Month: July 2022

Acer’s Predator Orion 9000 is one of the most extreme pre-built gaming PCs you can buy, but is it worth the money? Here’s our Acer Predator P9000 review.

Announced in the middle of last year, but only now becoming available to buy in the UK. Acer’s Predator Orion 9000 made headlines thanks to its eye-catching design coupled with ultra-high-end components including processors with up to eighteen cores.

You can buy the Predator Orion 9000 directly from Acer’s website (currently on a waiting list). There are two models available, starting from £2,999 for the 6-core version and rising to a whopping £4,999 for the ten-core version with dual graphics cards.

The Acer Predator Orion 9000 is a huge, imposing beast of a PC both inside and out. Housed in Acer’s ‘monolithic’ custom-designed system case, the Orion 9000 features an angular space-age design with customisable RGB lighting, easily removable side panels and plenty of space inside.

It’s so big and heavy that Acer has decided to fit it with a pair of wheels at the rear so you can lug it around behind you like a luggage trolley. It’s also fitted with two sturdy handles at the top to make it easier and safer to lift.

At the front, there’s a handy pull-out bar purpose-built as a place to hang your gaming headphones. Acer has also thrown in a DVD RAM drive for good measure.

As you’d expect from a PC at this price point, the build quality is excellent, and because it’s designed entirely by Acer rather than built from off-the-shelf components, everything fits together perfectly, including the Predator Orion 9000’s custom-designed Icetunnel 2.0 cooling system which forms an integral part of the case.

Icetunnel 2.0 maintains four distinct thermal zones within the case, separating off the power supply from the GPU, CPU and storage areas, each of which is delivered its own carefully controlled share of cool air.

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The Overclockers UK Radiance RZ is a well-balanced gaming PC that does a great job of showing off Asus components, with a top-tier motherboard, overclocked GTX 1060, AMD Ryzen 5 and plenty of RGB LEDs. Find our more in our full review.

The latest machine from Overclockers UK represents the first salvo in a partnership between the Staffordshire-based firm and Asus – and that means you get loads of good tech, but a hefty weight of expectation because of each company’s respective reputations. Find out the result in our full Radiance RZ review.

Radiance RZ: Price and availability
The Radiance RZ costs £1,499 from Overclockers UK, and it includes an Asus ROG Cerberus gaming mouse and mechanical keyboard. It’s also covered by the standard Overclockers UK warranty, which offers three years of collect-and-return and labour coverage.

As usual, the specification can be altered. You can pick from beefier processors, meatier graphics cards, alternative storage options and additional components like sound cards and Wi-Fi modules.

For a gaming PC, the price of £1,499 won’t break the bank, which bodes well for this mid-range gaming desktop – but it also brings the Radiance into a particularly busy area of the market.

The Acer Predator Orion 9000, for example, is a whopping £2,999. See more options in our best gaming PC chart.

Radiance RZ: Design and build
The Asus influence can be seen as soon as the chassis is heaved from its box. The NZXT Noctis is a ROG-branded case (republic of gamers) that comes in an exclusive shade of gunmetal grey and with Asus logos on its side panel.

The grey finish looks great, and the Noctis has eye-catching design elements. The front panel mixes angled panels of plastic with dark mesh that allows three 120mm fans to pull air into the case. At the top you get pairs of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports alongside more angled plastic and mesh, and the side panel provides a plastic window. Every material used throughout is sturdy.

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The Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut 2080 is pricier than the competition, but it justifies the extra cost with a high-quality overclocked CPU, faster gaming speeds and good components elsewhere. That means you’ll be able to handle games and productivity software with more pace and versatility – and inside a case that’s smart, eye-catching and well-built.

The Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut 2080 has a name that suggests computing dominance – but, pleasingly, a price that sees this machine fall comfortably into the gaming market.

Instead of breaking the bank, this machine has a specification that may break benchmarks. Its new Core i5 processor has a hefty overclock, and it’s packing an overclocked version of one of Nvidia’s latest graphics cards.

Price & Availability
This machine will set you back £2,049 from Chillblast. That’s around £500 more than the recent Overclockers UK Radiance RZ, and it’s also a little pricier than the Yoyotech BlackBox SP, which weighed in at £1,649.

