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Alienware resurrects its Area-51 desktop PC

The Alienware Area-51 desktop PC, a line of high-end gaming rigs dating back to 1998, has returned after several years out of the game. The company announced the new model at CES 2025, describing the resurrected Area-51 as “retaking the throne” as Alienware’s latest flagship gaming PC. But royalty doesn’t come cheap, as its launch configuration will cost around $4,500. (Cue spit take.)<br /> The new Area-51 PC has a full-sized 80L tower with headroom for over 600W of dedicated graphics power and 280W for processing. It supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards and an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU.<br /> <br /> The rig uses a positive-pressure system with only intake fans; exhaust comes exclusively from passive airflow. That setup includes dual 140mm fans that blow air upward to the GPU, dual 180mm fans aimed laterally from the front toward the GPU, CPU and RAM and dual or triple 120mm fans pulling air in from the top for liquid cooling configurations. The greater internal pressure passively forces heated air out of the back.<br /> Alienware says the new airflow system (in a build using the GeForce RTX 4090 and an Intel Core i9K processor) moves 25 percent more air, runs 13 percent cooler and is 45 percent quieter than the two previous Alienware Aurora desktops. The company says that leads to 50 percent more processing power.<br /> Alienware<br /> You can open its chassis by unlocking a knob on the back of the tower. Alienware says there’s plenty of room to fit your hands and move upgrade parts in and out. Inside are QR codes linking to instructional videos, which likely do little more than save you a few seconds of searching YouTube. The collection includes guides on swapping out the RAM, GPU, SSD, and power supply, as well as maintenance issues like cleaning its fans and three removable / cleanable filters.<br /> The Area-51 rig supports up to 64GB DDR5 XMP (2x 32GB) RAM at 6400 MT/s, 8TB of storage, and liquid cooling in 240mm and 360mm configurations (with a DIY upgrade path to 420mm). Configurations use a 1500W Platinum Rated ATX12VO or an 850W Gold Rated ATX12VO power supply.<br /> Shaun Lucas / Alienware<br /> The launch configuration, including a “next-gen NVIDIA GPU,” will cost around $4,500 when it arrives later in Q1 2025. Other builds will follow later, including a (unspecified) cheaper entry-level option.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/alienware-resurrects-its-area-51-desktop-pc-040024043.html?src=rss