Alienware Rediscovers Its Enthusiast Roots With Area-51 Desktop and Laptops

I still remember the first time I saw an Alienware Area-51 gaming desktop in person back in 2004. This huge, black plastic tower — with giant vents at the front shaped like the eyes on its alien head logo — was tremendous, and I wanted one desperately (even if it would’ve eaten up at least a quarter of the floor space of my New York apartment at the time). The Area-51 desktop was discontinued in 2017, but Alienware decided the time was right to reintroduce the line with a full-size 80L tower (though not the giant plastic alien head chassis). And I still want one. 

Announced alongside new Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards at CES 2025, the redesign is squarely aimed at enthusiasts who want a gaming PC with a future. Alienware says it can handle more than 600 watts of dedicated graphics power and up to 280 watts of dedicated processing power (up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K). It uses standard components so everything can be serviced and replaced. Plus, its size can accommodate the largest components available today with room to spare. 

Part of the reason you’ll be able to easily upgrade in the future is its positive pressure airflow system. It uses a combination of fans of different sizes combined with gaskets inside the chassis that create a greater internal air pressure than outside the case that helps force hot air through the rear vents without the use of exhaust fans. Liquid cooling is also an option. 

The new Alienware Area-51 desktop will be available later in the first quarter of 2025 with an initial high-end configuration priced at $4,500. Lower-end configurations will be available later in the year. 

Alienware also introduced new Area-51 gaming laptops. Available in 16- and 18-inch models, they’ll feature next-gen Nvidia graphics and up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. The anodized aluminum bodies have a Liquid Teal color-shifting iridescent finish. The rear exhaust shelf is translucent and has “lighting animations that imitate the unpredictable motions of the Aurora Borealis.”

On the bottoms are clear Gorilla Glass windows so you can see the components, but Alienware also used fans with RGB lights that shine through the glass as well as up through the keyboard. The Area-51 laptops support the highest total power ceiling in a gaming laptop, Alienware says. For total graphics power, it can go up to 175 watts and up to a 105 watts thermal design profile toward processors simultaneously.

Like the desktop, the laptops will arrive later in the first quarter with a high-end configuration at launch going for $3,200. Entry-level configs will be available later starting at $2,000.