Alienware Area 51 R2 (2015) Review

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Luperza

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Feb 14, 2013
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Hey there!

I thought I might drop my review in here to help anyone who is looking at possibly getting the Alienware Area 51 R2 desktop.

Review link here.

Note, in the description, there's a link to all the benchmark data if you're interested in the tests I did. I did three per test to get an average. If you have any other questions, let me know!
 
People should stop calling video reviews, simply "review". I was fooled yet again.
 
primetime said:
Margaret is nice to look at but that pc is a sad joke
Click to expand...

I like the outer look of that Alienware rig, but it's actually fairly easy to build a PC that is:

1. More powerful
2. Cheaper
3. Weighs less
4. Has more aesthetically pleasing wire management (although the case design is probably a factor in how Alienware wired their components, given where the wiring posts are in the video).

Naturally, the first 2 objections can be easily resolved -- when you are buying from a boutique manufacturer, you are paying for their labor in building a rig, and their continued customer support/warranty. Fair enough. But the fact that this design weighs a ton (as was pointed out in the video) and has very visible wire management tells me that this case wasn't really meant to be opened or upgraded (at least, by the buyer). Seems odd to me, given that many other boutique manufacturers (Falcon Northwest, Maingear, OriginPC, Velocity Micro, and others) offer see-through case panels (to show off the lighting/lack of visible cabling inside, as well as outside).

As it is, if I found myself in the position to need to buy a boutique PC, I'd probably go with Maingear first (since they are based in NJ, really close to my stomping grounds in NYC) and Velocity Micro second (they did a lot to help me with computer issues, including having a subcontracted tech come to my house to directly fix a boutique computer I bought from them in 2007, at no cost to me whatsoever). If I had money to burn? Probably Falcon Northwest. The only thing that separates Alienware from the rest of its competition now are their "interesting" cases. (Even on the Dell outlet site, the markdown on refurb Alienware items is still not worth buying, more often than not, sadly).

The video review itself was very well done (on fullscreen, using a 4K monitor, there was very little aliasing in the video, and the picture quality was very good). Would have liked to see more recent games, like BF4 or Shadow of Mordor, but otherwise a solid job. :)
 
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