Dell and Alienware Bet on AMD with Area-51 Threadripper Edition

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Dell has announced an assortment of Alienware-branded hardware at E3. These include gaming monitors, keyboards, and mice, but the headliner is new Area-51 systems that include AMD's new 12-core and 16-core Threadripper CPUs. Dell will reportedly be the only system manufacturer to offer these this year.

Intel and AMD are stepping up their game with multi-core processors available in two new versions of the Alienware Area-51. The new top-of-the-line processors are for diehard performance enthusiasts demanding the absolute best gaming experience, and for gamers who create, using resource intensive applications. Geared to be the best engines for 4K, 8K or VR applications, E3 visitors will be the first to experience the new rigs powered by Intel Core X-Series or AMD Ryzen Threadripper - marking Alienware's first 16-core/32-thread Area-51. Dell will be the exclusive OEM launch partner to deliver AMD Ryzen Threadripper pre-built systems to market and the high-end 16-core processor will be factory-overclocked across all cores.
 
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Who buys these things anyway? You can build your own for 1/2 the price...or pay a friend to do it for you and STILL save a ton.
 
It's just marketing. I don't think threadrippper will perform better in games than a higher clocked, lower core count ryzen.
They just want higher numbers to lure suckers with money into buying them.
 
Bandalo said:
Who buys these things anyway? You can build your own for 1/2 the price...or pay a friend to do it for you and STILL save a ton.
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You typically save money on any DIY project but not everyone wants to spend the time and effort and then there's the matter of support. I guess I've always thought that if one actually used the power and capabilities of these kinds of PCs that they're probably expert enough to build their own but that's not always the case.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
It's just marketing. I don't think threadrippper will perform better in games than a higher clocked, lower core count ryzen.
They just want higher numbers to lure suckers with money into buying them.
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These high-core CPUs aren't really just for gaming systems, they are meant for heavy multitasking and also serve as decent high-performance workstations. I admit I really haven't pushed my old sig rig to utilize fully just it's 10 cores much but in testing loads with gaming and streaming going on, the results seemed pretty impressive, you can do a lot in the background and not impact gaming performance. But for just gaming I agree these CPUs are overkill and you might be better off with higher clocks on lower core CPUs.
 
heatlesssun said:
You typically save money on any DIY project but not everyone wants to spend the time and effort and then there's the matter of support. I guess I've always thought that if one actually used the power and capabilities of these kinds of PCs that they're probably expert enough to build their own but that's not always the case.
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Also, they have financing. Makes it far easier for the average joe to buy a fancy gaming machine.
 
heatlesssun said:
You typically save money on any DIY project but not everyone wants to spend the time and effort and then there's the matter of support. I guess I've always thought that if one actually used the power and capabilities of these kinds of PCs that they're probably expert enough to build their own but that's not always the case.
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I agree, and that's true for most PC desktops on the matters of support. You're dead on with the last comment. Gamers and HEDT-types all usually know enough to WANT to build their own. The market of those that want all this stuff, don't want to do it themselves, and are willing to pay the prices for it must be vanishingly small.
 
VIC-20 said:
Also, they have financing. Makes it far easier for the average joe to buy a fancy gaming machine.
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So does Amazon, Newegg and Ebay via paypal. Support is not really an argument unless the support is from the states and not some guy who also owns a Kwik-E-Mart.
 
heatlesssun said:
These high-core CPUs aren't really just for gaming systems, they are meant for heavy multitasking and also serve as decent high-performance workstations. I admit I really haven't pushed my old sig rig to utilize fully just it's 10 cores much but in testing loads with gaming and streaming going on, the results seemed pretty impressive, you can do a lot in the background and not impact gaming performance. But for just gaming I agree these CPUs are overkill and you might be better off with higher clocks on lower core CPUs.
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You say multitasking, but multitasking can be easily done on quad cores without any problems.
When you get too high up in the cores, honestly the best way to utilize them is by carving them into VMs. But that's not the market that alienware is in. It's 100% gaming. I don't think they have any high-performance workstations.

The problem with gaming marketing is the idea that if it costs more, it must be better for games. Alienware loves it, because it increases the cost as well as their profit.
 
VIC-20 said:
Also, they have financing. Makes it far easier for the average joe to buy a fancy gaming machine.
Click to expand...

Good point.

Bandalo said:
I agree, and that's true for most PC desktops on the matters of support. You're dead on with the last comment. Gamers and HEDT-types all usually know enough to WANT to build their own. The market of those that want all this stuff, don't want to do it themselves, and are willing to pay the prices for it must be vanishingly small.
Click to expand...

