DIY-friendly Alienware Area-51 desktop gaming PC now packs latest Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU
CES 2026Back at CES 2025, Dell launched the Alienware Area-51 desktop gaming PC with a brand-new chassis that promised DIY freedom. However, this Alienware Area-51 SKU was only available with Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake processors. Dell finally offered AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs in November 2025.
Now, at CES 2026, Dell has announced that the Alienware Area-51 desktop gaming PC will be available with the latest Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a CPU that is also debuting at CES 2026.
Alienware Area-51 desktop gaming PC specs
The latest iteration of the Alienware Area-51 desktop PC is just a minor spec bump, as Dell did a comprehensive redesign last year. So, if you’ve been following the Alienware Area-51, you’ll know what to expect from the 2026 version.
For the uninitiated, the Alienware Area-51 is a full-tower desktop gaming PC that can be had with up to a Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU, an RTX 5090 GPU, 64 GB of DDR5 memory, and up to 12 TB of storage. The latest iteration brings the new 8-core Ryzen 7 9850X3D. Aside from this, there appear to be no other hardware additions or improvements.
This means that the Alienware Area-51 is still stuck with just two RAM slots. This was one of our biggest complaints in the past. So, it is a bummer that Dell has failed to address this problem.
Moreover, the Alienware Area-51 under discussion features an 850 W or 1,500 W PSU, up to a 360 mm liquid cooler (with space for a 420 mm one), and seven user-programmable AlienFX RGB lighting zones. There are also plenty of ports spread across the top and the rear of the casing.
Dell has announced that the Alienware Area-51 will be available in February 2025. However, there is no information about the price, likely due to the uncertainty surrounding the overall memory market.
Source(s)
Dell
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