AlienWare X51 System Review (Core i7)

The Alienware X51 System has left our offices with positive feelings. The diminutive chassis is around the same size as an Xbox 360, meaning it can fit easily next to a television or monitor, without dominating the room. For a student bedsit or bedroom it makes for a tempting proposition.

The appearance of the X51 is sure to appeal to a large audience. The lighting is both subtle and adjustable and the fact that it can be used horizontally or vertically means it will fit into a wide variety of environments, even close to a hi-fi separates stand.

Moving the power supply to an external unit, helps to reduce the physical footprint of the X51 system.

Internally, as would be expected, it is very closely packed and there is a powerful air flow system to ensure that the components remain within tolerable parameters, even in a fairly warm climate. The only downside to this is that it does emit a fairly high level of noise when loaded.

The Intel Core i7 2600 is a capable processor, however we have good news for prospective customers. In the last couple of weeks Alienware have updated the processor to the 3rd generation Core i7 3770k which is slightly faster than the last generation 2600. Therefore if you buy today, you can expect even better performance.

The Nvidia GTX555 surprised us because it coped with some of the more demanding games at reasonable image quality settings at 1920×1080 resolution. It is a capable graphics card that suits this system perfectly. It also offers CUDA acceleration which improved high definition video encoding results significantly.

Power consumption is another positive point of this system. The optimised configuration means that it only drains 50W of power when idling, and only 65W when watching a high definition movie. This could be left on for many hours a day without having a noticeable, negative impact on your electricity bill.

The Alienware X51 is a jack of all trades. It would be ideal as a small office work machine, it can handle 3d encoding and video editing duties. When you get some downtime then you can rest assured it has enough horsepower to play many games at high definition.

Pros:

• Good processing power.
• keyboard and mouse included.
• Fantastic chassis design.
• efficient.
• small physical footprint.
• Runs fairly cool.

Cons:

• It can get a little loud under heavy load.
• If size or appearance isn't important then there are better value for money systems at £900.
• standard memory without headspreaders.

Kitguru says: If you are in the market for a new system that looks beautiful with a small physical footprint then the X51 comes highly recommended.

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