Acer - Predator Orion Gaming Desktop with Mirror Panel - Intel Ultra 7 265KF 2024 - RTX 5080 - 32GB DDR5 Memory – 1TB Storage - Black

The Acer Predator Orion 6000 is a gaming beast that comes in a very attractive case with a unique feature. The first thing you noticed is how big the box it comes in. The computer would probably be classified as a large mid-tower case and there is also some solid weight to it. The case is very well designed and engineered. The fit and finish is of very high quality. Parts just click easily on and off. There is plenty of airflow and it comes with a top magnetic air filter and an easily removable bottom filter for easy cleaning. There are 6 included RGB fans to ensure good air flow and thermals and they are super quiet. Also, there is a handle at the top of the case which can be used to help move the computer around and is appreciated since it is a large and somewhat heavy computer. The top of the case has a Power On/Off button, 2x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C port, a headphone/mic port, and a button to control the lighting effects. Overall, the port selection is very well thought out. The interior of the case is very clean with minimal cabling and provides plenty of space if you want to do some upgrades in the future. The tempered glass side panel is easily removed and attached without needing any tools. The other side panel is also removable and reveals a 2x 3.5 inch drive cage for expansion. Extra power connectors from the power supply are easily accessible. The back cabling is very clean with everything tied up and the case is very roomy. So, what makes this case kind of unique? For me, it’s the tempered glass side panel. When the computer is totally powered off, the tempered glass looks like a silver mirror. When I first saw the tempered glass side panel, I thought, “Wait, that’s weird. They put in a mirror side panel. How are we going to see the inside of the computer?” But when you turn on the computer, and the RGB lighting comes on, you can see the inside of the case while also seeing the reflection of the mirror. The tempered glass is like a translucent mirror. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered this type of glass before. I have other computers with glass side panels that are somewhat reflective but they don’t look like a silver mirror. Depending on how/where your eyes are focused, the side panel behaves like a see-thru glass, a mirror, or something in-between. Reflected objects on the outside can appear to be “floating” in the inside of the case. When the RGB lighting is turned on, I think the case is beautiful. When the RGB lighting is totally powered off, the case reminded me of a Tesla Cybertruck because of the silver mirrored panel and sharp angles of the case. Package Contents The Acer Predator Orion 6000 computer itself An Acer AKW300 Gaming Keyboard with backlighting An accessories box containing an Acer AMW300 Wired Gaming Mouse, SATA cable, WiFi Antenna, AC Power cord, and various pamphlets (Warranty, Gaming Mouse Quick Start Guide, and Installation Guide for the Gigabyte motherboard). Quick Start Guide Poster Components The Acer Predator Orion 6000 comes with the following components: Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF CPU with 8 Performance Cores and 12 Efficiency Cores Gigabyte B860M-C MATX motherboard TeamGroup 2x 16GB DDR5-6000 Memory sticks using SK Hynix chips Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card with 16GB GDDR7 Samsung memory Lexar NQ7A1 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD Realtek 8922AE WiFi 7 I think this configuration of the Acer Predator Orion 6000 uses high quality components. Some people might prefer another WiFi 7 chipset, but I’ve never had any problems with Realtek. I am getting a link speed of 2401 Mbps with my TP-Link Deco BE5000 Mesh WiFi 7 router and it’s been rock solid. I like that it uses a lot of name brand components although it was a little surprising that some of these components (such as the Gigabyte Nvidia RTX 5080 graphics card) were non-Acer brands. There was very little software bloat on the computer which I liked. Upgradability There are 4 available memory slots of which 2 are free, a PCIe x16 slot, and another M.2 slot for expansion and upgradability. There also seems to be another M.2 slot on the underside of the motherboard. Although the accessories box contains a SATA cable, I didn’t see any SATA ports on the motherboard. The back panel of the motherboard contains a PS/2 port, 2x USB-A ports, 2x USB-A 3.2 