Acer Predator AG7710-U7792A Performance Gaming Desktop PC

Jun 1 2009 - Acer's second version of their Predator gaming desktop offers some significant improvements but also comes with a relatively high price tag. It retains the same unique case design that people will either love or hate. Performance is very strong thanks to the Core i7 965 processor, 12GB of DDR3 memory and the Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. The big problem is that many people will probably be looking for gaming rigs that still perform quite well but with a price tag much lower than the $2800.

Jun 1 2009 - Acer's latest Predator gaming desktop system is essentially an update of the platform from the older Core 2 to the Core i7 platform. This gives the system a significant boost in overall performance but it also comes with an increase in the overall price of the platform as well.

While many companies are looking for less expensive gaming platforms, Acer has decided to use the very expensive Core i7 Extreme 965 quad core desktop processor. This gives it some incredible performance especially with the new integrated triple channel DDR3 memory controller. The use of 12GB of the PC3-8500 DDR3 memory is a bit overkill. Anything greater than 6GB doesn't tend to have much performance benefit currently unless you are using a select few applications.

Storage has change significantly from the previous Predator GT7700. Gone are the three 640GB drives replaced with a single one terabyte hard drive. This provides it with a very large amount of storage space but a bit less in the performance since it is no longer possible to build a RAID array for improved performance. The new optical drive also provides support for printing labels directly to Label Flash compatible CD and DVD media, provided you can find it.

Graphics have taken a major step up with the new Predator 7710. The old system used a previous generation GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card with 512MB of memory. This version sees the use of an ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card with 2GB of memory. This combined with the Core i7 processor means the system can easily game up to the 2560x1600 found on 30-inch LCDs. Performance is also quite good at 1920x1200 for those looking at using it with less expensive displays.

The big problem is the price. At $2800, many people will probably opt for less expensive yet still capable Core i7 920 based gaming systems.