It Would Be My Without end Case if It Didn’t Look so Dated

The primary factor you discover about Alienware’s newest desktop is that its large. It’s so large, you want two folks to carry it onto your desk. It’s so mundane wanting, I won’t need it on my desk in any respect. The premium construct high quality additionally comes at a premium value. The massive Alienware pre-built PC starts at $3,750. Our assessment mannequin, which incorporates the highest-end Intel Core Extremely 9 285 Ok and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, will set you again $5,500. Alienware opted for an Intel chipset, although at the moment the chipmaker’s highest-end desktop CPU is notably much less efficient for gaming situations, generally even lacking benchmarks of the 14th-gen Intel chips. I might have most popular an AMD possibility, however that’s not accessible exterior shopping for your individual separate motherboard and putting in it your self. In any other case, if it wasn’t already clear, the remainder of the specs are going to utterly blast by way of benchmarks due to that 5090 and 64 GB of DDR5 XMP 6400 MT/s reminiscence, although it is best to know beforehand the board solely has two RAM slots.

The Space-51 is basically an upscaled Aurora R16 from 2024. I appreciated that PC, and I feel that rendition feels extra evocative than this rendition. The silver coloration doesn’t do a lot to intensify the comparatively few RGB accents lining the entrance consumption mouth or inner parts. The Aurora sported hexagonal shapes on the aspect panel, whereas the Space-51 is way extra of a field with each panel line highlighted by its vibrant coloration. It’s not ugly, however it’s not one thing I think about taking a look at subsequent to my desk with the smug satisfaction of a PC gamer with the best {hardware}.

One of the best points of Alienware’s new design are centered round its big physique. There’s plenty of empty area inside, and that enables for an enormous sliding bracket that hooks onto the top of your graphics card. Even when it’s packing a 2.5-slot Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, there’s nonetheless an additional 5 inches in size you can go earlier than hitting the entrance consumption fan. That ought to depart you loads of room to put in a next-gen GPU after they inevitably arrive pricier and longer than the present technology.

And whereas that swappable motherboard is sweet information, additionally, you will have to buy a separate $35 conversion package to verify every thing’s working appropriately. That package contains cables to assist the brand new motherboard work together with the AlienFX board on the aspect panel. The FX board controls the RGB for the system, and it’s a testomony to the design that it’s really easy to entry by merely eradicating the right-hand aspect panel. Alienware {hardware} reps advised me they opted to not embody it within the field since they anticipate “solely a really small share” of shoppers will need to do the improve instantly. The corporate promised it is going to provide the package for “a number of years” after the top of the Space-51’s lifespan.

Regardless that the package is a foolish omission, the PC remains to be essentially the most easily-upgradable Alienware unit in years. The panels are indifferent by unscrewing a lock, turning a dial, then hitting a button. Dell even took a web page from Framework’s playbook. Each element, from the graphics card to the highest fan financial institution, has a QR code that takes you to a devoted web page describing learn how to safely take away and change the GPU, SSD, PSU, and RAM. When you have any expertise with PC constructing, all the recommendation will appear rote. If you happen to don’t know what you’re doing, the movies are comparatively useful with some fundamental however sane recommendation for dealing with parts.

Probably the most dramatic function of the redesigned Space-51 is the constructive strain surroundings used for cooling. The CPU makes use of a 360mm liquid cooler unit plus followers within the entrance and backside to attract in air, however the system makes use of thermodynamics to push the recent air out the rear vents. The desktop doesn’t have any exhaust followers. As a substitute it depends on a lot of gaskets and its fitted panels to maintain pressures on the vital degree inside. I might be mendacity if I advised you I wasn’t skeptical, however it does certainly work. If you happen to stand behind the rear vents, you’ll be able to really feel the recent air shifting. In my assessments, utilizing Alienware’s built-in Command Heart software program monitoring, the PC wasn’t getting overly steamy.

Above: An older version Space-51 Desktop in comparison with the 2025 Alienware Space-51.

Simply to match, I hooked up an previous 120 mm fan to the rear exhaust to seek out if the PC carried out any higher. I didn’t expertise any main distinction with or with out the fan after operating PC Mark and spending quarter-hour apiece enjoying intensive video games together with Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. I’m positive somebody would possibly ultimately discover a method to soup it up with extra followers, however for now I can say is it really works. Alienware claims this provides higher airflow, permitting for higher temps which also needs to assist it run higher. I don’t have sufficient methods to supply apples to apples comparisons to examine these claims. I additionally wouldn’t say the Space-51 system is any extra silent than its contemporaries. It nonetheless will sound like a jet engine while you need to get essentially the most out of your efficiency.

I don’t even have to inform you the PC completely blasted by way of benchmarks, although maybe much less dramatically than a PC just like the CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme prebuilt that sported an AMD Ryzen 9800X3D. If you wish to know simply how a lot horsepower a RTX 5090 can put out, yow will discover my impressions from February. Put in within the Alienware tower you get the type of rig that may allow you to push even essentially the most demanding video games to full ray tracing and path tracing and nonetheless handle to get round 60 FPS at 4K, and that’s earlier than you resolve to go for 4x framegen to push the quantity to over 200. The 5090 is an costly and demanding card, so Alienware caught a 1500W Platinum-rated ATX12VO PSU, which presents 500W extra headroom than Nvidia suggests for peak efficiency.

Alienware pulled out all of the stops for this construct, all the way in which all the way down to the environment friendly cable administration. It is a primo machine made to pair with different premium {hardware}, like a 240 Hz QD-OLED monitor. At that time, you’re spending $6,000 on a setup, so that you higher just like the look of it. Again in December, when Dell first confirmed off the brand new Alienware desktop, it confirmed us earlier fashions of the triangular Space 51 that seemed just like the touchdown gear for an extraterrestrial starship. The brand new Space-51 seems like a giant desktop. I do know which one I’d plug in first.