Review: Acer’s Predator is relatively toothless - charettebegather1962

At a Glimpse

Skilful's Rating

Pros

Powerful CPU
32GB of computer storage
Slide-out force back tray with SATA connections

Cons

Weak video card
Just one x16 PCIe one-armed bandit
Relatively poor gaming performance

Our Verdict

The Predator just isn't as ferocious as Acer would like-minded us to think back information technology is.

Acer got a few things right and a numeral of things wrong with the Predator (specifically, Predator model AG3620-UR12). On the "right" side of the leger, it has one of Intel's ameliorate processors—a 3.4GHz Core i7-3770—and 32GB of DDR3/1600 memory. With those components, the interrogatory price of $1299 is very reasonable.

On the "wrong" English of the ledger, the Predator has an AMD Radeon HD 8760 television circuit card (the OEM version of the milquetoast Radeon HD 7770), a chintzy custom motherboard with right one PCIe x16 one-armed bandit (occupied), and a minuscule 16GB SSD that serves as a memory cache to the 2TB, 7200-rpm mechanical voiceless drive.

Don't buy the Predatory animal if you plan to do untold in the way of upgrading down the road. In that respect's just not untold room inside the case.

The all-steel case is wrapped in multicolored satin evil, with glossy black accents on top. Terzetto doors in its face flip down to reveal 5.25-edge drive bays. Of these, one is in use past a 16x Videodisc burner, and a second has a slide-out tray with SATA powerfulness and data connectors in the rear of the colored. Though this isn't a hot-swappable drive bay, information technology does provide an opportunity for data relief that you throne remove to an offsite location.

This slide down-verboten drive tray is a cool idea. Spell not a hot-swappable bay, it has SATA data and power connectors at its back.

Also enclosed are two empty 3.5-inch drive bays (comprehendible single from inside the cause), but you'll need to supply your possess SATA cables and Molex-to-SATA world power adapters if you adjudicate to populate them (leads from the 500-watt mogul add are available).

The superlative of the case has a media-carte proofreader, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. You'll find deuce more USB 3.0 ports and four more USB 2.0 ports in back. The video card has three connectors, one from each one for DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort (lifesize), and I was openmouthed to learn antennas for a wireless network adapter card (802.11b/g/n, plus Bluetooth 4.0 support) protruding from the cover. That's a squeamish touch, although I envisage having the antennas draw close the floor must really cut the adapter's range.

Acer pitched this machine as a "take no prisoners" gaming rig, only the benchmark results belie that call. While the Marauder did produce a Desktop Worldbench 8.1 score of 227, the system we use to establish our 100-point baseline is an unassuming every last-in-united desktop Microcomputer steam-powered by an Intel Core i5-3230M, with integrated graphics and 6GB of DDR3/1600 memory.

The Predator buns deliver Crysis 3 at 60 frames per second, but only if you're willing to trim back the game's resolution to 1024 by 768 pixels and clamp its image quality at low. When we reliable acting the bet on at the native resolution of a regular 23- or 24-inch consumer monitor—1920 away 1080 pixels—and boosted image quality to Ultra, the Predator delivered a slideshow-similar performance of just 6 frames per second. We had a punter experience with Civilization 5 and DiRT Showdown (the latter at Ultra superior level), achieving 28.2 and 31.6 frames per intermediate severally at a resolution of 1920 by 1080.

The Predator is a advisable-than-average family PC, but hard-core gamers will find information technology to be weak afternoon tea.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/451750/review-acers-predator-is-relatively-toothless.html

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