2023-04-24 11:43:14
The Predator Orion 7000 is Acer’s response to the expectations of the desktop gaming market: components offering top-flight performance, combined with a design that embraces its passion for RGB. What justifies its price?
In addition to products sold under its own name, Acer also owns through its brand Predator several ranges of computers exclusively oriented towards the market gaming : Helios and Triton on the laptop side, but especially Orion on the desktop. Three versions of this war machine are offered by the manufacturer, from the entry-level Orion 3000 to theOrion 7000 at the top of the range, with the maximum of integrated refinements. It is therefore necessarily this version which recently passed on our test bench.
To read > Buying guide for the best gaming PCs, which gaming computer to buy?
Several versions coexist in the Acer catalog, with differences in the processor (Core i7-12700K or i9-12900K) of the graphics card (GeForce RTX 3080 10G or RTX 3090 24G) or the amount of memory (32 GB or 64GB DDR5). We bet that the manufacturer will soon update its configurations to offer the latest RTX 40 Series, but in the meantime our loan machine is equipped with a Core i9-12900Kof a RTX 3080 and of 64 GB of RAM. The rest of the features are common to all versions, namely un SSD de 1 Toand liquid cooling system (for the CPU) or even a box to the glory of RGB, all running under Windows 11 Home.
The Predator Orion 7000 in detail
The imposing size of the cardboard already let suppose that the Orion 7000 does not laugh side dimensions of the case, and the observation is confirmed once on the test bench with measurements of 485 x 220 x 505 mm : impossible to pass by when it is placed on the desk. And because it is well known that a “real gamer” appreciates being able to observe all the components of his configuration in operation, the Orion 7000 is of course equipped with a glazed side panel.
The front is also made of tempered glass, revealing the two suction mounted fans. The illuminated Predator logo harmoniously completes the design of this faceplate. Another fan is placed at the back, extracting the hot air outside. The CPU benefits from a liquid cooling system, with an RGB waterblock pump and a (too) small radiator installed on the top with its fan.
The full configuration of the Orion 7000 review unit is as follows:
- Processeur Intel Core i9-12900K (Alder Lake-S, 8 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores)
- ECS motherboard Z69H6-AM
- 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) of DDR5-4800 memory (Samsung), configured as DDR5-4000 (CL32)
- GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card (first original Sapphire)
- SSD 1 To SAMSUNG PM9A1 (PCIe 4.0, NVMe 1.3) au format M.2
- Intel AX211 Controller (WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5)
The GeForce is mounted vertically thanks to a riser PCI-Express 16x flexible which allows to deport the PCIe 16x port from the motherboard. Part of the fresh air sucked in is directed directly onto the graphics card, in order to improve its cooling. THE management cable is overall quite successfulaside from some quirks (like those two WiFi/Bluetooth antenna wires that run through a good chunk of the motherboard).
Speaking of quirks: if it has the merit of visually highlighting the graphics card, the vertical mounting of the GeForce also prevents the addition of any other PCIe expansion card. It should also be noted that the Z690 chipset on the motherboard does not have any heatsink (while the location and fixings are provided on the PCB), or that the second ATX12V connector (ATX12V_2) on the motherboard is not branch.
Finally, it is impossible to miss a slight “detail”: the water-cooling pump, the motherboard and each case fan benefit from a Customizable RGB lighting in a software way (we will come back to this). Too bad, however, that the memory modules do not benefit from the same treatment: their simply bare PCB does not even benefit from a simple radiator, too bad for a gaming-oriented machine.
A somewhat light connection
The connection available at the rear is rather sparsely provided, but the essential is indeed present. There are therefore five USB Type-A ports (including 2 USB 2.0 and 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2), a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, the connector Ethernet 2,5 Gbps (Killer E3100G) and audio inputs/outputs (RealTek ALC897). And… that’s all: the video outputs are of course managed by the GeForce and the WiFi/Bluetooth antennas are directly integrated to the box.
