Alienware counters HP's Blackbird with a quad-GPU monster
Today, Dell division Alienware announced its Area-51 ALX CrossFireX gaming desktop, a pricey quad GPU gaming PC that utilizes so many bleeding edge hardware features that it actually requires Windows Vista.
So much for the theory that frequency is dead in computing. One of the big selling points for Alienware's new Area-51 ALX CFX system, which premiered just today and is available now, is that customers should feel free to experiment with the 4.0 GHz barrier.
Alienware actually suggests its users can and should try overclocking the 3.0 GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU all the way to 4.0 GHz, just to see what happens.
ATI created CrossFireX as a graphics processing platform specifically for gaming, enabling up to four GPUs on a Windows Vista system. The Alienware ALX CrossFireX uses two ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards, for a total of four GPUs and 2 GB of GDDR memory. That said, it's not the first quad-GPU system; Alienware debuted one two years ago.
The ALX CFX is powered by an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 CPU, 2 GB of Patriot EP+ Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM (enabling 1.6 GHz on the front-side bus alone), and an "Alienware approved X38 motherboard."
Experienced computer users also have the ability to use the ATI Catalyst 8.3 driver to boost the performance of their GPUs through overclocking. Even though the driver provides a temperature display and safety recovery features, it is still advised only users with a strong understanding of computer hardware -- and a keen ability to smell smoke -- unlock and overclock the GPU.
ATI's latest Catalyst drivers allow users of the HD 3870, Radeon HD 3850, and Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards to run their cards in CrossFireX Quad mode, which parent company AMD claims will offer visible increases in frames per second. Furthermore, AMD promises more CrossFireX modifications in future Catalyst releases.
An intriguing new removable drive option, called the "Duo Drive," enables slide-in installation of removable 320 GB small form factor drives. Once they slide out, they can be used elsewhere as external drives with USB 2.0 connectors. This is in addition to the maximum 4 TB (that's with a "T") of internal storage in the ALX's main array.
Windows Vista is also required due to the high level of memory available in this system: up to 4 GB, which is right at the limits of a 32-bit operating system.
Promoting it as "the world's fastest gaming desktop," Alienware offers a base MSRP of $5,149, although with custom configuration, you can drive the final price above $8,000 easily.
Boutique gaming PC makers have been battling over the past few years to push hardware from manufacturers ATI, NVidia, Intel and AMD, with companies forced to select what hardware it uses very carefully. While Nvidia chipsets are popular among regular PC enthusiasts and lower-budget gamers, the power of ATI's CrossFireX technology is evident, as the Hewlett-Packard Blackbird 002 gaming PC also offers dual ATI HD 3870 graphics cards with CrossFireX technology.
A check of Alienware's Web site this afternoon revealed its configurator was down, perhaps on account of popularity, or perhaps an overclocking experiment in the server room went awry.