Alienware Space-51 evaluate
I wasn’t adequately ready for simply how huge the brand new Alienware Space-51 is within the flesh. It is frankly huge, particularly in contrast with the fairly meek little Aurora desktops of the final Dell gaming field refresh.
These Auroras simply felt like fairly commonplace mid-tower machines, with a fairly uninteresting, very Dell design. This Space-51, nevertheless, is a gaming PC completely in FULL TOWER MODE. And, you recognize what, I am kinda into it. I do not know if it is simply that I am just a little intimidated by its sheer presence—so possibly I am feeling the must be good about it in any other case it is coming for my lunch cash—nevertheless it’s definitely a formidable factor whenever you pull it out of the field and switch it on.
I dig the graceful curves of its outer shell, the blue LED ring across the entrance consumption space, and people completely huge twin consumption followers. And that massive glass facet panel giving unfettered visible entry to the insides, the place the quantity of house by some means makes the portly RTX 5090 this method ships with appear to be an everyday graphics card.
Oh sure, that is the Space-51 given the complete Alienware beans. So, the evaluate system I’ve subsequent to me is just about top-of-the-line throughout the board. On the one hand, ooh, that is the quickest gaming PC I’ve had on the take a look at bench, on the opposite it is so laborious to get something that is not absolutely the high spec out of the corporate for testing. And I haven’t got the deep pockets to drop a pair grand on a mid-range model to see how that may prove by comparability.
Space-51 specs
CPU: Intel Core Extremely 9 285K
Motherboard: Alienware Z890 ATX commonplace
RAM: 64 GB (2x 32 GB) DDR5-6400
Storage: 2 TB SK Hynix PCIe 5.0 SSD
GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090
PSU: 1500 W ATX12VO
Dimensions: 569 x 231.6 x 610.5 mm (22.4 x 9.1 x 24 in)
Weight: 34.5 kg (76.1 lbs)
Worth: $5,300 | £5,449
Nonetheless, this can be a becoming spec for such a monstrous PC; there’s the RTX 5090 for a begin, working cheek-by-jowl with the Intel Core Extremely 9 285K and 64 GB dual-channel DDR5-6400, with a 2 TB PCIe 5.0 Sk Hynix SSD doing the storage dance for you. And… er… yeah, the value. There’s none of Razer’s second of readability by itself barely harmful laptop computer pricing; Alienware continues to be sporting its premium branding like some form of armour towards any consideration of smart pricing.
This can be a $5,300 gaming PC.
With the RTX 5090 itself costing across the $3,000 mark in the intervening time—although with offers that’s beginning to edge downwards once more—that makes it possibly an comprehensible, if under no circumstances acceptable worth for many of us PC players.
Value noting additionally that Corsair’s Vengeance PCs, methods typically additionally labouring underneath excessive worth premiums, are sitting nicely over the $5K worth level for RTX 5090 machines, too. Feels barely ludicrous for that to make the Alienware worth par for the course, however right here we’re. And hey, with a PC of this dimension, you might be a minimum of getting a great sense of worth.
It does a minimum of carry out like a $5,000 gaming PC. This factor is lightning fast, from its PCIe 5.0 SSD chilly boot time, to the tempo at which it will possibly chew via video games. The one misstep is in Baldur’s Gate 3 the place you’ll be able to see what profit you will get from having a Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPU inside your rig as a substitute of being restricted to an Intel Arrow Lake chip. In any other case it is plain crusing for the Space-51 in something you throw at it.
With all our PC testing carried out at 1440p, the Space-51 is high of the category when it comes to any prebuilt PC that we have checked out in current occasions. And, nicely, ever. The one different machine we have seen that may beat it’s a system we put collectively for a earlier function which packed an RTX 5090 inside a case with a Ryzen 9 9950X—and even then they commerce blows.
You would possibly go quicker with a Ryzen 3D V-Cache chip, such because the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, particularly in Baldur’s Gate 3, however this machine is about as quick a gaming PC as you will get in Intel trim. It isn’t simply in gaming phrases that the Space-51 can high the category, both, as a result of that Intel Core Extremely 9 may ship relating to closely multi-threaded workloads, too. And, even when I am not bought on the config, the cooling does an ideal job of taming the CPU’s warmth calls for.
One thing else I have been actually impressed with are the noise ranges. Stick it in Efficiency mode and it’ll push each the CPU and GPU to their fullest, and through heavy operation you’ll definitely hear these followers spinning up. However, drop it to the Balanced mode within the Alienware Command Heart (ACC) app and it’ll dial again the CPU whereas retaining the graphics core working laborious.
With the CPU and its cooler being the most well liked and loudest part pairing, which means you get a quiet system with out compromising on gaming efficiency, and that may be a little bit of a win, for positive. The little little bit of configuration nuance allowed by the Alienware Command Heart software program means you are getting a system that’s really pre-tuned in a manner many different prebuilt PCs may not be out of the field. With one thing like Corsair’s Vengeance machines not delivery with an iCUE configuration, that makes the ACC app a welcome little little bit of bloat on the in any other case clear OS set up.
