• Pros Reasonably priced. Small footprint. Solid performance. • Cons No room for expansion. Virtual Crash 3.0. Does not include keyboard or mouse. • Bottom Line The Alienware X51-R2 small-form-factor gaming desktop offers respectable gaming performance at a reasonable price.
The latest addition to the Alienware family of gaming, the X51-R2 is actually an upgrade to last year's innovative. It uses the same space-saving small-form-factor (SFF) chassis and features the same cool lighting effects. Upgrades come by way of a newer Haswell processor in place of last year's Sandy Bridge CPU, and it has an updated Nvidia graphics card. At a list price of $699 (as tested), it's a great deal for gamers on a budget, but it lacks expansion options and doesn't come with a keyboard or a mouse. Design and Features Measuring 13.5 by 3.7 by 12.5 inches (HWD), the X15-R2 is ideal for gamers who don't have the space for a full-size rig.
The matte-black case has a glossy-black front panel, and each side panel sports a triangular multicolor lighting assembly. A backlit Alienware logo adorns the front panel and is joined by a slot-loading DVD multidrive, two USB 3.0 ports, two audio jacks (headphone and microphone), and a power switch. Rear-facing ports include four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port, six audio jacks that support 7.1 HD audio, an optical S/P DIF audio output, and a coaxial S/P DIF audio output. The dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 745 graphics card provides HDMI, DVI, and VGA video outputs. As with the original Alienware X51, the X51-R2 offers embedded Wi-Fi b/g/n networking and is powered by an external power brick. The 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive comes with Windows 8.1, Steam, Cyberlink's Media Suite Essentials, and a trial version of Microsoft Office 365. It also has the Alienware Command Center software, which includes the AlienFX utility for assigning colors and event themes for the side panel and alien head lights, the AlienFusion power management utility, and AlienAdrenaline, which allows you to create desktop shortcuts that will launch custom game profiles for specific games, as well as monitor CPU and GPU performance.
