- High Speed Pentium 4 Processor
- Support For Future PCI Express and DDR2 Upgrades
- No DVD Burner Drive in Base System
- Lacks Software Bundle
- No Speakers or Monitor Included
- Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz) Processor with Intel 925X Based Motherboard
- 1GB Dual-Channel PC4300 DDR2 Memory
- 120GB Seagate Barracuda 7,200rpm Hard Drive
- Lite On 16x DVD-ROM and 52x CD-RW Optical Drives
- Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Sound Card
- ATI Radeon X800 XT PCI Express x16 Graphics Card with 256MB Memory
- Intel 1Gbps Ethernet
- Eight USB 2.0 Ports and 2 Firewire Ports
- Windows XP Home Operating System
6/27/04 - Alienware's Area 51 desktop computer system has been their headline system for quite some time now. It has undergone a number of revisions, but the latest may be its more dramatic component change to date.
The Area 51 Extreme is now based around the new Intel 925X chipset that brings a lot of new technologies to the system. It uses the new socket T Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz) processor. It also uses the new DDR2 PC4300 memory. While not providing much performance gains currently over DDR memory, it does allow for excellent future support.
Another new technology added to the system with the new chipset is PCI Express. This is primarily going to benefit video cards in the near future, but will allow for greater possibilities over the current PCI bus. In fact, the Area 51 comes with the new ATI Radeon X800XT PCI Express x16 graphics card. This should provide ample performance for current and future 3D video games.
Storage on the Area 51 Extreme's base configuration is a bit dissapointing. It comes with a decent 120GB Seagate SerialATA hard drive. Many companies are now starting to offer RAID0 stripes standard on their performance systems. Optical storage is provided by a 52x CD-RW and 16x DVD-ROM. It would be nice for them to include a DVD burner in the base package.
Overall, the Area 51 Extreme brings a number of new technologies that currently don't add much performance to the system, but it gives the system a good base for future enhancements.
