Alienware (prior to dell) was actually a decent pc builder, they didn't use proprietary parts and most of the time it was top shelf boards and cards from ABIT and ASUS. They were still extremely expensive back then, but could compete with top shelf home builds.
@@miguelsmusicstuff I got that case [area 51 x58 wartime edition] black and chrome and built a sleeper in it ... everyone that comes to my house to buy a custom build always says what the hell is that
I stumbled onto the Alienware site for the first time in 2002 for a class assignment. The Aurora blew my mind, as did the $2,000 price tag. It had an AMD Athlon XP 2200, a 512MB DDR, and an NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.
@@WhiteAsperagus Well the other part is no one wants to take the time to make anything really unique. Which is funny cuz when they do, people bitch about performance. Yet no one bothers when a case has glass on literally every panel except the top and back.
@@michaelw2263 Literally dude. Even when PC cases are unique people always make fun of them. Take the 2008-2014 gaming PC cases for example. I rarely hear people say anything good about them despite actually looking different and standing out.
@@baroncalamityplus Lmao, I also go to Value Village near me. And guess what, I found a 1st Gen iMac for sale there for literally (And I kid you not), 800$ CAD. Another PC I found there was with some graphics card, motherboard, no RAM, no power supply, had a case and some other random stuff, but when I tested it, nothing. Guess how much that was. 200CAD.
The prices at the Goodwill stores in my area are ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Even for totally broken systems, monitors, and parts! You can literally just go buy a BRAND NEW PC at what they expect to get for old and broken stuff! I don't even bother going to them anymore...👎👎
At $10, I would not mind taking that case, putting all new components and having a cool looking current system. It looks like it could take a standard motherboard.
Q9650 4core 3.0ghz + 8gb ddr2-1066 + SSD would be about the best possible... But I would probably retromod it and see if I couldn't put an E-ATX workstation board into it, like from a little newer Dell Precision or HP Z-Station, 'cause that looks like a pretty roomy case and big power supply
@@nothin1456 Silly rabbit. Q9650 is socket 775... Super old. That's why I said replace the motherboard. You could put an LGA 2011 board with a 12-core Xeon in it for less than $250... Or current board and CPU if you were willing to pay more... And just have it in the classic Alienware case
I run that exact same mainboard in my retro rig. Supports up to Core 2 Quad QX 9650 extreme cpus. The nforce 680i sli board is such a cool piece of retro tech and was manufactured by EVGA and XFX. So cool retro rig you guys found there.
Thanks for this video. I purchased a used HP8000 SFF w/Core 2 Duo back in 2012, it is running windows 10 on an SSD and works fine as a remote camera monitor (NVR system). Core 2 Duo is still viable for certain tasks in 2023.
Alienware was such a gem before Dell destroyed their PCs. I had 2 Alienware pcs back in the day. They were both amazing. They were ahead of their time, and the cases were always awesome looking.
It absolutely would be. Strip it, clean it, sand the scuffed and scratched glossy exterior *just* enough to get an even surface and then paint it with a matte white, followed by a medium gloss finish, and outfit it with modern top of the line components. It'd be a beautiful rig.
I still have my 2012 Alienware Aurora R4. With a 3rd Gen core i7, 32 gb ram and it’s still kicking. In fact just inherited my brothers rtx2070 to pop in. I hooked it up to my 4k Sony TV and it didn’t do great at 4k on destiny 2 but did run 1440p at 60 frames. I also just added a sata ssd to give it some new life. 😃
I used LGA775 up to 2021. I started with a E6300 onto a E8300 onto a Q6600 and finally a Q9400. I updated to a 10105F last year. It would be cool seeing this rig updated with these CBUs.
I went to socket 1366 in 2017, even though I did have an FX 8350 system in 2015 and 2016 briefly, with an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R 2.0. (The FX CPU and the Sabertooth 990FX R 2.0 were made in 2014, thus a late revision) (In 2016, after I already traded it for a monitor, I did see the Sabertooth 990FX R 3.0 on a web page, Asus came out with a new model when it was still the pre-Ryzen days)
That's awesome you got your hands on one of these. I completely rebuilt the Area51 XLR with a 4790 and a 1070 a few years ago. The guy I sold it to still playing on it today. It would be awesome if you guys went nuts with it and build a bad ass out of it.
I bought a plasma purple P1 case last year from 2003, sanded it all down, and repainted it with black pearl with high gloss clearcoat, bedlined the inside metal frame and put in a watercooled amd 5800x with a 6900xt GPU and it looks incredible. It was my dream PC case back in the day and decided to buy one recently to build a retro pc.
Sounds a whole lot better than my super-duddy E2180! That couldn't even do 2.8 GHz without increasing Vcore ("IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD when running Linpack at only 2.8 GHz!) Then at 1.4V, 2.90 GHz was the best I can confirm getting!
I use this same case for my current primary rig, love it, though Since I bought the case second hand from a friend, it was missing some parts for the alienware lighting and also the insert plate for the power supply. Still love the original Alienware aesthetic, I used to see these when i was young and always wanted one but could never afford them. Hopefully one day I'll come across another one with the parts my case is missing so I can use its case lighting.
