Dell has saved some big announcements for Gamescom 2018, including the new esports training platform Alienware Academy, Alienware Command Center for managing all kinds of PC accessories, as well as some cool new monitors and PCs with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics processors. In short, the company is going all out this year with some cracking new hardware and services for gamers.
We already covered the Alienware Academy, which is essentially a resource and training facility of sorts for anyone who desires a career in professional gaming on the big stage. As for the new Command Center, it's simply Alienware's version of the peripheral manager for Windows 10, allowing gamers with compatible keyboards, mice, and more to connect everything together using one app. It also works on any PC — not just Dell — which is an added bonus.
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Dell's new 24- and 27-inch gaming monitors (FHD and QHD, respectively) sport overclocked refresh rates of 144Hz and 155Hz, with an awesome rapid response time of just 1 ms — ideal for gaming. Both displays support AMD's FreeSync technology, which pairs nicely with any AMD-powered GPU.
They're appropriately designed as far as gaming displays go and come backed by Dell's superb Premium Panel Exchange program, allowing the replacement of a display should there be any issues throughout the warranty period, even if it's only a single pixel out of line.
The Dell S2419HGF and S2719DGF displays will be available in the U.S. and Asia starting August 28 at $319.99 and $549.99.
Aurora and Area 51 with NVIDIA RTX
The Alienware Aurora will be available with the recently announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti GPUs. All this power will be housed in a mid-tower chassis, allowing for future upgrades and modding. Better yet, these new GPUs will allow for some excellent 4K gaming.
As well as the Aurora, Dell is also refreshing the flagship Area 51 desktop gaming PC with the new GPUs from NVIDIA. What sets this model aside is the option to configure the system with an Intel processor rocking 18 cores, because why not? The new Aurora PCs will be available for preorder in early September, but you will be able to buy the Area 51 desktops with RTX GPUs that very same month.
Fancy Alienware 15 and 17 keyboard lighting
Finally, Dell has made some changes to the Alienware 15 and 17 gaming notebooks. Both models now come rocking per-key LED lighting for more than 80 quadrillion combinations, utilizing various modes and effects. Not only is there more colorful light emitting from each key, they're also using the upgraded TaxtX keyboard, sporting a key travel of just 2.2mm.
Both the Alienware 15 and 17 will be available on August 21, starting at $1,399.99 and $1,599.99, respectively.
