X marks the spot with Acer’s new X3 and XC series desktop towers

With dimensions approaching a vertically oriented turn of the century phone book done up in a smudge-proof matte black, Acer’s Aspire X3 and XC series workhorse desktop towers may look modest externally but they’re the brand’s latest hardware refresh of the line with beefed up specs that include the new Intel Skylake processors across the board.

At a small media event in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Acer Malaysia showcased both rigs to gathered guests. Both are externally similar with a vertically oriented tower chassis but differ in terms of internal hardware. The higher end Aspire X3-780 packs better specs in addition to a top-mounted Qi wireless charger panel to recharge wireless enabled gear. The Aspire XC-780 lacks a wireless charging pad and has more modest specs and comes in two variants.

The Acer Aspire X3-780 has an integrated Qi wireless charger to juice up smartphones and the like

The Aspire X3-780  runs Windows 10 Home 64-bit on an Intel Core i7-6700 processor, has 4GB RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX745 GPU while storage needs are taken care of by a 2TB hard disk drive.

Left – The Acer Aspire XC-780 from the rear. Right – The Acer Aspire X30780 from the rear.

The Acer Aspire XC-780 also runs Windows 10 Home 64-bit though on an Intel Core i5-6400 processor paired with 4GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics and a 1TB hard disk. Both rigs come with a card reader and a DVD drive. The XC-780 also comes in a cheaper alternative configuration that sports an i3-6100 processor. Both rigs come with a card reader, a pair of front mounted USB 3.0 ports, a rear USB 3.0 port, a quarter of USB 2.0 ports, a pair of HDMI ports and an Ethernet port.

The Aspire X3-780 tower will ship in early August for RM3,499 while the Aspire XC-780 with an Intel i5-6400 processor is now in the market and retailing for RM2099. The X3-780 with an Intel i3-6100 processor is also available for RM1,599