Pre-built Acer desktop that doesn't suck? - Predator G1 Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,589 words · ~7 min read
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I think Acer has finally figured it out.
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For the first time ever, as far as I know, Acer has done a pre-built gaming
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rig that ships with NVIDIA's topofthe-line graphics card installed.
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And the Predator G1 borrows a lot more
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from enthusiasts and boutique system builders than just the idea of packing a
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proper GPU inside. Let's take a closer
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look.
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Intel's Skull Canyon Nook features a sixth generation Core i7 processor and
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Thunderbolt 3. You can learn more at the link in the video description.
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Inside the box, you'll get the following: a Predator G1 gaming PC, some
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extra screws and cables, a surprisingly competent set of peripherals. The
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mouse's clicks are pleasantly tactile and it includes extra buttons for back
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forward and toggling between three preset DPI settings. And the keyboard is
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dual color LED back lit with a toggable gaming mode and Kaiwa mechanical key
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switches mounted to what seems to be a steel back plate. Then if you get the
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special edition launch bundle, there's also a copy of The Division and this is
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a new one, an Acer Predator themed luggage with cutouts to carry your
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gaming rig for when you travel. Leaving last but not least, two standard PC
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power cables and two laptop power bricks in a neat looking holder. That Wait a
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minute. What? Two power bricks? Yes, my
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friends. The idea that I pitched to Cooler Master's product manager almost
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three years ago of moving the power supply or two as it were outside an
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otherwise standard desktop chassis for improvements to both thermals and size
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cuz I'm a genius has officially come to
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life courtesy of Acer of all people.
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Well, whatever. Let's see if it worked. But first, I need to know if they impose
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limits on the hardware that can be used in the Predator G1. So, let's pop her
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open. which reveals a very interesting
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layout. The centerpiece is a Core i76700
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nonK quadcore hyperthreaded CPU, so no
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overclocking. There's 32 gigs of DDR4 RAM and a cleverly positioned blower
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case fan that should draw air across the front where a 512 gig M.2 to SATA SSD, a
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slim DVD writer and a two TBTE hard drive reside across the memory sticks
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and CPU area. And finally, over the motherboard heat sinks that cool both
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the CPU power delivery modules and the
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DC toDC converters that take 19vt
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external power and turn it into the 12, 5, and 3.3 volt juice needed by your
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computer guts. Not something that you often see on a pre-built motherboard.
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Mind you, there's not much about this motherboard that's normal. Contrary to
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the statement made by this unfortunate Acer spokesperson who's totally getting
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called out right now. Like a mini ITX
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board, it has only a single PCIe 3.06x
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expansion slot, but it's closer in total
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size to an MATX board. So, what is the
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extra space being used for? A number of things. LED headers for the threezone
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LED illumination that can be configurated regrettably not to all
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operate on the same cycle for some reason using Acer's Predator Sense
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software. One of only a couple bloy
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pre-installed applications by the way. There's more room for memory sticks. So,
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thanks to its four DIM slots, the Predator G1 can be upgraded to 64 gigs
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of RAM. There's power distribution for the converted input power. The inclusion
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of an extra PCIe power port and cable is a really nice touch, by the way, for
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someone who might want to upgrade the graphics card in the future. And the
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very open CPU socket area, which should help the performance of the fairly OEM
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looking cooling solution that Acer has pre-installed. We'll talk about how well
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this works later. For now, there are a couple more items to highlight in here.
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Acer has included an extra 2 and 1/2 in drive cage with pre-run cables and
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screws in case you want to add another 2 and 1/2 in SSD or hard drive, which is
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much appreciated. And I want to take a closer look at the way the GTX 1080
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graphics card is installed. So, it's covered with a Predator branded shroud,
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but the unmistakable green glow visible from the bottom tells us two things.
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It's a Founders Edition, and it's installed upside down. So Acer used a
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hard PCB link to extend the PCI Express 16 neck slot, meaning that you can't
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admire your graphics card with the side panel off, but shorter links are less
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prone to signal degradation. And in theory, the way that they're pulling
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fresh air in from the other side panel, keeping it contained then within its own
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cooling zone and exhausting it out the back should deliver really solid thermal
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results, which we'll get to. But first, a look at the outside. So, the top and
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front of the Predator G1 features Acer's aggressive tank tread styling that I
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personally think works better here than it did on the G6 due to the machine
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smaller size. There's a power button flanked by two headset holders for some
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reason, the optical drive we saw on the inside, and front IO, so an SD card
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reader, a USB 310 GB type-C port, a USB
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3 5GB typeA port, and a couple of audio
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jacks. Around the back, the rest of the IO is actually pretty lackluster. The
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3DPs, HDMI, and DVI provided by the
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graphics card are accompanied only by 7.1 audio jacks with no digital output,
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four USB3 5GB ports, and the DC input
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jacks that may be at least partially responsible for the limited number of
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USB ports on this machine. Remember that external USB devices can draw up to 7
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1/2 watts each through the USB charging specification. And while the dual power
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supplies confused the bananas out of my power meter, some napkin math tells us
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that we're not that far off of their rated output. So then, let's answer the
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big question. Was this approach worthwhile when Silverstone just
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released a power supply that we featured in our most compact gaming PC V2 over
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there that's cheaper, smaller, delivers
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50% more power, and with some creativity
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should be possible to integrate into a similar size chassis, especially if
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you're willing to give up the optical drive. Well, actually, it's looking
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pretty good for the G1 while being no
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louder than the graphics card would be on its own. in another enclosure or even
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on an open air test bench, the Predator G1 managed to turn in better thermal
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performance than its bigger brother in spite of its much smaller size. Not to
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mention that it's summer now versus March when we were checking out the G6.
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And it did all this while being rock solid stable throughout my testing,
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avoiding any and all thermal throttling on the CPU and letting the GTX 1080
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boost its clocks, albeit not fully, even with a synthetic stress test running on
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the CPU and the RAM concurrently.
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That means that whether we're talking about light workstation use, or gaming
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on a conventional screen, a G-Sync monitor, or in VR, the Predator G1 will
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perform. All of which leads us then to a pretty interesting conclusion. Acer has
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learned a lot over the last few years, going from poorly balanced gaming PCs
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with lackluster graphics cards and overpowered CPUs with too much RAM to
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correctly configured gaming PCs that unfortunately suffered from OEM grade
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thermal management. all the way to this compact, no compromises mini gaming rig
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that stood up to everything I could throw at it as long as I didn't want to
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overclock or run the drives in RAID or
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anything like that. Okay, custom still has some advantages. They still have
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some things to learn about making a product really feel premium. The inside
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should be black to go with the black PCB motherboard, which is a step forward in
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itself, by the way. The cable should be sleeved and NVMe M.2 2 SSD should have
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been included for a flagship product. And I'd like to see the next Predator
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aesthetic reimagining move to more premium materials.
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But with that said, the main complaints
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about pre-builts from the 2000s, crappy motherboards and power supplies, limited
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to no upgradability, and high prices are
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quickly fading away. Which isn't to say that the Predator G1 is cheap. Okay, the
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price is still high, but you're getting a lot of firepower in a surprisingly
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compact little battle station if you're willing to pay for it. So, thanks for
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watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like
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button, or even check out the link to where to buy the Predator G1 in the
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video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store, which
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has cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should definitely join. Now that you're done
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doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So, click that little button in the top right
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corner to check out our latest video over on Channel Super Fun.