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There are nonetheless proprietary connections in order for you to have the ability to do things like change the AlienFX RGB lighting or, y’know, flip the damned factor on.
However that is Alienware, so we have now the ever-thorny situation of proprietary elements. The excellent news right here is that, basically, the brand new Space-51 is paying homage to the times of upgradeable Alienware machines, when as soon as there was the choice to easily use off-the-shelf elements to switch your PC down the road. All of the outdated Auroras would allow you to swap out GPU, reminiscence, and storage, however they recurrently had weirdly sized and laid out motherboards that regarded like they had been ripped proper out of some weird Dell corpo PC field. As a result of they most likely had been.
Now, the motherboard within the Space-51 continues to be fairly industrial-looking, with one million tiny chips and chokes on show, like miniature cyberpunk cityscapes, with only some stylised heatsinks overlaying issues up. We have turn out to be used to all that being hidden by trendy mobos and their flashy shielding, not so with the Intel board contained in the Alienware. However it’s a minimum of of ordinary ATX scale, with the identical screw factors as each different off-the-shelf motherboard. So, mobo upgrades are a doddle, then. A win for Alienware and one of many largest points we have had with its PCs dropped in a single fell swoop.
Besides, not fairly.
The chassis itself is not all that appropriate, as a result of there are nonetheless proprietary connections in order for you to have the ability to do things like change the AlienFX RGB lighting or, y’know, flip the damned factor on. To have the ability to join all of the entrance panel, case cooling, and lighting gubbins as much as a third-party motherboard you will want to select up a $35 conversion equipment, which comes with all of the cables and adapters you would possibly want.
Properly, not precisely all, as a result of the beefy 1500 W PSU this machine ships with is of the ATX12VO selection which ditches all of the largely pointless 5 V connections and offers you a a lot smaller motherboard energy connection. Which is nice, besides you are going to battle to search out one other third-party motherboard that can take that connection, and there isn’t any secure adapter on the planet that can assist. So, you are going to want to select up a brand new PSU, too.
How a lot of a difficulty that truly is will solely be one thing you’ll be able to reply your self. Me? I generally tend to do in-place platform upgrades on my PCs fairly than choose up an entire new system from scratch, however I do know that is not everybody. Particularly not everybody who would possibly purchase a $5,000 Alienware within the first place.
The DIY market is loud, however small. And the notion of future-proofing your construct, with the potential for in-place upgrades down the road, really solely caters to a vanishingly small minority of PC players. And I ponder what number of $5,000 PCs from any producer really find yourself having their motherboards ripped out and changed by the unique proprietor even when they’re totally off-the-peg, like a Corsair Vengeance. I’d wager treasured few.
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What I’ll say is the motherboard in there’s comparatively nicely appointed for an Alienware rig. There are solely a pair of M.2 slots for inside storage (one PCIe 5.0 and one PCIe 4.0), however I’ve by no means seen a system with fairly so many USB Kind-C ports on it. There are a pair on the entrance panel of the machine, with one other 4 on the again panel of the board itself. Two of the six are Thunderbolt ports, whereas the remaining are 10 Gbps sockets. There are an extra six Kind-A ports, although with solely one among them designated as 5 Gbps, on the rear and one other two USB 3.2 Kind-A 5 Gbps ports on the entrance panel.
And all of it feels very nicely put collectively, from the tremendous inflexible bracketing retaining the RTX 5090 in place and from dragging the PCIe slot down with it, to the cable routing within the rear of the machine. There are energy and information cables already tidied into place across the spare 2.5-inch and three.5-inch drive bays in case you wish to jam in some historical SATA SSDs or spinning platter storage, which is a welcome contact.
That impression considerably modified after I began trying out the cooling. It really cools the system impressively nicely—working on Efficiency mode, sure it will get chatty, however stays chill and in Balanced mode it is quiet however nonetheless delivers on gaming body charges. However I am undecided I am into Alienware’s cooling config.
In a gaming PC, good airflow is a constructive factor. And whenever you’ve received a ton of followers in a rig it is vital to verify they’re blowing in the best instructions, which usually means not having all of them blowing within the similar route. The dual 180 mm followers on the entrance are consumption followers, pulling cool air in to assist cool the system as an entire, then there are a pair of 140 mm followers set simply above the PSU ostensibly to tug cool air in from the underside to go up and throughout the GPU.
Lastly, there are three 120 mm followers atop the 360 mm radiator. In most trendy builds, these are used to tug the recent air out from the PC, over the radiator drawing extra warmth from the coolant to assist chill the CPU itself.
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No matter my misgivings is likely to be it does all of it in a quiet restrained manner. Properly, as restrained as any PC of this scale can.