At the front, there are three additional USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports as well as a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. Headset and microphone connectors and the essential Power button complete the package.
The case of the Orion 7000 finally has a integrated dock can accommodate a 2.5-inch SSD/HDD. The USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C interface used allows hot (un)plugging of the storage device.
Predator Sense, the software part
What would a “gaming” computer be without its essential monitoring and customization software suite? Predator Sense plays this role here, by allowing you to adjust the operation of the fans (Automatic, Game or Custom) by zone, to overclock the CPU with a simple click thanks to three modes (Normal, + Fast and Turbo) or even monitor the temperature and voltage of the various components.
It is also via the Predator Sense software suite that you can access the RGB settings. The customization is quite interesting, between the different lighting profiles that can be chosen or created, the colors available or the possibility of managing RGB lighting globally or by zone.
Predator Orion 7000: what performance?
Let’s get down to business and find out what the Orion 7000 really has in store. In particular: do the different settings for overclocking and cooling contribute anything in practice?
Performances CPU : Cinebench
Cinebench – particularly the more recent R23 version – sums up the differences in CPU performance quite well, both single-threaded and multi-threaded. The MT score of Cinebench R23 thus increases by almost 14% in +Fast mode, and by a little more than 20% in Turbo mode compared to Normal operating mode. Switching the ventilation to Game mode, which is more aggressive but also noisier, allows you to earn a few hundred more points.
The gain provided by the different performance modes is almost nil below 8 simultaneous threads, and is only clearly visible above 16 threads. In other words, this feature will only be really useful with massively multi-threaded tasks or games.
Performance gaming : 3DMark
Predator Sense does not allow you to overclock the graphics card yourself (although it is of course still possible to do so via other dedicated software). The performance modes offered only act on the CPU and ultimately have little impact on the 3DMark scores. Only the more aggressive ventilation in “Games” mode seems to offer a few additional points (the various measurements are at the limit of the margin of error), at the cost of higher noise pollution.
This is also one of the grievances that can be formulated once morest this Orion 7000: if it is silent – at rest and under load – in Normal mode with automatic ventilation (38.2 dB (A) under load), the fans start to become audible (41.8 dB(A) under load) from +Fast mode, and really noisy in Turbo mode (58.1 dB(A) under load). Finally, the “Games” setting of the ventilation system will in all cases be noisy in chargewith maximum noise pollution measured at 58.3 dB(A).
Office performance: PCMark 10
PCMark 10 is mainly intended to measure the office performance of a configuration, so it is normal that the weight of the processor in the tests and scores is more important, and therefore that the differences between the operating modes are more visible than with 3DMark , more GPU-oriented. In any case, we are talking regarding an increase of a few percent: +4% in +Fast mode, +5% in Turbo mode. Pushing the ventilation in “Games” mode does nothing at all in this test, and that’s good for our ears.
7/10
Acer Predator Orion 7000 (i9-12900K, RTX 3080 10G, 35Go DDR5)
The performance and noise of a fighter jet
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3,478.30€
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3,478.40€
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3,492.12€
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3,492.13€
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3,498.87€
WE love
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Performances
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The design of the case
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Keyboard and mouse provided
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Customization on the RGB side
We don’t like
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Scalability compromised by PCIe riser
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Noise pollution in game mode
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The perfectible management cable
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The connection a little light
Verdict :
There is good and bad in this Predator Orion 7000. If it is undeniable that it comes out with honors in terms of performance, well helped by high-end components, and that its look sticks well with the target market, the devil is in the details (connectors that might have been a little more extensive, CPU water cooling radiator/fan a bit small, absence of radiator on the motherboard chipset, no RGB on the bars of RAM…). Our main complaint, however, concerns noise pollution: that the fans are noisy as soon as you leave the “normal” settings! Delivered with a mouse and a keyboard in the colors of the brand, the Orion 7000 is still a good gaming machine; without its small flaws, its price would have been fully justified.
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