I found a slightly later model branded alienware no dell in sight that was an i7 950 with a gtx 690 and 24gb of ram and a super primitive intel branded 240gb ssd. Its also an area 51 sku machine. It had an asus x58 motherboard and a 1200w modular psu thing is an absolute beast all the blue leds still work on it.
That PC was an absolute monster in it's hayday. At that time, Dell had not acquired them yet but it was it had been discussed and nearing a deal. First off, the case was actually made by Antec. It came it various colors and even had the flip flop chameleon finishes. That specific computer, if I'm not mistaken, had an Nvidia 7400 GT or a 7800 GTX, which getting it in an SLI setup was an option. During that time,hardcore gaming was really beginning to gain popularity and take off. To be honest, you both should have given it a little more respect. But it shows your age and knowledge. Maybe research a little more. That, hands down, was probably one of the best computers ever made. I owned a computer company in Texas called Giga-Ware. Not to be confused with the Radio Shack brand. They actually stole my name. Anyhoos, I built many custom PCs and this was by far, a major competitive system and for what you got, was a very good buy. Thanks Dell for trashing that company's reputation.
Chieftec actually Alienware kept using Chieftec dragon based cases until Dell bought them out, but I digress. You are correct this Predator 2 was a MONSTER back in its day, I also agree that these generation of Alienware rigs were some of the best rigs money could buy. Oddly enough I worked for Radio Shack when I bought my Alienware pc back in 2004. (Sorry Radio Shack ripped your name off, but it was kind of the company's M.O. {I would learn this the hard way years later when the company went belly up and screwed the employees}) At the time I was in college in Florida and Alienware was based out of Miami so they had it shipped to me and on my doorstep in less than 48 hours for no extra charge. I still use the Area 51 Predator 1 case to this day as my daily gaming rig. I have had to mod the case to accommodate newer parts but being the avid PC nerd that I am I keep my rig with very high end components.
I used to work with this exact machine back in the day when I did a stint at the Intel Demonstration Depot in Hillsboro Oregon. We would reimage these and set them up to show at tech expos. They put off a TON of heat because of the Core 2 Duo's. These came with either nVidia Geforce 9800 GT's or Geforce 8800 GTX.
You should mod a cheap quad core xeon lga 771 to that lga 775 board and overclock it to at least 4.0ghz like i have done several times in the past. Like X5460 which is less then $20 on ali and basically the same as the expensive consumer extreme editions.
LGA771 chips in LGA775 boards (especially with BIOS mods) are (or at least were) beast options to get so much more performance for not much more money.
@@malek6129 Yeah will need the microcodes of lga 771 cpus added to the bios to be able to get a stable overclock. Those chips went so much faster with a decent overclock, nothing like the little gains of todays cpus. Still pretty good for running win 10 and batocera gaming. Ive got one as my ultimate win xp pc at 4.2ghz.
@@0MeALot0 over clocking is pretty much dead today, it’s diminishing returns especially considering the energy inefficiency for those small gains, as most CPUs are already overclocked in one way or another. There aren’t many CPUs actually worth for the overclocking and most of the times it’s really not worth spending extra for the unlocked models (Intel CPU). Undervolting is the META now for best performance per watt, especially with today’s oppressively-high energy costs.
@@malek6129 I totally disagree. i5 12600k i have here overclocks like a king, it hardly costs any extra energy and can easily go 15-20% faster. It basically can perform like the much more expensive i7 with 2 cores less and so consuming even less then the i7. In gaming it eats like 65 watts most of the time at most. For the xeon it can do an improvement of 35-40% in most tasks if done right. Its nearly free performance. Besides overclocking is a hobby. I basically overclock everything.
@@0MeALot0 yeah when I was thinking about the overclocking, the only ones relatively recent that would be worth it is the 12600k and xeons.. and that’s about it. And even then, an undervolt would still be beneficial, especially on the modern GPUs as well
I'm in the UK and found someone in Florida on eBay selling one of these cases with parts only for £570 inc shipping, it was in great condition and in blue.
I'm actually still using a C2Q Q8400, 2x2gb ddr2, and a GT420 1gb connected on my tv. So when grandma comes around I have all of her favorite movies played. 👌
Installing Windows 10 with that old processor is going to cause slowdowns. Slap Windows XP or Vista on there, maybe Win 7 at most, and use it for retro gaming with a good CRT monitor, and you literally have gold right there.
remember on these old cpus sometimes higher settings are most stable, since the processor is fluctuating framerates, where it can't keep up, then "catches up", then falls behind, then "catches up", repeat infinitely. when you raise the settings for the gpu, higher settings, and higher resolution, you're offputting more work for the gpu, essentially slowing it down, so you might only get 35 frame a second instead of 60. but it'll be a more stable 30 fps, because since the gpu is working harder, the processor isn't "falling behind"
for instance in tf2 if you raised the settings since the gpu was only at 55% and cpu @100% then you probably would have had a better experience (by yourself on a server of course) with higher settings, with a slightly overall lower framerate
I had one of these except it had an aio water cooled qx9775 extreme in it. it also had an evga motherboard except it was a 790i ultra. These were pretty exotic parts for the time and still fetch a nice price. For $10, that pc had a lot of potential value.