Besides that is not what Alienware is doing. It is working with full constructive strain, with each fan within the rig pointing inwards, drawing cool air in with no lively exhaust.
“Our engineers performed numerous simulations with totally different fan orientations and decided that, for this chassis, having all followers level inward optimizes cooling and acoustics whereas scaling for even increased wattages than what is offered in the present day,” Alienware advised me after I queried the configuration. “By having all followers level inward to create constructive strain, Space-51 desktop can omit an exhaust fan and function at low noise ranges whereas successfully cooling an important elements (CPU and GPU).”
The corporate cites 45% quieter operation and 25% extra airflow than earlier Aurora chassis, however I did swap the followers round myself to check the distinction. Largely as a result of I initially thought it was a mistake on the a part of the PC builders, with the printing on the chassis seeming to point the route of airflow out the highest of the case.
In my testing I’ve seen the CPU working a minimum of a few levels cooler throughout heavy, sustained utilization, and the graphics card working both the identical or generally just a little cooler, when the radiator followers are set to exhaust the recent air. I am positive Dell has carried out a ton of thermal testing on this setup, however I might be far happier having a minimum of some of the followers devoted to shifting out that scorching air.
Complete constructive strain means air will get heated up contained in the chassis and may solely escape via the gaps passively. This implies scorching air sticks round longer, getting hotter and insulating your elements with toasty air. In fact the air can get out, however is not going to maneuver as shortly as if there’s one thing actively pushing it out. With all that scorching air trapped in there, it is also tougher to get cool air squeezed in, so the followers must work that bit tougher.
It’s a fairly cool and quiet machine anyhow, I simply really feel it might simply be a bit cooler. However then, I’ve not performed numerous simulations…
There’s one different situation on the fan entrance, and that is the rear most fan above the PSU. One in every of them is actually above the ability provide itself, and there’s zero clearance between it and the fan, which renders its existence just about pointless. With no actual risk of pulling in cool air itself, that fan is aesthetics, pure and easy.
My issues in regards to the fan configuration apart, that is essentially the most impressed I have been with an Alienware PC in a very long time. In each video games and artistic functions it performs in addition to you’ll anticipate from the elements the corporate has jammed inside, and no matter my misgivings is likely to be it does all of it in a quiet restrained manner. Properly, as restrained as any PC of this scale can.
Purchase if…
✅ You are keen to spend large on a severely highly effective gaming PC: Out of the field, the Space-51 will ship gaming and content material creation efficiency that, due to its high-end elements, is high of the category in prebuilt PCs. However to hit that stage of efficiency it’s good to spend a ton of money to get there.
✅ You desire a quiet-running system: The Alienware Command Heart permits for top-end gaming efficiency with out the noise ranges you would possibly usually anticipate from a robust gaming PC.
Do not buy if…
❌ You desire a discreet PC: There’s nothing delicate in regards to the Space-51; it is a huge gaming PC that wishes to be entrance and centre of your gaming setup.
❌ You need an AMD system: At the moment Alienware is just kitting out the Space-51 with Intel Arrow Lake chips, which is an actual disgrace given the ability of AMD’s 3D V-Cache processors.
❌ You need a straightforward improve path: That is as upgradeable as trendy Alienware machines have been, however the alternative of ATX12VO PSUs makes the checklist of appropriate motherboards vanishingly small, that means you will want to switch the ability provide whether or not you want extra energy or not.
It is a scale I can dig, although, with a strong, accessible design that permits quick access to many of the elements inside. Is it the simply upgradeable Alienware we had been promised? Not fairly. Truthfully, I can kinda forgive the $35 improve equipment of cabling for integrating the chassis design and cooling right into a future third-party motherboard alternative, however the ATX12VO PSU alternative goes to make that 1500 W energy provide it ships with a ache to switch if and whenever you do wish to improve.
Which implies I am at all times going to return again to why would you need the Alienware Space-51 over an equivalently specced and equivalently priced PC from one other vendor? I respect the tuning through the Alienware Management Heart app, which suggests you’ll be able to run a relaxing system out of the field with out having to tune it your self, and I just like the curvy chassis. And if it weren’t for the ache of a PSU improve down the road I might say all of it evens out. Particularly as Dell has a propensity to low cost its gaming PCs on the common; our standing recommendation about not paying full worth for an Alienware machine stays.
What would have me pausing on the Alienware greater than its potential improve hiccups, nevertheless, is the selection of CPU provider. Dell has determined that its Space-51 vary, a minimum of for the second, are totally Intel-based. In a world the place AMD is presently the top-dog in gaming chips, that will most likely have me wanting elsewhere if costs are the identical.
So, there’s nonetheless just a little grit within the eye of this beholder as I gaze upon the great thing about this Space-51 gaming PC, however I might most likely blink that away fairly fortunately as soon as I began gaming on this behemoth.