ports (blue colored), 2x USB-A 3.2 ports (red color and one of them indicates it is used for BIOS updates), a 2.5 GB ethernet port, and 3 audio jacks (mic, line in, and line out).. Overall, I think upgradability is good enough for the majority of users but could be better. Performance Overall performance feels very zippy. Windows and applications start up quickly and operate smoothly. It’s by far the fastest and most powerful computer I have ever owned. Compared to my 4 year old computer using an Intel i7 12700F and an Nvidia RTX 3070, I got the following measurable performance boost: Handbrake encoding using the H.265 1080p software encoder preset reported about 220 fps versus 120 fps from my old computer which is about 83% improvement. Handbrake encoding using the H.265 NVENC 1080p encoder preset reported about 1850 fps versus 1300 fps from my old computer which is about a 42% improvement. I use the above software to maintain my media library for my Plex server and this performance boost is greatly appreciated. Using Topaz Video AI, I was getting about 19 fps using the Rea model to AI upscale an old episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. During this operation, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF averaged about 50C and the Nvidia RTX 5080 hovered at about 68C while drawing about 286W of power. When the operation ended, the temperatures quickly dropped down to about 40C for both the CPU and GPU. For gaming, I ran Baldur’s Gate 3 at 4K resolution using Ultra settings and was getting a rock solid 60fps. I think the fps could have gone higher but I was using a 4K monitor that only has a 60Hz refresh rate. The game looked visually stunning with vibrant colors and sharp graphics and was super responsive and smooth. With an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF and a Nvidia RTX 5080, this computer is a powerhouse and can handle a lot of games at 4K without breaking a sweat. It is also a great all purpose computer that can handle any tasks you throw at it. It would be a great software development machine, a great machine for creators and a great machine for media consumption and any productivity work. I’m especially looking forward to experimenting with running local AI models on it. During my testing, I feel that the overall thermal design of the case and the CPU cooling system was doing a great job. Most of the time, the computer is near silent and has great temperatures (both the CPU and GPU hover around 40C). When I am doing something that draws heavily on either the CPU or GPU, you do hear the fans a little as they rev up in speed but it was never annoying. And when the activity stops, the temperature quickly goes down which indicates to me that the Acer Predator Orion 6000 has an excellent thermal design system. During my time with the computer, it has been rock solid with no lock-ups or stutters. Waking up and going to sleep has been perfect. Summary I can strongly recommend the Acer Predator Orion 6000 to anyone looking for a new gaming computer. It offers fantastic performance in a beautiful case that can handle any task with ease. And there is enough upgradability for it to grow with you as your need grows. While the price is somewhat high, with today’s memory and graphics card prices, it would actually be difficult to put together a DIY system using similar components that can beat it on price. So, overall, I think this system offers good value.

First, a disclaimer. The industry is in great turmoil right now, with prices for memory, storage, and graphics cards being insanely high due to AI data center demand. Is this a bubble, or is this the new normal? Will prices crash by the time that you read this? I don’t know. I can only write my impressions with the data that I have in front of me right now. I will break this review down into two sections: quality, and comments on value. ------------ This is just a standard computer with few custom parts, and that is a great thing! This means that any part that fails can be easily replaced. The case itself is a chunky boy, and looks like it could hold a standard ATX size mobo. It has a basement for the power supply (850 watts, but I didn’t take it apart to determine the manufacturer). The side panels are held on by magnets, so they are easy to remove. The left panel is mirrored glass and looks very nice, allowing you to see the RGB underneath. The right panel is simply steel, and covers the bottom of the motherboard. Inside all fans are, of course, RGB, as well as some accent lights around the power