Putting together a gaming desktop isn't at all hard, like any other DIY skill these days just watch some YouTube videos. I think the hardest part is the planning and research, reading reviews, checking forums for quality issues with components, that sort of thing. Then sometimes there's the "I never thought about that." issue that pops up. With this sig rig that I build last summer, I had it well planned it things went smoothly until I ran out of internal USB ports to plug in all of the stuff that uses USB ports these days for monitoring and control. So I had to do a little research and find an internal USB HUB which did the trick.

So not hard but still it does take some time and ability to consider things on the fly time to time. While you're probably correct in that there's not a huge market for these kinds of PCs there's got to be at least some just for the convenience.
 
I'll be honest here: I always build my own rigs. I ordered an Alienware back in 2005 and liked the fact I didn't build it myself. I think I am going to forgo building my new system and have ALienware build it for me. I am chomping at the bit for this new AMD Threadripper system. Yes, this go around I will be lazy.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
You say multitasking, but multitasking can be easily done on quad cores without any problems.
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Once you start AAA gaming and streaming simultaneously you're going to put some stress on a quad core system.

Hypergreatthing said:
When you get too high up in the cores, honestly the best way to utilize them is by carving them into VMs. But that's not the market that alienware is in. It's 100% gaming. I don't think they have any high-performance workstations.
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I think that people that buy these kinds of PCs probably do more than just game, these kinds of devices can certainly serve workstation needs.
 
heatlesssun said:
I think that people that buy these kinds of PCs probably do more than just game, these kinds of devices can certainly serve workstation needs.
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I think you're wrong. No computer is used 100% of the time for gaming. But why would you pay extra for gaming bling when you're not going to use it for gaming? Why not get something that costs less because it's not riddled with useless bling?
Dell has a precision line of workstations that costs a lot less than alienware branded computers with the same specs.

And i was talking only about alienware computers with threadrippers in them.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
I think you're wrong. No computer is used 100% of the time for gaming. But why would you pay extra for gaming bling when you're not going to use it for gaming? Why not get something that costs less because it's not riddled with useless bling?
Dell has a precision line of workstations that costs a lot less than alienware branded computers with the same specs.

And i was talking only about alienware computers with threadrippers in them.
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Pricing and options can be debated till the end of time. I was just saying that if one actually is running a lot on their PC it's not that hard to tax a quad core system.
 
I don't think these are meant for 'most' people anyways. I could use all the cpu power I can get for some projects I work on. It's not games sure, but I play games on the same machine sometimes... So why can't it do both
 
At $850 for the Threadripper and I'm guessing $400 for a motherboard I'm going to go ahead and jump on the 16 core CPU. I have 64GB of DDR4 3200mhz set aside which I hope works without issue.

Pretty damn excited. 32 threads, 64GB DDR4 .... yeah .. I'm ready. Would like to run a 1TB EVO NVMe but those are pricey.
 
andrewaggb said:
I don't think these are meant for 'most' people anyways. I could use all the cpu power I can get for some projects I work on. It's not games sure, but I play games on the same machine sometimes... So why can't it do both
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I want to point out that you sound like an echo chamber. You're not saying anything new that everyone else keeps saying. So, congrats on that .. I guess.

And, who cares. $850 is nothing as long as you don't buy dope, cigs, booze or gamble and or have a GF or Wife that buys random useless shit at Walmart every week,

How many of you splurge on the really good shit? I bet almost none of you, yet ... you will spend $850 on BS over any giving 2 or 3 weeks, maybe slightly longer. You're all going to spend the money one way or another.

So for the common man, there are not too many affordable "super products" we can afford. I'll give you an example .... A Suzuki Hayabusa Motorcycle... used in excellent shape around $6,000 .... 190mph, 190 horse ... destroys most super cars. And, a CPU like this. How many guys that these Supercars even go 200mph? They don't. But it still looks bad ass, they know it's bad ass and yeah, if they wanted, they could crush you.

16 / 32 AMD Ryzen Threadripper is that product.

I don't encode shit but If I wanted to, I'm going to get that done pretty quickly while the rest of you have to leave for the store because you don't want to wait the 20 - 30 mins on a sluggish machine.

You can build one of these monsters compete for $2600 and thats with a 1980 ti.

CPU $850 - Motherboard $400 - RAM $250 - 1080 Ti $700 - Case $100 - PSU $130 - SSD $150

I will also point out that if you are on a 4K display like I am, then AMD and Intel have the same gaming performance. Go look at the numbers. So it's a wash between the two.
 
heatlesssun said:
Good point.



Putting together a gaming desktop isn't at all hard, like any other DIY skill these days just watch some YouTube videos. I think the hardest part is the planning and research, reading reviews, checking forums for quality issues with components, that sort of thing. Then sometimes there's the "I never thought about that." issue that pops up. With this sig rig that I build last summer, I had it well planned it things went smoothly until I ran out of internal USB ports to plug in all of the stuff that uses USB ports these days for monitoring and control. So I had to do a little research and find an internal USB HUB which did the trick.

