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Intro

No, this is not a notebook and you may ask why this review is on this site, but let me be the first to announce we are introducing a new Desktop Discussion forum in the near future and this is the first official DTF Review of the Alienware ALX CFX Desktop.

“Holy Crap!” I’ve read hundreds of articles where the computer reviewers gush with superlatives such as “beautiful”, “stunning” and “gorgeous”, but none of those words apply to an initial reaction when a machine is first revealed from the packaging. The only words that came to mind when I first saw this computer is “Holy Crap!” We’ve all seen pictures of the new Alienware P2 chassis but you really do not appreciate how cool this thing looks until you take it out of the box. It is an aesthetic marvel a gamer’s dream, a shiny, black, technological monster. It is the most fun gaming machine I’ve ever played on.

Full Specs

Area-51® ALX CrossFire

• Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 ALX Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling - Space Black
• Chassis Customization: Alienware® Standard System Lighting - Astral Blue
• High-Performance Liquid Cooling: Alienware® ALX High-Performance Liquid Cooling
• Acoustic Dampening: Alienware® Acoustic Dampening
• Graphics Processor: Dual 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 - CrossFire Enabled
• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB - Over-clocked to 4.0 GHz!
• Memory: 4GB Low Latency Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 x 2048MB
• Motherboard: Alienware® Approved X38 Motherboard
• Includes onboard Wireless-N, PCI-Express 2.0, and DDR3 memory
• Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate
• Desktop Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control
• System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 128GB (64GB x 2) SATA Solid State Drive
• Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 2TB (2 x 1TB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 32MB Cache
• Optical Drives : Dual Drive Configuration - Drive 1: 20X Dual-Layer DVD±RW w/ LightScribe
• Drive 2: 4X Dual-Layer Blu-ray Disc Re-writable
• Audio: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer High Definition 7.1 Audio
• Network Connection: Dual High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Ports
• Network Connection: High-Performance Integrated Wireless 802.11n/g/b + Access Point
• Power Supply: Alienware® 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
• Monitor: No Monitor
• Keyboard: Logitech® G15 Gaming Keyboard
• Mouse: Logitech® G5 Laser Gaming Mouse
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Mousepad
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Alienware® ALX Desktop Binder
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Owner Identification Card
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Internal Wire Management
• Exclusive ALX Extras: Exclusive Alienware® ALX Items
• Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service
• AlienContact: Added Bonus with any AlienSupport Selection
• AlienContact - Remote Alienware Support
• AlienRespawn: AlienRespawn v2.0 Recovery DVD – Windows Vista Edition
• Avatar: Alienhead 3D
• Window Style: Default Window Style
• Mouse Pointers: Standard Mouse Pointers
• Power Plan: Standard Power Plan
• Automatic Updates: Automatic Updates On
  

MSRP: $10,100

Starting At: $5,149


Before people get all hot and bothered by the price of this machine, you need to understand the technology inside it. This rig is cutting edge! You are getting the highest performing CPU on the market, two top-of-the line video cards and 4GB of RAM. It does not get much better than this.

Secondly, people need to understand what the Extreme Performance 128GB SATA Solid State Drives (SSD) are. These are not typical hard drives. They have no moving parts like the traditional electro-mechanical magnetic platter drives typically found in PCs. Solid state drives are the latest breakthrough in data storage and since the technology is new, the cost premium for SSD storage is still quite steep. To put things in perspective, the first data cycle of a SSD is less than 0.01 millisecond, about 460 times faster than the access time of a Western digital 10,000 RPM Raptor. When you think about this kind of technology you’re paying for drives that retail over $1,700 apiece, you’re getting:

• Less Noise – No whirling, in fact there is no noise at all!!
• Near-Instantaneous Access – No Head/Arm movement
• More Reliable – Very low failure rates due to no moving parts
• Faster Boot Times – No Spin Up Time
• Considerably less power consumption

What's in the Box:

The shipping box is enormous and weighs ninety pounds. Like all Alienware machines the packaging job is impeccable. After removing the initial tape on the box the first items visible are the accessories. The ALX comes equipped with the obligatory keyboard and mouse which may seem superfluous to gamers who already have specialized peripherals. But you have the option to pick between:

• Saitek II Backlit Keyboard
• Razer Tarantula Keyboard
• Logitech G15 Keyboard (old model)

You also have the option between the following mice:

• Razer Diamondback 3G Mouse
• Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse – Blue
• Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
• Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse
• Razer Lachesis Mouse
  

This one came with the G15 Keyboard and G5 Gaming Mouse. Also in the box is an ALX key chain, ALX hat, Alienware mouse pad, Desktop Binder, ID card and Recovery DVD. Some very cool extras that you won’t find anywhere else in a shipping box. Underneath the accessories box lies the cool, still blackness of The Beast.

