Alienware X51- the ultimate multipurpose HTPC.....
#1
I ordered Alienware X51 mini gaming PC for my new home theater. I stated why I went with it in this thread- I'm thinking of HTPC and surround sound below for my new home theater. I wanted the tiny Intel NUC at first, but I need something with more horse power for multipurpose. The X51 with Intel i7-3770 will have enough power for all my multipurpose tasks.....

Have anyone use it for HTPC?

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Here is a couple photos of X51 with 7.2 system at the new home....
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A smaller 3.1 system in another room-
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>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#2
don't know that one specifically but it's dell so service is at least top notch Smile
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#3
That's a sexy looking machine... Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise and it's quite big compared to other solutions. Good quality and powerful though.
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#4
i believe that there was a thread on this. Look for it i think someone who had it had some issues
My HTPC AMD A8-3870K CPU/ SilverStone ML03B/ASRock MB-A75M /Seasonic SS-400ET/Corsair XMS3 4GB
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#5
(2013-01-17, 22:56)RaggSokk3n Wrote: don't know that one specifically but it's dell so service is at least top notch Smile
I owns a lot of Dell PC's at home and work all these years, and it have been served me well. Dell bought Alienware, and I never own Alienware PC. I found some good reviews below-


-Alienware X51 Mini Gaming Desktop Video Review (HD)

-Alienware X51 Small Form Factor Gaming PC Review

-Alienware X51 Review

-Alienware X51: The Xbox With Teeth



(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: it's quite big compared to other solutions. Good quality and powerful though.
For a gaming PC, it is not big at all. When I tried it at Best Buy, it's slightly bigger than XBOX 360 (you can see in the photo below). Here is another good review- Alienware X51 review....

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>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#6
Cool... so you got the 16 gig version Alienware X51? any upgrades? what was your total cost? Enjoy...
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#7
(2013-01-18, 00:14)bluray Wrote: For a gaming PC, it is not big at all. When I tried it at Best Buy, it's slightly bigger XBOX 360 (you can see in the photo below). Here is another good review- Alienware X51 review....

Yeah not big for a gaming PC, but it's big for a box sitting under your TV...
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#8
(2013-01-18, 00:47)Beer40oz Wrote: Cool... so you got the 16 gig version Alienware X51? any upgrades? what was your total cost? Enjoy...
I ordered the minimum spec of the X51 with Intel i7-3770 version. I'm planning to add these- Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner, Crucial m4 64GB SSD and Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard....

The overall cost is what listed on Dell website for PC......

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#9
(2013-01-18, 01:09)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:14)bluray Wrote: For a gaming PC, it is not big at all. When I tried it at Best Buy, it's slightly bigger than XBOX 360 (you can see in the photo below). Here is another good review- Alienware X51 review....

Yeah not big for a gaming PC, but it's big for a box sitting under your TV...
A lot of users in this forum have this "SilverStone ML03B" case for their HTPC, and X51 case is nearly half the size.....it'll look tiny sitting flat on my "Sonax SN-4600" 60" wide LED TV table, and LED TV will be mounted on the wall.....

If you see it in person, you'll be surprise how small it is....I'm very surprised that they are able to install a full size gaming GPU in this tiny case.....
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#10
(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise
I lifted X51 off the table at Best Buy, and it felt about the same weight as my XBOX 360 (X51 is exactly 1.2 lb heavier than XBOX 360). With 90% blu-ray playback, I doubt that I'll ever use the included discrete GPU because it is equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus. With Optimus, I can actually plug my LED TV into the Intel i7-3770 HD4000 IGP's HDMI port and X51 will power down the discrete Nvidia GPU when it's not in use. It'll lower power consumption, heat and noise......reviewers seems to be very impressed with X51 low power consumption and noise level....

