Review Alienware Area-51 review: large and in charge

[Admin]

The Alienware Area-51 is a massive tower that has finally returned to standardized parts, but performance increases aren't huge over the last generation of desktops.

Alienware Area-51 review: large and in charge : Read more

 

[VizzieTheViz]

you have to really REALLY want an Alienware pc to pay this much for these specs, but at least you’re getting a great pc that you can upgrade with standard parts later (just not at a great price).

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

you have to really REALLY want an Alienware pc to pay this much for these specs, but at least you’re getting a great pc that you can upgrade with standard parts later (just not at a great price).

Considering people are paying $4000+ just for an RTX 5090, that would mean it's 'only' $1800 or so for the rest of the PC. And you get the full warranty from a single point of contact.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I was actually looking to buy one of these but thought better of it. I couldn't get past their choice to use the Ultra9 instead of the 9800X3D or the latest 9950X3D. The price is also a hindrance as most don't have the money to pay the costs up front. Dell Pay only goes to 12 months no interest finance where HP is 24 months. I decided to build my own with quality parts and a slick looking NZXT H7 Flow case that can easily fit a standard 5090.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Considering people are paying $4000+ just for an RTX 5090, that would mean it's 'only' $1800 or so for the rest of the PC. And you get the full warranty from a single point of contact.

Jared, I had an opportunity when they were first announced to buy an HP Omen 45L with an RTX 5090 for about $4200 plus tax and still did not bite.

 

[vanadiel007]

Considering people are paying $4000+ just for an RTX 5090, that would mean it's 'only' $1800 or so for the rest of the PC. And you get the full warranty from a single point of contact.

Yes, but usually design decisions are made on Dell systems. That RTX 5090 is not a retail model but a Dell OEM model.

 

[VizzieTheViz]

Considering people are paying $4000+ just for an RTX 5090, that would mean it's 'only' $1800 or so for the rest of the PC. And you get the full warranty from a single point of contact.

Fair enough if you feel you have to have a 5090 and think it’s worth upwards of $4K, but it’s still not great value in my book.

If Dell is paying less than MSRP for these 5090s (and there’s no reason to think they aren’t) then it’s a ridiculous price regardless of the ridiculous prices of 5090 cards.

 

[jjohnson1212]

you have to really REALLY want an Alienware pc to pay this much for these specs, but at least you’re getting a great pc that you can upgrade with standard parts later (just not at a great price).

yes that is a lot of money for a computer

 

[cknobman]

2 RAM slots?
Terrible CPU choice.
Man this thing is terrible IMO.
Just more overpriced Dell junk.

 

[RoLleRKoaSTeR]

An overpriced POS. It has been a while, but let's get Steve to rip Dell a new one.

 

[Notton]

2 RAM slots?

2 is fine. Actually it's desirable for a gaming machine.
Why? Because Intel specs only guarantee a DDR5-3600/2-rank, and DDR5-4000/1-rank when four slots are populated.

Where as when only 2 slots are populated, Intel CPUs run happily out of spec at DDR5-6400.
And realistically, I don't see any game release within 10 years requiring more than 32GB.

 

[SkyBill40]

Holy crap is that a LOT of money. Nice looking rig and all with a good move towards industry standardization on parts but wowza. Then again, this is probably par for the course when comparing to other high end prebuilts from the likes of Falcon Northwest, Maingear, et al.

 

[blppt]

If I'm spending $6K on a PC it better have a custom water loop and at least 64GB of RAM.

 

[Air2004]

$5500+ for a prebuilt PC and it doesn't offer a reach around ? No thank you.

At that price I'd rather build it myself.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Oh, the haters.
You can't even find a 5090 for under $4K right now. I'm not usually one to recommend Alienware to anyone, and yes, I get it, the 9800X3D is the better gaming chip. Not by a mile, but sure, it wins.

But let’s be honest, people buying these systems aren’t just gaming. Intel still pulls ahead in productivity, just like AMD pulls ahead in gaming. Marginal differences, depending on what you're doing.

Calling this a "POS" is a bit dramatic, especially considering this one actually lets you upgrade components, which is more than can be said for plenty of prebuilts out there.

And pricing from other boutique builders? Not any better. In fact, usually worse. Go take a look at what a 9600 build with a 5070 runs you from FNW or similar. Bring tissues, your eyes are going to water.

But hey, us DIY purists gotta keep up appearances, right? If we’re not rolling our eyes and scoffing at prebuilts, do we even lift thermal paste?

 

[Thunder64]

2 RAM slots?
Terrible CPU choice.
Man this thing is terrible IMO.
Just more overpriced Dell junk.

Honestly no big deal. If I wanted to complain about something it would absolutely be that it is ATX12VO. Just using a SATA drive becomes a chore with ATX12VO.

 

[A Stoner]

Top of the line gaming computer with intel as the heart and soul. Seems like a bad decision.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Oh, the haters.
You can't even find a 5090 for under $4K right now. I'm not usually one to recommend Alienware to anyone, and yes, I get it, the 9800X3D is the better gaming chip. Not by a mile, but sure, it wins.

But let’s be honest, people buying these systems aren’t just gaming. Intel still pulls ahead in productivity, just like AMD pulls ahead in gaming. Marginal differences, depending on what you're doing.

Calling this a "POS" is a bit dramatic, especially considering this one actually lets you upgrade components, which is more than can be said for plenty of prebuilts out there.