I love these old Alienware machines... I'm more into the laptops myself Keep this thing original if you can, people usually modify these with new parts but its cool to see them original!
i got an aurora r7 from marketplace for 100 dlls , it had a i9 9900k and a 2080 with 64gb of ram , he has selling it because were he worked they had like 10 other computers like that , so when the company closed they gave him all the computers to him , he had a good position on the company , he told me that the company bought the computer back in 2018 but they upgraded the internals because they needed it for their line of work , i honestly in my 35 years of gaming I've never gotten a better deal that this. the computers were sitting collecting dust and the one he sold me still had all the transparent stickers that cover the alien and the side panels , the internals looked brand new they only had them for 4 years in working conditions then the company close
Cases that didn't require tools have been around for quite some time. Apple was building machines you could assemble, disassemble, and maintain w/out tools back in 1989 (Mac IIcx). Off and on through the 1990's, some Macs didn't need tools and some did. The earliest PC's I know of that were tool-less where business PCs like the Dell Optiplexes from the early 2000's. That case is so begging for a board swap!
Dude, I bought this model. I loved it. I kept it for years and updated the motherboard twice. Bought it before Dell bought them out. The rgb was far ahead of its time
can you do a video on building the best pc of a certain year components? like take this era computer and put a better cpu in it, gpu etc. always see alot of new stuff but never stuff with older things.
I am abit of a Alienware head, so this model Alienware Area 51 was the last alienware model that was build using off the shelve parts, before joining Dell's OEM platform. At the end of 2008 Alienware would release the last Alienware Area 51 using that chassie. The Area 51 x58 would share the same Dell OEM P270J motherboard as the Dell XPS 730X displaying their full adoption into the Dell ecosystem of parts. The very next year Dell would change the XPS as being branded as their gaming line-up, and would have the XPS line now represent their media/professional line up of computers. Alienware would now have two Desktop line ups. The Dell Alienware Aurora you reviewed and the MASSIVE Alienware Area 51.
I got a socket 1366 version of this in the late-2010s. With Core i7 Extreme 965 and an Asetek AIO cooler. It came with an Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard that had the Alienware logo in the BIOS.
A core 2 is actually still perfectly usable even today! I have one I use for basic use and to act as a server. Just as long as you don't need more than 8GB of ram as that's the limit on a core 2 duo. If you are lucky enough to have a core 2 quad, that can even still play some modern games. It's just nuts that today such old parts are still useful, but go back ~20 years and try to use parts just as old and you would be out of luck.
As another project, that case is so huge, rebuild it from the ground up, just using the case. I'd love to have a basic system in a case that looked like that.
Holy hell i have a 2003 Alienware like that. I took it out of the closet last night and it's super heavy, dusty and one of the heatsinks unglued rattling around. I'm looking forward to this video
If only the case was matte & not a glossy finish I had one it was a fingerprint magnet and was much bigger in person! Probably the biggest pc case I ever owned
bro, you killing me at the end of every sentence how you make the last word llllooonnnngggggg during that little commercial at the beginnnnninngggggg.. you know what i mmeeeaaaannnn??
I think you're missing a good part of why you should review and dissect these old PC's. Of course, they won't keep up with today's software and OS but they still make a great starting point for an upgrade. In additional to the new Corsair, Thermaltake, and Cooler Master cases and others that I own, I still have my two original Alienware PC's, one like this one in black (an Area 51 ALX with software controlled LED lighting) and another older one, an Aurora (came with Athlon X2 64 4800+), in bright green. In those days, Intel-based PC's were labeled Area 51 and AMD-based PC's were labeled Aurora. These came out after the Alien movies made it big and resembled those creatures. Both are still in my use today with the same power supply, cables, DVD and one still has the 3.5 inch disk (you just never know if these will come back, LOL). These cases were large inside, yet easy to get into (well, not the green one). My green Alienware case (circa 2004 and was offered with factory water cooling, years before it became popular) was rebuilt 3 years ago with an Intel i7 9900k with AIO cooling and the black one was just rebuilt with a Ryzen i7 5800X3d, both rocking Nvidia 3080 GPU's. There is plenty of room inside for 2x210mm AIO cooling and tons of space for backup hard disks. These don't have the glass side panels of today, but are great designs that are more interesting than the boring rectangle boxes churned out today. And the green glow of the LED's coming through the vents of the black ALX looks seething! I've also rebuilt two Alienware Hangar 18 Media consoles using the Ryzen 5600G mATX. The only ones I can't upgrade further are my Red M17X R2 i7 920 laptop with dual Radeon 4780 GPU's (think Sheldon on Big Bang Theory) and the micro Alpha, which was supposed to be the first Steam OS PC (but Steam was too late to the release date). But they are still in use too, one dedicated to a Karaoke machine and the other for internet surfing for my grandchildren. Too bad when Dell bought Alienware. Yes, they were expensive, but they HAD great customer service and were on the bleeding edge of design and speed. That's why I still use their cases. Each PC would come with a signed list from everyone who worked on it of all the tests that were done as the PC was built to confirm everything worked as expected and did not include any software bloat. $10 for this one was an absolute steal. I'll give you $15!
