The Acer Predator AG6-710 (70002) is a mean-looking, powerful gaming PC, but it's expensive compared with similarly performing desktops. And there's little room for expansion.
Most gaming desktops are big and bold-looking, but with its elaborate design and considerable bulk, the $1,999 Acer Predator AG6-710 (70002) takes the aesthetic to another level. It has the beefy hardware you want, and it performs well compared with other midrange gaming PCs, but the inside of the case is cluttered, offering little room for enthusiasts to upgrade. For the best in the category, we still think last year's Maingear Vybe takes the cake for its dual graphics cards, lighter form factor, and stronger overall performance.
Design The Acer Predator AG6-710 (70002) ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is audaciously designed. It resembles a rectangular gaming tower, except that its front bulges out at an angle and the top and front panels of its (somewhat cheap-feeling) black plastic enclosure are decorated with a militaristic tank-tread pattern. The side panels are mesh, with a grid on the edges that provides additional ventilation for the case's interior. On the rim of the panels is a red LED strip, and on the front panel another red LED is located just beneath the power button. A large Predator logo is emblazoned on the right side panel. All in all, it's a daring departure in design from the more traditional tower of the Acer Predator AG3-605-UR39 or the Dell XPS 8900 Special Edition ($799.99 at Dell)(Opens in a new window) .
The desktop is on the big side, even for a gaming machine, measuring 21.8 by 8.3 by 18.2 inches (HWD), a good bit larger than the CyberPower Zeus Mini (13 by 4.4. by 17.4 inches) and the Digital Storm Eclipse (14 by 4 by 15 inches).
Features On the front panel, you get an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, and headphone and microphone jacks, along with, behind two drop-down doors, the Blu-ray/DVD drive and a bay for adding a removable 3.5-inch hard drive. Most of the ports are on the rear panel: four USB 3.0, Ethernet jack, and three for. Monitor ports include three DisplayPort, one HDMI, and one DVI on the video card, and two others (HDMI and DisplayPort) you'll never need to use on the motherboard). A spring-loaded peg extends out of the front of the case, ready to hold your gaming headset. It's gimmicky, but lazy gamers will likely appreciate it.
Access to the case's interior for component upgrades is inconvenient at best. You must press two buttons on the bottom of the rear panel to release the body cladding that surrounds the back of the system. Then you remove two screws and slide the right side panel out toward the back. The inside of the desktop is somewhat cluttered with unsecured cables routed through the open space inside the case. You may need to move the wires out of the way or unplug them altogether if you want to add an extra hard drive or upgrade the system's graphics cards. What's worse is that the large CPU cooler blocks access to the motherboard's DIMM slots.
There's a powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card, 16GB of DDR4 dual-channel RAM (with two open slots for adding more), a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) for programs, and a 2TB 7,200rpm hard drive for data. There is only room for one more 3.5-inch drive, plus the hot-swappable tray on the front—not a whole lot of space for such a large machine, which is also a problem we had with the Predator AG3-605-UR39. Plus, all of the drives are screwed in to the enclosure, rather than on rails, so removing and replacing them can be difficult. The Predator G6 is more suited to plug-and-play PC gamers than those who want a customizable machine. The Maingear Vybe allows more room for making upgrades, with three open 2.5-inch bays and four open 3.5-inch slots, plus room for extra RAM, but its storage was limited to a 250GB SSD. Bundled with the Predator G6 desktop is a SteelSeries gaming keyboard and mouse set, a step up from what you usually get with a desktop.
For wireless connectivity, there's 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Acer insures the Predator G6 with a two-year limited warranty.
Performance Because it uses the 4GHz Intel Core i7-6700K and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980, the Predator G6 is a powerful performer when it comes to graphics and gaming, scoring 29,817 on the Cloud Gate 3DMark test, well ahead of the CyberPower Zeus Mini (25,286), the Maingear Vybe (23,449), and the Lenovo Erazer X510 (20,086). On the Fire Strike Extreme test, it scored an equally impressive 6,055, well ahead of the Digital Storm Eclipse (4,830) and the Lenovo Erazer (5,469).
The Predator G6 scored 112 frames per second (fps) on the Heaven gaming test with medium detail settings, and 40fps on the Valley test on ultra settings. That's smoothly playable, though far behind the Maingear Vybe, with a 224fps frame rate on Heaven (medium settings) and an 84fps score on Valley (ultra settings). The Vybe comes with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 graphics cards, accounting for its graphics prowess. If you forego the flashy case, you can get similar (or better) results for less money from the Dell XPS 8900 Special Edition. The Dell's Nvidia GTX 970 card also played smoothly at similar settings on the game tests. Most modern midrange gaming desktops will play any modern game at 1080p HD with ease, even at maxed-out detail settings. The GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 graphics cards both meet the requirements for VR gaming as well.
See How We Test Desktops
The Predator G6 proved itself capable on day-to-day tasks like document creation, Web browsing, and video conferencing. On the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, the Predator G6 scored 3,755—much better than the Acer Predator AG3 (3,128), but behind the Digital Storm Eclipse (3,809), the Maingear Vybe (3,880), and especially the Lenovo Erazer X510 (5,005). It needed 56 seconds to complete our Handbrake video encoding test, nudging the CyberPower Zeus Mini (1:01), Lenovo Erazer X510 (1:07), and Digital Storm Eclipse (1:09), and its 3:07 time to complete our Photoshop CS6 test was a little slower than those of the Digital Storm Eclipse (2:46) and the Acer Predator AG3-605-UR39 (2:54). But with its score of 868 on CineBench R15, the Predator G6 came in just ahead of the Maingear Vybe (699) and the CyberPower Zeus Mini (776).
Conclusions The Acer Predator AG6-710 (70002) is a unique-looking yet cumbersome gaming desktop with a fast processor and powerful graphics card, but it's expensive given that there's little room for upgrades and its overall performance capabilities aren't that much better than its other midrange competitors'. We recommend instead the Maingear Vybe, which costs $300 less, has two graphics cards for even better gaming performance, and has more room inside for customization.
The Acer Predator AG6-710 (70002) is a mean-looking, powerful gaming PC, but it's expensive compared with similarly performing desktops. And there's little room for expansion.
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Joel Santo Domingo joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology from Rutgers University. He is responsible for overseeing PC Labs testing, as well as formulating new test methodologies for the PC Hardware team. Along with his team, Joel won the ASBPE Northeast Region Gold award of Excellence for Technical Articles in 2005. Joel cut his tech teeth on the Atari 2600, TRS-80, and the Mac Plus. He’s built countless DIY systems, including a deconstructed “desktop” PC nailed to a wall and a DIY laptop. He’s played with most consumer electronics technologies, but the two he’d most like to own next are a Salamander broiler and a BMW E39 M5.
Raised in the Midwest, Ben considers himself a generally nice guy. He went to NYU to study journalism and comparative literature, and went on to captain the NYU Fencing Team. Sabre, since you asked. He came to PCMag after a stint at Men's Fitness magazine, where he tried to get totally jacked. He didn't. But he did find some time to review plenty of fitness trackers, tablets, and other cool gadgets. Outside of the office, you can find him at the last seat at the bar, where he'll be commenting anonymously on an Indianapolis Colts blog.
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