Up Close: The Compact, Upgradable Acer Predator Orion X

Aside from laptops, there were a bunch of complete Predator desktops on display at Acer‘s Computex booth. But what really caught our attention was the Predator Orion X desktop.

The Orion has been Predator’s standard of all-in-one desktops, but the problem is most of them are quite big and tall. It’s no problem if you have a lot of space in your house, but that’s not the case for everyone. That’s also the reason why mini-ITX cases are becoming more popular.

Now, Acer has hopped on the compact PC trend with the highly modular Orion X. For reference, it is the smallest desktop at the show. To give you an idea of just how capable it is, the Orion X can be fitted with a massive NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU despite its size.

On the outside, the Orion X still looks pretty cool featuring loads of RGB all around. But what makes it unique is that it comes pre-built, but is still easy to upgrade if you want to do so in the future. There are even three Zone Indicators, hinting at the three main areas you can work on.

Zone 1 is where you will find the CPU, PSU, RAM, and M.2 storage, while in Zone 2 you’ll find the GPU together with two SATA storage slots. To connect the GPU on the other side, Acer uses a PCIe riser. Meanwhile, in Zone 3 you’ll find the cooling components. Also in the front are two hot-swappable M.2 SSD slots, making it easy to connect or disconnect additional storage space. There are even a bunch of ports available in front,

Both the side and top covers are easily removable, making it easy to access the desktop. As with every other Orion desktop, the Orion X is decked out with RGB and various lighting components, giving it a very gamer vibe.

All-in-all, what you get with the Predator Orion X is a very compact but powerful desktop that can be upgraded even further once newer parts are available.

Given the space, or lack thereof, we’re quite concerned about the cooling of the Orion X. Despite having an AIO, we wonder how the temperatures are once you’re gaming with the Orion X. But for that we’ll have to wait for a unit to do a full review.

There’s no word yet whether Acer will offer the Predator Orion X in the Philippines. But assuming they do, would you consider it over building your own PC? Given the parts included, don’t expect this to be cheap.