Alienware: Elite PC gamers "not really the target audience" for X51

Alienware has defended the £700 price tag on the compact X51 gaming PC, which represents a substantial premium on the cost of its components.

"Ultimately, yes, if you go and source all of the components yourself and have the knowledge required to build a system yourself and understand how to manage the heat inside that system, and understand airflow, and the importance of how you route your cabling so you don't disrupt the airflow - if you know all that stuff then yes, you can do [build the X51 for less than £700]," senior product manager Eoin Leyden told Eurogamer.

"But to be honest with you, if you know all that stuff you're not really the target audience for this product," he added.

Leyden said the X51 represents an opportunity for those without gaming PCs who want something as small as their current case but with all the bells and whistles required for performance gaming - and not have to fiddle around with it.

"If you know what you're doing, if you have the time, if you think it's a good investment of your time to go machining parts to fill the thing instead of paying £100 extra to have somebody else do it for you, then yeah [build your own]," he said.

"But for everyone else who just wants a great gaming experience out of the box and maybe doesn't want to get into the guts of the machine and start tweaking it, this is giving them that experience.

"It is a performance product. We're not trying to build a cheap small form-factor PC, because there are plenty of them out there, and we're not cheap compared to other small products. But within that form factor, we believe that's the best experience you can get from a gaming perspective."