IFA 2018 | Acer Predator Orion gaming desktops offer dual graphics options up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

NVIDIA announced the new Turing-based GeForce RTX GPUs on the eve of Gamescom 2018 and while we still await actual performance numbers, many OEMs have started including the GPUs in their specifications. Dell was one of the first OEMs to jump onto the GeForce RTX bandwagon with the refreshed Alienware Aurora and now it's Acer's turn to latch onto some ray tracing action. During the next@Acer event at IFA 2018, Acer unveiled updates to its Predator Orion series of gaming desktops. The Predator Orion lineup has three main offerings — the flagship Orion 9000, mainstream gaming Orion 5000, and the entry level Orion 3000. 

Acer Predator Orion 9000

The Predator Orion 9000 has all the needs of a hardcore gamer fully covered. It offers CPU options up to the Intel Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition, which is an 18-core 36-thread monster of a chip, and memory options up to 128 GB quad-channel DDR4 2400 and 32 GB Intel Optane. Perhaps, the most droolworthy aspect of the Orion 9000 is the ability to use a dual graphics setup with the GeForce RTX 2080 or 2080 Ti. NVIDIA has dumped SLI in favor of NVLink for Turing-based RTX cards so it will be interesting to see what kind of performance can be availed from such a setup, 8K UHD support notwithstanding. If the new RTX cards are not to your liking, the Orion 9000 can also be configured with Pascal cards such as the GeForce GTX 1070, 1080, or 1080 Ti.

Proper cooling is critical to keep these powerful components ticking at their best and the Orion 9000 comes with Acer's IceTunnel 2.0 — a combination of liquid cooling and enhanced ventilation for driving heat away from the inside of the case. The Orion 9000 can take two NVMe SSDs thanks to the 2x M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slots. There is enough RGB bling visible via the front LED fans and the transparent side panel for the discerning gamer.

Acer Predator Orion 5000

The Predator Orion 5000 caters to the mainstream gamer with option of either an Intel Core i7+ 8700K or an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU. The desktop supports up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 2666 RAM and 32 GB of Intel Optane. Dual GPUs can be configured with the GeForce RTX 2080 or any of the Pascal cards such as the GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, 1080, or the 1080 Ti. Unlike its more powerful cousin, this system only offers a single M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slot for installing an NVMe SSD. The Orion 5000 also features IceTunnel 2.0 liquid cooling and RGB lighting on the front fans and inside the case.

Acer Predator Orion 3000

The Predator Orion 3000 is Acer's entry level gaming desktop but does not compromise much on the specifications. It comes with only the Core i7+ 8700K CPU option with support for up to 64 GB dual-channel DDR4 2666 RAM and 32 GB Intel Optane. There are no dual GPU options in the Orion 3000 but the system can be configured with NVIDIA Pascal cards from the GeForce GTX 1050 all the way up to the GTX 1080. The spec sheet doesn't mention it but the system can actually configured up to the GeForce RTX 2070. Unlike the other two Orions, the Orion 3000 does not have a transparent side panel so the RGB effects are limited to the front intake fan.

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