Alienware has been creating specialized, high-end, gaming-oriented rigs for quite some time now, providing certain configurations that really sound "alien" to most normal users. And now the "alien" engineers have come up with yet another technical marvel, because the company has just announced the Area-51 ALX desktop with the new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor, the first 45nm desktop processor. Furthermore, they couldn't just settle for an ordinary quad-core, so they went ahead and overclocked it to 4.0GHz, a 33% increase over the standard 3.0GHz speed. What's more, the desktop also now offers the new ATI Radeon HD 3870 in CrossFire dual graphics configurations.

"Rather than be content with the incredible performance benchmarks the Area-51 ALX has already established, Alienware decided to up the ante even more by implementing remarkable advancements in both CPU overclocking and dual GPU technology," said Marc Diana, Product Marketing Manager for Alienware. "With the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 overclocked to 4.0GHz and ATI CrossFire, Area-51 ALX owners are introduced to unprecedented gaming and media capabilities without ever being restricted by the energy, temperature and graphics limitations of other solutions."

As you were able to read in a previous article on the subject, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650, based on Intel's new 45nm High-k metal gate silicon technology, features a smaller processor die that delivers significantly improved thermal management and overclocking possibilities. This very innovative CPU also includes microarchitecture enhancements that enable greater performance at a given frequency, while further accelerating the execution of media and other intensive applications with nearly 50 new Intel SSE4 instructions.

"Intel's new Core 2 Extreme QX9650 kicks off the revolutionary age of 45nm process technology with a bang," said CJ Bruno, Director of Intel's Americas Marketing. "By enabling the Area-51 ALX to operate at maximized potential with improved performance and energy efficiency, the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 offers invaluable advantages sure to excite any Alienware user."

Taking the next step in graphic processor innovation, ATI Radeon HD 3870 combined with ATI CrossFire technology provides significant performance increases over previous dual card configurations, resulting in visually immersive environments in the most advanced graphics-intensive games.

"ATI's next-generation Radeon HD 3870 graphics technology is designed to offer gamers incredible scalability in their graphics performance and overall PC gaming experience," said Godfrey Cheng, Director of Gaming Platforms, AMD. "With the addition of next-generation ATI Radeon graphics processors, Alienware's Area-51 ALX with CrossFire technology delivers a new level of visual performance for PC gamers."

The most important issue in the case of the new Alienware Area-51 ALX is, quite obviously, the pricing. Thus, the system starts at a whopping 5500 US dollars, while a full-optioned PC, with the most advanced optionals and features included, can go as high as 11,500 US dollars.