Alienware's 2014 Triangular Area 51 Gaming PC Now Available, Starts At $1699
Alienware's new 2014 Area 51 gaming PC takes a very interesting approach to a boutique system.
We've already seen Alienware's new Area 51 gaming desktop, but now the Dell subsidiary is announcing availability and pricing for the triangular systems.
The 2014 Area 51 desktop features a rather unique design, which is unlike anything we've previously seen. Of course, internally you'll find all the hardware you normally find inside a gaming PC (although perhaps a bit more high-end than the average rig), but you'll also notice a rather odd layout. The motherboard is rotated about 45 degrees, angling the rear I/O connectors upwards.
Inside the Area 51 there is room for up to three dual-slot graphics cards, water cooling, and up to 1500 W PSUs. According to Alienware, the triangular design aids cooling, as neither the front nor the rear of the case can be placed parallel to a wall, so airflow inwards or outwards is not restricted as much.
The case also comes with nine independent lighting zones, each of which has 20 different color options. You can control this through the Command Center 4.0 software, which also lets you monitor details about (among other things) your CPU, memory and graphics cards.
The Area 51 is built on the X99 platform, and it can therefore be configured with either 6-core or 8-core Intel Core i7 Haswell-E processors. You can install up to 32 GB of DDR4-2133 MHz memory, and graphics options go all the way up to three GTX 980's or two GTX Titan Z's, depending on your preference.
In addition to the launch of the 2014 Area 51, Alienware also announced that it is to become exclusive partners with Roccat. The AlienFX lighting will be coupled with the lighting on Roccat's peripherals, allowing you to control the lighting of your keyboard, mouse and PC all from one software interface. The updated software for this should hit around the end of November.
Pricing for the 2014 Area 51 systems starts at $1699, although if you're daring, you can easily configure the systems far beyond that. You can find the configurator here.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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saywhut Case is awesome, very innovative. The one starting at $1699 has a weak video card (R9 270x), and should have more upgradability options.Reply -
nicodemus_mm ReplyArea 51 ? Mac Pro
Let us know the next time you see a X99-based, 8-core, 32 GB Mac Pro with three GTX 980's. Not liking pre-built is one thing, but your comment is thoughtless bias against OEMs. Attitudes like that are why people hate PC elitists. -
drapacioli Reply14466419 said:Area 51 ≈ Mac Pro
Umm...not by a long shot, they don't even compete in the same markets. The Mac Pro is a professional desktop meant to be used as a server or a workstation for high-power production and editing, whereas the Area 51 is a pure gaming machine. The difference is Mac Pro has server-oriented parts like Xenon processors and workstation graphics while the Alienware has high-end desktop processors and gaming graphics.
If you're talking about design, well a triangular (-ish?) shape is definitely not a cylinder, so nope not similar on that front either. Obviously the OS is different The only thing they might be similar about could be pricing, both are very expensive for their specs, instead relying on brand name and reputation to get sales. -
hotwire_downunder It does look like some design ques are common with the internal structure of the Mac Pro. But where this design would win over the Mac Pro is user 'upgradability'. While some might call this copying, I love the fact that one engineer sees an existing design and sees how to improve it.Hats off to both the original design of the Mac Pro and this improved design from Alienware!Reply -
alextheblue ReplyToo bad you can't buy just the case.
If they sold it separately it would probably run about $500. -
Samer1970 waste of space , if you want to do special Case , make a non standard motherboard like Apple did . and DELL is huge and can make special motherboards.Reply
I was expecting Tri-Angular motherboard , not a standard motherboard inside a case with wasted space inside ..
whats next ? a BALL ? -
Samer1970 waste of space , if you want to do special Case , make a non standard motherboard like Apple did . and DELL is huge and can make special motherboards.Reply
I was expecting Tri-Angular motherboard , not a standard motherboard inside a case with wasted space inside ..
whats next ? a BALL ?