Acer Veriton M4660g vs. Alienware Area 51 R4

Differences between Acer Veriton M4660g and Alienware Area 51 R4

If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Acer Veriton M4660g which was released in 2018. The Alienware Area 51 R4 is older and entered production in 2015.

If you are looking for the smaller form factor the Alienware Area 51 R4 is the right one for you. It is smaller than the Acer Veriton M4660g and will fit more easily under your desk.

Processor

Usually the newer the generation of the CPU, the better the performance and efficiency is. If your budget allows it, you should go with the Alienware Area 51 R4 as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that Acer Veriton M4660g is bad - it can still run some powerful CPUs, albeit being an older generation.

Memory

Both models have have equal amount of ram slots (4 RAM). Usually two RAM slots are more than enough for most cases. However, the count should be taken into account when planning how much and what combination of RAM you are going to need for your system.

The Alienware Area 51 R4 is using the faster 2933 MT/s RAM. The Acer Veriton M4660g is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 2666 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Acer Veriton M4660g as it has the ability to run 124 GB of RAM. The Alienware Area 51 R4 can do a bit less at max 64 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.

Ports

In total the Alienware Area 51 R4 has 12 USB ports. The Acer Veriton M4660g is inferior in this regard and packs 8 USB ports. In any case, if you miss USB ports, you can always purchase a USB hub. What is nice about the Alienware Area 51 R4, is that it has 2 USB 3.1 port(s) which allows transfer of up to 10Gb/s. Unfortunately, the Acer Veriton M4660g has no such port, thus restricting your transfer speeds significantly. For people who want to use external drives on regular basis, this might be an issue.

Nowadays, almost every new computer comes equipped with a DisplayPort. However, none of the devices being compared here has one. Don't worry though, DisplayPort adapters are very cheap and you can get virtually any combination of conversion types.

The Acer Veriton M4660g comes with an HDMI port, while the Alienware Area 51 R4 does not support the interface. Of course missing HDMI port is something that can be easily fixed with a good adapter (e.g. DisplayPort to HDMI).

SATA ports are placed on the system board and it is where you connect your HDD, SSD and Optical Disk Drives. More SATA slots will allow you to have more drives running at the same time. In this regard the Acer Veriton M4660g is better equipped as it comes with 5 SATA slot(s), while the Alienware Area 51 R4 has 4 slot(s).

If you want the fastest transfer speeds for your SSD, an M.2 interface is crucial. Thus, if the M.2 SSD slot is a mandatory requirement for you, go with the Alienware Area 51 R4. Sadly, the Acer Veriton M4660g has no such slot, and you will be forced to use the SATA interface instead.

Make sure that the available M.2 slot supports the PCIe (also called NVMe) interface. This is important as there are M.2 slots which support only the inferior SATA III interface. For comparison, the SATA III interface has max speeds of 6Gb/s, while the PCIe 3.0 x4 will support speeds up to 32Gb/s!

Power Supply

Having a Power Supply Unit with high power rating is important, if you are going to use components which require extra power. The Acer Veriton M4660g comes with a decent 300 Watt PSU, but the Alienware Area 51 R4 has a more powerful one rated at 1500 Watts. Choosing either one depends on your specific requirements and use case. Also don't forget that some models might have more than one PSU option - try to always get the most powerful one, especially if you plan to upgrade to a powerful GPU.

Motherboard