Our configuration of the Acer Predator Orion 9000 (starts at $2,499; $7,999 as tested) is so expensive that it shares a pricing tier with only a handful of other gaming desktops.
However, it has some serious chops to back up that price: an insane 18-core processor, dual Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, and a complement of other premium parts fit for 4K gaming and any project you can throw its way.
Since alternatives in this price range like the Falcon Northwest Talon and the Origin PC Genesis also offer blistering performance, if you have the money to spend, your choice largely comes down to whether you appreciate the Orion's aggressive-but-thoughtful design.
Big and Bold
The Orion 9000 ( at Amazon) is a behemoth of a desktop in size and aggressive in its style, as is the case with most of the Predator line.
Measuring 27.63 by 11.8 by 25.32 inches and weighing 48.75 pounds, it takes up more desk space than most people have, and will likely end up on the floor.
The rear even has wheels, with handles along the top, for toting it around.
The Origin PC Genesis ($1,832.00 at ORIGIN PC) is one of the few similarly sized desktops (25.26 by 9.75 by 24.8 inches), while the powerful Falcon Northwest Talon (17.5 by 8.2 by 19 inches) is much shorter.
The Orion 9000 is mostly plastic on the exterior—disappointing considering its price, especially compared with the Talon's metal build and automotive finish.
The front panel is outfitted with ridged plastic traced with glowing light blue LEDs.
(All of the case lighting is customizable.) In the middle of the panel is a column of metal grilles, through which you can see the internal fans, also lit in light blue by default.
The top-most grille folds down to reveal a CD drive.
There's also a retractable stand further down the chassis for hanging your audio headset of choice.
The left panel includes a clear plastic window, with a rather large Predator logo emblazoned in the center.
The window is oddly small considering how large the chassis is, with much of the panel taken up by a plastic border and a handle for interior access.
Overall, the showy design is likely to be divisive.
There's plenty of room inside the Orion 9000's case to work, and accessing the interior is fairly straightforward.
You can lift away the windowed panel after loosening two screws (this requires a screwdriver, but the screws don't come out of the door, just loosen in place) and then pulling the handle.
The interior is roomy and clean, with a shroud over the PSU.
More light-blue interior lighting matches the default glow on the exterior, giving the whole works a cool, high-tech vibe.
The cutting-edge components packed inside match the look.
This configuration includes an 18-core Intel Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition CPU, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, 128GB of memory (the motherboard has eight DIMM slots total), a 512GB SSD, and a 2TB hard drive.
The Predator logo is visible on the SLI bridge, as well as on the CPU waterblock for the liquid cooler.
The lowest-configuration Orion 9000 starts at $2,499 and offers a six-core Core i7-8700K, a single GTX 1080 Ti, 16GB of memory, and 2TB of storage with a 256GB SSD.
That's still a fast machine (and certainly not cheap), but clearly in a different class than our wildly topped-out test configuration.
Acer offers a host of other options between the two extremes, as well.
Custom cooling features galore come packed into this large case.
An airflow solution dubbed IceTunnel 2.0 partitions the system into multiple thermal zones, directing heat out and away from the components.
Five case fans aid this, as well as the metal mesh on the top and front that let cold air in and hot air out.
Also, a plastic flap guides some of the front air to the back of the system, where it cools the storage devices.
This level of attention to cooling is clearly responsible for much of the system's size.
The desktop does run cool, though it pushes out a good amount of heat, as you'd expect given the fierce components in this test rig.
A tower this big is typically loaded with ports, and the Orion 9000 does not disappoint.
The front includes three USB 3.1 ports, a USB-C port, and two audio jacks.
You'll find way more around back, including five more USB 3.1 ports, another USB-C port, two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet jack, audio lines, and even a PS/2 port and an S/PDIF connection.
The Orion 9000 also supports 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.2.
The included PredatorSense software is your gateway to lighting customization and overclocking, which comes with three presets (normal, faster, and turbo).
A button on the top of the system serves as a dedicated turbo button, something you may want to use by default if you're determined to squeeze the best performance out of such an expensive system.
Pure Power
This may not come as a shock given the components, but the Orion 9000 is very, very fast.
The processor offers more speed than most people will need, but it's great for power users and professionals.
The 18 cores don't fully get to flex their muscles on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test as much as they do on the multithreaded media tasks, but its score was high nonetheless.
This means that, as you'd hope, the Orion 9000 excels at day-to-day tasks and multitasking without slowdown.
The real prowess can be seen on the multimedia tests, where it leaves all but a few similarly expensive systems in the dust.
Pushing the turbo button only upped the ante: Cinebench jumped up 500 points, while the Handbrake and the Photoshop tests shaved even more seconds off.
It did still fall short of the extremely high scores set by the Falcon Northwest Talon, most notably on Cinebench, but these two PCs are mostly in a league of their own.
The Apple iMac Pro ($4,999.99 at Best Buy) , even as a machine aimed mainly at media professionals, can't keep up with the power on display here.
