Alienware Area-51 5300 SFF Review
I've wanted to build a SFF Shuttle for ages, and I finally succumbed to flat-out purchasing one from Alienware. The Area-51 5300 case is a AW-branded Shuttle SB83G5. Pricing was fairly reasonable, considering the quality hardware and monitor - more than what it would cost to make myself, but hey, these days, time is money.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the box and want to see the official Alienware write up, read it here.
System Specs
Area-51® 5300
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Chassis: Alienware® Area-51 5300 Small Form Factor Chassis - Black
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 550 w/ HT Technology 3.4GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware® Area-51 5300 Motherboard with Intel® 915G Chipset
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive: NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Sound Card: Intel® 6-Channel Audio with SPDIF and Composite Out
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Display One: Alienware® 20.1" LCD Display
Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Space Black
Mouse: Microsoft® Basic Optical Mouse Black
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!
Free DVD+/- RW; Free NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Special Financing Offer; 12 Months Same As Cash Financing
Free Double Memory; Free Upgrade from 512MB to 1GB of Memory
Free Shipping; $99 Mail-In Rebate for Free Shipping
Purchase Price: $2880
Ordering Process and Alienware Phases
I ordered online the day before Christmas. The promised ship date was February 6th. As mid-January rolled around, I had my doubts about making the ship date. A phone call to Sales assured me that everything was on schedule. Sure enough, the unit actually left AW on 2/4 (Friday afternoon), and FedEX delivered on 2/8, the following Tuesday via 2-Day Air. For all intents and purposes, the PC arrived exactly as scheduled.
12/24: Phase 1
1/5: Phase 3
1/9: Phase 4
1/14: Phase 5
1/19: Phase 6
1/24: Phase 7
1/28: Phase 8
2/1: Phase 9
2/4: Phase 12
2/4: Phase 13
2/4: Phase 14
2/8: Delivered via FedEx 2-Day Air
Packaging
By now, we've all seen the pix of an Alienware box and foam inserts, so I won't bother to post them here. The cartons were in good shape (thanks FedEx!), the monitor arriving separately. Everything was as it should be - snug and secure. If anything, I noticed (and appreciated) the lack of miscellaneous crap (adverts and the like) that usually accompanies a new computer -- they shipped just the stuff you need and nothing else.
Front of case (Power light blue, HDD light orange):
Front of case, stealth bays open:
Rear of case:
Left side of case, through grill:
Cracking the Case
Quite simple really - remove 3 metal thumb screws on the back and the U-shaped chassis cover easily lifts off. My first thoughts were "Wow. I should've had a second HDD installed at the factory!" Working on this unit will be a challenge, particulary for a guy with hands (and thumbs) as big as mine. Space is at a premium, but there are definite airflow paths, which work well (see Temp Control below).
Left side of chassis, cover off. NVidia GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express (better photo to follow):
Right side of chassis, cover off:
Setup and Power-up
Not much to do, as you can imagine - attach mouse, keyboard, and power cords. The only assembly worth mentioning was the monitor. The 20.1" BenQ LCD assembled quickly - the display snaps into the stand with a nice quick-release mechanism. Cabling to D-sub (analog), DVI-D (digital), USB, Comp video and S video connections were handled nicely by a cable manager on the stand.
Monitor in lowered landscape position
Monitor connections - Power, DVI-D, USB In, USB Out connected respectively
Unconnected in picture: Comp video and S video connections, D-sub (analog)
Rear support stand - raised position
Note cable manager at base
Left side of monitor - Screen adjustment controls and signal input selectors
Note two additional USB ports available towards the bottom
Top of monitor frame - Covered USB port for camera mounting
Monitor relative to CPU - monitor in lowered position
Monitor - raised position
Monitor - rotated 90 degrees
Photo of screen detail during benchmark test
Boot-up proceeded without a hitch. Initial power-up ramps the fans twice at max rpms, which freaked me at first, but after a couple of seconds they quickly drop to a whisper quiet operational mode. I can't stress enough how unbelieveably quiet this unit is! The power supply and chassis fans spin effortlessly, and I have yet to notice any fan rpm ramping, even under a load.
As expected, there were a few things to install:
The first thing I did was download a few bench programs from FutureMark. I was immediately taken aback by the stunning display, and how crisp and clean it is at the native 1600x1200 res. The NVidia 6800 GT (PCI Express) really shines -- well worth the investment.
