Epic Gaming Adventures: Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Review

In Short

• All-Core Overclocked AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (16-Core or 32-Thread) (also available as 1920X)
• 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 @ 2667MHz; up to 64GB storehouse with DDR4 XMP 2933MHz.
• Alienware Premium socketTR4 CPU Liquid Cooling is utilized in Alien51 gaming hardware.
• The front panel features two SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one Headphone 1/8″ port, one Microphone 1/8″ port, and one Media Card Reader.
• Alienware™ 1500 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with modular wiring is compatible with this gear.

I suggest a powerful computer for your perfect PC setup. It is the Alienware Area51 Threadripper. If buying each component and assembling the computer is arduous, these pre-built computers are a blessing. This computer features a massive cabinet chassis with everything you need. AMD’s 16-core Ryzen Threadripper CPU with Nvidia’s latest graphics cards should make a multitasking gamer’s dream PC. So equipped, the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition ($2,399; $5,919 as tested) handles multimedia chores swiftly and provides seamless 4K gameplay. It’s billed as a high-end gaming PC and has a triangle tower. As configured, it’s expensive and not the quickest PC we’ve tested, save for one test. The Velocity Micro Raptor Z95 and Origin Neuron are better at multimedia and gaming, respectively, while the Neuron is cheaper.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Specs

CPU	3.4GHz AMD Ryzen Threadripper
Graphics	Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
RAM	32GB
Motherboard	AMD X399
Power Supply	Alienware 1500 watt 80-plus Gold
Storage	256GB SSD
OS	Windows 10
Weight	61.73 pounds (28kg)

What is Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition?

The newest Dell gaming computer is powerful. As usual, the 28kg Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition has LEDs and a large triangular casing. At £5169, it’s expensive, but with good cause. The new Area-51 has two GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards and AMD’s top Threadripper processor.

Dell’s Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition gaming PC was in pre-production when we saw it earlier this year. We gave you a preliminary guided tour of the system but wanted to wait to review it. After replacing our system’s pre-production AMD Threadripper chip, we were still doing emergency alien brain transplants to bring it up to production silicon requirements.

This monster Threadripper-powered Alienware setup evolved enough for us to utilize it as a mega-tasking showcase vehicle for our AMD Ryzen Threadripper review and performance highlight. However, Dell’s Alienware team was completing system firmware and new peripherals for their latest gaming computers. We’re here today to review the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition in its final, retail-ready form.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Pricing, availability

Our review unit costs $4,129 (£3,175, AU$5,225). After you’ve digested that, we can affirm that this is a very costly desktop. Even with the Threadripper 1950X’s $999 (£999, AU$1,439) price and the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition’s $699, the basic shell and other components cost around $2,000. If you’re familiar with building systems, this seems absurd. The Alienware Area 51’s pricing depends on its materials, labor, and engineering. We recommend the identical specs as our evaluation device to maximize AMD’s flagship enthusiast CPU.

For $2,999 (£2,310, AU$ 3,795), the Area 51 Threadripper Edition’s starting setup is poor. This setup has the same CPU but a Nvidia GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM, 8GB of RAM, and a 2TB hard drive. If you choose Intel, an Intel Core i7-6800K, AMD Radeon RX 560 2GB VRAM, 8GB RAM, and 2TB HDD cost $1,699 or £1,499. Australia’s AU$2,999 basic model has an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti with 2GB VRAM. Consumers may upgrade to last-generation Broadwell Extreme CPUs from there, although Alienware will soon offer Intel Core X variants. There are no pre-built systems to compare prices because Alienware owns Threadripper. If you want a bespoke PC from system builders, it will cost around the same as Alienware Area-51 Threadripper.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Design

Alienware’s Area 51 triad design has mostly stayed the same since 2014, yet it hasn’t gone boring. No manufacturer has tried to create a more bizarre PC, including the HP Omen X, a cuboid edge-mounted desktop. EVGA’s DG-87 and Cooler Master’s resurrected Cosmos II 25th Anniversary Edition are more prominent dual-system cases than Alienware’s flagship desktop, the Area 51. Everything about the Area 51 desktop is enormous, from its 61.73lb (28kg) empty chassis to its heat shield-like side panels.

