Alienware Area-51 X58 review

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering multiple CPUs

Rendering single CPU

Falcon Northwest Mach V

21,461 

5,353 

Alienware Area-51 X58

19,368 

4,695 

Velocity Micro Edge Z55

17,055 

4,265 

Maingear Ephex

15,271 

4,408 

Dell XPS 730 H2C

14,867 

4,173 

You can see on our charts that clock speed definitely matters. The 3.2GHz Alienware lags noticeably on our iTunes tests behind both the 3.79GHz Falcon Northwest Mach V and a 3.8GHz Dell. It also loses on our other tests, by measurable amounts.

Professionals and performance-sensitive gamers will find that the Falcon Northwest PC will provide a faster user experience, so we can't recommend the Alienware to those for whom speed matters above all else. Of course, if you value storage capacity as well as performance, we have yet to see a computer that offers such an impressive balance of both as the Alienware.

Unreal Tournament 3
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,920 x 1,200

1,280 x 1,024

Alienware Area-51 X58

373 

325 

Falcon Northwest Mach V

369 

423 

Velocity Micro Edge Z55

245 

290 

Dell XPS 730 H2C

223 

252 

Maingear Ephex

129 

181 

Crysis
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,600 x 1,200 (high, 4x aa)

1,280 x 1,024 (medium, 4x aa)

Falcon Northwest Mach V

60 

85 

Alienware Area-51 X58

53 

75 

Velocity Micro Edge Z55

42 

68 

Dell XPS 730 H2C

25 

67 

Maingear Ephex

13 

32 

Our gaming tests reveal the Area-51 X58 to be one of the fastest desktops we've ever tested, and it even squeaks by with a win on our high-resolution Unreal Tournament 3 test. Because both this system and the Falcon have a pair of dual-chip ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards inside, each system has four distinct 3D chips to work with.

We give our Crysis test a little more credence at this point, since the 300-plus scores on Unreal Tournament 3 push that test beyond the point of relevance (we're working on a new gaming benchmark). On Crysis, the Falcon Northwest Mach V remains the only system to handle that game at 1,600x1,200 pixels with full detail and hit 60 frames per second, the PC gaming hallowed ground.

Again, the Area-51 X58 is no question a member of the upper echelon of gaming PCs. If Alienware offered overclocking in this model, we suspect it would compete with the Falcon Northwest Mach for the top spot across every test. Which is not to say that Alienware doesn't overclock any of its PCs.

The Area-51 ALX X58 has a liquid-cooling option that allows it to ship with the CPU clocked above its factory settings. We can't say we understand the necessity of the distinction, especially when with the various options you can still get the price of a non-ALX Area-51 up to £4,700 with little effort. We suspect this has something to do with offering an 'ultra-premium' experience with the higher-end ALX model.