The Orion 3000 PO3-640 RTX 3060 Ti performs well above its budget price tag
- Manufacturer: Acer Predator
- Model: Orion 3000 (2022)
- Part number: PO3-640 (RTX 3060 Ti)
- Price when reviewed: £1,199 (Currys – UK)
- Supplied by: Acer
Acer Predator Orion 3000 Review
This is the third variant of the Predator Orion 3000 gaming desktop we’ve reviewed, and it’s also the cheapest. In the configuration that we have here, with a 12th-gen Intel i5-12400 and Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, it will set you back just £1,199. Lower price often means lesser performance, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the Orion 3000 PO3-640’s capabilities. As long as you aren’t expecting to play games in 4k at stratospheric frame rates, this could be just the PC for you.
There are a couple of notable negatives, such as the extremely noisy fans when they’re at full speed and the limited SSD storage (only 256GB in our review unit), but these are outweighed by the raft of improvements that have arrived with Acer’s 2022 refresh of the Orion range. The new i5-12400F is superb, scoring very favourably in our benchmarks with outstanding single-core performance, and the RTX 3060 Ti is a powerhouse at 1080p, but also surprisingly capable at 1440p, too. As far as affordable pre-built desktops go, the Orion 3000 PO3-640 is very easy to recommend.
Design and build
The 2022 refresh of Acer’s Orion desktops marks a major departure from the angular, sci-fi stylings of past years. Now it’s all about clean lines and a distinctive, confident aesthetic.
The Orion 3000 PO3-640 comes in a compact case with both a metal and tempered glass side panel that you can easily swap to suit your preference, and it has a glass front panel covering the front bezel, which has a mesh surround providing airflow to the front RGB fan.
On the old Orion 3000, I used the metal side panel to hide the inside, because the cable management left a lot to be desired (read – messy AF). Acer has addressed this on the PO3-640 – the build quality has never been an issue, but the tidiness of the installation is now much, much better, making the glass side panel a more attractive choice. The micro-ATXmotherboard is a bit of a plain-Jane affair, but that’s to be expected at this price range. It’s functional, though, and easy to access.
As well as the two RGB fans, there’s a single RGB light strip at the top of the case illuminating the inside, and these are controlled by the Predator Sense software. Due to the limited number of lights, there aren’t a lot of customisation options available, but you can set them to your preferred colours easily or use the preset lighting effects, and the overall effect is pleasing.
There’s a very large mesh panel across the top of the PO3-640, and it doesn’t have a dust filter. Although functionally this improves airflow and cooling, it does make the Orion 3000 a bit of a dust trap. It’s not likely to pose a problem unless you have a very dusty house, but the GPU cover, in particular, catches a lot of dust. As long as you don’t neglect your system cleaning, it won’t cause you any issues.
Internals and upgrades
Due to the compact nature of the case, you’re a bit limited in what you can upgrade or add to this PC. In addition to the CPU fan, there is a single fan at the front of the case, and another at the rear, but there are no additional mounting points for additional fans or an AIO cooler. Instead of creating a recess in the top of the case, I’d have preferred it if they kept it flush and added screw-mounts so you could add an extra fan or AIO, as there would have been plenty of space.
Acer has managed to cram a sizeable GPU into the PO3-640, which bodes well for future GPU upgrades, and increasing the modest 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM is a simple process. We’d have liked to see an option with DDR5 RAM, but that is still expensive, and it’s an acceptable concession to keep prices low.
Our review model only has a 256GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, but this is easily expandable via an additional M.2 SSD slot located to the right of the RAM slots. There is an included 1TB HDD (and an additional easy-to-access 3.5” SATA drive bay), which is useful for storing large files, but I’ve been exclusively using SSDs for gaming for years now, and I found running games from the HDD to be painfully slow, so factor in a decent SSD if you decide to buy this PC.
Overall, there’s not a massive amount you can do to upgrade this PC. Fortunately, for the most important and likely upgrades that you’d want to make, like the RAM and storage, you’re well catered for. There’s even scope to upgrade the GPU in a few years, so the Orion 3000 PO3-640 represents a good forward-thinking investment.
Connectivity and I/O ports
At the rear, the motherboard IO has:
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
- 4x USB-A 2.0
- 1x Killer gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet port
- 3x 3.5mm audio jacks
- pink – microphone
- green – line out (speakers or headphones)
- blue – line in (external audio device)).
