Introduction
Everybody knows that building your own rig is best, but sometimes it means missing out on exotic PC cases that you can't buy from the shops.
Alienware's Area 51 is one example of this, and Acer's redesigned Predator G6 is another. Making its debut at Gamescom 2015, the Taiwan-based company's latest gaming PC certainly looks the part - from its caterpillar track-like design to its menacing red trim.
We're a firm believer that it's what's inside that counts, and the Predator G6 comes packing cutting-edge components. Probably taking the system's naming convention a little too far, we've picked out a choice cut of quotes from the classic Predator movie franchise to take you through Acer's meaty machine.
- Once you're done perusing its fine angles, feast your eyes on these Skylake monsters
1. Welcome to the funhouse
Quote: "I'm gonna have me some fun!" (Mac, Predator)
This quote, uttered by Mac at the beginning of the original Predator movie, perfectly sums up the Taiwan-based company's gaming beast from the East. Packing Intel's sixth-generation Skylake processor, an Nvidia GTX 980 or Titan X and up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, the G6 wants you to have just as much fun blasting away otherworldly nasties as the original Predator movie's ill-fated character did.
2. War is upon us
Quote: "Hey kid, welcome to the war." (Mike Harrigan, Predator 2)
You might think you've entered some pretty nasty warzones online, but you've not seen anything until you've gamed in glorious 4K. Paired with an Acer Predator X34 G-Sync monitor (or any G-Sync monitor), the GTX 980-equipped G6 being demonstrated on Acer's booth cranked out some impressive visuals at 3,440 x 1,440. High-res gaming is the way to go, and like Mike Harrigan's character in Predator, once you've gone Ultra HD it's like entering a whole new warzone.
2. Overclocking in style
Quote: "I thought I told you not to crash." (Dallas, Alien vs Predator: Requiem)
Delving into a PC's BIOS settings to overclock it can be a risky business if you're not sure what you are doing. With the G6's Predator Sense control hub you can check live stats including CPU core clock rate, temperature and fan speed - and you can even overclock the whole lot with a single click. Unlike the helicopter pilot in the AvP reboot, you'll never suffer crashes again.
3. Seek and destroy
Quote: "We move, five meter spread, no sound." (Mac, Predator)
Arnie's character Dutch instructs his team of squaddies to be silently spread out in a bid to hear the Predator before it hears them. The G6's Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5 lets you do the same by hooking up a 5.1 channel headset and configuring Creative's SoundBlaster SBX Pro Studio software, which lets you hear specific directional sounds. There's also a lip to hang your headphones when not in use, which is neat.
4. Ports aplenty
Quote: "Son of a bitch is dug in like an Alabama tick." (Blain, Predator)
The Predator G6's redesigned chassis leaves more than enough room for peripherals at the back, including six USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, a PCI-E X16 slot, two PCI-E X1 slots and two M.2 slots. It's also expandable by up to 12TB of storage, which itself is further expandable by slotting in a 512GB SSD. If you're serious about online gaming you'll need the best gaming keyboards and best gaming mice out there to coax out and take down the enemy, and none were more stubborn than the original Predator movie's eponymous alien.
5. Bleeding easy
Quote: "I ain't got time to bleed." (Blain, Predator)
Sergeant Blain Cooper was a punctual man who knew what his squad needed to do to survive. Like Blain, you've got a better chance of overcoming the odds by upgrading the G6 with the latest meaty components. By lifting up the latch at the rear of the case and giving it a tug, its side panel swiftly comes away, allowing you to quickly tuck in a new GPU or component of your choice.
