While Ryzen helped propel AMD back to essentially performance parity with Intel Core series processors, Ryzen Threadripper offers the hope of surpassing even Intel's latest Core i9 Skylake-X family, with more core resources and PCIe connectivity at its disposal. As it turns out, however, our first hands-on experience with AMD Ryzen Threadripper wasn't afforded to us by the usual manufacturer press kit, but rather an OEM desktop system from Dell's Alienware Gaming PC division.