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Like the government black site gatecrashers back in 2019, Alienware is Naruto running back to Area 51. The Dell-owned brand is offering longtime fans a chance to bask in the old-school aesthetic—sort of. The new Area-51 laptop looks the part, offering rounded corners and RGB mood lighting reminiscent of Alienware’s classic design. Conversely, the Area-51 desktop looks much more like its current, more functional design. Except—this time—it’s really, really big.
The new 16- and 18-inch Area 51 laptops are the big brothers of the m16 R2 and m18 R2 from 2024. They both include the option for an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX or a Core Ultra 9 275HX, plus Nvidia’s 50-series GPUs. There are further options up to 64 GB of DDR5 RAM (32 GB includes DDR5XMP at 7200 MT/s). The laptop supports a whopping 175W of TGP, which may be necessary to support the higher-end 50-series GPUs. We’ve yet to try out Intel and Nvidia’s latest laptop gaming options, but what you’re really here is for the aesthetic. The bottom plate includes a small see-through window to look at some of the components.
I did not get to “use” the Area-51 laptops in any meaningful way before CES, though I tapped their keys with their CherryMX mechanical switches and found myself reminded of past gaming laptops with their full mechanical keyboards. It was a surprisingly joyful typing experience that I haven’t felt from a laptop in a long time, and that alone makes me excited to test them out. As for visuals, both laptops include a QHD+ (2,560 by 1600) resolution IPS LCD that goes up to 240 Hz.
The Area-51 laptops start at around $2,000, but the launch config with the high-end 50-series cards will start at $3,200. They should be around starting sometime early in 2025, with more configuration options to come later.
Alienware has been shifting its design ethos over the past few years. Nowhere is that clearer than with the recent Aurora R16 desktop and its more mundane look than past sci-fi designs. That same design with the RGB loop and rounded, square frame transfers to the new Area-51. It’s bigger, and the pictures don’t offer justice for its mammoth proportions. This case is meant to house Nvidia’s 50-series GPUs. It includes a sliding rack to act as a brace for these massive cards up to 450mm in length. The tower is so big that it should be future-proofed against any cards that could possibly get even larger. Equaling its size is its price tag. The new desktop should be available sometime in the first quarter of 2025, though the starting price will set you back $4,500.
The case itself is 24- by 9-inch by 22-inches big. Powering next-gen high-end Nvidia GPUs is no joke, so Area-51 includes an 850W 80 Plus Gold or 1500W 80 Plus Platinum PSU. Opposite the power supply is a cradle for housing more drives other than the built-in SSD storage. If you have an old drive you need to install into your PC, the Area-51 is offering you extra room.
The big consideration with the Area-51 is whether its “positive pressure airflow” cooling will work in practice. The typical case fan system intakes cooler outside air and exhausts it through other fans. The idea is that all fans point inwards while the hot air exits passively through rear vents—no exhaust fan required. It’s a technique that has existed for years, with the added benefit of supposedly cooling graphics cards better than more traditional fan setups. Alienware claims their new tower runs 13% cooler than other fan setups and remains quieter while doing it.
Gizmodo is covering all the coolest and weirdest tech from the show floor at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Follow our live coverage here.
