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Alienware Area-51 ALX

REVIEW DATE:03.11.08

Alienware Area-51 ALX
With keyboard and Mouse Tower Front Open Tower Angle

REVIEW

By Brian K. Neal

Alienware's flagship PC, the Area-51 ALX, has all the ingredients of a top-tier gaming rig. Dual nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra cards? Got it. 4X dual-layer rewritable Blu-ray drive? Check. Liquid cooling and organized wiring? Present, and more. Numerous bells and whistles under the Area-51 ALX's ($6,652 direct) hood make it a compelling choice. The only catch is that there are other alternatives (like the Editors' Choice HP Blackbird 002) that offer comparable—and in some cases better—performance for a lower price.

red arrow Read the Alienware Area-51 ALX full review

Company

Alienware Corp

http://www.alienware.com

Spec Data
  • Price as Tested: $6,652.00 Direct
  • Type: Gaming
  • Processor Family: Intel Core 2 Extreme
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • Storage Capacity: 820 GB
  • RAID: Yes
  • Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra SLI
  • Primary Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Disc

Bottom Line

The Alienware Area-51 ALX is a solid desktop with good performance across the board. But there are other, less-expensive choices out there that rival if not surpass its performance.

Pros

Strong, high-resolution gaming performance. Improved chassis build quality. Very little bloatware.

Cons

Expensive. Noisy.

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