To put the prices we're dealing with for the Orion 9000 and its ilk in perspective, though, the iMac Pro costs several thousand dollars less, even with the built-in display.
To its credit, the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition falls closer to the iMac's pricing while offering similar performance to the others.
See How We Test Desktops
Of course, the CPU isn't the only star of the show.
One GTX 1080 Ti would be great for any system, but having two of them launches the Orion 9000 into a rare stratosphere of performance.
Its 3DMark scores demonstrate a high level of aptitude for 3D tasks, gaming or otherwise, another check mark for the system as a professional media machine.
With Predator being a gaming brand, though, results on the Heaven and Valley tests are the marks to look at closely.
4K gaming is a difficult task for any single graphics card, and 60fps (frames per second) is a rare accomplishment with settings maxed out.
In this super-high-end tier, though, the Orion 9000 averaged 83fps and 94fps on these tests at ultra-quality settings and 4K resolution.
Origin squeezed a bit more out of the same cards with the test-model Genesis it sent us, the Alienware Area-51 managed less than both, and the Talon's dual Titan Xp cards topped the heap.
Pricey Premium Performance
The 3D performance is mouth-watering for gamers, but of course, you get what you pay for.
Compared with the limited competition like the Talon and the Genesis, the Orion 9000's performance stacks up well.
When the field of competition all deliver top-tier pricing at similar eye-popping prices, design and aesthetics become the major differentiators.
The Genesis, the Talon, the Area-51 (2,399.99 Starting Configuration at Dell) , and the Orion 9000 all offer distinct visual styles, so the decision largely comes down to taste.
The Orion 9000's aesthetic isn't my favorite (similar to my take on the Genesis).
The Genesis and the Orion 9000 do offer the flashiest interiors if you want visual pizzazz for your money, but the understated look and superior build quality and power of the Talon may be more up your alley.
Regardless of where you fall personally, if you're part of the niche that can spend $8,000 on a gaming desktop and are drawn to the design, the Acer Predator Orion 9000 is a beast of a performer and a thoughtfully crafted machine that can do it all extremely well.
Pros
Performance monster, including greater-than-60fps 4K gaming.
Tons of RAM and storage.
Clean, well-designed interior.
The Bottom Line
Although the Acer Predator Orion 9000 costs a pretty penny (okay, hundreds of thousands of pretty pennies) and features a divisive design, this gaming desktop delivers top-end performance with the most cutting-edge parts available.
Our configuration of the Acer Predator Orion 9000 (starts at $2,499; $7,999 as tested) is so expensive that it shares a pricing tier with only a handful of other gaming desktops.
However, it has some serious chops to back up that price: an insane 18-core processor, dual Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, and a complement of other premium parts fit for 4K gaming and any project you can throw its way.
Since alternatives in this price range like the Falcon Northwest Talon and the Origin PC Genesis also offer blistering performance, if you have the money to spend, your choice largely comes down to whether you appreciate the Orion's aggressive-but-thoughtful design.
Big and Bold
The Orion 9000 ( at Amazon) is a behemoth of a desktop in size and aggressive in its style, as is the case with most of the Predator line.
Measuring 27.63 by 11.8 by 25.32 inches and weighing 48.75 pounds, it takes up more desk space than most people have, and will likely end up on the floor.
The rear even has wheels, with handles along the top, for toting it around.
The Origin PC Genesis ($1,832.00 at ORIGIN PC) is one of the few similarly sized desktops (25.26 by 9.75 by 24.8 inches), while the powerful Falcon Northwest Talon (17.5 by 8.2 by 19 inches) is much shorter.
The Orion 9000 is mostly plastic on the exterior—disappointing considering its price, especially compared with the Talon's metal build and automotive finish.
The front panel is outfitted with ridged plastic traced with glowing light blue LEDs.
(All of the case lighting is customizable.) In the middle of the panel is a column of metal grilles, through which you can see the internal fans, also lit in light blue by default.
The top-most grille folds down to reveal a CD drive.
There's also a retractable stand further down the chassis for hanging your audio headset of choice.
The left panel includes a clear plastic window, with a rather large Predator logo emblazoned in the center.
The window is oddly small considering how large the chassis is, with much of the panel taken up by a plastic border and a handle for interior access.
Overall, the showy design is likely to be divisive.
There's plenty of room inside the Orion 9000's case to work, and accessing the interior is fairly straightforward.
You can lift away the windowed panel after loosening two screws (this requires a screwdriver, but the screws don't come out of the door, just loosen in place) and then pulling the handle.
The interior is roomy and clean, with a shroud over the PSU.
More light-blue interior lighting matches the default glow on the exterior, giving the whole works a cool, high-tech vibe.
The cutting-edge components packed inside match the look.
This configuration includes an 18-core Intel Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition CPU, dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, 128GB of memory (the motherboard has eight DIMM slots total), a 512GB SSD, and a 2TB hard drive.
