rear and ane USB 3.0 port on the front. There'due south also a USB Blazon-C port in the front panel, just it'due south limited to USB 3.0 information rates (5 Gbps). The Type-C interface also offers power for applicable devices. A slim DVD-RW bulldoze seamlessly hides in the front panel of the Predator G1, and individual mic-in and headphone-out jacks in the front end panel will let you plug in a headset on the fly. There are more audio jacks on the back. In that location aren't any video outputs in the motherboard I/O, and the GPU features the standard three DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 2.0, and one DVI-D interfaces institute on Founder'southward Edition GTX 1080s.

We'd unremarkably depict the power supply in the Interior section of our review, merely the Acer Predator G1'southward PSU is somewhat of an oddity; it'south powered by two 230W laptop power adapters (for a combined 460W) bundled together in a plastic Predator-branded shroud. It has the potential to exist the unmarried worst feature of the Predator G1. Although information technology reduces the size of the chassis by excluding an internal PSU, the pattern is short-sighted and awkward.

The PSU cake takes upwards considerable real estate, with two ability cables required from the wall to the cake, so two more than cables from the adapters to the rear of the Predator G1. It's an inelegant solution that makes powering the device somewhat of a challenge, betwixt the 2 required empty plugs on the power strip and finding a place to tuck away the jungle of wires. Moving the Predator G1 from one location to the other (at least, within a home or role) is not particularly easy (or fun) because of the device'due south obtrusive PSU and the oddly-weighted (although non terribly heavy) chassis.

Interior

"Dense" happens to be an excellent term to describe the interior of the Predator G1, which is accessible by removing iv screws from the side panels (2 for each panel) at the rear of the device. Information technology's clear that Acer doesn't want you (or intend for you lot) to be poking around inside the G1; the side panel screws are lengthy and flat and so they blend into the case (thumb screws are more inviting), and the panels are abnormally heavy, with a metal panel underneath the plastic adding considerable weight to the device, which seems even heavier with its dumbo interior design and not-and then-like shooting fish in a barrel-to-take hold of case.

In one case you lot remove the panels, you are met with more than compartmentalization (and niggling wiggle room), with most of the main components subconscious under more than layers of metal. The Intel Core i7-6700 CPU features a base clock frequency of 3.4GHz, with a max turbo clock of 4.0 GHZ. The processor is air-cooled with an all-aluminum heatsink, which has a plastic intake fastened to the top (with an 80mm fan) that lines up with a hidden vent in the left side panel, giving the CPU a defended source of fresh air. The memory DIMMs are all occupied, with 32GB (4 x 8GB) of DDR4-2133, which features CAS timings of fifteen-15-15-36 and lacks any special cooling or heatsinks.

A Founder's Edition GeForce GTX 1080 is encased in a metal mounting subclass (Predator-branded, of course). The GPU is connected to the motherboard with a riser card that positions the card upside downwardly, with the front end blower fan intake pointing to the other side (right) of the chassis, which has a vent in the inner and side panels so that the graphics card has a defended air intake (with heat exhausting out the dorsum of the GPU). Another blower fan mounted to a higher place the rear motherboard I/O exhausts ambient oestrus out of the example.

The IPMSL-GM H170 motherboard is Acer's own design, and it features Killer E2400 Ethernet and AC1535 Wi-Fi, which is a nice impact if you lot program to constrict the Predator G1 in a room distant from your router. The board also offers few expansion options (really, just one). All of the SATA ports on the board are full, just one of the cables leads to an unoccupied 2.5" drive bay, which is mounted on the right side of the GPU enclosure with four screws. The ability feed splits off from the 2.5" mount to the front end panel, presumably for the RGB LED lighting.

The storage, similar the other principal components, is also blocked off, with the 512GB LiteOn CV1-8B512 M.two SATA SSD nowhere in sight (we determined that it's under the 3.5" and optical drive cage, and it's no piece of cake task to get to information technology). The 2TB 7,200 RPM HDD is the about attainable of the configured storage components (in that yous can come across it mounted adjacent to the retentivity DIMMs), only yous have to remove the unabridged cage to swap it out. The slim DVD-RW drive is hidden behind the 3.v" HDD, and none of the Predator G1'due south components are easy to free from their aluminum prison house.

Software And Accessories

Acer preloaded a variety of software on the Predator G1, including a shortcut to a folder containing all the PC's manuals (in PDF class) and company-branded utilities called Acer Care, Acer Drive, and Predator Sense. The Acer Care program displays your system specs and allows you lot to perform maintenance tasks, update your system'southward drivers, and manage recovery settings. Acer Drive is a grade of cloud storage, and Predator Sense monitors CPU clock frequency, in addition to the processor and arrangement temperatures and fan speeds. You can also adjust the fan speeds (there are merely two fans), in addition the front-panel RGB LED-backlit logo, "V Badge" lite bar, and grill lighting effects and colors. The Killer Network Manager rounds out the G1's utility software.

The Predator G1 also features a full version of CyberLink PowerDVD 12, in addition to a trial version of Freedome VPN, a program that encrypts your online connections for safer browsing, security, and anonymity. Acer also preloaded Steam (information technology'southward ready to log in at launch) and although we're not generally fans of "bloatware," we wouldn't consider any of these programs to exist terribly bothersome (they aren't popping upwards and reminding us to buy something every few minutes or causing boot delays). For the near part, everything except the Freedome VPN trial software serves a purpose (yep, fifty-fifty Acer Intendance; updating your drivers is important!) and doesn't cost you a dime, and if you don't want it, you tin can hands uninstall it.

Acer was every bit generous with accessories, providing a Predator-branded mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse with the G1. The keyboard features Kailh switches (although the visitor wasn't specific as to which ones) and blueish LED backlighting, and it's comfy to blazon on. The included gaming mouse has ruby-red LEDs and several additional gaming buttons.

For a express time, Acer also ships the Predator G1 with a wheeled hardshell carrying case. We had mentioned that it was difficult to move the dense tower and awkward PSU around the house, but the case at least makes getting it to your next LAN party easier.

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Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom'due south Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.