– There are no video outputs from the motherboard.
The RTX 3060 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4 ports.
The front IO panel has:
- 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
- 2x 3.5mm audio jacks
- Microphone
- Headset combi-jack
The port selection might be enough for many users, but those (like me) with a lot of peripherals may need to invest in a USB hub. I appreciated the front-facing additional ports, but I’d have also liked there to be a USB-C port at the rear, and I also would have preferred there to be more USB 3 ports at the rear.
Performance
The performance-per-pound ratio of this PC is remarkable, and it is easily one of the best-performing budget gaming PCs on the market. Acer has a knack for keeping costs down without compromising on performance, and the PO3-640 is probably the finest example yet.
The Intel Core i5-12400F has no business being as good as it is, outperforming the very capable i7-10700 and with excellent single-core performance. Paired with the RTX 3060 Ti, this translates very well into gaming, and you can happily play games at 1440p with all of the bells and whistles. If esports are more your jam, stick to 1080p and you can easily hit triple-digits on all of the latest competitive titles.
Benchmarks
All benchmark tests were carried out with the fans set to Auto, using Ultra settings or equivalent. Benchmarks were recorded at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p using an external display connected via DisplayPort. If DLSS was available, it was set to performance mode unless stated otherwise.
Gaming Benchmark Results
Performance comparisons
We have included the previous Orion 3000 PCs we tested for comparison, as well as the Orion 5000 with RTX 2070 Super. Considering this spec of Orion 3000 is notably cheaper than the others, it’s impressive how well it holds its own, especially in CPU-dependent titles.
| Laptop/PC | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3060 Ti | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3070 | Acer Predator Orion 5000 | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 2060 |
| Model | PO3-640 (2022) | PO3-620 (2021) | PO5-615s | PO3-620 |
| Processor | i5-12400F (6c12t @ 2.5/4.4GHz) 65W | i7-10700 (8c16t) 65W 4.6GHz | i7-10700K | i7-10700 @ 2.90 GHz |
| GPU | RTX 3060 Ti 8GB | RTX 3070 8GB (Zotac RTX 3070 Twin) | RTX 2070 Super | RTX 2060 6Gb |
| GPU TGP/TDP | 200W | 220W | ||
| Ram | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 16GB DDR4-3200 (2933MHz) | 16GB DDR4-3200 (8+8) | 16GB DDR4-2666 (8+8) |
| SSD | 250GB M.2 (190GB free) | 500GB M.2 (WD PC SN530) | 1TB M.2 (WD PC SN730) | 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD |
| HDD | 1TB HDD | 1TB WD Blue | 1TB WD Blue | 1Tb |
| Price | £1,199 | £1,499 | £1,999 | £1,299 |
System Benchmark Results
Cinebench R23
- CineBench – CPU (Single)
- (High-performance mode / Auto Fan): 1671
- CineBench – CPU (Multi)
- (High-performance mode / Auto Fan): 10857
3DMark – Time Spy (DX12)
| Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3070 | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3060 Ti | Acer Predator Orion 5000 RTX 2070 Super | ||
| PO3-620 (2021) | PO3-640 (2022) | PO5-615s | ||
| 3DMark – Time Spy (DX12) | Time Spy Score | 12335 | 10237 | 9778 |
| Graphics | 13126 | 10585 | 9840 | |
| CPU | 9196 | 8630 | 9447 |
3DMark – Fire Strike (DX11)
| Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3070 | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3060 Ti | Acer Predator Orion 5000 RTX 2070 Super | ||
| PO3-620 (2021) | PO3-640 (2022) | PO5-615s | ||
| 3DMark – Fire Strike (DX11) | Fire Strike Score | 24056 | 22373 | 21553 |
| Graphics Score | 32936 | 26678 | 23589 | |
| Physics Score | 21567 | 23378 | 26013 | |
| Combined Score | 8444 | 9836 | 11318 |
PCMark 10
| Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3070 | Acer Predator Orion 3000 RTX 3060 Ti | Acer Predator Orion 5000 | |
| PO3-620 (2021) | PO3-640 (2022) | PO5-615s | |
| PCMark 10 | 7105 | 7005 | 7037 |
| Essentials | 10226 | 9955 | 10971 |
| App start-up | 15204 | 13528 | 15531 |
| Video Conferencing | 7814 | 7760 | 9105 |
| Web Browsing | 9002 | 9399 | 9340 |
| Productivity | 8794 | 9058 | 8217 |
| Spreadsheets | 9987 | 11460 | 10636 |
| Writing | 7745 | 7160 | 6349 |
| Content Creation | 10823 | 10344 | 10489 |
| Photo Editing | 16032 | 13503 | 13515 |
| Rendering & Visualisation | 13987 | 13287 | 13712 |
| Video Editing | 5655 | 6169 | 6228 |
Storage
The 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD is decent enough and works well as a system storage drive, but for gaming, the capacity is prohibitively small. There’s an additional M.2 slot available which I highly recommend making use of for storing games on, but if your budget won’t stretch there yet, there’s also an included 7200rpm 1TB 3.5” HDD and space for another.
