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Acer held a press event this week to show off its latest hardware, and the Predator Orion X small form factor (SFF) gaming PC certainly caught our attention. Despite being a 15.4L SFF chassis, it can handle the most potent hardware in a svelte Mini-ITX package. That includes both an RTX 4090 GPU and an Intel Core i9-1300KS CPU, which clocks up to 6GHz. What’s even more surprising is both of these components are liquid-cooled, though the GPU cooler is a bit of a hybrid design. You can also opt for less expensive parts; this is the top-of-the-line config.
Although a liquid-cooled CPU isn’t unheard of in an SFF chassis, you’d typically expect an i5 or i7 because the i9 SKUs run so hot. For the Predator Orion X, Acer has chosen the hottest i9 of all with the KS version of the 13900K CPU. In addition, it’s also offering a triple-slot RTX 4090, another ambitious choice given the space constraints involved. Though a traditional 240MM AIO cools the CPU, the three-slot GPU is cooled by a novel, hybrid air-and-liquid design. The cooler uses a water block nestled inside a radiator on top of the GPU die. Two fans sit on top of it, and there’s no visible cabling.
The GPU features a hybrid liquid-and-air cooling design.
Credit: Acer
The inside of the chassis is divided into three zones, labeled prominently as if the PC is a spaceship with separate areas. Zone 1 contains the CPU, memory, and storage on the right side of the chassis. Zone 2 is where the vertically mounted GPU is located, on the left side of the chassis. Zone 3 is in the front of the chassis and focuses on cooling the internal components.
This exploded view gives you a better idea of how the parts all fit together. As with any ITX machine, it’s a tight squeeze.
Credit: Acer
Other specs on offer include up to 2TB of M.2 NVME storage and 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory. You can expand its storage via two 2.5″ drive bays, and there’s also a hot-swappable M.2 bay as well, which is something we’ve never seen before. There’s even a “robotic” arm on top of the chassis that swings out, allowing you to rest your headset on top of it, which is kind of cool.
If your budget is a bit more modest, there are options for less powerful builds. For the GPU, you can opt for an RTX 4070 Ti or an RTX 4080. On the CPU front, you can also get the 13900K, KF, and 13700K/KF CPUs, according to Notebookcheck.net. It’s a bit strange there are not any midrange parts on offer, like the Core i5-13600K or the just-launched RTX 4070. Nor are there any AMD parts available, either for the CPU or GPU.
If you’re interested, the Predator Orion X goes on sale in September and starts at $2,742.
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