The Return of Area-51

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Jan. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Alienware is reintroducing the iconic Area-51 back into the family, reanimated in desktop and laptop forms. Deep lore underpins Area-51, dating back to 1998. While the design, technology and gameplay have evolved significantly from iteration to iteration, one fact has remained the same: Area-51 represents the best that Alienware offers.

Reclaiming its position at the apex of our portfolio, the new Area-51 Desktop and Area-51 Laptops debut an arsenal of cutting-edge features to power the next generation of AAA gameplay. Powered by NVIDIA® Blackwell, GeForce RTX™ 50 Series GPUs multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4, generate images at unprecedented speed, unleash creativity with NVIDIA Studio and support the latest NVIDIA NIM microservices—optimized AI models for language, speech, vision, content generation and more—that let enthusiasts and developers build AI assistants, productivity plug-ins and content creation workflows with peak performance.

[Also announced today is a brand-new flagship Alienware 27 4K QD-OLED display which you can learn more about here]

ALIENWARE AREA-51 DESKTOP
Area-51 Desktop makes a bold entrance to retake the throne as Alienware’s flagship gaming PC. With this edition, we are returning to our roots with a machine that caters to the desires of PC gaming enthusiasts and longtime Alienware fans who have a deep appreciation for technology and a can-do attitude for manually customizing their build to their needs. It is an icon that honors the wishes of all gamers seeking unyielding performance and the ability to make serious upgrades for years to come.

We devoted years to carefully planning and developing this platform, guided each step of the way by learnings gathered from the gaming community. This feedback helped shape the direction of this platform, influencing all aspects from product design to technology implementation to airflow patterns.

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As our full-size 80L tower, it stands tall as our marquee platform designed for gamers seeking elite performance and standard components in a scalable design.

• Elite Performance: With available headroom for more than 600W of dedicated graphics power and up to 280W of dedicated processing power, Area-51 supports the highest performance components up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU and Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285K CPU, allowing games to run and sustain at their limits.
• Standard Components: Industry standard components allow the most critical parts to be easily replaced and serviced, including the motherboard, power supply, CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, fans and more.
• Scalable Design: At 80L, this full-size tower is designed to comfortably support and exceed the size requirements of today’s largest components, prepare for future upgrades, and create the ideal thermal solution.

Positive Pressure Design
With every Alienware product launch, the chief charter for our engineers is to maximize gaming performance while maintaining low temperatures and noise. The thermal architecture and airflow decisions are a critical piece of that puzzle. 

We looked at various airflow models to determine the most effective thermal design and then sculpted the overall desktop blueprint around this solution.

After countless tests, we implemented an all-new positive pressure airflow system with three different fan sizes that all point inward toward the chassis to pull in cool air from the environment. Gaskets inside the chassis create a seal to prevent leakage and build positive pressure that expels heated air out the back with a pressurized passive exhaust. That’s right – there are no exhaust fans. This approach reduces air recirculation to maximize overall flowrate.

Here’s how it works… Dual 140mm fans direct cool ambient air upward toward the GPU fans ensuring maximum graphics performance. Larger dual 180mm fans push air laterally toward the GPU, CPU and memory from the front of the chassis. Lastly, dual or triple 120mm fans are included for liquid cooling configurations to pull in additional air from the top. This creates a greater internal air pressure compared to the outside and forces heated air to expel through the rear of the chassis.

By combining these larger fan sizes and advanced liquid cooling configurations, the positive pressure design moves 25% more air through the chassis, helping Area-51 run up to 13% cooler and 45% quieter during graphics intensive tasks[i].

All these advancements translate to real performance improvements to the tune of 50% more processing power[ii], making Area-51 ready to meet the demands of today and anticipate the needs of the future.

Upgradeability, Maintenance and Materials
Upgradeability is an integral part of the Area-51 customer experience. QR codes found inside the chassis guide customers to instructional videos on how to complete updates, repairs and modifications of key components. This includes guides on how to change the RAM, GPU, SSD, power supply and conduct basic maintenance like cleaning filters and fans. The motherboard is also replaceable with the purchase of an optional AlienFX motherboard harness that is required when installing third-party aftermarket motherboards.