Nice video. Cool to see some old tech. People use to be really hyped for alien ware. Now it’s so over priced people don’t really care anymore. I’m surprised that it could even run any modern games. It’s crazy to think how far tech has come in the last 15-20 years. If you think about the difference between the Xbox 360 days to series x our technology has advanced so far.
I used to buy Alienwares at about the time this case was released (Still have mine) and only graduated out of it because it wouldn't readily house modern AIO cooling solutions. May rebuild in it for something a lot less overclocked as an art project.
I love finding old builds like this.... tear the thing down, clean it all up, add the most ram the system will support and a 250 to 500 GB hard drive and get W10 back on it.... and then sell it for about $50.... OR changeout the MB to a AMD Ryzen build and sell it for more! everyone loves the vintage chassis.... this one would go fast!
Rip out all the guts and replace with all new MoBo PSU GPU CPU and ram - case looks like RGB might just glow through the case so pulsing green lights would look 💚
My first and last Alienware was the Aurora R2 many years ago. DDR3 with a Radeon 5670 lmao. Then i built a Ryzen system in 2019. Now going to DDR5. How the times have changed.
I was told... that using an air compressor to clean old systems was risky as the debris can be thrust into slots and other connectors on the MB by the rush of air. Any thought?
This board actually has more RAM slots and better heatsinks than the new Alienware PCs. Case looks a bit oversized tho,there's alot of empty space left even with that full size ATX board inside it
Alienware (prior to dell) was actually a decent pc builder, they didn't use proprietary parts and most of the time it was top shelf boards and cards from ABIT and ASUS. They were still extremely expensive back then, but could compete with top shelf home builds.
its a shame that they arent very good now because their cases look real cool
@@miguelsmusicstuff I got that case [area 51 x58 wartime edition] black and chrome and built a sleeper in it ... everyone that comes to my house to buy a custom build always says what the hell is that
@@charlesbronson1959 😂👍
I had an Alienware a while ago and I was thrilled with it but I wouldn't get one now.
I like the new alienware better, but not the corporate proprietary internals..
I stumbled onto the Alienware site for the first time in 2002 for a class assignment. The Aurora blew my mind, as did the $2,000 price tag. It had an AMD Athlon XP 2200, a
512MB DDR, and an NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.
ah yes the good ole times.
4600 💀
@@formersat its old bro don't think they had no rtx back then
@@r3woken oh right
@@formersat homie forgot about the unending match of time. 😂
I remember seeing this PC when I was in high school and thought it was the coolest thing ever. The designs were just so insane back then vs today.
Nowadays the average pc is a box with plexiglass on the side with more rainbows than a pride parade
@@WhiteAsperagus Well the other part is no one wants to take the time to make anything really unique. Which is funny cuz when they do, people bitch about performance. Yet no one bothers when a case has glass on literally every panel except the top and back.
@@michaelw2263 Literally dude. Even when PC cases are unique people always make fun of them. Take the 2008-2014 gaming PC cases for example. I rarely hear people say anything good about them despite actually looking different and standing out.
Same here bro!!!!!
I was at a Thrift store (not Goodwill but similar.) a few months ago and they had that alienware case and wanted $200 for it. Just the case!
Let me guess. Value Village.
@@NightcoreSkies Impressive. You are correct.
@@baroncalamityplus Lmao, I also go to Value Village near me. And guess what, I found a 1st Gen iMac for sale there for literally (And I kid you not), 800$ CAD.
Another PC I found there was with some graphics card, motherboard, no RAM, no power supply, had a case and some other random stuff, but when I tested it, nothing. Guess how much that was. 200CAD.
The prices at the Goodwill stores in my area are ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Even for totally broken systems, monitors, and parts! You can literally just go buy a BRAND NEW PC at what they expect to get for old and broken stuff! I don't even bother going to them anymore...👎👎
Nostalgia can be expensive.
At $10, I would not mind taking that case, putting all new components and having a cool looking current system. It looks like it could take a standard motherboard.
Yup, that case conforms to ATX Standards. You could easily put current gen parts into it and make it a great sleeper.
@@KitsuneVoss Because it is a relic.
That’s cheap compared to my friends 1000 dollar case
@@MACEDITZS Maybe so but I cannot afford $500 for a case, especially an older used case that has questionable cooling capacity.
@@MACEDITZS sure, kid
It would be interesting to see an overclocked Core2Quad in this machine.
id be rather confident that ddr 2 is gonna bottleneck any cpu upgrade & likely, already bottleneck that aftermarket gpu
Q9650 4core 3.0ghz + 8gb ddr2-1066 + SSD would be about the best possible...
But I would probably retromod it and see if I couldn't put an E-ATX workstation board into it, like from a little newer Dell Precision or HP Z-Station, 'cause that looks like a pretty roomy case and big power supply
@@kellyoneal5498 then you could put two q9650’s into it! You could get almost i3 level of performance! It will take like 300w of power .. lol
@@nothin1456 Silly rabbit. Q9650 is socket 775... Super old. That's why I said replace the motherboard. You could put an LGA 2011 board with a 12-core Xeon in it for less than $250... Or current board and CPU if you were willing to pay more... And just have it in the classic Alienware case
That case would be fun to build a newer pc in!
