Buying a high-end gaming rig isn't supposed to be cheap. We've come to expect that the best of the best in PC hardware will run you around $5,000 or more. The problem is that once one vendor throws a wrench in the works, the whole game changes. The Alienware Area-51 7500 we've reviewed here will cost you $5,779. For that price you get an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 chip, aka an "Intel Quad", and a single Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card, among other performance hardware. That price tag seems high for a game PC with a single 3D card, but knowing that you'd add about $1,000 worth of additional hardware to make this system an SLI rig (scalable link interface, which allows two video cards to be linked together, producing a single output), we don't blame Alienware for trying to keep the price lower on this review unit, especially when even one 8800 GTX is overkill for games currently on the market.



Link: CNET