When you think of a liquid-cooled, a giant gaming monstrosity computer comes to mind. But with its latest convertible, Acer is taking that technology in the other direction to create a slim and silent notebook. Today, Liquid-cooling systems are frequently found in large, desktop gaming rigs, or other oversized computers but now Acer is  bringing liquid cooling to a more portable form factor with its Switch Alpha 12, a 12-inch convertible notebook.
Spec Preview
The Switch Alpha 12 packs in a 12-inch screen. It’s running at a 2160 by 1440 resolution, which is almost as sharp as Apple’s Macbook Retina.  As for that cooling setup, Acer says it uses the heat of the coolant as it expands into gas to keep the entire system moving. It weighs in 2.76 pounds with a keyboard, and 1.98 pounds as a standalone tablet. That’s a surprising amount of additional weight just for the keyboard
The $599 Switch Alpha 12 is the first fanless 2-in-1 to use Intel’s sixth-generation Core i (Skylake) processors, and has a 2160 x 1440 pixel display and optional backlit keyboard. The liquid-cooling system enables the fanless design, and Acer says it is both reliable and silent in operation. Liquid cooling in a small device isn’t entirely unprecedented, Microsoft put it in the 5.7-inch Lumia 950 XL smartphone last year, for example — but it’s still fairly uncommon to see. The Switch Alpha 12 has a similar design to Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, including a kickstand and detachable keyboard that’s included with the tablet.
The Switch Alpha 12’s low price is apparent in its build quality: it’s not nearly as elegant of a device as Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4.
Acer is also announcing a slew of other notebooks and gaming equipment, including the Predator 17x gaming notebook with a triple-fan cooling system; the Predator G1 desktop, a compact PC with full-sized Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics and up to 64GB of RAM; and a 27-inch curved gaming monitor. Also revealed is the $699 3.13lb S 13 notebook, which is said to be one of the “thinnest notebooks in its class,” and R 15 convertible notebook, which has a 15.6-inch display, glass fiber body, and metal lid.
Acer says that all of the products announced today will be available for preorder in the near future.
Will you be getting yourself one. leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