Yea that case looks sick af
They need to build a new system inside the case. There are still a lot a OG gamers that would love that case.
Definitely
I did it. Im using it currently, I love it. The case just looks so cool
@@diegomontoya4635 hows the cooling?
I run that exact same mainboard in my retro rig. Supports up to Core 2 Quad QX 9650 extreme cpus. The nforce 680i sli board is such a cool piece of retro tech and was manufactured by EVGA and XFX. So cool retro rig you guys found there.
Lol. It was trash.
All Nvidia chipsets were, except Nforce 2. That was the only decent one.
Not gonna lie I want this PC, love the old school Alienware designs.
Thanks for this video. I purchased a used HP8000 SFF w/Core 2 Duo back in 2012, it is running windows 10 on an SSD and works fine as a remote camera monitor (NVR system). Core 2 Duo is still viable for certain tasks in 2023.
Alienware was such a gem before Dell destroyed their PCs. I had 2 Alienware pcs back in the day. They were both amazing. They were ahead of their time, and the cases were always awesome looking.
It’s always about the big cmpanies
A sleeper PC inside that case would be really cool to put together
It absolutely would be. Strip it, clean it, sand the scuffed and scratched glossy exterior *just* enough to get an even surface and then paint it with a matte white, followed by a medium gloss finish, and outfit it with modern top of the line components. It'd be a beautiful rig.
$10? These things are going for $500 to $800 on eBay. Kind of hope this goes for sale on your site, always wanted one of these.
Yeah that's a crazy good deal. These are pretty much collectibles now for pc enthusiasts hence the crazy price on eBay.
They go for like 200$ check sold listings
I still have my 2012 Alienware Aurora R4. With a 3rd Gen core i7, 32 gb ram and it’s still kicking. In fact just inherited my brothers rtx2070 to pop in. I hooked it up to my 4k Sony TV and it didn’t do great at 4k on destiny 2 but did run 1440p at 60 frames. I also just added a sata ssd to give it some new life. 😃
upgrade the proccesor!
The ventilation in that thing looks so much better than what Alienware now provides
I used LGA775 up to 2021. I started with a E6300 onto a E8300 onto a Q6600 and finally a Q9400. I updated to a 10105F last year. It would be cool seeing this rig updated with these CBUs.
That is impressive. The only thing that pulled me from 775 is the lack of modern instruction sets.
@@Gold171 775 with ddr3 can be ok for skyrim, not with ddr 2
I went to socket 1366 in 2017, even though I did have an FX 8350 system in 2015 and 2016 briefly, with an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R 2.0. (The FX CPU and the Sabertooth 990FX R 2.0 were made in 2014, thus a late revision) (In 2016, after I already traded it for a monitor, I did see the Sabertooth 990FX R 3.0 on a web page, Asus came out with a new model when it was still the pre-Ryzen days)
I would love to see what you could do upgrading the hardware using the case and how you could add cool RGB to this case as well. Thanks
That's awesome you got your hands on one of these. I completely rebuilt the Area51 XLR with a 4790 and a 1070 a few years ago. The guy I sold it to still playing on it today. It would be awesome if you guys went nuts with it and build a bad ass out of it.
I bought a plasma purple P1 case last year from 2003, sanded it all down, and repainted it with black pearl with high gloss clearcoat, bedlined the inside metal frame and put in a watercooled amd 5800x with a 6900xt GPU and it looks incredible. It was my dream PC case back in the day and decided to buy one recently to build a retro pc.
It is likely 'old' enough to be using standard parts. If you swapped in some power efficient/ newer parts, it would be a cool sleeper
imagine having like pc from 2007 and still can play some modern games ,mind-blowing
Instantly ruined by putting Windows 10 on it though.
The E6400 can be overclocked with default voltage to 2800-3000 mhz, which will give it a 30-40% performance boost.
Sounds a whole lot better than my super-duddy E2180! That couldn't even do 2.8 GHz without increasing Vcore ("IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD when running Linpack at only 2.8 GHz!) Then at 1.4V, 2.90 GHz was the best I can confirm getting!
I am currently using this exact case. I love the look of it, I have all the original parts as well, the AIO is super cool as well.
Shout out to Micro center for supporting great youtube creators and gamers. I just got my ASUS TUF A17 today for just $700!
Bro why does that alienware pc look like my grandmas clothes washer 😂
I need more of this, ANY pc, just get it and upgrade... Will watch everytime
Can you ask Micro center when they are going to up a store in Arizona? We really need one out here.
Wow that is a fire deal you guys got there.
I use this same case for my current primary rig, love it, though Since I bought the case second hand from a friend, it was missing some parts for the alienware lighting and also the insert plate for the power supply. Still love the original Alienware aesthetic, I used to see these when i was young and always wanted one but could never afford them. Hopefully one day I'll come across another one with the parts my case is missing so I can use its case lighting.
I would love to do a modern build in this case
I found a slightly later model branded alienware no dell in sight that was an i7 950 with a gtx 690 and 24gb of ram and a super primitive intel branded 240gb ssd. Its also an area 51 sku machine. It had an asus x58 motherboard and a 1200w modular psu thing is an absolute beast all the blue leds still work on it.
