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Alienware’s flagship desktop finally ditches proprietary parts

The Area-51 is back, and it’s ATX now.

Alienware has built some of the easiest-to-open toolless gaming PCs around — but for years, the Dell-owned brand has stifled their upgrade potential by limiting them to Dell’s own proprietary power supplies and motherboards. And even though there’s a dedicated daughterboard to easily control and cable manage its lighting, fans, I/O, and power switch, Dell will offer a conversion kit to make it work with third-party motherboards. “With this edition, we are returning to our roots with a machine that caters to the desires of PC gaming enthusiasts and longtime Alienware fans who have a deep appreciation for technology and a can-do attitude for manually customizing their build to their needs,” writes brand manager Matt McGowan, promising “the ability to make serious upgrades for years to come.”

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