supply basement. If you are into RGB, everything looks sharp. The motherboard is a standard micro-ATX size, and uses standard power supply connectors, making swaps or transplants easy. On top of the CPU is an “all-in-one” close loop water cooler, and of course the top of the water block has a glowing RGB “Asus Predator” logo. On the back of the motherboard, the cable routing was rather neat and tidy, and I have no complaints. There are three 120 mm fans in the front behind a mesh panel. Actually, the fans are the one thing non-standard in this computer. The front has one “three fan” unit surrounded by RGB lights. If one fan dies, you have to throw the entire unit out and replace it with three separate fans. This should not be a problem as all fan mounting on the case looks to be standard. The same story for the two fans on top pushing through the water radiator block. I am not the type of person who cares about RGB. When I am using a computer, I am looking at the monitor, and don’t care how the rest of the CPU looks. Fortunately, the performance of this computer is quite good. The CPU is an Intel Core 7 Ultra 7 265KF. This is a 2024-vintage CPU, but it still holds up OK for a budget CPU. It has 20 cores (8 performance, 12 efficiency). For gaming, a Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t much more and would have gamed a bit better, but the Intel is a better “general purpose” CPU and is a better choice for content creators and general usage, as it has a lot more cores than the Ryzen. It is a decent choice for the price. It is paired with a Gigabyte B860M C motherboard that, as far as I can tell, is only customized by the boot logo. All BIOS options appear unlocked, so you can overclock if you want to. It is paired with TWO sticks of 16GB TeamGroup RAM capable of running at 6000 MT/s in dual-channel mode. Of course, it has to be RGB. Also on the motherboard is a Lexar 1TB m.2 SSD that is running at gen 4 speeds. I would have liked it to be better and/or faster, but given the current prices, this choice is understandable. There are two SSD slots on the mobo, one capable of gen 5 speeds, and the other of gen 4. Finally, we get to the GPU. They went for a high-end Gigabyte RTX 5080, and it is a dream to use. The graphics performance is quite impressive, even in ray-tracing. It has 16GB of VRAM, which is quite a lot these days given the state of the industry. This card can even run local LLMs quite well, so you should be able to connect your IDE to Ollama or LM Studio for some free AI code help. I tested the thermal performance by pushing the CPU and GPU hard using FurMark and Prime95. The CPU maxed out at 86 C while the GPU was running at 87 C, while the fans never ramped up enough to be noticeable, so the thermal performance is more than acceptable. The package also included a mouse and a keyboard, both of which are usable, but nothing special. The keyboard was rather mushy, but otherwise OK for a “freebie.” If you had nothing else, it is functional. It included RGB lighting, with a number of patterns. Keyboard lights are great for typing in the dark, but the keycaps were solid black plastic with the symbols painted on, so the lights are good for showing the outline of the keys, but won’t help you know which key does what. This is an unfortunate waste of potential, but anybody spending this much on a computer will certainly provide their own keyboard. Similarly, the mouse is function, and even includes a DPI button and some RGB, but it is nothing special. ------------ I only encountered two issues with this computer. The first is that the RAM was set to 4800 MT/s out of the box, with XMT disabled. One BIOS switch got it up to 6000. But it came with a default of 4800, so that is what I benchmarked at. It is easy to enable XMP, but you have to know to do it, and many computer buyers might not be aware. The other issue is that it shipped with McAfee antivirus built-in. I consider this to be bloatware, and offers no real advantage to the one built into Windows. Once again, it is easily removed, but I benchmarked with it on. ------------ Value Analysis. At the time of writing this, you could build a comparable computer for approximately $400 less. But this price does not include a Windows license, mouse, or keyboard. Plus, having only one point of contact for a warranty problem is a bonus. As far as assembling your own, some people love it and some people hate it. But if you are buying a prebuilt PC, this one is very good, and I can recommend it. Remove McAfee, turn on XMP and you will be happy.