That PC was an absolute monster in it's hayday. At that time, Dell had not acquired them yet but it was it had been discussed and nearing a deal. First off, the case was actually made by Antec. It came it various colors and even had the flip flop chameleon finishes. That specific computer, if I'm not mistaken, had an Nvidia 7400 GT or a 7800 GTX, which getting it in an SLI setup was an option. During that time,hardcore gaming was really beginning to gain popularity and take off. To be honest, you both should have given it a little more respect. But it shows your age and knowledge. Maybe research a little more. That, hands down, was probably one of the best computers ever made. I owned a computer company in Texas called Giga-Ware. Not to be confused with the Radio Shack brand. They actually stole my name. Anyhoos, I built many custom PCs and this was by far, a major competitive system and for what you got, was a very good buy. Thanks Dell for trashing that company's reputation.
Chieftec actually Alienware kept using Chieftec dragon based cases until Dell bought them out, but I digress. You are correct this Predator 2 was a MONSTER back in its day, I also agree that these generation of Alienware rigs were some of the best rigs money could buy. Oddly enough I worked for Radio Shack when I bought my Alienware pc back in 2004. (Sorry Radio Shack ripped your name off, but it was kind of the company's M.O. {I would learn this the hard way years later when the company went belly up and screwed the employees})
At the time I was in college in Florida and Alienware was based out of Miami so they had it shipped to me and on my doorstep in less than 48 hours for no extra charge.
I still use the Area 51 Predator 1 case to this day as my daily gaming rig. I have had to mod the case to accommodate newer parts but being the avid PC nerd that I am I keep my rig with very high end components.
I've done a restomod to mine, blue P2. I love it.
10850K + RTX 3080
Finally 500K subs and you guys deserved it!
I used to work with this exact machine back in the day when I did a stint at the Intel Demonstration Depot in Hillsboro Oregon. We would reimage these and set them up to show at tech expos. They put off a TON of heat because of the Core 2 Duo's. These came with either nVidia Geforce 9800 GT's or Geforce 8800 GTX.
this $10 alienware pc from 2007 runs better than my system from 2010
Very Cool, I have a pre Dell Alienware case that I have had since 2001 and still upgrade it every few years.
I still have this Alienware stored away it was a good PC back in the day, all the docs. came in a hardcover book. I used the hell out of it for years.
You should mod a cheap quad core xeon lga 771 to that lga 775 board and overclock it to at least 4.0ghz like i have done several times in the past. Like X5460 which is less then $20 on ali and basically the same as the expensive consumer extreme editions.
LGA771 chips in LGA775 boards (especially with BIOS mods) are (or at least were) beast options to get so much more performance for not much more money.
@@malek6129 Yeah will need the microcodes of lga 771 cpus added to the bios to be able to get a stable overclock. Those chips went so much faster with a decent overclock, nothing like the little gains of todays cpus. Still pretty good for running win 10 and batocera gaming. Ive got one as my ultimate win xp pc at 4.2ghz.
@@0MeALot0 over clocking is pretty much dead today, it’s diminishing returns especially considering the energy inefficiency for those small gains, as most CPUs are already overclocked in one way or another. There aren’t many CPUs actually worth for the overclocking and most of the times it’s really not worth spending extra for the unlocked models (Intel CPU). Undervolting is the META now for best performance per watt, especially with today’s oppressively-high energy costs.
@@malek6129 I totally disagree. i5 12600k i have here overclocks like a king, it hardly costs any extra energy and can easily go 15-20% faster. It basically can perform like the much more expensive i7 with 2 cores less and so consuming even less then the i7. In gaming it eats like 65 watts most of the time at most. For the xeon it can do an improvement of 35-40% in most tasks if done right. Its nearly free performance. Besides overclocking is a hobby. I basically overclock everything.
@@0MeALot0 yeah when I was thinking about the overclocking, the only ones relatively recent that would be worth it is the 12600k and xeons.. and that’s about it. And even then, an undervolt would still be beneficial, especially on the modern GPUs as well
I'm in the UK and found someone in Florida on eBay selling one of these cases with parts only for £570 inc shipping, it was in great condition and in blue.
I'm actually still using a C2Q Q8400, 2x2gb ddr2, and a GT420 1gb connected on my tv. So when grandma comes around I have all of her favorite movies played. 👌
Installing Windows 10 with that old processor is going to cause slowdowns. Slap Windows XP or Vista on there, maybe Win 7 at most, and use it for retro gaming with a good CRT monitor, and you literally have gold right there.
remember on these old cpus sometimes higher settings are most stable, since the processor is fluctuating framerates, where it can't keep up, then "catches up", then falls behind, then "catches up", repeat infinitely.
when you raise the settings for the gpu, higher settings, and higher resolution, you're offputting more work for the gpu, essentially slowing it down, so you might only get 35 frame a second instead of 60.
but it'll be a more stable 30 fps, because since the gpu is working harder, the processor isn't "falling behind"
for instance in tf2 if you raised the settings since the gpu was only at 55% and cpu @100% then you probably would have had a better experience (by yourself on a server of course) with higher settings, with a slightly overall lower framerate
I have an X51 I am using right now. It can't play modern games, but it still trudges along just fine.
