The Most POWERFUL Computer on Earth!
Written: Dec 22 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Fast processor, multitude of peripherals, great audio system
Cons: the price tag
|
|
|
| echan383's Full Review: Alienware Area51:Aurora |
Fit for anyone from a power-user to an avid gamer, Alienware's Area51: Aurora system combines the power of a 1.25GHz AMD Thunderbird processor and quality, brand-name parts into a system with unparalleled speed and versatility.
The entire system is configured to maximize graphic programs and multimedia applications, all while delivering it at a good clip. To accomplish it's task, the Aurora is outfitted with the latest and greatest cards, gadgets and gears, starting with a super-hot 1.25GHz Athalon Thunderbird CPU. And I mean super-HOT. The chip comes factory-overclocked by 4% (over the standard 1.2GHz chip), and to accommodate this overheated system, Alienware's specialized cooling system, KoolMax. There are no less than eight (yes, I said eight) fans, keeping the hardware at a frosty 15 degrees Celsius. They are intelligently placed, and designed to maximize convection current airflows- the cool air is drawn in from the bottom, and the rising hot air is drawn out near the top of the case. Two additional fans sit directly on the PCI slots, cooling the peripheral cards and CPU.
Not only is the product cool, but it also boasts one of the most impressive desktop audio setups I've ever seen on a computer. This massive audio system starts with a Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum- a proven and reliable card with Dolby Digital 5.1 and Environmental Audio (EAX) capability. The card itself has 8MB of audio 'RAM' and can process 1024 voices at once. The second piece of the system is quite unique, and only the Aurora included it in it's package (of the systems I also looked at). I refer to a secondary drive that is tied in to the Soundblaster Live!, called LiveDrive. It fits into a 5" bay, and allows both analog and digital audio devices to send and recieve audio information from the Sound Blaster Live!. There are also MIDI I/O connections for electronic piano plug-ins. The center piece of the entire audio system are the Klipsch Pro-Media V.2 400 4.1 five-piece speaker setup. Configured with four-satellite speakers and one massive subwoofer, the Klipsch speakers provide the clearest, most beautiful sounds I've ever heard. Even at the high registers and loud volumes, the sound rarely distorts- and to boot, they are the only THX-certified desktop speakers systems available.
If the audio system is good, then the choice of graphic card is fabulous. Armed with the newest video card, the Aurora packs heat with an Nvidia GeForce2 DDR Ultra, the latest iteration of the excellent Nvidia line. The GeForce2 Ultra, which packs 64MB of video RAM, can process more than a billion textured pixels at once, and supports 2x Full Screen Anti-Aliasing. The secret behind the GeForce2's impressive performance stems from it's video RAM. Video cards have their RAM run at a certain clock speed (the GeForce2 Ultra's clock speed is 200MHz). But the special feature of the GeForce2 Ultra is that their RAM transfers rate at twice the bandwidth, effectively doubling the clock speed. When all this graphics processing power is combined with a superb 22" ViewSonic PF815 monitor, your eyes will be dazzled with crystal clear pictures and games.
To sum it all up, Alienware has done it again. A proven maker of high-end computers, Alienware pulled out all the stops with the Area 51: Aurora. Combining great parts and a load of extra features, the Aurora rips through any game, program or multimedia file you can possibly throw at it. If there is one thing that is unappealing about the system is it's price tag. Weighing in at a hefty $4,399 US dollars, the Aurora is not a cheap system. But even it's cloest competitor, the Falcon NW MachV computer costs nearly $6,000 US, and so, can be considered a fairly good bargain.
Even with the rather large price tag, the Aurora remains the champion of high-end computer systems, and I recommend it over any other pre-built system.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4399
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
echan383
|
|
Member: Eric Chan
Location: Lexington, MA USA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Music. Computers. Reading. These things I enjoy.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.