Gamers can stop dust in its tracks and keep the system performing at its best for longer with three removable, cleanable filters on the front, top and bottom air intakes. The filters ensure unrestricted airflow and minimize dust accumulating on internal components such as fans.

The spacious full-tower design allows easy access to the inside of the desktop with plenty of room for your hands to maneuver around. A knob on the back of the desktop unlocks the dual side doors so you can easily access the interior components. Once open, gamers will find a spacious interior behind the tempered glass panel along with neatly organized cable routing behind the solid side panel. A handle recess on the back of the machine and the front loop allows for easy lifting – though we recommend grabbing a friend to help.

Top-Shelf Performance Features
At the heart of the experience is the selection of high-performance components. Here’s our quick overview of additional components that complete the Area-51 Desktop experience:

• Dual channel RAM configurations up to 64GB DDR5 XMP (2x 32GB) at 6400 MT/s.
• Up to 8TB of Storage via 4TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD (boot) + 4TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4 SSD (storage).
• Armed with either 360mm Liquid Cooling (LC) or 240mm LC, while enabling a DIY upgradeability path to 420mm LC.
• Powered by a 1500W Platinum Rated ATX12VO Power Supply (PSU) or an 850W Gold Rated ATX12VO PSU.
• Seven customizable AlienFX lighting zones with over 16.7 million colors and six different lighting effects, all managed in the Alienware Command Center (AWCC).
• Optional Alienware Elite Care customer support, offering 24/7 customer support, accidental damage coverage, onsite repairs and more. [scroll down to learn more]
• Built with recycled materials including 85% post-consumer recycled plastic and power supply units with 50% recycled steel and recycled copper[iii].

Pricing and Availability

• Availability: First available later in Q1 with select configurations. Additional graphics options and configurations will arrive later including the entry configuration.
• Launch Configuration Price: ~$4,499 (w/ NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 GPU)
• Entry Configuration Price: Coming Soon

Alienware Area-51 Desktop Press Kit

ALIENWARE AREA-51 LAPTOPS
The mobile cavalry has landed with the introduction of Area-51 laptops. These 18-inch and 16-inch laptops have an acute focus on power, performance and innovative engineering in a new otherworldly design language. Like its desktop counterpart, Area-51 laptops are an expression of maximum performance that cater to gamers seeking the preeminent gaming experience.

Armed to the nines with next-gen high-performance technology and enveloped in our brand-new industrial design, Area-51 symbolizes the next act for Alienware.

• Elite Performance: Area-51 unleashes 280W of combined power across an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPU and an Intel® Core™ Ultra CPU – delivering exceptional performance.
• Robust Thermals: A new intricate thermal architecture enables Area-51 to move up to 35% more air through the system while being 15% quieter[iv].
• Sophisticated Design: Area-51 laptop design exudes a mysterious identity that invokes curiosity while elevating comfort and functionality.

New Design Language Inspired by Extraterrestrial Phenomena
The brand-new Area-51 laptops are designed to evoke a sense of mystery and transcendence that is distinctly alien. They represent the next step in our ever-evolving design journey and mark a new era for Alienware. Dubbed AW30, this new design language takes inspiration from extraterrestrial phenomena, including the Aurora Borealis, more commonly referred to as the Northern Lights.

This calls forward a more serene, ethereal and sophisticated experience that can adapt to your surroundings.

• New Liquid Teal finish on the anodized aluminum gives the system a dark iridescent sheen that shifts colors when light is absorbed.
• Translucent thermal shelf located on the rear is illuminated by gradient, AlienFX lighting animations that imitate the unpredictable motions of the Aurora Borealis. In this spirit, lighting is now used on the surfaces as opposed to being a graphic element.
• New signature Aurora lighting effect serves as a boot up animation interacting with all AlienFX lighting zones and is accompanied by a new startup sound effect.
• Clear Gorilla Glass window on the underside of the laptop provides a view into the inner-workings of the machine, paying homage to a retro-futuristic design.[v]
• RGB fans cast an underglow through the clear window and up through the keyboard deck for added ambiance.[vi]
• Zero Hinge design delivers a cleaner, sleeker exterior that features fluid contours and clean lines.