Of course, this enormous beast is smart. All Area 51 components are tilted 45 degrees to improve ventilation. This lets the system immediately pull and push air to the CPU liquid cooler and GPU(s) blower-style fan. Since the power supply and other fans aren’t on the desktop’s bottom panel, you won’t have to worry about ground clearance or carpet boards.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Aliens Command Center

Alienware preinstalled Command Center on the desktop to give your Area-51 a distinctive flare. Once opened, you may change the nine zones’ colors and create effects with AlienFX’s 20 colors. You can create lighting themes for system events like email notifications and tower sleep mode. Command Center goes beyond stunning light shows. AlienFusion lets you tweak power settings, Thermal Controls, fan speed, and venting. OC Controls maximizes processor and DRAM performance. AlienAdrenaline allows you to create custom game shortcuts if you’re feeling fancy. Witcher 3 launched with a custom theme I made. I configured the shortcut to run Xsplit Gamecaster when I installed it.

Overpowering Aesthetic

The Area-51 Threadripper Edition has molded plastic panels on a metal frame. The design needs to be more balanced from 2015. Unlike ordinary desktop PCs, the hexagonal system has three short sides and three longer sides. Silver domed left- and right-side panels, black plastic rear and front panels with cooling slats. It dwarfs skyscrapers like the Origin Neuron (17.8 by 9 by 15.7 inches) and Velocity Micro Raptor Z95 (17.5 by 7.25 by 20.5) at 22.4 by 10.75 by 25 inches (HWD). The massive Asus ROG GT51 is a bit taller but leaner and shallower (23.1 by 10.31 by 23), while the blocky HP Omen X is almost twice as broad. You must accommodate this odd-shaped stone. It’s good that the chassis has handles at each corner to assist you in moving its 62 pounds.

Alienware’s multi-zone lighting effects enable you to configure RGB lighting in nine locations over most of Area-51’s surfaces, making it less flashy than the MSI Aegis Ti3. Alienware Control Center controls lighting effects. When you open the left-side door, a row of LEDs illuminates the motherboard and components while fiddling, and a similar row illuminates the rear I/O ports for cable plugging and unplugging.

You Can Do What With 16 Cores?

The Area-51 I evaluated features a CPU, two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, 32GB of RAM, and 3TB of storage on a 1TB SSD and a 2TB hard drive. SSDs, graphics cards, and processors account for most of the cost. The cheapest model costs $2,699 and has a 12-core Ryzen Threadripper 1920X CPU, 8GB RAM, a 2TB hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.

In this Area-51, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X CPU is key. Our sister site, Computer Shopper, considers it “a no-brainer for serious content creators and uncompromising multi-taskers.” This desktop scored 3,047 points on Cinebench, our highest ever. That’s 657 points greater than the Velocity Micro Raptor Z95’s 10-core overclocked Intel Core i7-7900X CPU and 1,973 points better than the Origin Neuron ($2,399.00 at ORIGIN PC). Animators and CGI artists will like this effect. It finished our Handbrake video-encoding test at 28 seconds, trailing the Raptor Z95 (0:25). Best Handbrake times are under a minute, while most Core-i7 high-end gaming PCs take 45 seconds.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Upgradability

Area 51 may be upgraded without tools, like the Alienware Aurora R5. Just unlock the expansion slots and twist a few thumbscrews on the GPU support bracket to update or install a graphics card. Storage slots, memory plugs, and the water-cooling bracket have thumbscrews. Only replacing the power supply will require a screwdriver, which should be fine for those who bought the 1,500-watt PSU.

Overall Performance

Area 51’s 16-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X works hard. This CPU has four times the cores of any pre-built PC we’ve evaluated, making it the most powerful. Area 51 outperforms the Corsair One and MSI Aegis 3, which use quad-core, seventh-generation Intel CPUs in benchmarks and in-game frame rates.

The last-generation Intel Core i7-6850K Extreme CPU helps the Origin Millennium beat Area 51 in graphically taxing benchmarks, but that’s owing to its two Nvidia GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI. The Threadripper 1950X is powerful, but its processor mode matters.

