Alienware’s redesigned Area-51 is like the Mac Pro of gaming PCs

Apple’s new “trash can” Mac Pro is pretty wild, but Alienware might have just snatched back the title for craziest desktop PC with its new Area-51. Gone is the rectangular tower desktop of old, in its place, Alienware’s made a funky, hexagonal machine. Similar to Apple, Alienware claims the design for its new desktop has some practical benefits beyond just looking insane. Since the back of the desktop isn’t perpendicular with the floor, the company says you can push the unit up against the wall without blocking its all-important ventilation. Hardcore gamers should take note that the Area-51 will ship with Intel’s newest 6- and 8-core Haswell-E processors, and it can handle up to three monster, double-wide graphics cards. Just what you need to stomp noobs from the comfort of your dorm room.

After a few years finding itself/getting a heavy-duty industrial makeover, Alienware’s well-respected (and, importantly, customizable) desktop gaming PC has returned. TheArea-51 isn’t small, but it now has a new triangular… hexagonal… something-between-the-two design, intentionally hewn that way to maintain airflow and keep it cool, even when positioned against a wall. It’s certainly come a long way since the tower desktop days of 2011. Given its size, two of the corners have handles to lug it around with — we hope you can bicep-curl 45 pounds though, because that’s how much it weights. It also looks nothing like Alienware’s incoming Steam Machine. Inside that space-age shell, there’s support for up to three full-length graphics cards, Intel’s best and brightest Core i7 six- and eight-core Haswell-E CPUs — all overclockable and liquid-cooled. All the above is backed up with DDR4 RAM support. The early announcement unfortunately didn’t cover pricing or release dates, but expect to see the machine later this year. Oh, and the new model also has nine separate light-up zones for customization. Because customization is key to victory in Counter-Strike. (It isn’t).