Acer's Impressive Mini-ITX Orion X Case & Pre-Built PC
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Date: 2023-05-26
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Comments and reviews: 15
itech
I really like the design, and I really, really like the carrying case. But! The sides of the carrying case are a huge missed opportunity. I thought the bulges on the sides (with the orange handles) opened. The one side looks big enough for a TKL or compact keyboard and the other side could fit a mouse and cables. Change some of the carrying case to Pelican-ish plastic (for mass production it would have to be anyway), bundle it with the case for 400-450 total US, and you have an awesome deal.
If you think my price is too much, I bought a Hyte Revolt (which I like, but finding a small enough carrying case was a pain) and a pelican-style case and that ended up being about 350 total. And I had to DIY fit the case. 50-100 more for a tailor made case seems fair.
If you think my price is too low, I have some Nvidia 4090s to sell you.
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I really like the design, and I really, really like the carrying case. But! The sides of the carrying case are a huge missed opportunity. I thought the bulges on the sides (with the orange handles) opened. The one side looks big enough for a TKL or compact keyboard and the other side could fit a mouse and cables. Change some of the carrying case to Pelican-ish plastic (for mass production it would have to be anyway), bundle it with the case for 400-450 total US, and you have an awesome deal.
If you think my price is too much, I bought a Hyte Revolt (which I like, but finding a small enough carrying case was a pain) and a pelican-style case and that ended up being about 350 total. And I had to DIY fit the case. 50-100 more for a tailor made case seems fair.
If you think my price is too low, I have some Nvidia 4090s to sell you.
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Randomness
Terrible design. The headset stand looks like an absolutely redundant gimmick that will most likely break very quickly, there's no fine mesh dust filtering on side panels (which is ok for people who constantly run HEPA air cleaners in their room, but will gather lots of dust inside the case otherwise) and the top radiator fans are pushing the air through like 3 different mesh surfaces above radiator which needlessly increases air resistance (which will obviously result in higher temps and overall lower lifespan for fans), not to mention that the wide PCIe extension cable sits very close to the radiator fan's intake which also probably affects airflow in a negative way.
But hey, it looks cool enough to impress simple-minded people of /r/Battlestations so it should still sell well.
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Terrible design. The headset stand looks like an absolutely redundant gimmick that will most likely break very quickly, there's no fine mesh dust filtering on side panels (which is ok for people who constantly run HEPA air cleaners in their room, but will gather lots of dust inside the case otherwise) and the top radiator fans are pushing the air through like 3 different mesh surfaces above radiator which needlessly increases air resistance (which will obviously result in higher temps and overall lower lifespan for fans), not to mention that the wide PCIe extension cable sits very close to the radiator fan's intake which also probably affects airflow in a negative way.
But hey, it looks cool enough to impress simple-minded people of /r/Battlestations so it should still sell well.
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DeepThinker
GamersNexus Please look into Gigabyte Easy Tune. Not changing cpu frequency and falsely changing memory speed. I have reviewed my rig. I am seeing it not do anything. Only real config is through bios. Also system unbootable with any settings other then auto. This leads me to believe that the hardware is being force configured so it cant overclock and that it may not be function at default settings anymore. Z590i gigabyte with 32gb 3600. Pushed to 3700. No cpu overclock anymore. I was able to get 5.4ghz stable with my setup now nothing works. After bios update. 11900kf i9. Latest drivers and updates. This borad from the start had issues it seems like they have nerfed something.
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GamersNexus Please look into Gigabyte Easy Tune. Not changing cpu frequency and falsely changing memory speed. I have reviewed my rig. I am seeing it not do anything. Only real config is through bios. Also system unbootable with any settings other then auto. This leads me to believe that the hardware is being force configured so it cant overclock and that it may not be function at default settings anymore. Z590i gigabyte with 32gb 3600. Pushed to 3700. No cpu overclock anymore. I was able to get 5.4ghz stable with my setup now nothing works. After bios update. 11900kf i9. Latest drivers and updates. This borad from the start had issues it seems like they have nerfed something.