So not hard but still it does take some time and ability to consider things on the fly time to time. While you're probably correct in that there's not a huge market for these kinds of PCs there's got to be at least some just for the convenience.
Click to expand...
It isn't very hard but still extremely intimating for someone that knows almost nothing about computers. This is a enthusiast site so of course it is nothing to use but to the average person it is over there heads. There is a reason people take their computer to places like best buy to get them fixed.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I want to point out that you sound like an echo chamber. You're not saying anything new that everyone else keeps saying. So, congrats on that .. I guess.
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lol. Guess my opinion doesn't count then. Thanks for clearing that up. Next time I post I'll include some motor cycle references and store analogies!
 
This is great news for AMD. And Dell gets to make a profit on moar cores boxes for a change. Eh who am I kidding they always make a profit by gouging the hell out of this niche.
 
vegeta535 said:
It isn't very hard but still extremely intimating for someone that knows almost nothing about computers. This is a enthusiast site so of course it is nothing to use but to the average person it is over there heads. There is a reason people take their computer to places like best buy to get them fixed.
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As you said, not everyone can put together a gaming or workstation system like this, but it doesnt mean that once the system is up and running, they cannot utilize it properly.

So yes, there is a market for these systems.

And dont forget, there are lots and lots of people with more money than brains, which think that just because is expensive, it means better.
 
andrewaggb said:
I don't think these are meant for 'most' people anyways. I could use all the cpu power I can get for some projects I work on. It's not games sure, but I play games on the same machine sometimes... So why can't it do both
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You bring up some very good points. Not everyone can afford an all exclusive super mongo gaming machine and a seperate work only box. At least with this they get a good all around computer that does both and has the convenience of dell support (not that dell wins any awards in this area).

PS:
You can safely ignore the "echo chamber" remark, like it's the first time ever that somebody repeated something in an online forum.
 
vegeta535 said:
It isn't very hard but still extremely intimating for someone that knows almost nothing about computers. This is a enthusiast site so of course it is nothing to use but to the average person it is over there heads. There is a reason people take their computer to places like best buy to get them fixed.
Click to expand...

I agree it's just that I think it's harder to maintain and utilize PCs like this than it is to build them.
 
SixFootDuo said:
And, who cares. $850 is nothing as long as you don't buy dope, cigs, booze or gamble and or have a GF or Wife that buys random useless shit at Walmart every week,

How many of you splurge on the really good shit? I bet almost none of you, yet ... you will spend $850 on BS over any giving 2 or 3 weeks, maybe slightly longer. You're all going to spend the money one way or another.
Click to expand...

Since I'm probably older than most people on here, I look at it a different way.
Spending $850 instead of shoving it into my retirement account means that I have to work for another 3 weeks before I can retire. :eek:
(based on investing the money, the returns over the next 11 years and how much I need for retirement)
 
nutzo said:
Since I'm probably older than most people on here, I look at it a different way.
Spending $850 instead of shoving it into my retirement account means that I have to work for another 3 weeks before I can retire. :eek:
(based on investing the money, the returns over the next 11 years and how much I need for retirement)
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I like to live in the moment and enjoy nicer stuff. I have a little put away for emergencies other wise I buy w/e I want. Needed or not. Never know what can happen tomorrow. Also men in my family don't seem to live past 60. The women live forever tho. No point in saving for retirement when my genetics tell me that my odds of making it to retirement are very low.
 
I guess this means AMD is a success then... ... Well we were told that the money was in OEM for AMD to be successful and here we are.
 
heatlesssun said:
You typically save money on any DIY project but not everyone wants to spend the time and effort and then there's the matter of support. I guess I've always thought that if one actually used the power and capabilities of these kinds of PCs that they're probably expert enough to build their own but that's not always the case.
Click to expand...

I have also seen the build quality and thought put into some of these "computer expert friend" builds and if I knew nothing about computers....I would go with Alienware. Most other people are not going to know of the other options on the market, but most people know or have heard the Alienware name. Add in warranty and it just working with support etc.
 
vegeta535 said:
I like to live in the moment and enjoy nicer stuff. I have a little put away for emergencies other wise I buy w/e I want. Needed or not. Never know what can happen tomorrow. Also men in my family don't seem to live past 60. The women live forever tho. No point in saving for retirement when my genetics tell me that my odds of making it to retirement are very low.
Click to expand...
Cut your balls live forever?
 
