The spaceship-like Alienware Area 51, which we first got a good look at back in August, is just about cleared for its ascent towards the desks of many PC gamers. As we count down for takeoff, we got our hands on detailed specs, pricing, and release date information.
As we expected, the Alienware Area 51 will be highly configurable. For starters, you can outfit it with one of three Intel Core i7 processors. Options consist of the 5820K, 5930K, or the 5960X. The first two are six-core chips, while the latter is an eight-core beast. The 5820K runs at 3.3GHz, the 5930K is clocked at 3.5GHz, while the 5960X operates at 3GHz. The standard Area 51 ships with the 5820K.
Though the pursuit of peak performance is admirable, we actually think these chips (especially the 5960X) are overkill. We wish there were some Core i5 options available, which would make for a cheaper, but still super-powerful system.
The graphics card options are more robust. The base model Area 51 will ship with an AMD Radeon R9 270, but you can opt for an Nvidia GeForce GTX 770, 780, 980, or Titan Z as well. Dual and triple graphics card options are available too, but there’s a bit of confusion here.
Aside from the R9 270, the only other AMD card that’s available with the Area 51 is the Radeon R9 290X. However, this will only be available in a triple card configuration. You can’t outfit the Area 51 with a pair of 290X cards, or even a solo unit. You also can’t get two or three Radeon R9 270s in here, just one. That’s peculiar.
The Area 51 includes 8GB of RAM, and a 2TB mechanical hard drive by default. However, you can bump the former up to either 16GB or 32GB, and the latter to an SSD that’s either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. The 128GB is paired with a 2TB hard drive, while both the 256GB and 512GB SSDS each come with 4TB hard drives.
The Area 51’s chassis will ship with a multitude of ports. On the front, you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports, mic and headphone jacks, and a memory card reader. On the back, the system stores four USB 3.0 connections, four USB 2.0 ports, a robust slate of audio ports, Ethernet, and a Kensington lock slot. If you don’t want to connect to the Internet using a cable, you’ll be all set to go anyway. The Area 51 also has 802.11ac Wi-Fi built in, along with Bluetooth 4.0.
Whether you like it or not, Windows 8.1 is here to stay, for now at least. Sure, you can choose to install the free Windows 10 Technical Preview, but it can be glitchy. That’s why were glad Alienware provides the option of installing Windows 7 on the Area 51 too. However, it’s unclear whether that will come with an extra charge. 8.1 is provided with all models as a standard.
We hope you pump iron regularly, or at least have an elevator where you live, because the Area 51 is an absolute beast.
Its starting weight is listed at just over 61 pounds, and it measures 22.4 x 10.7 x 25.2-inches. However, when we went hands-on with it a couple of months back, we found that its built-in carrying handles make it much easier to hoist up and carry than you’d think, given its weight and measurements. Even so, remember, lift with your legs, not your back.
The Alienware Area 51’s chassis truly looks like a spacecraft, but it’s not just designed to turn heads. The ports and connections on the system are oriented so that they face upward, at an angle. That makes it easier for users who place the Area 51 under the desks to reach these parts of the PC when they’re sitting down. We appreciate practical, people-friendly design decisions like that.
To recap, the base model Alienware Area 51 includes an Intel Core i7-5820K CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 2TB hard drive, and an AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card. You can grab this model for $1,699, though the cost of your Area 51 will vary depending on how you configure it.
The Alienware Area 51 launches October 28.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.