Alienware Area-51 ALX System Review

[One4yu2c]

As a founding father in what's still considered a niche market, Alienware offers a range of custom notebooks and PCs, culminating with the Area-51. Built with gaming in mind, Alienware recently overhauled their flagship lineup to keep up with this ever evolving segment and sent us their Area-51 ALX, a water-cooled powerhouse sporting a quad-core processor and dual-GPUs. But it takes more than a spec sheet to impress us, and at $7K, we're expecting an out-of-this-world ride. Did Alienware oblige?
Paul Lilly

Alienware Area-51 ALX System Review

[onebxr]

Very nice, it looks like a great setup. However, as you stated for most of us the price is a bit out of reach. Good review Paul.
-1

[simple_inhibition]

why did 32mb SuperPi freeze? did you experience any other instability?

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by simple_inhibition

why did 32mb SuperPi freeze? did you experience any other instability?

No, and neither Orthos or Prime95 revealed an instabilities. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with SuperPi on a Vista setup, and likely won't be the last.

[drew and not u]

At any time did the system emit any sort of transport ray to suck you inside, where perhaps otherworldly beings may have conducted various scientific experiments on your fragile human vessel?

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by drew and not u

At any time did the system emit any sort of transport ray to suck you inside, where perhaps otherworldly beings may have conducted various scientific experiments on your fragile human vessel?

Anal probing is not necessary, the machine cost enough as it is.

[PTRMAN]

Nice review - how long do you get to keep such a beast before sending it back? I wonder what they do with the "used" PCs they send out for reviews like this one.

[Smashing]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you build a machine that performs just as well in real world scenarios for like $1000-$2000?

[Panda Man]

Nice review Paul! I like the clean desktop, but I'd rather just nuke the ads and bloat in exchange for saving a grand on the final price. $7,300 is pretty outrageous IMO, and I can't help but feel they picked some of the parts in there just to jack up the price. Such as the QX9650, is it really worth it?

[One4yu2c]

To be fair, Alienware does offer a line of less expensive configurations starting at $999 (before shipping/tax). In this respect, it's the same concept as building your own rig - higher end components carry a premium price tag, and it's up to you to factor in bang/buck or ignore it altogether.

The difference here is that Alienware, like all top-tier boutiques, tacks on a hefty mark-up. It's a killer rig, and even better since they've swapped the HD 3870s for the X2 variant, but it's not cheap. In my eyes, this is where OEMs like Puget Systems can really excel. They build high quality, clean wired systems without quite as high of a markup, and offer better support than places like CyberPower or IBuyPower.