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#11
(2013-01-18, 04:22)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise
I lifted X51 off the table at Best Buy, and it felt about the same weight as my XBOX 360 (X51 is exactly 1.2 lb heavier than XBOX 360). With 90% blu-ray playback, I doubt that I'll ever use the included discrete GPU because it is equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus. With Optimus, I can actually plug my LED TV into the Intel i7-3770 HD4000 IGP's HDMI port and X51 will power down the discrete Nvidia GPU when it's not in use. It'll lower power consumption, heat and noise......reviewers seems to be very impressed with X51 low power consumption and noise level....

It's alright mate you don't need to justify your purchase with me, just giving you my opinion Smile

I'm a big fan (excuse the pun) of passive cooling and silent systems that's all - even my server runs off 100% silent cooling.

Glad to hear you're happy with it.
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#12
(2013-01-18, 04:56)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 04:22)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise
I lifted X51 off the table at Best Buy, and it felt about the same weight as my XBOX 360 (X51 is exactly 1.2 lb heavier than XBOX 360). With 90% blu-ray playback, I doubt that I'll ever use the included discrete GPU because it is equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus. With Optimus, I can actually plug my LED TV into the Intel i7-3770 HD4000 IGP's HDMI port and X51 will power down the discrete Nvidia GPU when it's not in use. It'll lower power consumption, heat and noise......reviewers seems to be very impressed with X51 low power consumption and noise level....

It's alright mate you don't need to justify your purchase with me, just giving you my opinion Smile
I'm not trying to justify anything. Just pointed out the X51 spec.....

(2013-01-18, 04:56)cosmicr Wrote: I'm a big fan (excuse the pun) of passive cooling and silent systems that's all - even my server runs off 100% silent cooling.
Everyone want a passive cooling and silent gaming HTPC, but it is very difficult to achieve a powerful passive mini-itx gaming HTPC. It can get very expensive too.....

If you don't mind, what is your passive HTPC?

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#13
(2013-01-18, 05:53)bluray Wrote: If you don't mind, what is your passive HTPC?

Well technically, I dont have one! I'm running XBMC off an ATV2. It was great when I first got it, but now I find it's getting a bit sluggish.

I'm replacing it with an Asus c8hm70-i/hdmi soon (waiting on order), of which I'm looking into passively cooling.

I'm not a big gamer, but when I do, that's on my main PC. It's not 100% silent, but it's got a scythe shuriken on the CPU and scythe kamariki PSU, in an Antec Solo case (pretty quiet Smile)

My server's got a seasonic X-400 PSU. Best PSU I've ever had. I had to make the server 100% silent for the WAF when it used to sit in the bedroom lol.
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#14
(2013-01-18, 01:09)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:14)bluray Wrote: For a gaming PC, it is not big at all. When I tried it at Best Buy, it's slightly bigger XBOX 360 (you can see in the photo below). Here is another good review- Alienware X51 review....

Yeah not big for a gaming PC, but it's big for a box sitting under your TV...

Ever owned an amplifier?
I have about a 100kg of gear under the living-room tv and you don't even notice it - remember this is a grownup man with a grownup size of room Wink

(2013-01-18, 02:54)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:47)Beer40oz Wrote: Cool... so you got the 16 gig version Alienware X51? any upgrades? what was your total cost? Enjoy...
I ordered the minimum spec of the X51 with Intel i7-3770 version. I'm planning to add these- Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner, Crucial m4 64GB SSD and Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard....

The overall cost is what listed on Dell website for PC......
The dinovo is amazing, love my full size edge..
(2013-01-18, 03:04)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 01:09)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:14)bluray Wrote: For a gaming PC, it is not big at all. When I tried it at Best Buy, it's slightly bigger than XBOX 360 (you can see in the photo below). Here is another good review- Alienware X51 review....

Yeah not big for a gaming PC, but it's big for a box sitting under your TV...
A lot of users in this forum have this "SilverStone ML03B" case for their HTPC, and X51 case is nearly half the size.....it'll look tiny sitting flat on my "Sonax SN-4600" 60" wide LED TV table, and LED TV will be mounted on the wall.....

