Computers

Acer’s Predator Orion 5000 gaming PC can house GTX 1080 Ti in SLI

While the Predator Orion 3000 is your midrange option

Published

May 24, 2018

Marvin Velasco

Building a gaming PC is fairly straightforward, but it isn’t for everyone. For mainstream folks, pre-built gaming desktops are the way to go. Although that usually means settling for hardware that’s mainstream as well, that isn’t always the case. Just ask Acer.

Its Predator sub-brand has a new 5000 series of Orion gaming desktops, and it’s quite the beast. If you recall, the Orion 9000 blew us away last year with its massive size and all-powerful specifications. While the Orion 5000 doesn’t have as big a number, it may actually be more appealing.

The Orion 5000 can be decked out with Intel’s 8th-generation Core i7-8700K processor on a high-end Z370 chipset. To make load times even faster, up to 32GB of Intel Optane memory may be installed on top of the usual RAM and storage configurations. Finally, and this is the best part, two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards can fit at the same time for two-way SLI, meaning they’ll work together to push intense rendering during gaming and video editing.

Of course, it needs a worthy case to house all this hardware. Acer is equipping it with a transparent side panel to monitor (and show off) all the internals. That’s just for aesthetics, however; for cooling, IceTunnel 2.0 tech is on board for smart airflow management for every section of the case. It’s easy to open up too, in case you want to upgrade the components.

The Predator Orion 5000 will become available in North America in July with a starting price of US$ 1,499, while EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) will get it in June for EUR 1,699 and China in June as well for CNY 15,999.

If that pricing is too much for you, you can also go for the more affordable Orion 3000 series.

Predator Orion 3000

The Predator Orion 3000 isn’t as aggressive as its higher-end sibling, but offers a lot of the same power. You also get 8th-gen Intel Core i7 processors and up to 32GB of Optane memory to complement up to 64GB of RAM. The only real downgrade is the limit of a single GTX 1080 card, but that’s still enough for 4K gaming.

This one starts at US$ 999 in North America beginning October, EUR 1,299 in EMEA starting July, and CNY 6,999 in China in July as well.

Related Topics:Acer Predator Predator Orion 3000 Predator Orion 5000

Computers

Windows 10 will soon go full white with a light theme

To complement the new dark theme

Published

November 16, 2018

Daniel Morial

Image credit: Microsoft

All the buzz in today’s user interface bonanza is the dark theme. An all-black interface supposedly consumes less power (if you have an OLED display) and it’s also easy on the eye, especially at night. A number of mobile apps already have a dark theme and even macOS finally has it. As for Windows, the popular operating system doesn’t just want a dark theme, it wants a light one as well.

Microsoft just unveiled the light theme for Windows 10, but it’s only available for the new test build which is not meant for a major release yet.

Generally, Windows 10’s UI has always played with dark and light elements. It’s pretty inconsistent, so you get both dark and light at the same time. Soon, you can finally get either an all dark UI or a bright white UI.

The new system-wide light theme also comes with a slightly tweaked default wallpaper.

Again, the light theme is still undergoing tests, but it’s expected to come to the next major update of Windows 10 sometime in 2019.

The latest test build comes with a number of new features that’ll soon come as an update to Windows 10. You may head over to the source link below to know more.

Source: Windows

Computers

2018 Mac mini: Price and availability in the Philippines

Transform any display into a Mac computer

Published

October 31, 2018

Daniel Morial

Apart from the MacBook Air, Apple also brought back to life another Mac device that is very much in need of an upgrade: the Mac mini.

The new Mac mini stays true to its purpose. It’s still a small computer that can be used with any display and peripheral you wish. When you need macOS but don’t like the iMac, this is the economical solution.

It now comes with the latest 8th-gen Intel Core processors and flash storage. The ports of the new Mac mini are not limited even though it has a compact body. It has four Thunderbolt 3, an HDMI 2.0, two USB-A, audio jack, and gigabit Ethernet.

The base model with a Core i3 processor and 128GB of storage is priced at PhP 49,990 in the Philippines. If you wish to have a more powerful portable Mac, there’s the six-core model running a Core i5 processor with 256GB of storage for PhP 67,990.

Availability starts by the third week of December, but you may already pre-order through Apple’s website.

Computers

2018 Mac mini: Price and availability in Singapore

As compact as it sounds

Published

October 30, 2018

Marvin Velasco

If you need more power and ports compared to what the newest MacBook Air offers, there’s the fresh Mac mini to consider.

Even though it’s designed to stay plugged in on a desktop, it’s as small as ever, and more environmentally friendly, too. It’s made of 100 percent recycled aluminum like Apple’s other newly unveiled products.

For the lowest-end Core i3 chip with 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, you have to fork over SG$ 1,179 in Singapore. Shipping starts on November 7, but you can order as early as today.

There’s also a Core i5 model with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage for SG$ 1,619.

Both versions come with a host of ports, including gigabit Ethernet, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A, 3.5mm audio port, HDMI 2.0, as well as a T2 Security Chip for quick data encryption.