ACER RECENTLY came by to deliver
us a presentation about its new line
of products, the ConceptD range.
Apparently, the D stands for “Design”
not.... Well, who knew? Real talk, though,
Acer has zeroed in on a key problem with
the computer hardware market: Content
creators are experiencing a dearth of
purpose-built systems, instead opting
to buy powerful gaming PCs for their
4K video-editing needs. That wouldn’t
necessarily be a problem, if it weren’t for
the fact that many working professionals
don’t want a giant, glowing RGB unit
shooting red and blue lighting all over
the place.
So, the ConceptD 500. The standard
desktop model in the ConceptD range
(which includes laptops, monitors,
and more) is a high-powered system,
meant to integrate seamlessly and
unobtrusively into office spaces with a
simple, aesthetically pleasing design.
Convenience is a cornerstone of this
system’s design; the faux-wood finish
on top includes a Qi wireless charging
pad hidden beneath, enabling you to
drop your phone atop the case for a
battery boost. At the front, a quick press
reveals a spring-loaded mount to hang
a pair of headphones on. The top I/O is
covered with an odd plastic shield that
can be removed to access it; we get the
impression that it would be tossed aside
immediately by 95 percent of users, but
that’s fine.
As Acer describes it, the ConceptD
500 is “elegantly honest.” There are no
hidden bells and whistles here, just high-
quality components inside a minimalistAcer enters the fray with new designer hardware
Acer ConceptD 500
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VERDICT Acer ConceptD 500DESIGNER Powerful
hardware; charming visual
design; purpose-built for creatives.
DISASTER A little pricey; tricky to modify;
weak case fans.
$4,000, http://www.acer.comSPECIFICATIONSCPU Intel Core i9-9900K
Graphics Nvidia RTX Quadro 4000
RAM 64GB (4x 16GB) Kingston
DDR4-2666
Motherboard Unbranded X299
Primary Storage Western Digital SN720 1TB
M.2 NVMe SSD
Additional Storage 2x Toshiba 2TB 3.5-inch
HDDs
Cooling Solution Air cooler
PSU LiteOn 500W 80+ Gold
Case ConceptD 500
Our zero-point consists of an Intel Core i9-7900X, 32GB G.Skill RipJaws V series DDR4 @ 3,000, an MSI GeForce GTX Warranty One year
1080 Ti Gaming X, and a 512GB Samsung 960 Pro PCIe SSD. All tests performed at 4K at the highest graphical profile.BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 2,178 1,778 (-18%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Read (MB/s) 3,136 3,460 (10%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,126 2,784 (31%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 6,988 4,888 (-30%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps)^6845 (-34%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 42 32 (-24%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^38 27 (-29%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%case. When powered on, the gray plastic
ring surrounding the wooden top panel
emits a (slightly feeble) orange glow. At
the rear, two silver clips at the top and
bottom of the panel allow for some cable
management. It’s also impressively quiet;
the front panel appears solid at first
glance, but subtle gaps in the triangular
design allow for air to be drawn in by the
case fans, although said fans are pretty
tiny. Even running under stress, the
volume stays respectably low.
Of course, it’s all about the hardware
inside. A Core i9-9900K processor powers
this system, backed up by a mighty 64GB
of DDR4-2666 memory, prepped and
ready for complex design work. Graphics
are handled by a $1,000 RTX Quadro
4000 GPU, ideal for everything from 3D
architectural rendering to driving high-
fidelity environments in VR, and as the
name implies, we’ve got full ray-tracing
support, too. The OS boots from a high-
speed M.2 drive, which also ensures
that any programs load rapidly. Two
more HDDs provide an additional 4TB of
storage for videos, images, and more,
with models packing both 2.5-inch and
3.5-inch drives.
The system also comes with a handful
of slightly unusual but still beneficial
features. Pre-loaded on to the desktop
is ConceptD Palette, a simple system-
monitoring tool that lets you check the
usage of your CPU, GPU, and memory at
a glance. There’s also a system health
indicator LED on the top I/O, which pings
should something untoward occur. Lastly,
there’s an intrusion alarm. This triggers a
notification on boot next time the systempowers up, should the case be opened—a
tamper alert, essentially.
The ConceptD 500 is something of a new
breed. Built specifically with workstation
functions in mind, it doesn’t really fit our
usual selection of game benchmarks. For
comparison here, we’ve used our regular
4K build, but going forward, you’ll see
this system acting as our zero-point for
workstation PCs. To that end, we tested
a few pieces of software: Fry Render
and SPECviewperf 13 both returned
favorable results. The table below might
make it look like this desktop struggles in
comparison to older systems, but that’s
not the case in practice.
While this is a competent platform for
4K gaming, that’s not what it was designed
for; instead, it excels at rendering,
video editing, and 3D art. Versatile, it’s
at home in the office space of a graphic
design business or the home office of an
architect. Cracking open the case doesn’t
show anything appealing, just a mess of
cables and unbranded silicon, but the
target audience isn’t likely to want to
make modifications. If you’re looking for
a workstation PC to support your tech
startup or 3D animation firm, this is the
machine for you. –CHRISTIAN GUYTONin the lab
76 MAXIMUMPC DEC 2019 maximumpc.com