What can we do with 16 cores in alienware area 51 threadripper 2017

What Can You Do With 16 Cores?
Aside from the CPU and a pair of Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, the Area-51 I reviewed also has 32GB of RAM and 3TB of storage divided between a 1TB SSD and a 2TB hard drive. The SSD, graphics cards, and processor contribute to a majority of the purchase price. The base version starts at $2,699 and comes with a 12-core Ryzen Threadripper 1920X CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 2TB hard drive, and one Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.

The linchpin of this iteration of the Area-51 is its AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor. We've installed one in a home-built PC, and our sister site Computer Shopper calls it "a no-brainer for serious content creators and uncompromising multi-taskers." Consequently, this desktop garnered our highest-ever score of 3,047 points on the Cinebench test. That's 657 points over the Velocity Micro Raptor Z95, which has a 10-core overclocked Intel Core i7-7900X CPU, and 1,973 points better than the Origin Neuron. Animators and other CGI artists will certainly be interested in this result. Likewise, it took a scant 28 seconds to complete our Handbrake video-encoding test, just behind the Raptor Z95 (0:25). Any Handbrake time below a minute is excellent, and most Core-i7-equipped high-end gaming PCs will take about 45 seconds on the same test.

Other test scores were a bit behind the top marks: Its score of 3,330 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test lagged the Origin Neuron (4,271) and MSI Aegis Ti3 (4,136). Its Photoshop score also lagged the competition, at 3 minutes, 44 seconds, more than a minute-and-a-half behind the Neuron and Digital Storm Velox (2:06). The latter was the most disappointing, but not a surprise as Photoshop only uses a subset of the Threadripper's cores, while CineBench fully utilizes the CPU's potential.

The Area-51 is equipped with two top-shelf 11GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards. It can play 3D games at 4K resolution smoothly, shown by its score of 84fps (frames per second) on the Heaven test and 80fps on the Valley test. If you're paying $5,799 for a gaming rig, you'd expect, nay demand, it challenge the best. Unfortunately, that honor went to the Origin Neuron (95fps on Heaven; 113fps on Valley), and the Raptor Z95 was also ahead by a significant margin (88fps on Heaven; 103fps on Valley). Your eyes may not be able to tell the difference between 80fps and 113fps, but your wallet certainly will, and the price difference between these PCs is significant.