Area-517500
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Alienware Area-51 desktops first to score NVIDIA GTX 280 graphics
NVIDIA just launched its new GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards earlier today, but you know the crazy kids over at Alienware don't like to wait for the latest and greatest -- Dell's gaming division has already announced Area-51 configurations that include the new cards. The Area-51 7500 will support one GTX 280-based card, while the top-of-the-line Area-51 ALX will offer a three-way SLI option that's sure to render an image of your empty wallet in no time -- it's a $1,700 option. No word on when these are scheduled to ship, but seeing as the cards are out tomorrow, we'd guess it'll be soon.
Alienware introduces 4x Blu-ray drives for desktops
Alienware, never afraid of spec'ing its machines just a little bit ahead of the curve, has just introduced 4x Blu-ray drives into its Area-51 7500, Aurora 7500, Area-51 ALX, and Aurora ALX desktops, making the systems the first in the industry (or so they claim) to carry the faster drives. The new additions to the PCs will offer a significant performance increase in reading and writing Blu-ray discs (a 100 percent increase, in case you're not doing the math), which should make burning those massive discs just slightly more tolerable. Of course, the whole shebang is backward-compatible with CD and DVD discs, per typical Blu-ray spec, and will set you back an additional $600. Available right now.
Alienware boosts Area-51 7500, ALX to Core 2 Extreme
While there aren't too many applications that currently will tax four processors, Alienware hopes that your winter vacation spent playing "World of Warcraft" will be as smooth as sliding your old and busted gaming rig down that nearby snow-covered hill. The new Area-51 7500 (pictured) and the higher-end Area-51 ALX have just been bumped to an optional Core 2 Extreme processor, officially bringing your setup to ludicrous speed. Like its predecessor, the 7500 has a standard 1GB of RAM that can be raised to 4GB, and has your choice of an NVIDIA GeForce 7950 or a Dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX. The base config (that's without the quad-core) starts at $2,200 -- but where's the fun in that? Adding a Core 2 Extreme chip will add nearly another grand, while maxing out the whole equipage will put you within striking distance of $10,000 (including a $1,300 Dell 30-inch monitor and some sweet $400 speakers, of course). What about that ALX? It starts at $6,100 (quad-core action included), and naturally, maxes out just under 10K.Read - Area-51 7500Read - Area-51 ALX
Alienware's Area-51 7500 gaming desktop reviewed
When you pack Intel's blazing new Core 2 Extreme processor and a pair of top-of-the-line nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX graphics cards into a single gaming desktop, you can pretty much expect it to post impressive benchmark numbers. It's no surprise, then, that Alienware's newly-speced Area-51 7500 showed the videogame addicts over at IGN some of the best performance they've ever seen, and ran surprisingly quietly while doing so -- thanks in no small part to the liquid-cooling system. Also noteworthy was the new P2 chassis Alienware employed for this model, which improves on older cases both aesthetically -- it sports a glossier paint job and more configurable lights to play with -- as well as functionally, with the shorter-but-deeper design intended to support extra-long graphics cards. Besides the relative lack of configurability -- there's only one open PCI slot, so you can add a physics processor or dedicated sound card, but not both -- the only real knock against this machine is it's price; at just under $5,000, you're paying a lot for the snazzy case and Alienware support network. Still, busy gamers don't always have time to build their own rigs (sometimes they don't even have time to go to the bathroom), so this version of the Area-51 sounds like a good way to get "best-of-the-best" performance without spending hours hunched over your work bench; instead, you'll be spending those hours working overtime at your day job to afford it.[Thanks, David]
The Alienware Area-51 7500 lands with Core 2 Duo and new chassis
Perhaps the most notable things about the revamped Alienware Area-51 7500 are its new mood-lighting adjustable case and P2 chassis. The AlienFX case sports user-adjustable lighting in six different areas of its tool-less entry chassis, while the inside adds additional slots and inputs for the h@x0r in you - complete with AlienWare's AlienIce cooling system. Specs-wise, the new 7500 (an apparent bump from the MJ-12 7500) packs a dual core Intel Core 2 Duo processor or 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 (at the high end - default config is a Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz), nVIDIA graphics (options include both single and SLI configurations, with up to dual 512MB GeForce 7900 GTXs), and as much as 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM. The new machine starts at $1,799, but our configured uber-rig (with 30-inch LCD, mind you) got us over $6,800 within just a few radio button clicks. Do your credit card a favor and take it out to dinner before you lay this one on it.[Thanks, David]