I had one of these except it had an aio water cooled qx9775 extreme in it. it also had an evga motherboard except it was a 790i ultra. These were pretty exotic parts for the time and still fetch a nice price. For $10, that pc had a lot of potential value.
.....honestly.......thats still a dream pc for me even tho its old i still have an old thermaltake armor case and i love it
Those old Alienware PSUs are massive. For my Area 51 restoration project, I had to make my own power supply adapter to fit in a modern ATX PSU.
I love these old Alienware machines... I'm more into the laptops myself
Keep this thing original if you can, people usually modify these with new parts but its cool to see them original!
Wow, they apparently took their name a lot more literally back then. That thing totally looks like a xenomorph's head.
"Looks down at exact same Alienware under desk"
Great, now I feel both bad AND old...
i got an aurora r7 from marketplace for 100 dlls , it had a i9 9900k and a 2080 with 64gb of ram , he has selling it because were he worked they had like 10 other computers like that , so when the company closed they gave him all the computers to him , he had a good position on the company , he told me that the company bought the computer back in 2018 but they upgraded the internals because they needed it for their line of work , i honestly in my 35 years of gaming I've never gotten a better deal that this. the computers were sitting collecting dust and the one he sold me still had all the transparent stickers that cover the alien and the side panels , the internals looked brand new they only had them for 4 years in working conditions then the company close
Cases that didn't require tools have been around for quite some time. Apple was building machines you could assemble, disassemble, and maintain w/out tools back in 1989 (Mac IIcx). Off and on through the 1990's, some Macs didn't need tools and some did. The earliest PC's I know of that were tool-less where business PCs like the Dell Optiplexes from the early 2000's.
That case is so begging for a board swap!
Dude, I bought this model. I loved it. I kept it for years and updated the motherboard twice. Bought it before Dell bought them out. The rgb was far ahead of its time
I loved the 2011 chipset. I overclocked the crap out of it.
I always did like those cases, wouldn't mind tracking one down for a modern build
7:58 do you have a dryer hooked up on the compressor to dry out the air or just use the air from the compressor as is?
A friend gave me this case recently, I loved the design when I saw it on G4 and wanted one since then. It weighs a ton
I had that one, my first true gaming PC. Can't remember the exact specs but that front opening door was so 😎
I don't think a lot of graphic cards had shrouds on them in Alienware/Dell. My expensive Dell had a GTX 560 (I think) and doesn't have a shroud.
can you do a video on building the best pc of a certain year components? like take this era computer and put a better cpu in it, gpu etc. always see alot of new stuff but never stuff with older things.
Why is the stationary camera position so low? It feels like we are looking up at you.
I am abit of a Alienware head, so this model Alienware Area 51 was the last alienware model that was build using off the shelve parts, before joining Dell's OEM platform. At the end of 2008 Alienware would release the last Alienware Area 51 using that chassie. The Area 51 x58 would share the same Dell OEM P270J motherboard as the Dell XPS 730X displaying their full adoption into the Dell ecosystem of parts.
The very next year Dell would change the XPS as being branded as their gaming line-up, and would have the XPS line now represent their media/professional line up of computers.
Alienware would now have two Desktop line ups. The Dell Alienware Aurora you reviewed and the MASSIVE Alienware Area 51.
I love how this case looks like a 50s car.
Paint the black parts red and paint the silver parts chrome.
I have an Alienware laptop from around the same timeframe.. I think it's from 2004. Still works, with Windows XP.
I got a socket 1366 version of this in the late-2010s. With Core i7 Extreme 965 and an Asetek AIO cooler. It came with an Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard that had the Alienware logo in the BIOS.
A core 2 is actually still perfectly usable even today! I have one I use for basic use and to act as a server. Just as long as you don't need more than 8GB of ram as that's the limit on a core 2 duo. If you are lucky enough to have a core 2 quad, that can even still play some modern games. It's just nuts that today such old parts are still useful, but go back ~20 years and try to use parts just as old and you would be out of luck.
As another project, that case is so huge, rebuild it from the ground up, just using the case. I'd love to have a basic system in a case that looked like that.
Early 2000's Alienware was the best. I use to buy maximum pc mag subscription or just read them in the stores just to see the builds.
Holy hell i have a 2003 Alienware like that. I took it out of the closet last night and it's super heavy, dusty and one of the heatsinks unglued rattling around. I'm looking forward to this video
That is an epic case. With the right mods that thing could be an absolute stunner!
If only the case was matte & not a glossy finish I had one it was a fingerprint magnet and was much bigger in person! Probably the biggest pc case I ever owned
bro, you killing me at the end of every sentence how you make the last word llllooonnnngggggg during that little commercial at the beginnnnninngggggg.. you know what i mmeeeaaaannnn??
My buddy had this same thing in blue. Not sure of the specs but it played guild wars 2 like a beast!
