Cracking open the Alienware Area-51 7500
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By Mark W. Kaelin
By Mark W. Kaelin
ntThe good folks at Alienware recently sent TechRepublic one of their Area-51 7500 gaming desktops for review. The configuration of this system includes the overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad CPU and the 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra video card. Both the CPU and the GPU are liquid cooled — believe us when we say, this is not your office PC. We take a look inside this super-performing premium gaming system and drool over the components.
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ntThis system was supposed to be overclocked, that is what I asked for, but I’m not certain that it is. I’ll investigate.
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Unpacking
Unpacking
While the Alienware laptop PC we reviewed earlier this year shipped in an ordinary FedEx box, the desktop system came in a box with the familiar company logo.
Unpacking
Unpacking
Even the box inside the box has the logo.
Unpacking
Unpacking
The peripherals box contains the T-shirt, owner’s manual, mouse, keyboard, and various video connection cables.
Unpacking
Unpacking
One thing I noticed right away is that machine was wrapped in soft cloth instead of Styrofoam paper like so many other manufacturers use.
Angles
Angles
There are other colors available, but I prefer the black.
Cracking
Cracking
Two DVI outputs as well as S-video.
Start it up
Start it up
The LEDs are even functional — you can see where to load your Half-Life 2 disk even if it is otherwise pitch black.
With the LEDs, connecting your headphones to play a midnight match of Call of Duty without disturbing your spouse is a trivial task.
