Friday, August 3, 2007
Hardware Review: Alienware Area-51 ALX Desktop
Would you buy an $8,180 computer? That question has been eating away at me ever since the Alienware Area-51 ALX arrived at my friend's house. On one hand, I love it because it has absolutely everything we look for in a performance gaming desktop—including the performance. But then there’s its cost: closer to five digits than any other PC we’ve reviewed in recent memory. Can the power make you forget the price? In my book, no
First, though, let me point out that you’re getting one heck of an impressive package. Processing and graphics power come courtesy of a quad-core 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (overclocked to 3.4GHz), 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and two of those outstanding 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards in a Scalable Link Interface (SLI) configuration. Accessing disk-resident applications and files will hum thanks to the two 10,000rpm 150GB drives in a RAID 0 configuration, and you’ll have plenty of room for storing videos and the like on the third drive, a 7,200rpm 500GB model. Multimedia mavens will also be treated to the latest: a 2x double-layer Blu-ray/DVD±RW drive, and the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer eight-channel sound card. Windows Vista Ultimate is the OS of choice, and you get Logitech’s G15 Gaming Keyboard (with 18 additional function keys, plus media-control buttons and more) and G5 Laser Mouse.
Opening the eye-catching Alienware case—shiny black with chrome fins, suggesting how Chevrolet might have designed the ultimate in intergalactic luxury circa 1957—further reminds you how seriously Alienware takes its PC-enthusiast customers’ convenience and comfort. The case conceals a compact liquid-cooling system, acoustic dampening for reducing noise levels, lots of space for adding and removing components, a sideways hard drive mounting scheme (adding or removing drives is very easy), and clean cable arrangements. It’s also outfitted with two open 5.25-inch drive bays and a 1,000-watt power supply for accommodating anything else you might need that Alienware didn’t provide.
The PC delivered terrific performance, burning through my friends' FutureMark 3DMark06, Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander, and F.E.A.R. tests with ease unmatched by any system we’ve all yet tested together. Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander looked especially fabulous, and I expect them to look even better when those games’ DirectX 10 patches are released soon. The average frames per second (fps) score for each at 1,600x1,200 resolution surpassed my expectations—the former scored an average of 163fps, the latter an incredible 56.6fps.
That said, the Cyberpower Gamer Infinity Ultimate my cousin tested recently scored only a little lower on his tests, and it costs $3,999—less than half the price—and it comes with a monitor. Of course, you don’t get all the fancy accoutrements you do with the Alienware system: an elaborately bound manual, a one-year 24/7 warranty with onsite service, a custom mouse pad in a metal box, an Alienware keychain, a metal pen, a baseball cap...
Are the Alienware extras worth $4,200 more? Truth be told, I'd rather save that money if it won’t get us $4,200 worth of additional performance. I’ve got no end of respect for Alienware, and love looking at and looking in their systems as much as me and my pals like playing with them. But we all need to respect our bank balance, too; that's the only thing the Area-51 ALX makes harder.
