Review: Acer Aspire G7700 Predator Trooper desktop computer

Some people like PCs that are small and sit unobtrusively on a desk. Some prefer PCs in expensive-looking brushed-metal cases smattered with glowing neon lights.

Acer doesn't strike us as a company likely to launch a range of computers without doing its homework, so based on the existence of the Predator Trooper we suppose there must also be those who want a computer that looks like the result of a passionate love affair between an alien spaceship and a JCB.

It's a design you'll either adore or revile, but it certainly stands out from the crowd.

Violent orange plastics aside, the Trooper has an interesting design. The hinged front panel sits neatly on top of the case when you need to access the front, then slides neatly and softly down when given a push in the right direction.

A panel on the top gives easy access to four USB sockets and the microphone and headphone jacks; this looks as if it should fold down into the case but is in fact fixed in place. The back panel holds four more USB ports, two eSata ports, Firewire, audio and a button to clear the Cmos memory. This is handy given that opening the case requires the side and front panels to be removed.

Under the front panel is a multiformat memory card reader and two optical drives: one Blu-ray disc reader and one multiformat DVD writer. Optical drives are located behind unusual doors that hinge apart in an almost insectoid fashion. There's a hidden door at the bottom of the case front; pulling this to one side gives easy access to four hot-swappable Sata hard disk bays. Two Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB disks are fitted as standard, with two empty bays for extra storage.

Acer has a monitor to match its Predator PC range - the 24in G24 - but it's not included in the price. At least the peripherals that are included fit the part, such as Logitech's wired G11 keyboard and G5 gaming mouse. The keyboard includes plenty of programmable macro buttons, while the mouse can be switched between three sensitivity levels.

Inside the case, Acer has fitted an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 processor running at 2.66GHz, 4GB of DDR2 memory and two 512MB Geforce 9800GTX graphics cards linked using Scalable Link Interface (SLI). Processor cooling is particularly impressive: Acer has used a sealed water-cooling system that channels heat away to the back of the case where it's dissipated by a large fan. As a result of this, and the thick case panels, the Trooper is surprisingly quiet for such a powerful PC. However, the memory is DDR2 running at 800MHz rather than the 1,066MHz speed that the system could handle.

With a quad-core processor and SLI graphics, the Trooper is, unsurprisingly, a powerful computer. It produced 5,668 points in the demanding PCmark Vantage benchmark, and 14,249 in 3Dmark06. It also ran our World in Conflict game test at an average of 38fps (frames per second).

The scores are not quite as good as we'd hoped: Cyberpower's Liquid Gamer Infinity, for example, produced almost 20,000 points in 3Dmark06 and a slightly higher score in PCmark Vantage, despite costing £200 less than the Trooper.

Therein lies the problem. The Trooper is a decent high-end computer built using some excellent components and ready to take on the latest games, but the price is a little too high for its performance. Unless you're taken by the unusual orange case design, we'd recommend saving some cash and picking up something faster such as the Liquid Gamer Infinity.

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!