Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme QX6700 processor plus an EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card the Alienware Area 51 7500 gaming system has impressive power and a set of rich features you have come to expect of gaming systems. But then it is one of the most expensive too at $4954( as of Dec 6,2006) that we have tested so far! The review system had 2 GB RAM on it and came out with WorldBench 5 benchmark of 162. That’s actually slightly better than some of quad core systems we’ve tested.
But the score was not as good as some of the dual core systems evaluated at our labs. One explanation is of course that the benchmark package has been tweaked to take advantage of the fact that the 2 core engines work at higher clock rates.
The graphics card had 768 MB of memory and offered DirectX 10 and 167 fps support in Windows Vista. In the Doom3 tests the system supported 167 fps at 1280×1024 resolution easily and went up to 208 fps on the Far Cry tests at 1024×768 as well as 1280×1024 resolutions.
Secondary storage was a generous 800GB with 3 internal drives,2 of them in a RAID 0 configuration. With another available bay you could add another drive to enhance even that capacity.
Alienware’s signature black case design was in evidence. It had clean lines but a sizable footprint. Closing up the side panels was an exercise trying to maneuver several metal tags to get it to click back into place. Meshed sleeves helped keeping internal cabling under control. Several ports were available on the front panel, backlit for convenience, and included 2x USB, 1x Firewire as well as a Mic and a headphone sockets. Touch contacts on the side mounted fans were another convenient feature as you did not need to disconnect cable first to remove the side panel.
The Samsung 204B LCD monitor produced crisp images during the tests and the gaming keyboard and the mouse were nice too. The keyboard was Logitech G15 and had a dinky LCD panel to show game information or song titles. With the G5 Logitech mouse you could adjust its weight by adding or shedding small weights to get just the right feel. Two buttons near the scroll wheel lets the tracking sensitivity to be adjusted.
In summary then, the full featured system Alienware Area 51 7500, despite the mild sticker shock, is great for gaming. The design’s thoughtful and nice too.
Nice post. Alienware desktops really are the best, especially for gamers looking for highest performance.