Alienware Area 51 - R2 Desktop ( Full Specs ) Needed

[Akstation]

Hi, there

Just bought a new Alienware Area 51 R2 desktop - but I couldn't find out which motherboard is used in the system and I made a decision of going for a Dual GPU ( Nvidia GTX970 SLI ) over the stock GTX1050 ,, single card ( I haven't been using multiple GPU's before, but if I gone triple card, it would be way over my price point and I would like to know how fast or performance would this
2X (Dual) GTX 970 to a 980Ti single card or a TitanX single card, should I change my card.
I like the Alienware Area51 design and this is going to be my Gaming PC rig,

Thanks

 

[ss202sl]

http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_alienware_dsk/alienware-area51-r2_service%20manual_en-us.pdf
Page 17 - shows s2011 MS-7862 XJKKD MB

 

[Chugalug_]

Hi, there

Just bought a new Alienware Area 51 R2 desktop - but I couldn't find out which motherboard is used in the system and I made a decision of going for a Dual GPU ( Nvidia GTX970 SLI ) over the stock GTX1050 ,, single card ( I haven't been using multiple GPU's before, but if I gone triple card, it would be way over my price point and I would like to know how fast or performance would this
2X (Dual) GTX 970 to a 980Ti single card or a TitanX single card, should I change my card.
I like the Alienware Area51 design and this is going to be my Gaming PC rig,

Thanks

It depends which model you bought. As long as its mATX or ATX you should just decide to SLI it with 970s, saves you money over going 980ti or 1070.

 

[Professur]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Akstation : "Dual GTX 970 VS Single GTX 1080"

Hi, Just curious .. just ordered an Alienware Area 51 R2 , $3800 range,
I decided to go for : Dual GTX 970 SLI over it's stock Video card : GTX 1070 Founders Edition with 8GB GDDR5 ( Single Card ) , again,, i still don't know if this decision is best for my gaming rig, ( Triple GPU would be to over kill for my price point for a desktop ) and yes, making it dual 970 is about $300 more over 1070 single card
is this still worth it.
for playing current pc games and upcoming pc games for the next 2-3 years

Alienware Area 51 = specs are

intel i7 Gen5 -5820k
16gb ram
Dual GTX970 SLI with ( 4GB DDR5 )
Blu ray drive
128 GB SSD + 2TB SATA
Running Windows 10 Pro. Edition

Thanks, guys

A single GTX 1080 would have been the better choice.
1. Not all games are optimized the same for multigpu configs. A single GTX 1080 would provide more consistent performance across all games.

2. Memory does not stack. Unless a game is DX 12 optimized both your 970 will only have a total of 4GB of ram to work with. High end games are already breaking the 4GB vram barrier in 2k and 4k

3. You so should have built it yourself. at 3800 dollars you could built a comparable tower and get a nice monitor to go with it.

Go 1080 because you can go dual 1080 later...

 

[Chugalug_]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Akstation : "Dual GTX 970 VS Single GTX 1080"

Hi, Just curious .. just ordered an Alienware Area 51 R2 , $3800 range,
I decided to go for : Dual GTX 970 SLI over it's stock Video card : GTX 1070 Founders Edition with 8GB GDDR5 ( Single Card ) , again,, i still don't know if this decision is best for my gaming rig, ( Triple GPU would be to over kill for my price point for a desktop ) and yes, making it dual 970 is about $300 more over 1070 single card
is this still worth it.
for playing current pc games and upcoming pc games for the next 2-3 years

Alienware Area 51 = specs are

intel i7 Gen5 -5820k
16gb ram
Dual GTX970 SLI with ( 4GB DDR5 )
Blu ray drive
128 GB SSD + 2TB SATA
Running Windows 10 Pro. Edition

Thanks, guys

A single GTX 1080 would have been the better choice.
1. Not all games are optimized the same for multigpu configs. A single GTX 1080 would provide more consistent performance across all games.

2. Memory does not stack. Unless a game is DX 12 optimized both your 970 will only have a total of 4GB of ram to work with. High end games are already breaking the 4GB vram barrier in 2k and 4k

3. You so should have built it yourself. at 3800 dollars you could built a comparable tower and get a nice monitor to go with it.

Go 1080 because you can go dual 1080 later...

Well, this is confusing.
So he already has 970 SLI.
Okay, so 970 SLI is roughly equivalent to a 980ti running at stock speeds. In gaming the 980ti performs the exact same if not better than the Titan X in 90% of applications.
The 1080 is 25-30% faster than the 980ti, but is not really worth the investment at the moment due to the extremely low prices 980tis are going at, around 350-400 compared to the 699+ of the 1080 for the decent cards in some places.
In my opinion, until you are willing to take the dive into a single 1080 and potentially a second down the line, you are perfectly fine with 970 SLI.

 

[Akstation]

thanks guys,, i might just go for 1080 GTX , for a little bit more money, ( single ) card and get an second or more in the future.
when the price is decent.

 

[Chugalug_]

thanks guys,, i might just go for 1080 GTX , for a little bit more money, ( single ) card and get an second or more in the future.
when the price is decent.

Sounds good. The best value card is the G1 Gaming from Gigabyte, but if you want a bit more performance, go for the MSI Gaming X or EVGA SC. I've heard the QC on some of the Asus models is bad, and they're very expensive at the moment over the other cards. (where I live and online at least)