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Johnny
Wow I must say I generally don t care much for small form factor cases or even case review videos in general. It s not that I don t like them I just don t typically find myself interested as much as I am other tech related content.
All that aside, the thumbnail of this video really caught my attention. The case is really cool looking and even though I ve not made it but a few minutes into the video I m absolutely blown away and super impressed with the overall look and aesthetics of this PC.
Great job and I d really love to see this come to the enthusiasts side of the market sooner rather than later!
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Wow I must say I generally don t care much for small form factor cases or even case review videos in general. It s not that I don t like them I just don t typically find myself interested as much as I am other tech related content.
All that aside, the thumbnail of this video really caught my attention. The case is really cool looking and even though I ve not made it but a few minutes into the video I m absolutely blown away and super impressed with the overall look and aesthetics of this PC.
Great job and I d really love to see this come to the enthusiasts side of the market sooner rather than later!
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Ben
Love your work, I am skeptical as to the effecacy of heat sinks, cooling pads etc for NNVE drives I have seen a lot of testing that reports any effort to cool an NVME SSD beyond what is provided by manufacturing makes things worse? and that only certain components of and NVME benefit from cooling and when you put a pad / heat sink across the entire drive you dont gain anything and can degrade the drive more because heatsinks retain heat in the controller? In this review you mentioned the need for metal NVME enclsures, I am curious as to what your thoughts are on NVME cooling solutions?
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Love your work, I am skeptical as to the effecacy of heat sinks, cooling pads etc for NNVE drives I have seen a lot of testing that reports any effort to cool an NVME SSD beyond what is provided by manufacturing makes things worse? and that only certain components of and NVME benefit from cooling and when you put a pad / heat sink across the entire drive you dont gain anything and can degrade the drive more because heatsinks retain heat in the controller? In this review you mentioned the need for metal NVME enclsures, I am curious as to what your thoughts are on NVME cooling solutions?
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Voidisciple
Call me cringe but I love things that are actually designed to look futuristic.
The only thing I don't like about the case as a stand alone would be that the interior is not painted/powder coated where the panels meet I understand that is a high wear zone for paint but I feel that in the ITX market we are just used to the consistency of anodized aluminum. But this is a love it or hate it case in the first place.
As far as I can tell the orientation of components and airflow design of this thing are well proven.
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Call me cringe but I love things that are actually designed to look futuristic.
The only thing I don't like about the case as a stand alone would be that the interior is not painted/powder coated where the panels meet I understand that is a high wear zone for paint but I feel that in the ITX market we are just used to the consistency of anodized aluminum. But this is a love it or hate it case in the first place.
As far as I can tell the orientation of components and airflow design of this thing are well proven.
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D-One
The case is cool but the childish gamery transformer look instead of minimalist clean design is a bad move imo, it looks outdated already.
I would love if a GN could consider re-thinking the we don't cover SSF philosophy, the value you guys provide with reviews and attention you can bring to a community is invaluable. Things have changed, most people don't need gigantic computers with dual GPU's or rust HHDs, most don't build SFF for lan parties nor portability anymore...
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The case is cool but the childish gamery transformer look instead of minimalist clean design is a bad move imo, it looks outdated already.
I would love if a GN could consider re-thinking the we don't cover SSF philosophy, the value you guys provide with reviews and attention you can bring to a community is invaluable. Things have changed, most people don't need gigantic computers with dual GPU's or rust HHDs, most don't build SFF for lan parties nor portability anymore...
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volvo09
That is really cool! Lots of unique touches and serviceable aspects.
Edit:
I like that you keep bringing up the proprietary parts in prebuilts. If we as end users are supposed to be reducing consumption and waste, these corporations need to be following what they preach.
They all talk about sustainability and the environment, but they create the most disposable products you can buy when it comes to computers.
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That is really cool! Lots of unique touches and serviceable aspects.
Edit:
I like that you keep bringing up the proprietary parts in prebuilts. If we as end users are supposed to be reducing consumption and waste, these corporations need to be following what they preach.
They all talk about sustainability and the environment, but they create the most disposable products you can buy when it comes to computers.