Sequential SSD read and write speeds of 2504 MB/s and 1271 MB/s respectively are pretty average, but the system boot-up times are fast and responsiveness across the system is excellent. You could potentially replace this main drive, too, but you’d be better served just adding a second M.2 drive and using the primary SSD for your OS and apps.
CrystalDiskMark
The following are the results recorded in CrystalDiskMark, with figures measured in MB/s
Temperatures and cooling
Unlike some of the higher-end models of Orion, like the outstanding Orion 7000, there are no overclocking or performance mode presets on the Orion 3000 PO3-640. There are a few fan control settings (Auto/Gaming/Custom), but for gaming, the Auto setting works very well. Fan noise is above average but tolerable, however, switch the fan control to gaming mode and it becomes insufferably loud. Fortunately, you’ll rarely need to use this setting, but if you routinely run programs that fully utilise the CPU this could be a deal breaker.
Whilst running Cinebench to test for throttling and temperature management at full loads with automatic fan management, the CPU got concerningly hot, stabilising at 100℃. Initially, I recorded speeds of 4.0 GHz, but once the CPU hit peak temperature this dropped to around 3.6 GHz, a performance drop of roughly 10%.
Switching the fans to the deafening gaming mode, the CPU temperature peaked at 87℃ which is much better, and there was no throttling, with a steady 4.0 GHz recorded. Although the 10% drop in performance with Auto fans isn’t too bad, the temperature difference is far more significant, so if you routinely run software that fully utilises the CPU you will have to put up with the noise or consign your CPU to an early grave.
Thankfully, when it comes to gaming, the Orion 3000 fares far better. The 4 GHz peak is maintained, but even on the most CPU-intensive games the temperature never exceeded 76℃, and the fans, whilst still relatively loud, weren’t deafening.
The GPU cooling is only average, largely due to the limited number of case fans. At full load, the RTX 3060 Ti reached and stabilised at 80℃. Considering the compact nature of the case and the size of the GPU, this isn’t too bad, and I have no concerns with the thermals of the Orion 3000 whilst gaming.
Pricing and availability
At just £1,199 (from Currys – UK), the Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-640 is a very affordable desktop that performs well above its modest price tag. We regularly see the Orion 3000 PO3-640 in stock, including the higher specced version with i7-12700 and RTX 3070. If you shop around, you should be able to find a great deal, and if you find one with a bigger SSD it could be worth paying a little extra.
New GPUs are on the way, but the rollout is expected to take a bit longer for the RTX 4060 and 4070 cards, potentially well into 2023. The CPU here is more than good enough to last you several years before becoming the bottleneck in your system, so you could simply upgrade the GPU down the line and keep happily using this PC for many years to come.
Summary
Once again, Acer has shown that gaming on a budget doesn’t have to mean poor performance or an ugly desktop. The Orion 3000 PO3-640 with RTX 3060 Ti is a great PC if you’re new to the hobby or mainly want to play less demanding or esports titles. I’d still recommend saving the extra couple of hundred and plumping for the i7 RTX 3070 model if you want to play at 1440p and above, but with new GPUs on the horizon, you could easily upgrade the graphics card down the line. Kudos to Acer, as this is the kind of PC I’d happily buy myself, especially with the appealing 2022 PO3-640 facelift and compact case.
