Alienware is the only OEM allowed to sell Threadripper PCs this year

Alienware has signed a deal with AMD, making it the only major PC manufacturer in 2017 to ship turnkey systems with the new Threadripper CPUs. Competitors such as HP and Lenovo will not be able to deploy the processors until next year.

The exclusivity deal does not affect the delivery of individual processors. People who assemble a computer themselves will therefore not notice anything. Also, providers of fully built systems can simply supply models with Threadripper CPU. For example, online stores often offer composite PCs.

Alienware, part of Dell, claimed in a message that it has an exclusive deal worldwide for the use of Threadripper processors. AMD has clarified to PCWorld that it is only a deal that makes Alienware the only major PC maker allowed to use the CPUs this year.

On Tuesday, Alienware announced that its Area 51 PC is getting an upgrade. There will be a version with an Intel Skylake-X processor with up to 12 cores and a variant with an AMD Threadripper CPU with 16 cores. In both cases the CPUs will be overclocked.

AMD showcased its Threadripper processors at Computex at the end of May. The top model will have 16 cores and 32 threads. With the series of high-end CPUs, AMD is competing with Intel’s new hedt platform, consisting of the Skylake-X processor with up to 18 cores. AMD has not yet released much information about its Threadripper CPUs, such as when they will be available and how many models there will be.

Alienware Area 51