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drout
Wait, what is the benefit of self-contained water cooling?
I thought the whole purpose of water cooling is to put the dissipation element somewhere else where more surface area and airflow is available so the cooling occurs faster. What is the point of putting everything in the same compact place for water cooling instead of just using a heatsink and a fan? Does it show real improvements?
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Wait, what is the benefit of self-contained water cooling?
I thought the whole purpose of water cooling is to put the dissipation element somewhere else where more surface area and airflow is available so the cooling occurs faster. What is the point of putting everything in the same compact place for water cooling instead of just using a heatsink and a fan? Does it show real improvements?
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asksearchknock
Hey Steve - Do you have a recommendation for an ATX case that still has a 5.25 bay in it? I was considering fractal but just watched your review makes me question their thermals. It s going to run a home lab server with a6000 or 4090 in it - only real requirement is the 5.25 bay for a legacy device I want to keep. Noise not as much of a concern vs keeping temps down.
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Hey Steve - Do you have a recommendation for an ATX case that still has a 5.25 bay in it? I was considering fractal but just watched your review makes me question their thermals. It s going to run a home lab server with a6000 or 4090 in it - only real requirement is the 5.25 bay for a legacy device I want to keep. Noise not as much of a concern vs keeping temps down.
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mecra
The case itself is neat. It would be nice if these companies would also work designing a side pump/res for water cooling. Something on the back for example. That said it's very interesting. The carrying case is WAY too thick and excessive. Mind you, it is cool but very impractical. It looks like it's designed to take a drop and that's probably why it's so big.
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The case itself is neat. It would be nice if these companies would also work designing a side pump/res for water cooling. Something on the back for example. That said it's very interesting. The carrying case is WAY too thick and excessive. Mind you, it is cool but very impractical. It looks like it's designed to take a drop and that's probably why it's so big.
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Gamers
Really happy to have something unique and competently designed - especially the mechanics. The best news is we have even more positive videos coming up after touring design centers and seeing some factories! It's a nice break from all the negativity that GPUs brought us, and we have even more positive news soon. Check back regularly this next week!
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Really happy to have something unique and competently designed - especially the mechanics. The best news is we have even more positive videos coming up after touring design centers and seeing some factories! It's a nice break from all the negativity that GPUs brought us, and we have even more positive news soon. Check back regularly this next week!
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Josua
that case is genuinely amazing. But yeah, now that high-end 4 slot GPUs are the norm, I fear that the case will limit what you can do moving forward. Yes, it can contain Acer's special 4090 for now, but it won't fit a 5090 or 6090 down the line unless Acer also made their small 50/6090 cards available, and hopefully without some hefty premium.
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that case is genuinely amazing. But yeah, now that high-end 4 slot GPUs are the norm, I fear that the case will limit what you can do moving forward. Yes, it can contain Acer's special 4090 for now, but it won't fit a 5090 or 6090 down the line unless Acer also made their small 50/6090 cards available, and hopefully without some hefty premium.
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John
The Zone 0 carrier makes me think of the cat carrier from Alien. Big fan of the overall case design, Though would like to see the removable SSD housing be all metal, I have a Crucial X8 and you can definitely feel the heat coming off of the casing when it's in use. I'm sure a high end NVME drive could get pretty cooking in that plastic case.
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The Zone 0 carrier makes me think of the cat carrier from Alien. Big fan of the overall case design, Though would like to see the removable SSD housing be all metal, I have a Crucial X8 and you can definitely feel the heat coming off of the casing when it's in use. I'm sure a high end NVME drive could get pretty cooking in that plastic case.
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Reunion
you guys say you don't hem yourselves for the sake of maintaining standing with industry professionals but you clearly display a much stricter filter on what judgements you'll assess of hardware and performance in person as opposed to in studio. i don't think theres anything wrong with it necessarily but it does look a little silly
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you guys say you don't hem yourselves for the sake of maintaining standing with industry professionals but you clearly display a much stricter filter on what judgements you'll assess of hardware and performance in person as opposed to in studio. i don't think theres anything wrong with it necessarily but it does look a little silly
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