Initial Benchmarks
Alienware Burn-in/Benchmarks
CPU Benchmark
Dhrystone ALU: 10016 MIPS
Whetstone FPU: 2828 MFLOPS
CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
Integer: 0 it/s
Floating-Point: 0 it/s
Drives Benchmark
HD 1 - Buffered Read: 117 MB/s
HD 1 - Avg. Access Time: 8 ms
Memory Benchmark
Int ALU/RAM Bandwidth: 4808 MB/s
Float FPU/RAM Bandwidth: 4781 MB/s
Game Benchmarks
Doom 3: 85.1 fps
FlyByCitadel: 179.51 fps
BotmatchCitadel: 75.77 fps
FutureMark Benchmark Tests (1600x1200 res)
3DMark2001: 19,820 3D Marks
3DMark2003: 11,400 3D Marks
3DMark2005: 4,568 3D Marks
Temperature Control
One of my biggest concerns for this chassis was it's ability to keep the box cool under load. I was pleasantly suprised how well the 5300 performed. After hours of use, the outside metal chassis remained at a comfy 32C, still slightly cool to the touch. It gets a little warm within 10" behind the case, as the power supply and chassis fans pump out the heat very efficiently. Looking under the hood:
Note: Room Temp @ 24C
Inner Temperatures (idle/load)
Ambient: 42C/47C
MB: 42C/48C
HDD: 42C/47C
GPU Core: 55C/62C
(CPU temp not monitored - still looking for a compatible program)
Exhaust Temps (average)
92mm Chassis Fan: 45C
Power Supply Fan: 49C
Chassis Side Grills: 35C
Applications:
Although I had my doubts and scoffed in the past, I'm really jazzed about rotating the 20" LCD 90 degrees and working on documents in "portrait" layout instead of landscape -- you definitely have to experience it to appreciate how cool this really is. A simple mouse click at the system tray and a one-handed grab & twist of the monitor is all it takes.
Photoshop/Illustrator CS: Wow - incredibly sweet. Manipulating huge (20Gb) Vector and rasterized files is a breeze. What used to take close to a minute to load and render is done in less than 5 seconds.
Doom 3: What can I say - Doom 3 smokes with this vid card. Now I can get fragged by a 10 year old faster, smoother, and with vivid clarity!
WH40K: Playability is so much greater now with the enhanced graphical detail - effortless zooming and panning. (My nephew is dead meat)
I'll be sure to post more info and photos as they develop!
I've wanted to build a SFF Shuttle for ages, and I finally succumbed to flat-out purchasing one from Alienware. The Area-51 5300 case is a AW-branded Shuttle SB83G5. Pricing was fairly reasonable, considering the quality hardware and monitor - more than what it would cost to make myself, but hey, these days, time is money.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the box and want to see the official Alienware write up, read it here.
System Specs
Area-51® 5300
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Chassis: Alienware® Area-51 5300 Small Form Factor Chassis - Black
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 550 w/ HT Technology 3.4GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware® Area-51 5300 Motherboard with Intel® 915G Chipset
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 160GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive: NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Sound Card: Intel® 6-Channel Audio with SPDIF and Composite Out
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
Display One: Alienware® 20.1" LCD Display
Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Space Black
Mouse: Microsoft® Basic Optical Mouse Black
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - $99.99 Value - FREE!
Free DVD+/- RW; Free NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder
Special Financing Offer; 12 Months Same As Cash Financing
Free Double Memory; Free Upgrade from 512MB to 1GB of Memory
Free Shipping; $99 Mail-In Rebate for Free Shipping
Purchase Price: $2880
Ordering Process and Alienware Phases
I ordered online the day before Christmas. The promised ship date was February 6th. As mid-January rolled around, I had my doubts about making the ship date. A phone call to Sales assured me that everything was on schedule. Sure enough, the unit actually left AW on 2/4 (Friday afternoon), and FedEX delivered on 2/8, the following Tuesday via 2-Day Air. For all intents and purposes, the PC arrived exactly as scheduled.
12/24: Phase 1
1/5: Phase 3
1/9: Phase 4
1/14: Phase 5
1/19: Phase 6
1/24: Phase 7
1/28: Phase 8
2/1: Phase 9
2/4: Phase 12
2/4: Phase 13
2/4: Phase 14
2/8: Delivered via FedEx 2-Day Air
Packaging
By now, we've all seen the pix of an Alienware box and foam inserts, so I won't bother to post them here. The cartons were in good shape (thanks FedEx!), the monitor arriving separately. Everything was as it should be - snug and secure. If anything, I noticed (and appreciated) the lack of miscellaneous crap (adverts and the like) that usually accompanies a new computer -- they shipped just the stuff you need and nothing else.
Front of case (Power light blue, HDD light orange):
Front of case, stealth bays open:
Rear of case:
Left side of case, through grill:
Cracking the Case
Quite simple really - remove 3 metal thumb screws on the back and the U-shaped chassis cover easily lifts off. My first thoughts were "Wow. I should've had a second HDD installed at the factory!" Working on this unit will be a challenge, particulary for a guy with hands (and thumbs) as big as mine. Space is at a premium, but there are definite airflow paths, which work well (see Temp Control below).
