Acer is the first PC gaming company officially announcing a desktop using Intel's 12th Gen "Alder Lake" desktop processors. But don’t expect to be able to pick one up in the near future. The Acer Predator Orion 7000 will launch in the first quarter of 2022 in China, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and in the second quarter of 2022 in the United States.
While the Predator will be utilizing existing Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 graphics cards, a lot of the other tech will be new. Acer will utilize up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM at 4,000 MHz (PCs today are on DDR4), and the company describes the computer as "PCIe Gen 5 capable," though it will come with up to two 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, alongside a hot-swappable 2.5-inch hard drive bay.
Acer is using its own Predator FrostBlade 2.0 fans, with a pair of 140 mm spinners at the front and a 120 mm for exhaust. And although it probably won’t ship in every configuration, the unit we saw at a UK event had a 240 mm AIO up top.
The 19.8 x 19 x 8.6-inch chassis has a tool-free design. There's plenty of ARGB lighting from the case fans, the water cooler pump and the motherboard. And you'll be able to see that colored lighting through a tempered glass side panel.
On the front, there are three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port and a pair of audio jacks. The rear includes three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, twin USB 2.0 ports and three more audio jacks.
It's also running Windows 11. We'll see what that new scheduler does for Alder Lake when it releases.
The Predator Orion 7000's U.S. pricing hasn't been disclosed, but it will start at €2,199 in Europe and 20,000 renminbi in China.
Acer is also announcing a Predator Gaming desk with a 55-inch desktop, as well as a mouse pad that covers the entire desktop, a cup holder, headphone hook and an odd rack for holding discs and possibly game controllers. The desk will only be available in Europe, the Middle East and Africa but pricing hasn't been finalized.