Keyboard:

I’m confused on why Alienware continues to ship the clunky Logitech G15 keyboard over the new redesigned, more compact keyboard that was announced at last year’s Quakecon, but the old G15 is still very popular among the gaming community.

Mouse:

Along side the G15 there is the G9, which is a great all around mouse to use if you are unfamiliar with the rest of the gaming mice on the market. The G9 has a great texture and fits nicely in your hand. If you feel the mouse is too light, you can insert small weights into the bottom of the mouse to customize it perfectly to your liking.

Design

What can you say about the industrial design of the Alienware Chassis over the last decade? Original? Nothing can touch it? Out of this world? How about; “all of the above”. There are no case/towers on the market that come close to looking this slick, this professional and this edgy. You can, of course, buy cheap knockoffs everywhere. You can stick as many LEDs in your case as you want, but nothing short of a professional case mod designer will ever make it look as good as buying it straight from this source. This is probably the reason why the old Alienware Predator cases are still selling for over $300 on ebay. Meet the Alienware P2 Case.



I remember getting my Aurora back in 2005 and trying to figure out how to open the front panel. The mystery surrounding the P2 case is extraordinary. With the new P2 case, the power button is integrated with the Alien head on the front. The front panel is a lot easier to open versus the first Predator case and they also added a swivel arm that adds to the sleek style. Inside the panel there are three external drive bays; in this machine two are filled. The entire case allows for toolless entry, making taking off the side panels extremely easy and convenient.



The case fit and finish is outstanding with an incredibly smooth, glossy surface – it makes you consider wearing cotton gloves so as not to mar the finish with finger prints. This machine shipped with a Space Black Shine, with a blue LED glow. Depending on whether or not you get AlienFX in your configuration you can change the color of your LEDs in six difference areas on the chassis. It's a pretty convenient way to customize your rig on the fly instead of installing different colored LEDs yourself.



There are a few things about the case that may excite or disappoint depending on the user's accessories. The four USB ports on the bottom front of the old Predator case have been moved half way up the case and reduced to only two USB ports. In the place of the two former USB ports are found a firewire port and microphone and headphone audio ports. The convenience of the four USB ports on the front is outweighs the usefulness of the headphone, mic and firewire ports. Conversely, there are 6 more USB ports on the back of the unit, giving you a total of 8. So if users are G15 fans, the two less USB ports on the front of the machine will not limit your port flexibility with this case since that keyboard has a USB port built in to the back for easy access.

Ports

The Alienware approved X38 motherboard comes packed with awesome features benefiting desktop enthusiasts. One of Alienware’s strong points is their savvy market knowledge; they know their audience. They understand that gamers will not be using a PS/2 mouse, so the motherboard they offer does not even come with a PS/2 mouse connection. They instead replace the PS/2 port with two additional USB ports (giving a total of 6 on the rear panel) which they place right next to the PS/2 keyboard connection.



In case you are concerned whether this desktop is S/PDIF compliant, you not need worry. Alienware offers both Optical and Coaxial S/PDIF connections. The bases are sufficiently covered.

If you are wondering what those red USB/HDMI looking ports are on the motherboard, they are two eSATA (external SATA) connections used for attaching external storage devices to your desktop.



Wifi

Normally, this would not even be a category to write about in a desktop, but the Alienware ALX CXF ships with a Wireless-N wifi card onboard the X35 motherboard. This makes placement of your new desktop a much easier decision if you want your desktop in a different room than your router or cable modem. And to make things even easier, if you are worried about the signal strength from your home wireless network to this PC, the motherboard has not one, but 2 access point antenna jacks where you can attach antennas to increase the signal strength.