Left side of chassis, cover off. NVidia GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express (better photo to follow):
Right side of chassis, cover off:
Setup and Power-up
Not much to do, as you can imagine - attach mouse, keyboard, and power cords. The only assembly worth mentioning was the monitor. The 20.1" BenQ LCD assembled quickly - the display snaps into the stand with a nice quick-release mechanism. Cabling to D-sub (analog), DVI-D (digital), USB, Comp video and S video connections were handled nicely by a cable manager on the stand.
Monitor in lowered landscape position
Monitor connections - Power, DVI-D, USB In, USB Out connected respectively
Unconnected in picture: Comp video and S video connections, D-sub (analog)
Rear support stand - raised position
Note cable manager at base
Left side of monitor - Screen adjustment controls and signal input selectors
Note two additional USB ports available towards the bottom
Top of monitor frame - Covered USB port for camera mounting
Monitor relative to CPU - monitor in lowered position
Monitor - raised position
Monitor - rotated 90 degrees
Photo of screen detail during benchmark test
Boot-up proceeded without a hitch. Initial power-up ramps the fans twice at max rpms, which freaked me at first, but after a couple of seconds they quickly drop to a whisper quiet operational mode. I can't stress enough how unbelieveably quiet this unit is! The power supply and chassis fans spin effortlessly, and I have yet to notice any fan rpm ramping, even under a load.
As expected, there were a few things to install:
- 6800 GT video required setup and tweaking to my preferences
- Monitor drivers (digial & analog) not installed
- Multimedia Keyboard software (Intellitype) not installed
- Windows XP had it's myriad of security updates (thanks Bill)
The first thing I did was download a few bench programs from FutureMark. I was immediately taken aback by the stunning display, and how crisp and clean it is at the native 1600x1200 res. The NVidia 6800 GT (PCI Express) really shines -- well worth the investment.
Initial Benchmarks
Alienware Burn-in/Benchmarks
CPU Benchmark
Dhrystone ALU: 10016 MIPS
Whetstone FPU: 2828 MFLOPS
CPU Multi-Media Benchmark
Integer: 0 it/s
Floating-Point: 0 it/s
Drives Benchmark
HD 1 - Buffered Read: 117 MB/s
HD 1 - Avg. Access Time: 8 ms
Memory Benchmark
Int ALU/RAM Bandwidth: 4808 MB/s
Float FPU/RAM Bandwidth: 4781 MB/s
Game Benchmarks
Doom 3: 85.1 fps
FlyByCitadel: 179.51 fps
BotmatchCitadel: 75.77 fps
FutureMark Benchmark Tests (1600x1200 res)
3DMark2001: 19,820 3D Marks
3DMark2003: 11,400 3D Marks
3DMark2005: 4,568 3D Marks
Temperature Control
One of my biggest concerns for this chassis was it's ability to keep the box cool under load. I was pleasantly suprised how well the 5300 performed. After hours of use, the outside metal chassis remained at a comfy 32C, still slightly cool to the touch. It gets a little warm within 10" behind the case, as the power supply and chassis fans pump out the heat very efficiently. Looking under the hood:
Note: Room Temp @ 24C
Inner Temperatures (idle/load)
Ambient: 42C/47C
MB: 42C/48C
HDD: 42C/47C
GPU Core: 55C/62C
(CPU temp not monitored - still looking for a compatible program)
Exhaust Temps (average)
92mm Chassis Fan: 45C
Power Supply Fan: 49C
Chassis Side Grills: 35C
Applications:
Although I had my doubts and scoffed in the past, I'm really jazzed about rotating the 20" LCD 90 degrees and working on documents in "portrait" layout instead of landscape -- you definitely have to experience it to appreciate how cool this really is. A simple mouse click at the system tray and a one-handed grab & twist of the monitor is all it takes.
Photoshop/Illustrator CS: Wow - incredibly sweet. Manipulating huge (20Gb) Vector and rasterized files is a breeze. What used to take close to a minute to load and render is done in less than 5 seconds.
Doom 3: What can I say - Doom 3 smokes with this vid card. Now I can get fragged by a 10 year old faster, smoother, and with vivid clarity!
WH40K: Playability is so much greater now with the enhanced graphical detail - effortless zooming and panning. (My nephew is dead meat)
I'll be sure to post more info and photos as they develop!
As soon as I revamp my office, I'll be ordering an ALX for gaming. Better stay upgraded Darth! 
I'll borrowa camera and will take some shots tonight!
Shipped on 05/17 - I post a comnparison of the two systems (if relavent) 
