Acer Predator G1 crams an Nvidia Titan X into a briefcase-size PC

Andrew Williams

Say what you will about Valve's Steam Machines and Steam OS—they're not great—but at the very least they have encouraged PC makers to rethink PC design for the living room. And now, with HTC wanting to turn front rooms into VR labs with its excellent Vive VR headset, there's a small but growing demand for sensibly sized PCs that'll slot in next to a PlayStation or an Xbox. Acer's new Predator G1 gaming desktop doesn't quite manage to slim down to PlayStation 4 proportions, but it does cram Nvidia's monster Titan X graphics card into a chassis just bigger than briefcase. Compared to a typical gaming desktop, or Acer's own Predator G6, it's positively tiny. The question is: how has Acer done it?

The Tardis effect

Enlarge / The first 1,000 G1 customers will receive a free suitcase. There's no word on whether it'll be available to buy separately

Acer says the Predator G1's case was built a bit more like a games console than a regular tower PC, with a clear airflow path through the case that helps cards like the Titan X stay cool under load. However, taking off the side panel, there's nothing too mad going on. It has a metal cage around the GPU, designed to function as a heatsink and as a way to protect the card during transit, but the Predator G1 uses conventional fans rather than water-cooling or any other comparable "next-level" antics. While there's an obvious appeal for people who want a VR setup suitable for a living room environment, Acer's also pitching the G1 at those after a semi-portable system. Indeed, the first 1,000 buyers will receive a matching piece of luggage designed with the signature Predator series armoured look. No, it's still not small enough to get past Ryanair's draconian hand luggage restrictions thanks to the extra cushioning inside it to protect the PC—and I wonder how much room is actually left for clothes in the thing afterwards—but hey, if you're in the market for a small gaming PC anyway, it's a nice bonus.

A question of configs

While Acer is pitching the G1 as one of the smallest high-performance desktops around, it isn't just for gaming bores not savvy enough to make their own PC—the Titan X is the top available spec, not the only one. Acer says the G1 will start with a GTX 960 GPU, with specs heading up from there. Pricing for the low-end model is a cool €1,199/$1,399 (£940), with availability starting in June. Maxing out the components leaves you with a €2,199/$2,399 price tag.
An Acer Predator G1 with an Nvidia GTX 970 would make a terrific 1080p gaming machine for the living room, although at this point you might want to wait and see what Nvidia's Pascal or AMD's Polaris bring. Both are brand new graphics architectures that promise greater efficiency and performance, and rumour has it official announcements on both are due any day now.

The exact dimensions of the G1 are 114mm x 348mm x 418mm, so while easy to fit into smaller rooms, the G1 is no wallflower, like every other member of the Predator range. It has the usual Predator plastic armouring on its front, and more LEDs than a shopfront in December. The power button lights up, and there's an LED glow from the heat ducts on the front, but it's the front cut-out that really grabs your attention. It features multicolour LEDs that are programmable using an Acer app. Acer calls them "growl lights."

Expansion plans

When using a smaller PC case to build a rig, a key concern, other than dealing with heat and noise, is expandability. The G1 is somewhat limited here in certain respects, and those with exacting needs should really think about building their own setup.
Storage options include an SSD of up to 512GB and a 3.5-inch HDD reaching 4TB. There's then only room for one more 2.5-inch drive. The G1 doesn't have the right casing for an optical drive either, even if you'd consider trading the full-size hard drive for one. The G1 also has four DIMM slots, and can be configured with up to 64GB of 2133MHz DDR4 RAM. As you'd expect (sorry AMD), the G1 uses Intel's Skylake CPUs, starting at i5 and moving up to i7.
Compared to the average desktop PC, the G1's backside looks quite plain. It's not loaded with the many expansion slots of a bigger system, but it otherwise has all the connections you're likely to need. On the rear are four full-size USB 3.1 ports, a full-size Ethernet socket, a set of 3.5mm audio inputs and outputs, and whatever ports your chosen graphics card provides. Around the front is where the Acer Predator G1 marks itself out as a next-gen machine, with a USB Type-C socket that supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 for bandwidth of 10Gbps. This sits by another full-size USB 3.1 socket and an SD card slot.

A sound card is one of the few components you could theoretically upgrade over USB, but the motherboard has a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi chip built-in, which will do the job for 7.1 audio. Acer seems to think you're more likely to use a headset than a great big surround system with the Predator G1, though. There's a headphone stand built right into the casing, as with the G6. It's a piece of red plastic that pops in and out of the side with a finger prod.

If you're into overclocking to get a couple of extra FPS out of your games, the G1 isn't meant for you. There are some overclocking features built into the system, but it's designed to operate within tested limits.
The petite frame makes the G1 much more sensible than the G6, but questions remain about just how well Acer has handled cooling in the smaller chassis. Only proper stress testing will determine whether Acer has made a system adept enough to avoid throttling and sounding like a vacuum cleaner, or whether it'll happily endure a 20-hour Witcher 3 session without issue. And not to mention that, if you're so inclined, you can build a smaller machine with parts that are just as capable for less cash.
Andrew Williams is a freelance technology journalist who has been writing in the field for 10 years. He covers just about all areas of consumer tech, with a particular interest in how it all works underneath the layers of glossy finish and impressive-sounding jargon. He can be found on Twitter at @wwwdotandrew.
This post originated on Ars Technica UK