First Glimpse of Alienware's 6-core Area-51 Gaming PC
First Glimpse of Alienware's 6-core Area-51 Gaming PC
Posted 03/15/2010 at 5:45am
| by Paul Lilly
13
Comments
Print
Ever since Dell acquired Alienware almost four years ago to the day, power users have had a penchant for calling into question the boutique system builder's geek cred. Fair assessment or not, you have to credit Alienware for living on the bleeding edge of hardware, like being one of the first (if not the first) to offer a gaming PC built around Intel's recently unveiled 6-core Gulftown chip.
While you're at it, credit HotHardware for pulling whatever strings it took to land Alienware's new 6-core Area-51 and snapping a few pics. Details are sparse at the moment, but HH site owner Dave Altavilla tells us Alienware should be officially launching its newest Area-51 perhaps as early as tomorrow, which means you should be able to order one this week.
Those looking for high-end amenities will find them, including a hot-swap drive cage, a motorized side panel, and illuminated vent system. On the inside you'll find as much hardware as your wallet can accommodate. The one HotHardware abducted boasts a pair of Radeon HD 5970s (four GPUs!), a self-contained water cooler, and even a backup battery of sorts.
"So, when you open the side panel, even if the system is powered down and unplugged, you're still able to admire its build quality with a little mood lighting to warm you up like Barry White," Dave Altavilla explained.
Sounds groovy, and expensive. Unfortunately, no word yet on price.
More pics here.
Image Credit: HotHardware
More like this
wester71
March 15, 2010 at 5:02pm
If you could actually afford this pos, is it necessary to own 6 cores for any good reason?And I agree can it play crises?I am looking foward to seeing the bench tests.Also I think alienware has lost alot of flavor!!!Dell=gag reflex!!!Proprietary systems are for the week.Long live the geeks!
leetNightshade
March 15, 2010 at 5:30pm
"is it necessary to own 6 cores for any good reason"
Cinema 4D. It scales about linearly in it's performance with the addition of more cores.
bjoswald
March 15, 2010 at 4:17pm
The only people who could afford this are the rich snobs that can throw around $10K as "chump change" or the people who make the damn thing. The "Average Joe" wouldn't need four, let alone six cores for anything. Seriously, how the fuck are we supposed to keep up with this? By the time you get the damn thing it's obsolete.
noobstix
March 15, 2010 at 3:26pm
Well this certainly caught me by surprise. Just another reason for me to care less about an overpriced POS. I don't know what's bigger, the Radeon 5970's in Crossfire or the ego of some douche who buys this and says it's the best thing in the world? If they wanted to make any money off this machine, they'd opted for putting 2 Nvidias in SLI.
And since Dell owns Alienware, I think they could "donate" a set of Alienware machines to schools across the globe.
Thiazolium
March 15, 2010 at 3:26pm
Only 3 RAM slots. Does that mean safely getting up to 12GB (3x4) of system memory or would having 6 RAM slots = headache plus lack of stability?? Interesting as well because the lowly Gateway recently tested has 16GB of RAM.
JohnP
March 15, 2010 at 12:56pm
Go to the Hot Hardware site to see the hot swap hard drive panel. Now that is sweet...
deadmaninc1
March 15, 2010 at 7:31am
This looks like every other heap of @#$%^ that dell produces. The only difference is the CPU. In which case you can't varify because they all look like the Area 51-ALX. Besides my ASUS laptop (G72) smokes most alienware desktops for a 1/3 of the price. And another thing Origin PC claims a optional 1 ghz additional overclock on this CPU that I'm sure is easy but how can they when they don't even have the CPU yet. This chip was RTM'd to SELECT manufactures. I doubt a small company like Origin would have there hands on it yet. Furthermore Dell uses sub par parts for their Alienware machines. Look at the CPU cooler. Doesn't it look like a Corsair H50? Nothing original about this build at all. Shame on you Alienware @$$holes. You don't deserve to be in the same relm as some of use that busted our @$$e$ building the best we can.
PS I'm sure it can play Crysis.
lunchbox73
March 15, 2010 at 9:53am
Not to mention it's fugly. The fins on top are kind of cool but overall it's tacky. Give me a nice plain brushed aluminum case without bulging shapes and LEDs any day.
decapitor
March 15, 2010 at 7:20am
Anyone buying any boutique PC instead of DIY is the automatically lacking in geek cred.
Keith E. Whisman
March 15, 2010 at 7:18am
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday 2090 for this thing today.
And how about it will it play Crysis?
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
Where have all the memorable videogame enemies gone?
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Multi-Monitor Usage On The Rise http://t.co/eWfJfCEG11 hours 13 min ago
- maximumpc: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Coming On February 29 http://t.co/3Nd04FdR17 hours 1 min ago
- maximumpc: Can RIM *ever* catch a break? Not today! App World numbers not as great as previously reported http://t.co/3ERRhr311 day 12 hours ago
