I Spent $250 on This STRANGE Gaming PC
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
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This $250 gaming PC from nearly a decade ago may seem on the surface like an oddly-shaped pile of junk... but it can actually pack a heck of a punch with the right tweaks! Let's check out the old Dell Alienware Area 51 R2.
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Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:57 - Front/Rear I/O
2:30 - Specifications
3:25 - Odd Shape
4:14 - Boot Issues
6:00 - Performance
6:27 - Upgrade Time!
7:50 - Updated Performance
10:21 - Thermals
10:54 - Value vs. A New Build
12:19 - Conclusion
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I spent $0 on this Greg Salazar video.
10/10 would recommend.
However watching this in 4K gave my monitor scabbies. I suppose a cream was worth seeing GS cover a virus and disease infested pc for the hell of it.
I worked on one of these a few years back, my knuckles are STILL recovering.
That was an over 3k pc loaded up
I was drooling over it when I was at high school, but then I knew how Alienware operates when I got the R3, and it was just a glorified laptop for that time
@@bader51500 Me too! It was my dream PC when I was in middle school
I work with Dell systems everyday in IT, my work PC is an Alienware laptop, not worth the hype and the increased costs, but capable and quirky as all hell!
@@JynxBlack13 It apparently went south when they got bought out by Dell. Now it's a glorified Dell
naughty naughty screw the gpu first before putting cables to the gpu , Greg ,you owe every subscriber a coffee lol.
Hahah yes I DEFINITELY slipped up there 😅
Also... fill all those RAM slots...!! That CPU and board is QUAD CHANNEL! It makes hell of a difference!!!
i think that board isnt even running in dual channels cause as far as i know it should have 1 ram stick on each bank aka 1 on the left banks and 1 one the right banks minimum it did have both ram sticks on the left banks
@@dragos2010full1 Yeah those chipsets are interesting. Its indeed 1 channel per stick (4 stick 4 channels). They had something funny like that too with the early i-series and their triple channels but they had to be paired..so 6 ram slots.
Putting the PCIe cable before putting the screws... oh my god dude... lol
I loved Alienware... right up until they were acquired by Dell. The quality decline didn't take long, because I had a friend that bought one of the early ones that were made by dell, and it was having issues. Dell wasn't much help, and I ended up finding standoffs where they shouldn't be. He was lucky nothing ended up being damaged as a result.
Their monitors are still top notch though.
Go for it Greg! I wanna see how you can pimp it out and what performance and thermals you get out. That would be a super interesting video.
I'm really looking forward to seeing you build a new rig in that case. I've seen a number of Alienware videos where people try to take these old systems and make them work on modern games, but I've not seen too many where people gut the chassis and put new components in.
I’m still rocking a GTX 970 with my current rig. It’s paired with a Ryzen 5 2600X so it does fine with everything I need it to do. Just some light gaming.
I'm rocking my old 970 as well, lacking the funds to build a new rig. Unfortunately I'm starting to feel the obsolescence. 😂
I think it looks cool. Look forward to the upgrade in it. That eBay seller was awesome to make that offer.
Raymond was just trying to get the best shot, and you interrupted his skillful positioning! Way to go, Greg! 🤣
Great video! Loved the throwback SS CZcams shirt.
That Science Studio shirt....nice throwback!
Why not put a full RAM kit in that? 16gb in single channel on quad channel board...epic lol...
Is it actually quad channel, or a typical 4 slot dual channel with half the slots moved to the other side of the CPU?
i actually like the shape of the case. maybe its bcs today its all boxy and square. no one goes crazy w their case designs anymore id like to see another one like this again w modern parts
Because it's kinda silly and doesn't benefit anyone really :D
If anything, it's only for aesthetics, while you sacrifice compatibility, ease of use, airflow and waste a ton of space in your house as well
I remember when Gamers Nexus reviewed the R13 Aurora and Steve didn't mince his words when he criticized Dell for continuing to use an ancient case design that essentially cooks the proprietary components Dell is EXTREMELY fond of using. Some of the internal support brackets are just over engineered, and the case design is the epitome of "can one turn a PC into a furnace?" Alienware before Dell was actually well respected, but after Dell purchased them the quality went to heck in a hand basket.
I was coming to say this. Alienware used to be the peak of gaming PC's, albeit over priced, before Dell took over
Gamer's Nexus has several entertaining videos about Alienware prebuilt PCs.
I was laughing so hard 😂.
Great video Greg.
Every time you say ''Are you ready?'' I think of Spongebob with ''Are you ready kids!?''
OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
I just bought a new Alienware with a 14900kf and a 4090-kind of a unique situation, though.
Originally, I was planning on building my own PC until I remembered my sister works for Dell.
I hit her up about her employee discount and noticed that there was a $500 off sale on their site.
After throwing the discount code into the mix at checkout, I discovered the discounts stacked-and even better, they applied to the original price, not the sale price. So, I ended up getting the Alienware with a 4090 and 14900kf for less than the cost of just those parts on Newegg.
Figured I'd just go for it. Worst case, I could pull the NVME, GPU, and CPU, and maybe build that custom setup I was originally planning - while pocketing some savings from the heavy discount.
Been using it for a month now, and honestly, it’s a pretty solid machine.
Props to the seller and to you, for offering very good services and for linking them. By the way, would you consider using an AMD card for these older chips to accommodate driver overhead?
Sure, if you wanted to go the AMD route! :-) DLSS is a nice feature for some of the games we tested, which is why we went this route. But to each his/her own.
Personally I think that this was a great build, regardless of what you may think, coming from a budget pc, someone could have a lot of fun and that is what pc are all about, regardless of what it may or may not have. Great video Greg, keep up the good work.
@Greg Salazar, almost to 1 million subs man. Your short 107 thousand. Thats a lot but youre almost there!
I remember these being on display in BB. They looked cool, but when you looked at the specs vs the price I just couldn't justify it. It also seemed like it would have just been another weird hotbox/space heater. Cool to see that the temps were relatively good for such an unusual case shape.
Got a great deal on one of these a few years back since it had a dead power supply. It’s not proprietary so a replacement EVGA unit did the job. The last time I checked, if you tried overclocking with the built in BIOS (which is from MSI) and tried to use the Alienware software (which has very limited overlocking features + the RGB settings) it would blue screen when the software loads (and this is definitely a CPU you want to overclock)
There’s a button on the rear IO panel that’s wired up to 2 AA batteries that would light up LEDs to illuminate the area. These things also have very powerful high-current delta fans; there’s also a provision for a 3rd intake fan, but you need the same fan bracket as the top fan and those are impossible to come by. There’s normally also a stand on the bottom that these computers come with I guess to prevent from tipping. WiFi card is on the motherboard, and can be replaced with a wifi 6 card
This is definitely a great PC for Doug Demuro if he ever showcased PCs
I run a 2021 alienware aurora r10 ryzen 5 5600x rx 5700xt 32gb 3200mhz ram 1000w psu and its amazing honestly i spent about 500 total on it
Oh this was so cool. Great job.
Thanks for watching!
Your hair’s getting big greg! I dig it! 😂
This is going to be epic to no end
These are great. I have the R2 and the R3, the R3 uses the AMD TR4 socket and I have a 1950x installed paired with an RTX 2080 (I don’t use it much anymore).
good video. I would be curious if changing the memory to two sticks makes a big difference in performance.
awesome video but would have been nice to see how much of an improvement quad channel memory would make because it would be a lot.
What benchmark software do you use? I really like your video keep them coming.
I bought one of these on Craigslist a couple years ago for $150 with no video card or storage, but otherwise intact. 5960x CPU, 16GB in 4x4GB DDR-4 DIMMs. It wouldn't boot because the BIOS was corrupted. Spent $13 on a USB SPI programmer on eBay, restored the BIOS and it still works today.
Originally it had a Titan X in it, I had a 980 ti sitting around so that's what it has now. Along with my HP Omen Blackbird 002 with an upgraded Intel LGA-2011 motherboard in it, it's a pair of oddly shaped high end gaming PCs.
I had one of these Area 51 R2. 5820K, GTX 980. It was awesome in 2013. Quad channel RAM was unbelievable fast.
I love how you showcased the 2080super, I think thats the BEST budget card you can buy right now. You could easily build yourself a 1440p capable pc with this and say a 5600x for around 500 usd TOTAL
You could get a rtx 3070 for slightly more. It gives better RT than 2080 super
@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716 if we are going by market prices, it's about a 100-150ish difference right now, and at the budget we are talking about is quite a bit of money imo
@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716 Used 6600 XT or 1080 Ti are better bang for the buck.
If you run it on quad channel youll get 5-10% boost in games. And this platform really shines for quad channel and little bit overclock
I have one of these, with a decked out mobo and so forth. Great case, if you ask me! I also have the AW768 RGB Mechanical Keyboard and AW959 RGB Mechanical Mouse to go along with it, along with an RGB Alienware Mousepad. I'm all Alienware for my PC! Love the subtle RGB on the case, and the design is so freakin' cool compared to regular cases that are boring IMHO!
