The Alienware Area 51 Threadripper is an exceptional gaming monster. It contains cutting edge hardware to deliver gaming performance which is not of this earth. Let’s find out more about this gaming behemoth from Dell’s Alienware stable.
Should You Get The Alienware Area 51 Threadripper Edition?
What is the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
The Area 51 is Alienware’s high-end gaming tower. The Dell subsidiary has moved away from the conventional design of stationary computers in favor of a triangular format. In addition to the aesthetic appearance, this shape would improve the circulation of the air flow in the housing, and therefore the cooling.
How big is the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
Despite its imposing dimensions (47 cm high, 15 cm wide and a weight of 20 kg), this PC can find its place on or under any desk. The side panels are made of matte gray aluminum plates while the edges are in shiny black plastic. Like any self-respecting Alienware, the Area 51 is well finished and is adorned with numerous light bands that can be fully configured via dedicated software. Remember, this is a gaming tower, not a psychedelic Christmas tree, so don’t go overboard with the light set up.
What kind of connectivity ports are there on the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
The connection is extremely complete. On the front panel, there are two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack, a microphone jack, a memory card reader and an optical drive. Rear: 6 USB 2.0 ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, one Ethernet port. Video connectivity is provided by 2 DVI ports, one HDMI and one DisplayPort.
Rear ports:
1. Rear accessibility lighting button | 2. SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with 15W PowerShare | 3. SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (x6) | 4. L/R Side Surround (white port) | 5. SPDIF Digital Output (TOSLINK) | 6. Front L/R/Headphone (green port) | 7. SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (x1) | 8. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (x2) | 9. Dual RJ-45 Killer Networks E2500 Gigabit Ethernet Port | 10. L/R Rear Surround (black port) | 11. Center Channel/Subwoofer (orange port) | 12. Line-In (blue port )
Front ports:
13. Headphone/Headset 1/8″ | 14. Microphone 1/8″ Port | 15. SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A with Powershare (x2) | 16. SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (x2)
Once the case is open – you can see two latches placed at the back of the chassis. For its price, users can expect flawless cable management and good looks but this device stumbles a little on the former. Other manufacturers, including Apple with its Mac Pro, display an impeccable internal finish, with black PCBs and well-hidden cables.
What kind of configuration can you get from your Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
You can get a monster configuration equipped with Intel Core i7-5930k processor, a 256 GB SSD and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM. The graphics part is managed here by three AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards. So that all this little world is properly powered, Dell installed a 1500 Watt power supply. With such a configuration, the Area 51 is one of the most powerful gaming towers ever.
How is the performance of the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
It only takes 44 seconds to overcome Cinebench R15, 12 seconds less than a machine equipped with an Intel Core i7-4770 (the Alienware X51), and 19 seconds less than the most powerful gaming laptops. The video encoding and the photo export are also swallowed in much faster times (67 seconds for the first and 220 seconds for the second) than that of competitive machines. The flawless reactivity and the extraordinary computing power make it an extremely pleasant machine to use.
How good is Alienware Area 51’s Overclocking?
Alienware has obviously thought about overclocking enthusiasts (increasing processor frequencies) by including dedicated software. Directly available on the desktop, it can be used in two different ways. The first is to choose a level of overclocking done at the factory by Dell that increases the processor frequencies to 3.9 or 4 GHz.
How are the graphics of Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
The graphics part is entrusted to three AMD R9 290X graphics cards. As a reminder, these cards are equipped with a Hawaii GPU with 2816 calculation units and 64 rendering units. The texture units are 176 in number while the memory bus is 512 bits. The amount of graphics memory is 4 GB in GDDR5 at a frequency of 1250 MHz. These cards are AMD’s top of the line, with the exception of the very special Radeon R9 295X. You can also put the graphics cards in Uber mode. This mode changes the card fans to 55% but allows higher frequencies to be maintained (1 GHz most of the time with drops around 960 MHz).
How is the headphone jack of Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
The headphone jack of the Area 51 is of very good quality, without parasitic noise, with good dynamics and convincing spatialization.
How is the power consumption of Alienware Area 51 Threadripper?
The power is also satisfactory. Power consumption is 0.3 W at standstill and rises to 92 W on the Windows desktop. In play, brace yourself, it goes to 450 W on average, with peaks at 950 W.
Alienware Area 51 Threadripper: Conclusion
The Alienware Area 51 Threadripper is the ultimate gaming tower for gamers who want all the power without getting their hands dirty. Be warned though, with great power, comes great pricing. It is extremely expensive and also quite noisy for such a premium item. If you have the money, then getting this will save you a lot of time. If you are a little short on cash, making your gaming tower is a significantly cheaper option.