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Giant of the corporate PC arena,Acer, has announced that it’s launching the ‘Predator’ range ofmachines designed to provide top notch gaming out of the box.
Thatsounds like an unambitious aim, but Acer reckons that non-technicalgamers are being ripped off on a daily basis thanks to obfuscatorymarketing tactics which overstate the quality of components inside.
Theproblem is this: the rise and rise of the online PC configurator hasbeen disastrous for anyone looking to buy a new machine who doesn’thave the competency to spec it themselves. Walk into any high streetretailer – and a fair proportion of the online ones too – and you’llfind PCs designed ‘for games’ equipped with graphics cards thatstruggle to run Hangman.
Straight out of the box, you’d expect agames PC to be able to play the latest games. That doesn’t seemunreasonable, says Acer, but no-one is actually providing it – at leastnot without mixing in some sub-par machines and diluting the branding.
Hunted down Enterthe Acer Aspire Predator. When it arrives in June, there will be fourmodels ranging from around £1200 to £2000, and all of them boast aPenryn quad core processor, SLI graphics and at least two hard drives,which are hot-swappable without opening the side. They also all featureliquid cooling for the CPU, and are warranted for overclocking.
“Wehaven’t compromised on any feature,” Acer’s Brian Boggat explained toTechRadar, “There’s no bare bones, no frills model to confuse people.”
Tocatch the eye of prospective punters, Acer has gone with a very boldcase design: all sharp edges and fancy opening mechanisms. It’s notgoing to suit all tastes, but if the plan was to stand out on retailshelves, it’ll do the job well.
Hands on TechRadarhas had a hands on with the bespoke chassis and first impressions aregenerally good: with the lifting front plate down it’s quite a looker.Our only concern is potential heat build up from all those graphicscards.
The decision to only use SLI configurations means theentry level model has two GeForce 9600GTs, where we’d prefer to haveseen one 8800GT, for example, but then hey, we’re a bit moretechnically literate than the target market. It’ probably use that’sconfused everyone in the first place.
The machines also come witha top quality Logitech G11 keyboard and G5 mouse, and a 24inch panel inmatching copper livery will be available for around £250.
Whilewe salute the intention – selling gaming machines that are, you know,capable of playing games, it’s not going to be easy for Acer. It’ll bepitching up against the better known gaming brands, Dell and Alienware,who are also starting to increase their retail presence in stores likePC World.
We’ll bring you a full review of the Predator later this month.