I’ve always been a pretty simple electronics user: I play games on video game systems and I do research and productivity on a PC. Once or twice I’ve strayed into graphics cards and PC upgrades for ease of life situations but I’m a basic user. That may change after spending a week with Acer’s Predator Orion gaming PC! The first thing I noticed was the box for this was MASSIVE! Getting the computer downstairs to my office was a feat in itself, I kept asking what could possibly be packing this thing to need this much box? Then I opened it up and took it out realizing I’d need to do some cleaning and rearranging on my desk to test this monster PC out: it's almost two feet in every dimension and Best Buy lists it at 35lbs. After making the proper space with gaps for airflow on the side and back I followed the setup procedure and powered it on. Before I knew how functional it was I already could see it was beautiful. The front of the PC is a mesh with three huge fans decked out in RGB lighting, there’s another in the rear, and two mounted on the top of the case…all of them combined are quieter than a whisper…like SILENT! The right side is where you get the boring black panel with Serial Number sticker toward the back and ventilation along the front third while the left side is a mirror panel which seems opaque when off but offers a view inside when the RGB lighting comes on. All six fans, the RAM, the liquid cooler, along the power supply, and even a fancy Predator logo on the front of the case all have the same RGB lighting…PC culture’s answer to the gold chains and grillz of music culture! What exactly is the power behind all the drip? The Intel Core Ultra 7 runs at 3.9GHz out of the box, 32 gigs of RAM, a 1tb NVMe SSD drive, 850 watt power supply, and the big draw is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. It also comes with a basic mouse and keyboard, both wired, and has space for tons of upgrades and peripherals: 4 USB-C, 5 USB-A, an HDMI and 3 DisplayPort, 2 extra RAM slots, 2 extra m.2 slots, and it says it has 2.5” and 3.5” expansion bays (two each). I put it through the paces running 3D Modeling software and rendering some basic scenes, not exactly a benchmark but it gave me no trouble and the fans never stopped being silent. As I said I don’t have a lot of PC games but I ran Elden Ring and Cyberpunk both at maximum settings with all the ray tracing and bells/whistles I could find turned on and it never missed a beat or skipped a frame! This is probably going to be how I play from now on, the only game I found that it wasn’t able to play on maximum was Escape from Tarkov which was due to having 32 gigs of RAM when it recommends 64 gigs of RAM, a ridiculous ask in my opinion. So yeah, this is a HUGE recommendation from me if you have any desire to play games or work on high demand creative programs. If you’re a spreadsheet warrior or dream of being an author this is far and away beyond your needs…but why not have a computer that’ll do anything you want just in case! My criticism is just the size of the case, it was nearly too big and heavy for the setup I have in my office but I worry about college dorm rooms and apartments which may not be so lucky. I’m not as knowledgeable with PC gaming as others so I could be way off base and the RTX 5080 isn’t as amazing as I think it is but I always check Can I Run It before buying a game, it helped in the days when I was just scraping by graphically before my console arrived. From what I’m seeing this will handle anything you want to play out of the box without tweaking or overclocking anything, which was always a barrier of entry for me, if it was for you and you have the bandwidth in your bank account you can’t go wrong with a Predator PC.

The Predator Orion 6000 is a beast when it comes to AAA games. It has all the specs and none of the bloat. More on this later. This high-end gaming rig is equipped with the latest Intel Ultra 7 265K processor with 20 cores, 32gb DDR5, 1tb of M.2 PCIe Storage and most importantly…the GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. This beast of a machine can run the latest Black Ops 7 on High/Ultra settings at over 150fps on my 32:9 ratio 49” monitor. If I down scaled the monitor to 21:9, the FPS jumps to over 180. If I turn on AI upscaling DLSS 2x, I can easily get over 160fps at full 32:9 ratio. 3x and even 4x AI upscaling can push near 240fps but these are just AI generated frames in-between that has no relations to your mouse and keyboard actions. Either way, 2x allows me buttery smooth frame rates, especially in fast action, twitch reaction games like Black ops 7. What’s interesting is the Orion 6000 doesn’t come preloaded with standard Predator apps. Apps like Predator Sense is what Orion 7000 or even 5000 series use to allow for overclocking, customizing the RGBs, etc. I chatted with Acer and this particular gaming PC doesn’t support the Predator apps. I would have liked a native app to show PC, GPU, HDD temps but I guess a 3rd party app will have to suffice. It’s not a big deal for me since I don’t like to overclock as the current configuration is near God levels already. The Predator tower IMO is one of the best-looking towers out there. It comes with liquid cooled processor and the radiator dumps the hot air at the top. Plenty of RGB fans to keep things cool within the case to prevent thermal throttling. To show off the RGB lights and clean cable management, the left side of the case is tempered mirrored glass. Since there isn’t an app to control the different lights, there is a button on top of the tower to cycle through colors and patterns. At the end of the day, this Predator Orion 6000 is all specs and no bloat. No unnecessary Acer apps to get you gaming at insane levels of detail and frames per second. Why Predator? Clean looking gaming PC with all the right hardware. Do yourself a favor and ditch the included keyboard and mouse for proper 8k polling peripherals.

