Alienware Area-51 Performance Desktop PC

Dec 8 2009 - Alienware's Area-51 desktop has undergone a cosmetic upgrade with a new case design but the basic internals remain much the same as the previous X58. performance is still quite good, but the $1999 base price tag is a bit much considering that some components are lower than what can be found for the same price. Still, Alienware does an excellent job with their cases and build quality that many may be willing to pay a little extra for.

Dec 8 2009 - Alienware's latest revision of their flagship Area-51 performance desktop may look different thanks to the new case design but the internal components remain mostly unchanged. The system still uses the Intel X58 performance chipset and the Core i7 900 series processor. The main thing that hasn't really changed is the price.

Performance is still quite strong with the Area-51 thanks to the high performance Intel chipset and processor mentioned before. The base configuration has received a much needed memory boost from 3GB to 6GB of DDR3 memory. This lets it run multiple applications and memory intensive programs smoother than it had in the past. It would be nice to see a newer or higher grade Core i7 900 series processor than the 920 version that Alienware uses.

Storage on the Area-51 is still quite mediocre on the base Area-51 configuration. While many less expensive performance desktops feature one terabyte drives, the base hard drive uses a 640GB drive. This is a good solid performance drive but it would be nice to see more capacity. It is possible to upgrade the drive or add additional drives in a RAID array for extra performance but it does increase the cost of the system.

Gaming is the primary focus of the Area-51, so graphics are a key component. The system uses a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 graphics card as its base. This is a decent card for those looking to run games up to the 1920x1200 resolution level. The 1.8GB of graphics memory doesn't really help too much with the card over a version that has the traditional 892MB memory. Those wanting more detail at higher resolutions can upgrade to the new ATI Radoen HD 5870 or add a second NVIDIA card. This isn't an issue as the system has a very large 1KW power supply.

One really nice aspect of the Area-51 is the build quality. The new case takes a different take with a separate compartment for the power supply, expansion cards and even the hard drives. In fact, the hard drive compartment is quite unique with them mounted under the right side panel rather than in trays along the front or top of the case. Everything is also tool free including the power supply making it extremely easy to install upgrades.

Liquid cooling of the processor is also a standard feature now compared to previous versions. This is supposed to provide improved cooling performance at reduced noise levels. This is a claim that is a bit more difficult now with the high efficiency tower coolers that can easily fit in cases the size of the Area-51. Since the cooling also doesn't apply to the graphics cards, the noise of the processor cooling isn't so much of an issue.

The net result is a good performance computer with some solid build quality. The price will be the sticking point for many people though. As a whole, the new Aurora system offers a better value with similar levels of performance albeit with less expansion room.