Noise

In all Alienware Desktops customers have the option of adding sound dampening padding to the chassis that quiets the fans. They call it Alienware Acoustic Dampening. It makes the Alienware ALX CFX noise level very acceptable. You would think a Desktop packing this much processing power would sound like a Learjet but this is hardly the case.



Software & OS

Vista is a very demanding Operating System. There is much to learn if you have never used Vista before but it should not take you too long to figure out the ropes if you are adept at XP. This Alienware shipped with Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

When F.E.A.R. was installed on the ALX and when it started to run for the first time, an error message popped up explaining the game had “expired” which is a very strange error. It turns out the date and time were set to January of 2002! Maybe somehow the cmos was reset during the final configuration and test process in the factory, but a quick jump to 2008 made the game work fine.

Nero/Blu-ray Burner

The Alienware ALX ships with Nero, able to support a Blu-ray writer, which this machine just so happens to be equipped with. Many people are wondering if a Blu-ray writer is worth the investment yet. Unless you have Terabytes of information that you desperately need backed up, I would not recommend getting the Blu-ray writer. CD/DVD writers are so currently so cheap you can buy a 20 pack of 8.5 GB Dual Layer DVDs for about $35. You'll pay $35 for a single Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc. To test this writer, I purchased four 4x speed Panasonic Blu-ray 25GB discs for $45 including shipping from Frys.com. Finding 4x 50GB Discs is nearly impossible.

19.5 GB burned in 57 minutes, no errors. This speed is impressive considering a few years ago it would take around two hours to burn a 2 hour movie on a single layer DVD.

It takes up 40 seconds for the data you want to burn to be dragged into Nero. And it was very disappointing to see that you can only burn around 21GB of data, almost a full 4GB off of the advertised 25GB. But who's complaining? 20GB > 8.5 GB. In a couple years we'll be at 75GB DL Blu-ray discs anyway.


Benchmarks

Gaming:

Every benchmark/screenshot in this section is run on the highest settings available unless otherwise noted. Every resolution is run at 1920x1080p on Vista with stock AW 8.432.0.0 Ati drivers.

A lot of these benchmarks may not seem very impressive, but you must take into consideration that these settings are the highest possible, with AA on the highest setting (when tested) at a resolution supported on my 37 Inch 1080p TV. All of these games play beautifully, even if the benchmarks do not display it.

Crysis Demo

When reviewing a gaming machine, aside from FPS, there is not much else you can say about a computer that already is, by reputation, the best performing monster on the market. The only game that could possibly challenge this system is Crysis. And challenge it does.

Playing the demo, settings on VERY HIGH got very poor performance… but this is expected since there is not a computer out right now that can play Crysis on Very High at 60fps. Most computers will not even let you select that option as it will be grayed out. You can select it on the ALX, but it will not run well. Playing Crysis on High is doable, however during the large gunfire fights, expect the performance to drop very quickly.

World in Conflict:

Installing World in Conflict was the only "problem" I had with this machine, and it is not even the hardware’s fault, but a Vista problem. I kept receiving this error after clicking on install.



It turns out Vista has a hard time realizing who the administrator user is on the computer and to get this (and other games) to install properly, you must right click on the shortcut and click on 'Run as Administrator'. World in Conflict ran very well during gameplay and did not struggle at all during the nuke scenes.

Settings



Screenshots



With Anti-Aliasing On



With Anti-Aliasing Off



Company of Heroes (steam):

This game was downloaded via Steam and had the same problem World in Conflict does with execution. Again, to fix this issue 'Run as Administrator' and it will launch properly. Company of Heroes can be a very graphically demanding when all of the settings are maxed out. Gameplay is near perfect when running this game without AA enabled.

Screenshots





With Anti-Aliasing On Ultra Settings



With Anti-Aliasing On High Settings



With Anti-Aliasing Off High Settings & Model Detail on Highest



With Anti-Aliasing Off High Settings & Model Detail on Default



Half-Life 2/Counterstrike:Source(steam):

My personal gaming rig is a bit old, (AMD X2 4400+, 2GB RAM, 7900 GTX) so it was delightful to see how much faster Counterstrike: Source and Team Fortress 2 loaded on the Alienware ALX. You can literally (depending on your connection) start CS:S and join a server within 10 seconds. It takes 8 sec to load the game.