Bandalo said:
Who buys these things anyway? You can build your own for 1/2 the price...or pay a friend to do it for you and STILL save a ton.
Click to expand...
The only way i'd buy one is if i wanted water cooling overclocking and didn't want to put in the time or risk.
 
vegeta535 said:
I like to live in the moment and enjoy nicer stuff. I have a little put away for emergencies other wise I buy w/e I want. Needed or not. Never know what can happen tomorrow. Also men in my family don't seem to live past 60. The women live forever tho. No point in saving for retirement when my genetics tell me that my odds of making it to retirement are very low.
Click to expand...

That's your call, just don't expect me to support you with my tax dollars if you guess wrong.

Meanwhile, my mother is in her 80's, and I have some aunts/uncles in their 90's, so I need to plan long term.

I also would like to retire before I get too old to enjoy it.....
 
nutzo said:
That's your call, just don't expect me to support you with my tax dollars if you guess wrong.

Meanwhile, my mother is in her 80's, and I have some aunts/uncles in their 90's, so I need to plan long term.

I also would like to retire before I get too old to enjoy it.....
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I don't expect anyone to support me. I been paying my own way all my life I don't need hand out nor do I want to give handouts to anyone else. Ill be working til I die more then likely.
 
Wow. We haven't seen any major high end OEM wins for AMD in a long long time. This is a very good sign.
 
JustReason said:
I guess this means AMD is a success then... ... Well we were told that the money was in OEM for AMD to be successful and here we are.
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By OEM means in most cheap home and business models and not the more expensive niche market. AMD still has a long way to go.
 
vegeta535 said:
By OEM means in most cheap home and business models and not the more expensive niche market. AMD still has a long way to go.
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Clearly its a start, but wait there's more. They are already in a lot of stuff, its just not out yet ie. in cycle. But this, this getting Alienware and Dell in general is a coup. They have got a foot into the halo brand for Dell. That's a big move.
 
Bandalo said:
Who buys these things anyway? You can build your own for 1/2 the price...or pay a friend to do it for you and STILL save a ton.
Click to expand...

I did. I got tired of building machines a few years back. Ultimately i'm old enough now that I have better things to do, and I don't have the interest in building machines like I used to. I still upgrade my GPU/RAM/Storage on my own as they aren't difficult to do, and they are the big areas where OEM's mark up.

And i'll point out that after the typical 10% military/business discount, along with the stacking 5% discount for 15% total - You'd be surprised how little the difference is to building your own, and that's not accounting for the onsite warranty Dell provides. Another key to keeping the price more on-par is to not upgrade RAM/Storage and add-in your own. Storage upgrades in particular are way overpriced, so if you just drop in your own SSD's you save a lot.
 
Mchart said:
I did. I got tired of building machines a few years back.

And i'll point out that after the typical 10% military/business discount, along with the stacking 5% discount for 15% total - You'd be surprised how little the difference is to building your own, and that's not accounting for the onsite warranty Dell provides. Another key to keeping the price more on-par is to not upgrade RAM/Storage and add-in your own. Storage upgrades in particular are way overpriced, so if you just drop in your own SSD's you save a lot.
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Yea, it gets intriguing if you can start stacking them coupons when they are out there. That 10% off the top with the vet discount rocks. I'm talking in general when it comes to Dell.
 
thesmokingman said:
Yea, it gets intriguing if you can start stacking them coupons when they are out there. That 10% off the top with the vet discount rocks. I'm talking in general when it comes to Dell.
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Yeah, and that's not even including the additional 5% you get back in form of a gift card for Dell.com as well. It's not much, but it's enough that you can save some money on a monitor or snag a couple free games.
 
Mchart said:
I did. I got tired of building machines a few years back. Ultimately i'm old enough now that I have better things to do, and I don't have the interest in building machines like I used to. I still upgrade my GPU/RAM/Storage on my own as they aren't difficult to do, and they are the big areas where OEM's mark up.

And i'll point out that after the typical 10% military/business discount, along with the stacking 5% discount for 15% total - You'd be surprised how little the difference is to building your own, and that's not accounting for the onsite warranty Dell provides. Another key to keeping the price more on-par is to not upgrade RAM/Storage and add-in your own. Storage upgrades in particular are way overpriced, so if you just drop in your own SSD's you save a lot.
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I get your point on the costs...if you can stack enough discounts, it might be worth it. The standard prices though are what drives me away.

I'm old too, but I'm not tired of building machines yet. Unless you're watercooling, it only takes a couple hours to put a new rig together from scratch. And at least half of that time will spent just taking parts out of boxes and cleaning up all the packing materials. And if you're already going to upgrade your RAM, storage and GPU on your own, what are you saving in terms of time? All that's left is installing a PSU, MB and CPU into the case.
 
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