Alienware is bringing back the gaming brand that made it a household name among gamers in the 1990s and early 2000s with the relaunch of the Area 51 gaming PC and Area 51 gaming laptops at CES 2025.
The resurrected line was last seen with the Alienware Area 51m gaming laptop, last refreshed in 2020, while the Area 51 desktop got its last refresh in 2017.
In addition to its Area 51 line, on the laptop side, Alienware has released several generations of X-series, M-series, and unbranded Alienware laptops, coming in sizes from 11.6 to 18 inches. Meanwhile, the Alienware Aurora line has been holding down the desktop side of things for several years after the Area 51 desktop was discontinued.
Now, both laptops and desktops will simply be Area 51, and whatever R number will follow once the devices are refreshed with new hardware and designs in the years ahead.
An iconic desktop line returns
The Area 51 desktop was last seen in 2017 when the Area 51 R4 was announced at E3, and the new Area 51 tower is going back to its roots as a PC component heads workspace, with a massive 80L capacity and upgradability incorporated into the chassis and component design.
The case will also feature a positive pressure airflow design that vents hot air out through the back of the case without using an exhaust fan, helping to reduce noise while under load.
The PC will also use AIO liquid cooling for the CPU, sold with either 360mm or 240mm radiators, with enough space to allow for a 420mm radiator should you choose to upgrade.
The available configurations will vary as they currently do with the Alienware Aurora line, but you’ll be able to configure it with up to 64GB DDR5-6400 RAM, up to 8TB storage, and up to an Nvidia RTX 5080 graphics cards when the PC launches in Q1 2025. A starting price hasn’t been disclosed yet, but the launch configuration is expected to run about $4,500 (about £3,600/AU$6,750).
Alienware Area 51 laptops
On the mobile gaming front, the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptops will come in two sizes, 16-inch and 18-inch, and will be configurable with up to an Intel Core Ultra 285HX processor and Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU, with a total power profile of 280W.
All that power is going to generate some ferocious heat, so the chassis has been redesigned to improve airflow over the components by up to 37% while being about 15% quieter (at least according to Alienware).
There are also some design and aesthetic highlights, such as the underglow beneath the keyboard cast by the bottom RGB fan (this is in addition to the RGB lighting for the keys themselves).
The Area 51 laptops are also the first from Alienware to support PCIe 5.0 SSDs, configurable up to 12TB.
The Area 51 laptops will go on sale later in Q1 2025 with some higher-end configurations starting around $3,200 (about £2,560/AU$4,800), but will eventually settle into a starting price of roughly $1,999 (about £1,600/AU$3,000) once more entry-level laptop configurations become available.
