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Alienware x51 R2 Opinions

G

GalleyBeggar

n00b
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
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15
I know these forums are more for building your own gaming PC, but I'm feeling lazy and found that the Alienware x51 R2 actually has most of the specs for the PC I was going to build and figured asking for opinions on the little UFO. Most of the following information is for those who don't know much about the system or don't feel like looking at legitimate reviews.
Here is Dell's page for the x51-R2 if you want to check out the specs:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-...ST&cid=246707&lid=4824468&acd=123098073120560

Not wanting to be a fool, I went ahead and looked up a lot of reviews for the x51-R2 and find it to be a pretty decent rig if you're not building your own, plus you get the fancy lights which I could always reuse later for another computer if I so choose. Hothardware.com had a good review of it here: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Dissecting-Dells-Haswell-Infused-Alienware-X51-R2-SFF-Gaming-PC/

If any of you saw my other thread where I was looking for a good case after missing out on that nice M1, you would have seen a gaming rig at around $1250-1300 sporting an i7-4770k, Asus Maximus VI Impact, Geforce GTX 760, and the rest of the hardware required to actually run a good machine. I highlight these features because the Alienware x51-R2 matches most everything else.

For around $1399 according to Dell/Alienware, I would get an i7-4770, a motherboard some people think to be an MSI, and a Geforce GTX 760Ti - er - 760 because 760Ti doesn't exist as far as I know. So, almost the same machine, lose overclocking and its motherboard is of unknown quality, though assumed good since it is Alienware, making the x51-R2 a near $100 markup with comparative specs minus whatever it takes to get those fancy lights

Pros: Good gaming SFF PC, performing near the top of boutique SFF gaming PCs
Low Power consumption
Matches my build w/o water cooling and i7-4770 instead of i7-4770k

According to what reviews I've seen, the x51-R2 is a beast at running games and has the Haswell processing power to boost. In Paul Lilly's Hothardware review, the x51-R2 beat the Bolt, Tiki, and Revolt, only losing to gaming PCs sporting graphics cards above the GTX 760 like the 780 or Titan.

Cons: POWER BRICK
+$100 markup taking into account the OS is ~$100
also, a little loud on start up, but this gets mixed reviews.

Seriously, have you seen that brick they put outside it instead of a normal PSU? It is an extra 1-1.5L that thing takes up, but you can't have your cake and eat it too I suppose. Also, even at 11.5L (Box + Brick), this is small on SFF gaming standards.


Generally, I like the case, which is more than I can say for the cubes I've been looking at, and it fits well in their Vindicator backpack meaning it will fit well in my own laptop bag. The x51-R2 has the specs I'm looking for, but I'm weary about the mystery Mobo and the noise people report. If anyone has opinions on this Alienware model, good or bad, or has another SFF PC they would suggest instead of it, please comment, for I am a man of weak will and don't know whether to build my own PC or just buy one.
 
The 760Ti is apparently a rebranded 670. A bit expensive as a $350 upgrade, but that price might include a PSU upgrade.

If you like the form factor, there isn't really anything out there similar in performance that's nearly as small.
 
The upgrade they have on their sight only lists it as a $150 going from the Radeon R9 270. I think I forgot to mention the PSU on it is a 330W, and I also haven't looked into possible just using a different brick. The cable looks like a standard 3-prong.
 
The $350 quote is for upgrading from the GTX645 in the i5 config. Anyway, my (in retrospective irrelevant) point was that you could probably still get a 670 retail cheaper that $350, but the 645 system might not have the PSU needed to drive it. Which is moot since you're looking at the i7 config.
 
I would wait a little longer to see what vendors are going to offer after CES. There are many systems coming out that are better, but of course at a premium. The difference are stuff like better motherboard/components, a psu that can be easily replaced, better warranty, better cooling/acoustics.

Some cases to look out for can be found by looking up steam machines during CES2014, I'm sure some of those will most likely be offered in windows flavoured.

My favourite is digital storm's bolt II the case is perfect there is a large premium to it.
 
I saw the steam machines announced at CES2014, and honestly they're kind of what made me want to build a box in the first place seeing how half of them might as well just been a self-built ITX cube.

The announced steam machines were pretty snazzy, well, four of them anyway. The Bolt and Tiki were nice, but nearly $1000 more than the x51-R2. Hoping the Bolt II has nice features and a decent price since it is currently winning for me in the "Best" category - Don't know what you'd do with Alienware's tiny box.
 
Pricing out the Revolt with similar specs comes out to $1363 with a 500W 1U vs the Brick and GTX 770 vs GTX 670. Honestly that looks like a pretty good deal. Plus they seem to have a few free bundled offers that are actually useful. (Looking at you alienware wired keyboard and mouse) The LEDs on the case are a little iffy, - they stick out - but hell, I could fix those easily. It is, however, nearly 2x the size of the x51-R2 which is so far the smallest out of what I've seen.
 
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I've worked on literally 1000's of X51's over the past couple years as dev kits..
We go through so many of them for PAX and E3 I end up pulling M18X's from Alienware to demo.
Get one new, stay away from the refurbs.
 
I grabbed an X51 in December. Love Love Love it.

It was a BEAR to get running with the SSDs that I hacked into it (mSATA SSD boot and another storage SSD) but it works great and it's ridiculously (and I do mean ridiculously) fast.
 
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