As mentioned in our CPU review, AMD’s flagship chip may be switched to Creative or Game Mode. The latter shuts off half of the CPU’s cores and switches to a more conventional memory access technique for excellent in-game frame rates. Game Mode did not affect performance except for real-time strategy games in our CPU and gaming PC tests. Outside of benchmarks, the Alienware Area 51 is a powerful gaming PC. We could edit photos and films and play games with it. We played Battlefield 1 at 4K with maximum settings and enjoyed the gorgeously drawn battle environment without frame rate issues. Increasing everything in Rise of the Tomb Raider only yielded 27fps at 4K and 58fps at 1440p. The performance will differ between games, but with a few adjustments, everything should be playable.

Massive Multitasking, but not free

The Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition can handle multimedia jobs quickly, and you won’t have to stop playing while your project renders. I appreciate the idea of sharing duties on one PC, but the price is outrageous. If you need multimedia performance, ditch a graphics card to save $1,000. Switching to a cheaper CPU is better for gaming. Our Editors’ Choice and best gaming desktop pick is the Origin Neuron, which is quicker on 3D games for $1,900 less. The Velocity Micro Vector Z95 is another alternative for artists like animators, photographers, and videographers.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Connectivity

Area 51 features many ports. You could plug in almost every PC peripheral and still have room for more. Alienware added just a slot-loading Blu-ray reader/DVD writer, two USB 3.1 ports, a media card reader, and microphone and headphone connections to the front of the machine.

The Alienware Area51 Threadripper offers multiple ports for connection. Since Thunderbolt 3 cannot use USB-C, it cannot transfer files between SSD drives. Killer devices use 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.

• 1. 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• 3.5mm Microphone Jack
• 8x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1
• USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A
• 1. USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C
• USB 3.1 Type-C
• One SD Card Reader
• Triple DisplayPort
• One HDMI port
• 2x USB 2.0

With a few tools, the Alienware Area51 Threadripper may be upgraded. Simply release expansion slots. GPU enthusiasts may twist the thumbscrews to upgrade or add a second graphics card. Memory and data storage devices plug easily. These water-cooled brackets have thumbscrews. The only screwdriver-required task for this luxurious 1,500-watt PSU is power supply replacement.

Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Software, Warranty

Bloat? Where? Alienware doesn’t clog the Area-51 with software (Windows does). The only branded apps are Alien Command Center and Alienware Audio, which adjusts speaker settings. Gamers may also use Killer Control Center to establish bandwidth priority and Killer Diagnostics to evaluate network speed. You also receive Nvidia GeForce Experience, a package of gamer-focused software for maximum gaming performance.

PROS	CONS
Plays smoothly in 4K.	Expensive.
High multithreading performance.	USB-C lacks Thunderbolt 3.
Quiet, efficient cooling.

Should I Buy Alienware Area 51 Threadripper Edition?

We’ve evaluated no gaming PC as powerful as the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper Edition. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X desktop is expensive and sophisticated, so not everyone can use it. Gaming enthusiasts who want to become YouTube or Twitch stars would profit most from this equipment, especially if they still need to build it. Threadripper was built for mega-tasking, so it can simultaneously play, record, stream, and encode video. The Threadripper Edition aside, the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper is a well-designed and adaptable PC platform, but costly. It’s worth checking out because only some pre-built gaming PCs are as lovely or expandable as this.

FAQs

Is Alienware Threadripper Too Much For Gaming?

Every gaming or computer expert says Ryzen is too powerful for gaming. Mainstream AMD Ryzen CPUs support all modern games. Threadrippers’ robust computing is ideal for Bitcoin mining.

Is Ryzen Threadripper Better Than i9?

The Threadripper trumps the Intel i9. Threadripper beats Intel in clock speed and computing power.

Which Is The Best CPU Ever Made?

 AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is the finest CPU ever. It can run at 4.3 GHz with 64 cores and 128 threads.

Price of Alienware Area-51 Threadripper?

Powerful Alienware Area-51 Threadripper gaming PCs elevate your gaming experience. Dell lists the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper variant with a 16-core CPU for $2999 on its website.

What are Alienware Area-51 Threadripper specs?

Powerful Alienware Area-51 Threadripper gaming PC with 8-core to 16-core CPU. All AMD Ryzen Threadripper cores may be overclocked. M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs with 7200RPM storage are available. Four DDR4 DIMM slots are internal in Alienware Area-51 Threadripper R7. Dell’s website lists Alienware Area-51 Threadripper R7 Edition specs.