The Acer Predator Orion 3000 is compact, robust and reasonably quick, but rivals are faster and offer more features for similar prices
The Acer Predator Orion 3000 is a new big-brand gaming desktop, and it’s always easy to look at these machines cynically – too often, machines from big companies are expensive and underpowered when compared to rivals from local experts. The Predator – PO3-620 in this case for the model name – arrives with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 inside and an Intel 10th-gen CPU for UK buyers, and on this side of the Atlantic, it costs £1,299. If you’re buying in the US, the machine costs $1,299 and upgrades to an RTX 2060 Super graphics card. The Acer Predator Orion 3000 has a decent external design. The front panel has a good-looking slate of tempered glass with an RGB LED fan, two streaks of matching light and vertical slabs of mesh. It looks just as good as the systems from boutique builders. The triangular power button has RGB LEDs too, and a replacement side panel with tempered glass is included in the box. The impressive aesthetic is bolstered by good build quality – the side panels, front panels and roof are strong. There’s a handle on top, and the rig is just 392mm tall and 175mm wide. That’s small by gaming desktop standards and it means that this PC is easy to carry to LAN parties and friends’ houses. The front of the case has single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C ports, and two audio jacks, but they’re hidden behind a flimsy door. There’s a headphone holder, too, but this is also far too weak. There’s not much to shout about on the inside, either. As usual with big-brand gaming PCs, nothing has been done here to aid aesthetics – the Orion 3000 serves up bare metal and untidy cabling. There’s a single drive bay and two spare memory slots, but that’s it in terms of upgrades. The Predator Orion 3000 has a couple of key rivals. The Asus ROG Strix G15DH is another big-brand option, and it’s worse than the Acer – larger, heavier, and less attractive. The PC Specialist Magma R2 is bigger than both but far better, with neater building, and many more upgrade paths. Need to pair this PC with some comfortable furniture? Check out our best gaming chair chart. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 sits inside the Acer Predator Orion 3000’s UK model – the one I’ve tested. It’s a standard version of the GPU, which means it’s got 1,920 stream processors and 6GB of memory alongside Ray Tracing ability. In the US, this machine costs $1,399 and uses the RTX 2060 Super, which upgrades with 256 more stream processors and two extra gigabytes of memory. Intel’s Core i7-10700 is the entry-level Core i7 part from the Comet Lake range, but it’s still got eight Hyper-Threaded cores alongside base and Turbo speeds of 2.