I even have a 3 monitor setup, with my main monitor being a 32" curved ASUS VA panel, a 10' HDMI monitor I use for a full screen digital clock, and an 8" DP monitor that has all my Win10 Pro gadgets on it, freeing up my 32" for just the taskbar!
A little nostalgia trip from time to time is good. I don't hate the case overall for what it is.
I had one of these, it was the Alienware Area 51 - R6 Threadripper Edition. Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, GTX 1080, 800W G+ Modular PSU. It had a lot of storage capacity & the SSD trays were fan cooled trays.
I got it from my neighbor whom was going to toss out 3 older gaming PCs, because he didn’t remember his windows login info & hadn’t used them in a long time.
I snagged those up & got the Alienware all nice & cleaned up, got windows flying right with a fresh install, got rid of all the Dell bloatware & junk software that comes installed on these. It actually still did pretty well when it came to performance especially with 1080p on less taxing games like Rocket League it had no problem holding a locked 240FPS.
I already had my personal PCs that I use for gaming. I wasn’t about to let that thing get tossed in the trash because it was still a decent rig to play around with in 2020/21.
Once it was all set up, optimized & running like it should. I sold it since I didn’t need it. It was a fun little project to tinker with!
This Alienware case looks very similar to a different aftermarket case that i wanted years ago. It wasn't anywhere close to as slanted inside, it was something more like a diamond look on the outside, but a normal box on the inside.
i own 2 of those dell xps systems that were all steel with the deployed floor wings that came out. Rare and massive
Dell - Alienware loves their 120 mm AIO setups. We've worked on several here, they had i9-9900K in them
The 5930k still packs a punch! My secondary pc runs it overclocked at 4.5 ghz. The lack of SAM might be the only real disadvantage. I had it paired with an rx 6700 xt until I upgraded to a ryzen 7 5800x
Interesting purchase, but Alienware cases makes me scratch my head xD
Just the fan layout makes me shudder.
Looking forward to the next video :D
My fav budget combo is a $35 Aliexpress X99mb and an Ebay i7-5930k or e5-1650 v4 for around $25
I actually remember when this came out and was in a advertising in a magazine. If i a had the Cash i would probably fell for its looks back then
To do that build right, get yourself the Jonsbo TR-03. Built my 7950X 3D in one and it is EPIC.
I actually sold my GPU during the mining craze and used a GTX 960 instead. More capable than you might think! Good for a consistent 40-45fps 1080p Cyberpunk experience on near-minimum settings. I completed the entire game with it :)
See, all I was thinking when I saw the internals was "hell, you could probably put a decent rig together in that" so will be nice to see what you come up with.
Still using mine - R4 version with X299 Skylake x. Replaced the 1080Ti with a 7800XT recently. 1500W gold PSU could last a few more builds.....
My PC does OK in Timespy benchmark and scored about the same as this system in your video.
looking forward to seeing modern hardware in this case.
Hey! What is that Science Studio shirt your wearing, Mr G.?
I've had an i7 5960x 4.7Ghz on an ASUS Rampage V MOBO and it's awesome and handles my GTX Titan V w/ Liquid Cooling and overclock really well! :)
One of the first rules when dealing with dated used systems is, say it with me, clean and re-paste everything! I've been using a 120MM AIO on a Core i9-9900k for over a year with a mild overclock and have had no issues with CPU temps at all even when I push the system hard.
best you could do WC wise would be custom 3x120mm rads, after removing that plastic gpu bracket thing, not sure 3x120mm would match a 360mm rad though, then theres the where to mount the pump issue although you can buy custom pumps that are included with the cpu block.
2010s pre-built PCs sure were a vibe
The times when pc are dub the bigger the better! Unpractical but very bad ass.. I can't remember that Asus red glossy case that was super expensive that look like a spaceship. I would like to see that case custom water cooled Greg hope that's an idea lol
Fantastic entrance lol
That room is pretty big!
nice one mate . evga cards i miss them .the 970 card is will make good wall art .
I love the look of the founders 970. I have one displayed. One cool thing about them is most of them come with that backplate while for some reason the titan x did not. Its a direct swap.
Nice. I still have my EVGA RTX 2080 super Ftw3. Have it boxed away. Holding on to it.
I love that Alienware design.. I would love to have one.
The tower looks like an escape pod from a space movie :D
Here's a video idea to add to the whiteboard: How to go about diagnosing which pc component is faulty, make a separate video from fix or flop series. Like your typical fix or flop video but instead of editing out the "boring" parts just leave them there and explain how you go about things. If there's a video with your complete troubleshooting guide i certainly cant find it because youtube, or maybe title doesn't make it obvious
I had a customer bring one of these in a couple weeks ago with Titan X SLI cards... was pretty interesting.