With Anti-Aliasing Off Highest Settings




Half-Life 2: Lost Cost (steam):

Between this test and the Counterstrike test, it is very obvious that even with HDR enabled, this system will have no problem supporting it. So if you are a big Counterstrike player, and enjoy using the HDR setting on maps such as de_nuke or de_militia, the Alienware ALX does not even break a sweat.

With Anti-Aliasing Off Highest Settings



F.E.A.R.

Screenshots





With Anti-Aliasing On Max Settings



With Anti-Aliasing Off Max Settings



Doom 3 (steam):

With Anti-Aliasing On Ultra Settings at resolution 1280x1024



Screenshots




Synthetic:

3DMark2001se:



3DMark03:



3DMark05:



3DMark06:



It should not be surprising the ALX scores this high of benchmark in 3DMark06. Anything in the upper teens of the thousand score is already considered the best of the best. The highest recorded 3dMark06 score according to futuremark.com is just about 30K using the same CPU, clocked at 5.8 GHz. It's very comforting to know that you can reach these high benchmarks while overclocking, and still be backed by the one year warranty that comes with the ALX in addition to Alienware's award winning support.

SuperPi:



The SuperPi benchmark, which calculates Pi to the two millionth digit, beats everything in the notebookforums database by a very good margin. This test shows off the processing power of the CPU. Obviously the score really depicts this CPU as being the best on the market.

HDTune:

The HDTune benchmark is a very good benchmark to show off the speed of the solid state drives. Above I mentioned the cost of these drives and mentioned how they are considered the fastest on currently on the market with an initial first cycle seek times less than 0.01 milliseconds. In these screenshots you can clearly see the difference between the SSD and the 1TB 7200 rpm drive. Even the 1TB drives outperform my personal desktop 80GB 7200 rpm.

Writes at 150 MB/sec for the SSD, versus the 80 MB/sec for each TB drive and 50 MB/sec for my person drive. It does not get much more obvious than this.

SSD



1TB 7200rpm






Pros:

Power - Handles dozens of applications at once with quad core technology.
Speed - Boot time is extremely fast. Comes in and out of sleep mode within seconds.
Games – Possess the ability to play the latest games on the highest settings at the highest resolutions.
Technology - Cutting Edge technology puts you above the rest of the competition.
Aesthetics – A chassis has never looked this good.

Cons:

Price - Expensive, but you are paying for the best technology on the market.
Motherboard - No option to upgrade to an X48 motherboard (yet)

Conclusion: The Alienware ALX Crossfire gaming desktop can play every game at the highest settings (without AA) perfectly. The one game that gives this desktop trouble (which should not be surprising) is Crysis and that is not to say the game still does not look amazing on High or Medium settings. There is just so much going on in the game and it is so graphically intensive that it is hard for the current technology to keep up with it. If you are looking for a stylish cutting edge gaming rig, look no further; the ALX is the perfect machine for you.

very nice...i wish i could afford one lol

One awesome machine. Love the chrome hi-lites!

Could you describe the LCS that came with the system?

:alienhead

Zoid

.

Nice review, Steve.

You mention the cost of some of the extras that run the price up. To those of you concerned about the cost, know that you can get a very high performing Alienware desktop for less than $3K - and still have many of the cool features described in the review.

Well what makes this system so expensive is the $1k CPU, and $3700 SSDs.

3870xt?

Great review. Silly pricetag.

What about Vista boot time?

Sorry typo. Fixed

Vista boot time is incredible. ~20 seconds.

I can say that's not due to the SSDs...mine is about the same w/my lappy. I am starting to really dig Vista (wow, I can't believe I just said that).

Totally buck! I'm playing with the m15x now and really starting to dig it.

Check out the HD Tune becnhmark of the SSD versus the 7200RPM drives. It owns everything.

For boot times and loading games it's fast, but anything really large those SSD's are slow.

...with high failure rates.

I don't know about failure's, I just look at the nice charts.

Reports are showing catastrophic failure rates as high as 20%.