The Yoyotech Warbird i7S is another option if an RTX 2070 will suit.

As usual with Chillblast, it’s possible to customise this machine if you need to its components.

Beefier Core i5 and Core i7 chips are available. The graphics can be upgraded to an RTX 2080 Ti, and the memory and storage can also be given a boost. There are sound cards, power supply and cooling tweaks available, and dozens of different cases. You can even choose different thermal paste, better cable management or an expedited build time.

There are hundreds of different configurations available if you want to change an aspect of the Juggernaut’s specification. That’s good, but bear in mind that the specification we’ve reviewed here is the most affordable version of this rig – so you can’t cut back in any department to save some cash.

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The Yoyotech’s mighty Core i7 CPU delivers enough power to handle virtually any task, and its RTX 2070 is a capable graphics card that’ll run anything bar some games at 4K. We review the Warbird i7S, available via GAME.

The Warbird i7S may have a Yoyotech logo, but this machine isn’t actually available to buy direct from the Basingstoke-based builders. If you want to get your hands on this PC, you’ll have to head to high-street retailer GAME.

The Warbird is one of ten machines that are now available from the firm – one of the UK’s most recognisable gaming retailers.

Price & Availability
The Warbird i7S costs £1,899, and it can’t be customised when buying from the GAME website. If you do want to tweak specifications before you buy, you’re better off going to Yoyotech directly and getting a different machine.

This machine sits in the middle of Game’s Yoyotech range. It’s possible to spend under £1,500 on the Warbird i5 Ultra with its older Core i5 and last-generation Nvidia GPUs – that still offer plenty of power. Also check out the Overclockers Radiance RZ at the same price.

Alternatively, you could spend £2,500 on the Yoyotech Warbird X2 with an RTX 2080 graphics card and a Core i9-9900K processor – or £4,500 on a monstrous PUBG-themed build that includes limited-edition components and incredible water-cooled design.

Check out our chart of the best gaming PCs.

Design & Build
It’s easy to be suspicious about the Warbird i7S – after all, PCs from big-brand retailers don’t have the best reputation.

Haul the Yoyotech from its box, though, and worries disappear. The NZXT H500 case is a sensible and welcome choice – it’s a popular option for mid-range builds, and it mixes good looks with solid strength and features.

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The Shadow Ghost could be our first look at the PC gaming setup of the future. Find out why in our review.

Gaming on a PC is arguably the best way to enjoy games; depending on the hardware, PC games usually run at higher frame rates and resolutions and boast higher-quality textures than console counterparts. The issue is that, traditionally, gaming PCs are very expensive, with some of the most powerful gaming PCs on the market costing well over £1000/$1000 – not affordable for the average gamer.

But thanks to advances in cloud technology and internet infrastructure, a new kind of gaming experience is emerging; cloud-based gaming. The highlight is that you don’t have to slam down hundreds to get access to a high-end gaming rig – instead you can buy a budget-friendly box (called the Shadow Ghost) and pay a monthly subscription to play your favourite PC games.

Intrigued? You should be, because the Shadow Ghost (and Shadow streaming service in general) has the potential to change the way that we game. Find out why in our Shadow Ghost review.

Pricing and availability
Unlike with a traditional gaming PC, there’s not just an up-front cost for the Shadow Ghost – you’ll have to pay for the Shadow Ghost, and then pay for the monthly cloud gaming PC subscription. The Shadow Ghost costs £109.95 in the UK and $139.95 in the US, and then either £26.95/$29.95pcm with a 12-month contract or £29.95/$34.95pcm on a rolling contract. If you’re interested, simply head over to the Shadow website to find out more.

That may seem expensive on the surface but compared to a decent gaming PC that can cost upwards of £1000 and will need to be upgraded every few years, the Shadow Ghost is a cheaper and more convenient option for those with high-speed internet connectivity.

You don’t even need the Shadow Ghost if you’ve already got a PC or Mac, as you can download the Windows and Mac app and access your cloud PC that way. There are options available, you just need to figure out which is best for you.

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