What do you think of Alienware's new mini?
January 19th, 2012

A year and a half ago, there was increasing talk of set-top gaming rigs — small but powerful desktops that could pull double duty in the living room. You know, Mac Minis with better specs, open architecture, and a lot more games.
Alienware's Bryan de Zayas acknowledged their appeal at the time. "Obviously we can't go into details surrounding potential future product," he said, "But I can assure you that Alienware is constantly asking ourselves if this is the right time to pursue new form factors."
The time is now, it seems. This week, the company announced the Alienware X51. Starting at $699, the compact rig is 12 inches tall, 13 inches deep, and less than 4 inches thick — a nice fit for lean-back PC gaming in the living room or Blu-ray watching on your HDTV (via HDMI).
At the same time, it's capable and expandable enough to power your gaming monitor, thanks to Intel Core i processors, Nvidia graphics, and 8 gigs of ram. Of course, if it's more power you seek from a traditional desktop, there's also the new balls-to-the-wall Aurora, but I digress.
Obviously, I'm not the most objective critic in this case. But I really like the X51's versatility and value. For some it could suffice as a starter gaming machine. For others, it could be a great secondary or even tertiary device.
That said, what do you think of the new X51?
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but as far as the alienware brand and what it is known for not something i would get
my time has come.
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First off, the good: Amazingly compact for Lan Games and Professional DJ's, which I'm trying to do with my AW Aurora R3 (Not ALX). Cheaper price which will compete with any other upcoming Next Gen Console in terms of price and better with power and performance than any console, as well as most other Dell Computers. It's certainly still better than any store bought PC, such as HP, etc. It's hardware, when at it's higher pricing, preselected options, can play almost any game out there currently with medium to high settings.
The not so good: Alienware has always allowed for customization in all of their products. This seems to have died away with the A.R3, and Area 51. When I bought my Aurora R3 back in July of 2011, I selected a about $1799 deal machine and found many upgrades that I needed/wanted and added them to the price. After the tax and the 2 Year Advanced Protection Plan with Accidental Damage, I ran a bill up to about $2500. Certainly more than I was expecting, as I am not made of money, but I needed a computer that would last me 5-7 years before being outdated, as my last Dell 8800 did before that. I find now that my current Aurora R3 is at the top 5% when compared to the current top of the line choice with upgrades on the new ALX.
Obviously the six core i7 extreme processors will eventually out-do my i7 2600k overclocked @4.1ghz, as well as the quad channel Ram, but other than that, I didn't see many other top of the line choices for GFX cards, or processors below in the rest of the i7 core range. For a gamer enthusiast on a budget, the i7 2600k was an amazing choice that I just had to have.
With the new x51, I was hoping it would replace the Iconic Area 51 to compete with custom PCs and companies like Orion, to keep Dell and Alienware on top of the PC gaming market. But, not everyone has money right now and I'm working hard for mine. The PC world DID need a power monster for a affordable price, and the X51 is the answer for many problems the PC world faces. But I just miss some of the additional customization options that Alienware always offered, as X51 and A.ALX presents do not allow choice of Processors, Ram, GFX cards or with Duel GFX settings, or there is simply one or 2 choices only for which to choose from. Maybe I'm just too picky and I'm sorry. A few small preferences does not take away from the awesomeness Alienware has continued to deliver.
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