Unmatched Performance
Area-51 supports the highest total power ceiling in a gaming laptop, pushing the limit by dedicating up to 175W of total graphics power (TGP) and up to a 105W thermal design profile (TDP) toward processors simultaneously. Powered by up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU and up to an Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 275HX CPU, this 280W in total package power (TPP) is the budget sum that you can use to drive your games, creation, hobbies and productivity apps.

Alienware engineers have upgraded our laptop design with a more advanced Cryo-tech™ thermal architecture to unlock newfound levels of performance, cooling and airflow. Managing airflow, fan speed, module design and thermal interface material are core parts of this approach. Compared to previous Alienware laptops, the new Area-51 laptops move up to 37% more air through the system while being 15% quieter[vii]. 

Today’s world empowers us to multitask at a level only previously imagined in fiction.  This requires high-speed memory to store calculations for the processor. To achieve that, Area-51 offers XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) memory at speeds of up to 7200 MT/s scaling higher than ever on an Alienware laptop. So, yes, you can do more, faster.

As the bedrock for all the data from Windows to your games to your most precious archives, Area-51 are the first Alienware laptops to support Gen 5 Solid State Drives (SSDs). This is the latest in storage technology and it delivers the most amount of data throughput per watt. That means the hardware alone gets you performance and efficiency in everything you do. When combined with Microsoft DirectStorage technology, now the GPU can directly access SSDs which makes games run even faster than ever before. Now configurable with up 12TB of Storage.[viii]

Area-51 includes technology advancements chosen to make your everyday life synonymous with high performance even when you’re not gaming, competing, or creating. You can find a detailed view of all the premium features offered by Area-51 in our press kit.

Pricing and Availability

• Availability: First available later in Q1 with select configurations. Additional graphics options and configurations will arrive later including the entry configuration.
• Launch Configuration Price: ~$3,199 (w/ NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 GPU)
• Entry Configuration Price: ~$1,999

Alienware 16 and 18 Area-51 Laptop Press Kit

UPDATES TO THE ALIENWARE AURORA
Complimentary to Area-51 is our Alienware Aurora Desktop, a mid-sized tower for gamers keen on a compact yet high-performance gaming experience. The 2025 edition of Alienware Aurora ushers in a boost in gaming performance provided by the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs powered by NVIDIA Blackwell and Intel® Core™ Ultra 2 processors.

Pricing and Availability

• Availability: First available later in Q1 with select configurations. Additional graphics options and configurations will arrive later including the entry configuration.
• Launch Configuration Price: Coming Soon
• Entry Configuration Price: Coming Soon

Alienware Aurora Desktop Press Kit

INTRODUCING ALIENWARE ELITE CARE
Elite Care is an all-new customer support program dedicated for Alienware customers to provide specialized gaming support.

• Next Level Gaming Support: Our 24/7 gaming experts provide end-to-end assistance, from installation to optimizing settings for smooth gameplay.
• Support Essentials: Unlock 24/7 elite support, onsite repairs, international travel support, data back-up & parental control assistance, accidental damage service with no deductible, and for Alienware laptops, extended battery service included.[ix]
• SupportAssist: Built-in smart technology that predicts and resolves issues, removes viruses and malware and automatically boosts performance and network connectivity.

Alienware Elite Care Press Kit

[i] Based on internal analysis during September 2024 comparing the Alienware Area-51 desktop to the two previous Intel-based Alienware Aurora desktops. All configurations used NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and Intel® Core™ i9K-class processors with liquid cooling. Actual results may vary.
[ii] Based on internal analysis during September 2024 comparing the Alienware Area-51 desktop to the two previous Intel-based Alienware Aurora desktops. All configurations used NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and Intel® Core™ i9K-class processors with liquid cooling. Actual results may vary.
[iii] Percentage is based on plastic weight. Applicable to the front and inner frame, front bezel, rear left and right support trims. Based on internal analysis, November 2024.
[iv] Based on internal analysis on October 2024 comparing Alienware 16 Area-51 and Alienware x16 R2
[v] With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 GPU configurations or better.
[vi] With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 GPU configurations or better.
[vii] Based on internal analysis on October 2024 comparing Alienware 16 Area-51 and Alienware x16 R2
[viii] Available in participating countries.
[ix] Based on internal analysis, April 2024

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SOURCE Dell Technologies