The Predator logo is visible on the SLI bridge, as well as on the CPU waterblock for the liquid cooler.
The lowest-configuration Orion 9000 starts at $2,499 and offers a six-core Core i7-8700K, a single GTX 1080 Ti, 16GB of memory, and 2TB of storage with a 256GB SSD.
That's still a fast machine (and certainly not cheap), but clearly in a different class than our wildly topped-out test configuration.
Acer offers a host of other options between the two extremes, as well.
Custom cooling features galore come packed into this large case.
An airflow solution dubbed IceTunnel 2.0 partitions the system into multiple thermal zones, directing heat out and away from the components.
Five case fans aid this, as well as the metal mesh on the top and front that let cold air in and hot air out.
Also, a plastic flap guides some of the front air to the back of the system, where it cools the storage devices.
This level of attention to cooling is clearly responsible for much of the system's size.
The desktop does run cool, though it pushes out a good amount of heat, as you'd expect given the fierce components in this test rig.
A tower this big is typically loaded with ports, and the Orion 9000 does not disappoint.
The front includes three USB 3.1 ports, a USB-C port, and two audio jacks.
You'll find way more around back, including five more USB 3.1 ports, another USB-C port, two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet jack, audio lines, and even a PS/2 port and an S/PDIF connection.
The Orion 9000 also supports 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.2.
The included PredatorSense software is your gateway to lighting customization and overclocking, which comes with three presets (normal, faster, and turbo).
A button on the top of the system serves as a dedicated turbo button, something you may want to use by default if you're determined to squeeze the best performance out of such an expensive system.
Pure Power
This may not come as a shock given the components, but the Orion 9000 is very, very fast.
The processor offers more speed than most people will need, but it's great for power users and professionals.
The 18 cores don't fully get to flex their muscles on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test as much as they do on the multithreaded media tasks, but its score was high nonetheless.
This means that, as you'd hope, the Orion 9000 excels at day-to-day tasks and multitasking without slowdown.
The real prowess can be seen on the multimedia tests, where it leaves all but a few similarly expensive systems in the dust.
Pushing the turbo button only upped the ante: Cinebench jumped up 500 points, while the Handbrake and the Photoshop tests shaved even more seconds off.
It did still fall short of the extremely high scores set by the Falcon Northwest Talon, most notably on Cinebench, but these two PCs are mostly in a league of their own.
The Apple iMac Pro ($4,999.99 at Best Buy) , even as a machine aimed mainly at media professionals, can't keep up with the power on display here.
To put the prices we're dealing with for the Orion 9000 and its ilk in perspective, though, the iMac Pro costs several thousand dollars less, even with the built-in display.
To its credit, the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition falls closer to the iMac's pricing while offering similar performance to the others.
See How We Test Desktops
Of course, the CPU isn't the only star of the show.
One GTX 1080 Ti would be great for any system, but having two of them launches the Orion 9000 into a rare stratosphere of performance.
Its 3DMark scores demonstrate a high level of aptitude for 3D tasks, gaming or otherwise, another check mark for the system as a professional media machine.
With Predator being a gaming brand, though, results on the Heaven and Valley tests are the marks to look at closely.
4K gaming is a difficult task for any single graphics card, and 60fps (frames per second) is a rare accomplishment with settings maxed out.
In this super-high-end tier, though, the Orion 9000 averaged 83fps and 94fps on these tests at ultra-quality settings and 4K resolution.
Origin squeezed a bit more out of the same cards with the test-model Genesis it sent us, the Alienware Area-51 managed less than both, and the Talon's dual Titan Xp cards topped the heap.
Pricey Premium Performance
The 3D performance is mouth-watering for gamers, but of course, you get what you pay for.
Compared with the limited competition like the Talon and the Genesis, the Orion 9000's performance stacks up well.
When the field of competition all deliver top-tier pricing at similar eye-popping prices, design and aesthetics become the major differentiators.
The Genesis, the Talon, the Area-51 (2,399.99 Starting Configuration at Dell) , and the Orion 9000 all offer distinct visual styles, so the decision largely comes down to taste.
The Orion 9000's aesthetic isn't my favorite (similar to my take on the Genesis).
The Genesis and the Orion 9000 do offer the flashiest interiors if you want visual pizzazz for your money, but the understated look and superior build quality and power of the Talon may be more up your alley.
Regardless of where you fall personally, if you're part of the niche that can spend $8,000 on a gaming desktop and are drawn to the design, the Acer Predator Orion 9000 is a beast of a performer and a thoughtfully crafted machine that can do it all extremely well.
Pros
Performance monster, including greater-than-60fps 4K gaming.
Tons of RAM and storage.
Clean, well-designed interior.
The Bottom Line
Although the Acer Predator Orion 9000 costs a pretty penny (okay, hundreds of thousands of pretty pennies) and features a divisive design, this gaming desktop delivers top-end performance with the most cutting-edge parts available.