I think you're missing a good part of why you should review and dissect these old PC's. Of course, they won't keep up with today's software and OS but they still make a great starting point for an upgrade. In additional to the new Corsair, Thermaltake, and Cooler Master cases and others that I own, I still have my two original Alienware PC's, one like this one in black (an Area 51 ALX with software controlled LED lighting) and another older one, an Aurora (came with Athlon X2 64 4800+), in bright green. In those days, Intel-based PC's were labeled Area 51 and AMD-based PC's were labeled Aurora. These came out after the Alien movies made it big and resembled those creatures. Both are still in my use today with the same power supply, cables, DVD and one still has the 3.5 inch disk (you just never know if these will come back, LOL). These cases were large inside, yet easy to get into (well, not the green one). My green Alienware case (circa 2004 and was offered with factory water cooling, years before it became popular) was rebuilt 3 years ago with an Intel i7 9900k with AIO cooling and the black one was just rebuilt with a Ryzen i7 5800X3d, both rocking Nvidia 3080 GPU's. There is plenty of room inside for 2x210mm AIO cooling and tons of space for backup hard disks. These don't have the glass side panels of today, but are great designs that are more interesting than the boring rectangle boxes churned out today. And the green glow of the LED's coming through the vents of the black ALX looks seething! I've also rebuilt two Alienware Hangar 18 Media consoles using the Ryzen 5600G mATX. The only ones I can't upgrade further are my Red M17X R2 i7 920 laptop with dual Radeon 4780 GPU's (think Sheldon on Big Bang Theory) and the micro Alpha, which was supposed to be the first Steam OS PC (but Steam was too late to the release date). But they are still in use too, one dedicated to a Karaoke machine and the other for internet surfing for my grandchildren. Too bad when Dell bought Alienware. Yes, they were expensive, but they HAD great customer service and were on the bleeding edge of design and speed. That's why I still use their cases. Each PC would come with a signed list from everyone who worked on it of all the tests that were done as the PC was built to confirm everything worked as expected and did not include any software bloat. $10 for this one was an absolute steal. I'll give you $15!
I had a Core 2 Duo E8400 processor with 6GB of RAM and a Geforce 210 that was my only PC for 10 years. It was painful to play games on.
I can’t believe you guys drive all the way to Sharonville OH to go to MicroCenter. I live like 20 mins away and hate driving up there lol
Nice video. Cool to see some old tech. People use to be really hyped for alien ware. Now it’s so over priced people don’t really care anymore.
I’m surprised that it could even run any modern games.
It’s crazy to think how far tech has come in the last 15-20 years. If you think about the difference between the Xbox 360 days to series x our technology has advanced so far.
It's always been overpriced.
I used to buy Alienwares at about the time this case was released (Still have mine) and only graduated out of it because it wouldn't readily house modern AIO cooling solutions. May rebuild in it for something a lot less overclocked as an art project.
I love finding old builds like this.... tear the thing down, clean it all up, add the most ram the system will support and a 250 to 500 GB hard drive and get W10 back on it.... and then sell it for about $50.... OR changeout the MB to a AMD Ryzen build and sell it for more! everyone loves the vintage chassis.... this one would go fast!
Rip out all the guts and replace with all new MoBo PSU GPU CPU and ram - case looks like RGB might just glow through the case so pulsing green lights would look 💚
What keycap is on the Escape key for the keyboard at the end lol I love it.
I've been looking for an alienware case to make a retro 4090 build
Please, use this case to build a modern gaming PC! It looks soo cool!
I got one of these for free 8 years ago and traded it for a 2010 iMac that I just stopped using. When I had this, it was still worth around $300
Ancient PC... from 2007. You just made me feel old.
Man I wanted one of these Alienware PC's back in 09! That's when it was it's own brand and not owned by Dell.
You can really see the Xenomorph inspiration om that case. 👽
My first and last Alienware was the Aurora R2 many years ago. DDR3 with a Radeon 5670 lmao. Then i built a Ryzen system in 2019. Now going to DDR5. How the times have changed.
Dude... That would be exact what I would need... Seriously...
It's far better than anything I have
according to google 550 ti was released in 2011 so I guess it's not original hardware, or that computer was released later than 2006/2007?
The Alienware area 51 case has been on my wish list since it first came out, 10 bucks for my holy grail!!
the alienware aurora 4 alx one back then looked so cool i wish it didnt have proprietary stuff so the case was usable with other parts
The last game I played on my old core 2 duo e6300 was GTA Vice City. Cant imagine it doing much more than that decently
Alienware were the thing at their beginnings, not like today. I always liked those cases.
I was told... that using an air compressor to clean old systems was risky as the debris can be thrust into slots and other connectors on the MB by the rush of air. Any thought?
Was it by chance a guy trying to sell you a new system? :D
Not much damage as an already dusty computer if you think about it.
I remember when I had an E6400, OC'd to 3.4GHz 24/7 stable. Never ran it at stock but the first BIOS visit. :)
This series of Dell i love most
If your PC repair man has to ask, " is this the power supply?" . You need to find a new one.
What always made Alienware cool was the cases, just the coolest (to me) looking cases.
Always thought they looked a bit goofy even back in 2007 when i had a vaio laptop but they were definitely a big flex for that time.
I had this PC case for many years, sold it about a year ago to the local games store.
This board actually has more RAM slots and better heatsinks than the new Alienware PCs. Case looks a bit oversized tho,there's alot of empty space left even with that full size ATX board inside it
Dude, you paid $10 for that? I'll give you$25 for it right now. You can more than double your money.
That case actually looks really cool