The Predator Orion is a pretty great value for what you're getting. With all the component shortages as of late, it would be difficult to even build a comparable PC at this price. That's not to mention the added benefit of clean wiring, lighting, and a manufacturer warranty. The Predator is a large, sleek looking case, with controllable lighting (more on that in a bit). I really want to commend Acer for making this case absolutely easy to get into. Both sides are held on with a sort of magnetic/snap. It's very easy to get into, and roomy. All the cabling is well-organized and looks sleek in the tower. The glass covered side is both elegant and cool looking. I also have to mention how quiet the tower is too. Even under heavy loads. No doubt, thanks to the 6 fans and liquid cooling for the CPU. -- Setup As with most PC setups these days, there wasn't much to mention here. Downloading Windows updates, and getting everything set up was the usual process. One thing I would mention though, while the desktop was very well packaged for shipping, the angled covering for the power supply was loose when I received it. I noticed it was loose as I was removing the packaging stickers and Styrofoam. This is where I appreciate how easily it is to work inside the case. The power supply cover was held in place by a screw and was supposed to tuck into slotted holes in the case. But since it was loose, I was able to remove the other side of the case, remove the screw (which had a thumb-grip), put the case piece back in place, all without any tools. I really like how easy it is to work within this case. Aside from that minor issue, everything else went smoothly. -- Performance This is, no doubt why you are reading the review. And, I can say that the Predator performs excellently. The i7 and RTX 5080 absolutely perform well in this setup. Comparing the performance to my gaming laptop (i9 and RTX 5080), the added power and thermals really allow these to shine. I've tested several games during my time with the Predator so far. Trying everything from the recently released Halo Campaign Evolved, to Forza Horizon 6. And, of course, the game that can bring most gaming rigs to their knees, Cyberpunk 2077. For Halo, I was able to use its "Ultra" preset, and I played through the entire campaign without any issues. I have included some benchmark results in this review to show how the Predator performs. The only game that can make it flinch is Cyberpunk with path tracing. Even then, it's only if you try to run without using DLSS. Leveraging DLSS (not frame generation), I was able to get well above 60 FPS while using path tracing. Which is very impressive. Needless to say, this should handle any modern gaming with ease. It also does all of this while running extremely quietly. I think the only real hurdle with this desktop would be the storage space. Even though 1tb is a lot of space, I will likely be adding a secondary drive. Since games are so large these days. -- Hardware As I have mentioned, the case is well-designed, and very sleek looking. With 3 displayports and 1 HDMI (2.1b) port. It also has many USB ports. Which is always useful. There's a total of 6 USB ports on the back. From 480 mbps to 10 gbps. Then two USB ports on the top, and one USB C port. There's also the ethernet port and a PS/2 port (which I feel like could be dropped at this point in favor of another USB). It also supports WiFi 7 with MLO. And it includes a wired keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse are pretty decent. Offering lighting support and they both feel pretty good. However, you may end up replacing those. There's also a physical button on the case to cycle through (or disable) the case lighting. This works well enough, but I would have much preferred pre-loaded software to control this. I tried installing Acer's PredatorSense, but it doesn't seem this PC is compatible with that software at this time. I was able to use SignalRGB to control the lights, but I would like to be able to control these with Acer's software, as I'm sure the setup wouldn't have taken me as long. Overall, this is an excellent gaming PC. Near the best of what you can get, and all at a reasonable value, considering the current state of the industry. You'll easily play any modern game with this machine. Pros: Excellent performance, sleek design, easy to work on (toolless), nice lighting options (fans, light strips, case logos, and RAM), quiet Cons: No built-in light control software at this time, the case is rather large (but this is to be expected with its cooling and ease of maintenance)