Area-51 desktop

Credit: Alienware

If you’re in the market for a flagship gaming PC and have some serious cash to burn, Alienware is now shipping its Area-51 desktop computers with AMD’s brand new and notably expensive ($899 MSRP) dual-3D V-cache Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor. Is it overkill? Well, that’s up for debate.

The single configuration that Alienware has on offer is currently priced at $7,249.99 and features expectedly top-of-the-line specs: An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, 64GB of DDR5 RAM and a 4TB Gen5 SSD, alongside a redesigned chassis that focuses on improved thermals and performance.

I’m continually shocked at just how expensive PC parts have gotten recently, and thanks to issues like ongoing global AI-driven memory shortages, we’re probably not going to see numbers going down anytime soon. A $900 PS5 Pro isn’t seeming all that unreasonable, really, even after Sony’s recent price hike.

Alienware does offer cheaper Area-51 configurations that also include NVIDIA’s lauded 5090 GPU, but are fitted with less RAM, less storage and more affordable processors, like AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D, for instance. We’re still looking at over $5,000 at checkout, though once you get into this sort of elite hardware stratosphere, most rationality goes out the window.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 has been getting decent enough reviews, but it does seem pretty identical in performance to the cheaper 9950X3D when it comes to gaming specifically. If you’re looking for something that can handle beastly workstation tasks, then it could be worth the extra cash.

Admittedly, I haven’t touched an Alienware PC in ages, and this refresh does intrigue me, although not for such an astronomical price. Still, the Area-51 appear sleek, and it’d be fun to check out how it runs the latest games, stuff like Crimson Desert and Resident Evil Requiem. We’ll see how it reviews should test units eventually go out.