Alienwares desktop flagships get a solid state drive option

Miami (FL) – Alienware has extended the availability of solid state disk drives (SSDs) from some of its notebooks to two of its enthusiast desktop computers. Interested users should be prepared to spend at least $6000 on such a system, excluding a monitor.

Having the latest technology in your PC never has been cheap, but SSDs certainly carry the potential to cause sticker shocks even among those who are used to be shelling out more cash for that extra bit of performance. Alienware has become, to our knowledge, the first system builder to be offering SSDs in desktop systems, which elevates the price range of the firm’s enthusiast PCs into boutique territory.

Available for ALX models - the AMD-based Aurora and the Intel-based Area-51 – the 128 GB SSD option (64 GB x 2) is offered as a $1700 upgrade over the standard 320 GB (2 x 160 GB, 10,000 rpm) configuration. Replace the hard drive with the SSD and an additional hard drive will cost you somewhere between $100 for a 250 GB 7200 rpm model and $940 for a 2 TB (2 x 1 TB 7200 rpm).

The cheapest option to purchase such an SSD system is the Aurora ALX with an AMD 64 X2 6000+ processor without an additional hard drive for about $5800 (without monitor). Go for the 6400+ processor, double the RAM to 4 GB, add a Blu-ray drive and a few more goodies and you are looking at a price tag of about $9000. LCDs are extra and are available from around $600.

The Intel-based Area-51 ALX SSD system starts at $6700 and reaches all the way to about $9500.