Games
Outer space is one of gaming's most fascinating settings and the Acer Predator rig lets you feel like you're touching the stars without leaving the comfort of your chair on planet Earth.
At some point during childhood, everyone's dreamed of being an astronaut. Even if it was just for a fleeting moment, we've all been tempted by the wonders of the distant planets and stars that glitter in the night sky. It's no surprise, then, that the endless void of space has played host to so many iconic games. The potential of this vastly untouched and unknown expanse allows creators to experiment with some of their wildest and most visually arresting ideas.
Though practically all of us will only be able to make the trip digitally, if you're going to launch yourself into the skies above, then surely you'll want to do it in style. A long time has passed since man went to the moon using a stack of written code the size of a small human, and a computer that was less powerful than the one in your pocket. Now, you've got a beast of a machine like the Predator Orion 9000 to help you explore infinity, and beyond.
This is a rig that can support an Intel Core i9 Extreme Edition CPU with up to 18 cores, boasts eight DIMM slots that can handle up to 128GB of RAM, and also has space for four graphics cards. Altogether, that'll give you enough power to render the multitude of galaxies you want to visit, livestream footage of your adventures out to the world, and edit it down into one epic holiday home movie that everyone will actually want to watch. All at the same time.
But why just stop there? The yawning mass of space can only be truly represented with not one, not two, but three monitors. Slip a trio of the Predator X34's next to each other and you can fully immerse yourself in every faster-than-light jump you make, asteroid cluster you navigate or dogfight you win.
The 34" UltraWide QHD display sports a truly cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio, which supports resolutions of up to 3440 x 1440. Add Nvidia G-Sync on top of that to negate any pesky screen tearing or stuttering, and your travels between the stars will be smooth sailing all the way. The ZeroFrame design is also perfect for a multi-monitor setup, ensuring any awkward gaps between the screens are kept to a minimum for maximum immersion.
Can you think of another way you'd prefer to journey through the inky skies of Elite Dangerous? Having come a long way from its wireframe days on the BBC Micro in 1984, the 2014 modernisation from Frontier introduced a whole new generation to the heady mix of exploration, trading and combat in a open world galaxy based on the Milky Way.
Imagine yourself in this setup, calmly cruising to your next trading post, ready to purchase a sweet set of upgrades for your Corvette. Suddenly, something's wrong. Warning lights are flashing and your ship is locked into position. Then, it swings into view: the Thargoid ship. This is your first, terrifying contact with an alien race, and the moment is presented in pristine quality in one panorama.
And while that surprising alien encounter may raise your temperature and stress levels, the Orion 9000 is more than capable of keeping its cool. The case is divided into four thermal zones so that the PSU, CPU, GPU and storage options all split the intake of cool air, and the in-built Cooler Master liquid cooling can also help handle the heat.
Perhaps sitting as the commander behind this rig, you may even be tempted to dip back into No Man's Sky – a game that's gone under significant changes since its rocky launch back in 2016. Hello Games have been working extensively behind the scenes to get the game as close to that magical vision they first presented for the game's debut, and a series of recent updates have brought many improvements.
Now, you can truly live out your wildest space traveler fantasies, as you command your own base and freighter, undertake missions across the galaxy, and even uncover a whole new story in the universe. The Orion 9000 is ideal to immerse yourself within the game's vivid and colourful worlds, while snapping pictures of the bizarre and majestic creatures that roam its lands.
You can always take things one step further, though. When there's just no other option left, the Orion 9000 is more than capable of supporting VR, giving you the ultimate space experience. You'll want to strap yourself in for a game like EVE: Valkyrie, which drops you directly into the cockpit for some of the most frenetic multiplayer dogfighting in outer space. And what about the space sim that everybody’s waiting for: Star Citizen? The game, which began development in 2011, and then went on to have one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns of all-time, still has a full release on the horizon.
A number of teaser modules have already been released that take full advantage of the Orion 9000 and Predator X34 monitors, whether that's viewing ships in the hangar, testing your skills in the space combat simulator or putting boots on the ground in the game's FPS-inspired Star Marine mode. What all of these are working towards, though, is Crusader – a persistent multiplayer universe, where you can freely venture through space and write your story among the stars.
In Star Citizen, and similar games of such overwhelming scope and scale, the aim is to truly lose yourself in a new world. With this rig, you'll be able to shoot for the moon and far, far beyond.
