Shophive.com

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor (stock-clocked at 2.50 GHz); 4GB of DDR2 (800 MHz) memory; Hard Drive 640GB, 7200-rpm The system also features a single nVidia nforce 780i graphics board to power games with separate DVD-writing and DVD-ROM optical drives.

We love the Predator s exterior design, accented with stealth-fighter-like lines in metallic-orange. But the proprietary nature of its insides complete with more plastic coverings than we ever needed to see--could make upgrading a frustrating situation. Given the lack of available 5.25-inch bay coverings on the case's front, you can't add more 5.25-inch devices to that section of the chassis. However, the four hot-swappable hard drive bays at the lower front of the machine (behind a lit-up, hinged door), redeems that shortcoming a bit.

Still inside the case, why is Acer liquid-cooling its quad-core processor without overclocking it whatsoever? If "acoustics" is the only answer, we frown: You can have a quiet and fast rig with liquid cooling, so there's no need to ignore the potential benefits of an overclocked processor. More frustrating still is that the system's Worldbench 6 score of 122 isn't exactly chart-topping. A little factory-side CPU tweaking could have gone a long way.

All in all, the Aspire Predator delivers solid performance for its price, but a few additional tweaks and a little reconfiguring could have squeezed even more performance out of this killer-looking machine. Cut the RAM in half, overclock the CPU, boost the video card, and cut another hole in the front of the case. Then we ll talk.

Specifications

LCD

• G24, 24 Inch W, 2ms, 50,000:1, HDMI, 1920 x 1200 Gamer LCD Monitor

Operating System

• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1

Processor

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz
• 1333MHz FSB / 6 MB L2 Cache

Ram

• 4 GB (2 * 2GB) 800MHz DDR II

Hard Drive

• 2 x 640GB Hard Disk Drives

Multimedia Drive

• DVDRW + BD ROM

Motherboard

• 3 way capable NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI motherboard

Graphics Card

• 2 x G9600GT 512MB DDR3 Graphics Cards
• Liquid Cooling Thermal Solution

Mouse / Keyboard

• Logitech Gaming - G11 Keyboard and G5 Mouse

Ports

• 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

Power Supply

• 750W Power Supply

Dimensions

• 490 (L) x 430 (H) x 190 (w) mm

Related Categories

• Racing Wheels (7)
• Gaming Mousepads (25)
• Gaming Mouse (21)
• Gaming Headphones (27)
• Gaming Accessories (17)
• Gaming Keyboards (14)
• Gaming Consoles (4)
• Joysticks (9)
• Joypads (19)