I wonder if Alienware cases are glued together like the 2007 XPS BTX cases.
Hey Greg this could be a great sleeper build?
I have an EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra and the design of that card is awesome!
Never had a Alienware PC before. One of my PC's had issues recently. It had problems powering on. I restored the BIOS. I changed the CPU. Ya know maybe unwanted malware? I suspect some software got into it causing problems so instead of risking further problems, I nuked my partitions on a PC deleted partitions + formatted installed OS. It seems good now. Updated the OS. Will play around with it somewhat later on to test it.
I built a rig during lockdown for a friend that had a GTX960 in it because that was literally the only graphics card I could find. She's sill using that PC to play baldur's gate and cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and somehow that graphics card just about keeps up
I must admit, back in the day, I've always wanted an alienware, especially pre-dell when they were based out of Miami.
Toasty Bros had also have one X99 system that they also plugged an 2080 Super in and also get serious gaming chops as well, X99 is also honored by Tech Yes City as the price performance legend.
Wow, this gave me some memories haha, I remember watching this PC in amazon all the time, any PC part you were trying to search it would eventually send you to check this one out, and the one i saw was around 1500 usd, back when having a 970 was a ''people with money'' card haha since well, i was only a teenager.
Have you considered putting a high core count xeon in it? Those e5 v4 chips are great.
Pretty cool value in that 2080 Super!
Is the funeral going to be open to the public? 😮
Crushed em
I like the old school Alienware Aurora ALX, the one that had those funky fins up top that breathe and move. I thought it was super cool, if kinda impractical.
hey Greg.... that vip scdkey, is that ONLY for NEW pc's or can i get it to turn my win10 HOME pc to PRO...???
Thank you in advance
had a system with a with the same processor ,pretty decent system overall .. if i remember right depending on the motherboard/bios , can find some xeon cpu that would work ..the case shape reminds me of japanese onigiri rice ball with its roughly triangular shape .. 😅
I just bought a watercooled 2080ti to finish up my old 5960x watercooled build. Cant wait to see how it does.
I had the same one.
Mine was set with an...
I7 7820x
1080ti
32g ddr4 hyperx ram
256gig m.2 ssd 2 tb sata drive.
I was a really good set up. I paid 2700 for mine at the time.
Sold case for 500.
Rest parted out for 400.
I love this case.
i'd be proud to own that case, i love unique cases.
Always been a fan of 👽 PC cases,would be amazing with a custom loop in it
I got one of these from a buddy cheap a few years ago when i got back into diy pc and just wanted to game. I kinda like it lol
Could you put a new MB in that case? I wonder if cooling would be an issue in such a case.
Had one of these with dual 980ti's in SLI and 64gb ram. Had replaced the PSU for a modular 850w EVGA and also had replaced all the FANs with Noctuas cause the OEM ones were WAY too loud for nothing. It was overall a good system.
SLI was the way! You were ballin' hard.
The most unorthodox shape for a PC? Nope. That's the pyramid PC.
Nope, gotta be the shoe
How are temps? Would it benefit from swapping to an air cooler?
I do like different shaped cases. It's interesting but I'd never go for anything like this. I like my boxes and my open air test beds/wall mounted open cases.
Wow, the last video used my old PC case (the CoolerMaster HAF). Now, this video is using my current PC at work. This has been a fun couple of weeks. The only difference between Greg's acquisition and mine is that mine was new at the time and cost about 10x more (bought by the school, though, so whatever). Mine runs a i7-6950X and a GTX 1070. I bought it for my simulation work (lots of computational fluid dynamics with a smattering of video editing). It's been over six years and it still powers through things like a champ. The only downer is the stupid locking screw that Dell doesn't tell people about. The damned thing is stripped, so I need to drill it out to actually open the PC.
my first prebuilt was the alienware before they was bought out by dell but i am kinda feeling that case tho
Filled with concrete, would make a great boat anchor.
I love tha chassis I wish I could've bought one off Ebay when they were still sold as spare parts.
It's a bit weird they went for a single small radiator on the back when there's plenty of space on the front for a 240 one or even on the bottom front, especially considering all the front ports are on the side.
I have the EVGA 2070 Super Black (so not the XC with the clear cover) still a beautiful ripper
What a steal! Where did you find that for only $250?
Hate them or love them Alienware had some of the coolest most unique case designs of their time. I honestly think they would be super fun to build in today!!