Dell’s Alienware division is giving Advanced Micro Devices a big endorsement today with the launch of its Alienware Area-51 Threadripper Edition.
The new gaming desktop will offer the second generation Ryzen Threadripper Edition processors, options for 16 cores, 12 cores, or eight cores. The machine is aimed at hardcore PC gamers, game streamers, and “megatasking” people who just do a lot of things at once. AMD’s Threadripper series is based on the Zen architecture, which is challenging Intel for dominance in PC performance and can execute 52 percent more instructions per clock cycle than the previous generation.
The starting price for the machine is $2,200, but there are a lot of options to make it more expensive. The Area-51 R& desktop has options for 16-core 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors or 12 cores. It uses the AMD X399 chipset with support for quad channel memory, DIY quad graphics configurations, and a variety of high-performance storage options. With the various graphics options, Alienware said the machine can support 4K, 8K, and VR environments.
Above: Inside the Area-51 R7 desktop with AMD 2nd Gen Threadripper
The Area-51 R7 can support Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire technologies for multiple graphics cards. It uses a second generation Triad chassis, engineered for airflow, thermal management and user ergonomics.
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Storage stars at 960 gigabytes for SSD drives and up to 2 terabytes for hard drives, and there are options for dual drives. You can access the graphics cards without using any tools, as they sit on a swinging PCI-E door that holds the graphics cards in place. Liquid cooling is a standard feature. Each machine has two chassis fans when air-cooled graphics is used. With dual-liquid-cooled graphics, there is one chassis fan, two heat exchangers for the graphics cards and a third heat exchanger for the CPU liquid-cooling unit.
The latest chassis has more perforations for increased airflow and two additional USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports.
