Roughly four months after its official announcement, Acer's Predator gaming desktop is finally set to combat the likes of the HP Blackbird 002, and Alienware Area-51 ALX. This highly stylized PC sports Core 2 Quad CPUs, Nvidia GeForce 9 series graphics, a liquid cooling system and, perhaps more importantly, non-stratospheric prices.
The Predator will be offered in two configurations, with a 'low-end' $1,649 version featuring a 2.5GHz Q9300 Core 2 Quad processor, GeForce 9600GT graphics, 4GB of RAM and dual 640GB drives configurable in RAID 0, 1 or 5. The upgraded model goes for $2,199 and bumps things up to a 2.83GHz Q9550 Core 2 Quad, GeForce 9800GTX graphics, and three 640GB hard drives. Both rigs run the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium and are SLI-capable, so you can upgrade them post-purchase.
Acer is also rolling out a new G24 high-performance 24-inch LCD display to go with the system, featuring a 1,920 by 1,200-pixel native resolution, a 2ms response time, and contrast ratio of 50,000:1, for $399.99.