And pricing from other boutique builders? Not any better. In fact, usually worse. Go take a look at what a 9600 build with a 5070 runs you from FNW or similar. Bring tissues, your eyes are going to water.

But hey, us DIY purists gotta keep up appearances, right? If we’re not rolling our eyes and scoffing at prebuilts, do we even lift thermal paste?

Funny enough, I just published this piece:
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...usd3-139-counts-as-a-good-gpu-deal-these-days

Also, I brush my teeth with thermal paste. That's how hardcore of an enthusiast I am! 😛

 

[Loadedaxe]

Top of the line gaming computer with intel as the heart and soul. Seems like a bad decision.

Actually, its not.
Let’s be real, Intel chips hold their own against Ryzen 3D at 1440p and 4K. The people buying high-end CPUs like these aren’t gaming at 1080p anyway. That’s where Ryzen does pull ahead, sure, but it’s not really relevant for the resolutions people use these chips at.

99% of benchmarks focus on 1080p, and while that’s great for comparison and bottlenecks, it doesn’t reflect how these chips are actually being used. If I’m spending that kind of money, I’m definitely not gaming at 1080p.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Actually, its not.
Let’s be real, Intel chips hold their own against Ryzen 3D at 1440p and 4K. The people buying high-end CPUs like these aren’t gaming at 1080p anyway. That’s where Ryzen does pull ahead, sure, but it’s not really relevant for the resolutions people use these chips at.

99% of benchmarks focus on 1080p, and while that’s great for comparison and bottlenecks, it doesn’t reflect how these chips are actually being used. If I’m spending that kind of money, I’m definitely not gaming at 1080p.

This is true, but also there are games that are CPU limited at 1440p for sure with an RTX 5090, and even 4K can show some differences. Considering AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D uses less power and offers superior gaming performance, with office/application performance that's usually more than fast enough, I think most people looking at the 5090 will want a top-tier AMD solution to go with it.

AI workloads are still GPU limited as well, so the CPU is generally less of a consideration. But even when it "doesn't matter" if you have Arrow Lake or Zen 5 X3D, why would you spend top dollar (and more!) on an RTX 5090 only to pair it with what is clearly not the top CPU?

There will undoubtedly still be "just buy Intel" mindsets floating about, and they won't really notice the difference. But the way things are looking at Intel, even those holdouts might have to wake up and smell what the roses are growing in at some point soon. It's going to be interesting to see how Intel weathers the storm, and if it can ever manage to regain its former stature.

 

[RoLleRKoaSTeR]

Interesting review by JayzTwoCents on this is out.

 

[A Stoner]

Actually, its not.
Let’s be real, Intel chips hold their own against Ryzen 3D at 1440p and 4K. The people buying high-end CPUs like these aren’t gaming at 1080p anyway. That’s where Ryzen does pull ahead, sure, but it’s not really relevant for the resolutions people use these chips at.

99% of benchmarks focus on 1080p, and while that’s great for comparison and bottlenecks, it doesn’t reflect how these chips are actually being used. If I’m spending that kind of money, I’m definitely not gaming at 1080p.

I watched a video on how this is kind of true and false. If you are playing for nothing but pretty pictures, and use the highest settings on everything, it is possible the high end graphics cards will become the bottleneck. But if you are playing with ultra high resolutions, with out using all the eye candy in order to push frame rates higher then the CPU returns to being the bottleneck. It really depends on what you are doing with the computer that drives where the bottleneck is, and if you are buying a top of the line computer at a top of the line price tag, I would say they should be using the top of the line components that create the best in class experience in all the things you might do with it and that would absolutely be AMD. Hell, even if you were to go with Intel, evidence demonstrates this should have been built with the older generation chips and gotten you more performance!

If this was built for a specific game that favors Intel, not sure if there are any, then this decision might make sense. But since it seems to be a general computer set-up for gaming, then it should be decked out purely for gaming.

Anyways, this is why I do not buy systems and instead build my own PCs. I would love to be able to buy a prebuilt system, but in general, the companies either provide bad decisions, like this one choosing Intel over AMD X3D or they have such a high pricing premium over the components it is hard to justify the cost to save a couple hours of assembling.

Edited to remove a bad word that Tom's informed was not allowed in another post of mine. Glad they do not just straight up ban people for small mistakes.

 

[Matt2h]

you have to really REALLY want an Alienware pc to pay this much for these specs, but at least you’re getting a great pc that you can upgrade with standard parts later (just not at a great price).

A quiet pc with the RTX 5090 is what I'm looking for. I'm not even crazy about the alien theme but it seems like Corsair might just be prioritizing flashiness over function with their color fans and a few others are in a similar price range. MSI, that Falcon one. . I'm looking to replace this small form factor G22 Asus with horrendous fan noise.

 

[VizzieTheViz]

A quiet pc with the RTX 5090 is what I'm looking for. I'm not even crazy about the alien theme but it seems like Corsair might just be prioritizing flashiness over function with their color fans and a few others are in a similar price range. MSI, that Falcon one. . I'm looking to replace this small form factor G22 Asus with horrendous fan noise.

Yeah well like I said it looks like a great PC albeit really expensive.

If you could get a 5090 at MSRP or something remotely like it you could build a quiet pc with it for far less or a far better one for the same amount.

If you have to have a quiet pre-built 5090 pc right now this looks like one of very few options so go for it if that’s what you want.