I pulled the trigger on a Monster Gaming Machine. I know it’s crazy, but boys just want to have fun.

See I have a three-year-old iMac Pro, but it’s getting flaky and I’ve been eyeing my wife’s 49" monitor for months.

Apple’s never going to do something like that! And how long before they ship something powerful that can work with an external monitor: A high-end mac Mini or a new mini-Mac Pro?

I finally lost my patience and pulled the trigger on something completely different.

Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10

Maxed out with a Ryzen 7 5800X, nVidia GTX 3080, 128GB RAM, and dual 2TB drives (1 m.2, 1 spinning).

I know I could save money and probably get something better by building my own or going to a custom gaming PC maker, but these components are hard to get and I figure Dell can get them faster than anyone else. Even so this baby doesn’t ship ‘til May.

And as long as I’m going for a power rig, I might as well go all out with a monster monitor, right?

Alienware 55-inch OLED Gaming Monitor

A 55-inch OLED monitor that’s absurdly expensive. (It’s basically a hi-res TV but it costs a lot more.)

I rationalize this crazy purchase because

  1. I believe in open source, and like Linux as much as I like macOS. Dell supports Linux pretty well. (No I don’t plan on using Windows. Ick.)
  2. I really need to get to know the new PC hardware. Specifically The AMD Ryzen and the new nVidia ray-tracing GPUs.
  3. I can’t get an Xbox Series X or Playstation 5 to save my life, but I really want to play something new.
  4. and the real reason… Valheim (it runs on Linux!)

I’ve been saving up for something like this for some time. It’s kind of the Ultimate Gaming Machine for 2021.

OK tell me I’m a fool. I’m ready to be roasted. Or you can come over and watch me play Valheim come May.

UPDATE: It has arrived. I’ve been playing with it all day and it’s so fast. Super happy with the purchase. Dual booting Windows 10 with Manjaro Linux and everything is working perfectly. I think I’m in love.

UPDATE (4 years later): I’m still playing Valheim, but now it’s on an M4Pro Mac mini with the same monster monitor. As usual, the monitor outlived the computer.