If you see it in person, you'll be surprise how small it is....I'm very surprised that they are able to install a full size gaming GPU in this tiny case.....

It's not small nor big; it's the perfect size for an i7 gaming rig Smile

(2013-01-18, 04:22)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise
I lifted X51 off the table at Best Buy, and it felt about the same weight as my XBOX 360 (X51 is exactly 1.2 lb heavier than XBOX 360). With 90% blu-ray playback, I doubt that I'll ever use the included discrete GPU because it is equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus. With Optimus, I can actually plug my LED TV into the Intel i7-3770 HD4000 IGP's HDMI port and X51 will power down the discrete Nvidia GPU when it's not in use. It'll lower power consumption, heat and noise......reviewers seems to be very impressed with X51 low power consumption and noise level....
Pretty sure that the computer can pass-through from the hd4000 to the 660 without the 660 being active until needed - like they do on their laptops Smile
Alienware uses pretty good fans last time i checked so it should be fine - booth the i7 and 660 are weary power efficient components.


(2013-01-18, 04:56)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 04:22)bluray Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 00:08)cosmicr Wrote: Only drawbacks I can see is it would be heavy, pump out a lot of fan noise
I lifted X51 off the table at Best Buy, and it felt about the same weight as my XBOX 360 (X51 is exactly 1.2 lb heavier than XBOX 360). With 90% blu-ray playback, I doubt that I'll ever use the included discrete GPU because it is equipped with NVIDIA's Optimus. With Optimus, I can actually plug my LED TV into the Intel i7-3770 HD4000 IGP's HDMI port and X51 will power down the discrete Nvidia GPU when it's not in use. It'll lower power consumption, heat and noise......reviewers seems to be very impressed with X51 low power consumption and noise level....

It's alright mate you don't need to justify your purchase with me, just giving you my opinion Smile

I'm a big fan (excuse the pun) of passive cooling and silent systems that's all - even my server runs off 100% silent cooling.

Glad to hear you're happy with it.

I'm curious to see your setup and how you made it quieter? I only know two ways to achieve a perfectly silent pc, and none of them could handle a i7 + gt660...

(2013-01-18, 07:54)cosmicr Wrote:
(2013-01-18, 05:53)bluray Wrote: If you don't mind, what is your passive HTPC?

Well technically, I dont have one! I'm running XBMC off an ATV2. It was great when I first got it, but now I find it's getting a bit sluggish.

I'm replacing it with an Asus c8hm70-i/hdmi soon (waiting on order), of which I'm looking into passively cooling.

I'm not a big gamer, but when I do, that's on my main PC. It's not 100% silent, but it's got a scythe shuriken on the CPU and scythe kamariki PSU, in an Antec Solo case (pretty quiet Smile)

My server's got a seasonic X-400 PSU. Best PSU I've ever had. I had to make the server 100% silent for the WAF when it used to sit in the bedroom lol.

ATV2 and you give the one and only bluray advice, really? Tongue
The Asus c8hm70-i/hdmi has a pretty bad cpu (a weak celeron) witch when pushed will give out a lot of heat due to it's low amount of "horsepower"
The seasonic X-400 PSU is ok, but pretty bad for the price... (It's easily beaten by cooler masters sph series in efficiency, amount of power and keeps the noise just as low.
So you had a server without mechanical hard-drives? If not then I'm pretty curious to how you silenced them...(one hdd might be silent but several cooperating newer is)

Cool
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#15
(2013-01-18, 08:36)RaggSokk3n Wrote: ATV2 and you give the one and only bluray advice, really? Tongue
not sure, are you having a dig at me? I didn't realise we can't offer advice unless we meet a certain social status.

I have a lot of knowledge to impart, if anyone wants it.

Oh yeah, and rubber grommets on the hdd screws make it 100% inaudible, which is good enough for me (not that it works that hard anyway).
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