Alienware is no alien among thebest play desktops , but its Aurora range has always been for a certain crowd : those who wantthatAlienware look . The update Aurora R16 ditch that look with a completely redesigned chassis , all while maintaining the same story of components you could detect in previous version . Now , it ’s a desktop that appeals to the spate .
Not only is the Aurora R16 half the size oflast - gen ’s Aurora R15 , but it also come in at a low price for similar configuration . This screen background mark a unexampled era for Alienware in many way — and after using the Aurora R16 , I ’m along for the drive .
Alienware Aurora R16 specs
The Aurora R16 not only marks a major conception change for Alienware but also a Leontyne Price reducing . The midrange model I review clocks in at $ 2,000 , though you may get it down to $ 1,500 if you pink down the RAM and storage .
The base constellation arrive in at $ 1,300 . For that , you get an Intel Core i7 - 13700F , anRTX 4060 , 16 GB of DDR5 , and a 1 TB NVMe SSD . you’re able to scale much higher , though . For $ 4,980 , you may get an Intel Core i9 - 13900F , Nvidia RTX 4090 , 64 GB of DDR5 - 5200 , and 8 TB of storehouse .
The blanket width of customization options is a major plus here . You had similar selection with the Aurora R15 , but they were more expensive . For illustration , upgrading to the RTX 4090 inside the Aurora R16 is around $ 200 trashy than it was in the R15 , while an RTX 4080 is $ 150 less . That ’s on top of a rebate of around $ 300 to $ 500 depending on your contour .
peachy as a discount is , Alienware ’s pricing is a little tricky . Some configuration require a 1,000W powerfulness provision . The Aurora R16 only comes with a 500W tycoon provision in its base conformation . In gain , Alienware ’s pricing is set assuming you want an air - cooled CPU and a whole side panel . smooth cooling for the mainframe and a clear side control board will be you extra .
What ’s thwarting about this setup is that every GPU alternative except the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti predict for more than a 500W great power supplying . Dell pass water you jump flat to 1,000W. Frankly , the baseline power provision should be around 650W to 750W for a machine of this gauge , and without that , you ’re forced to spend more on a PSU you do n’t really need .
The ideal configuration total in at $ 1,750 . For that , you get the 1,000W PSU , a 240 mm all - in - one liquid cooler , and a clean-cut side panel , geminate with an Intel Core i7 - 13700F , RTX 4070 , 32 GB of DDR5 - 5600 , and 1 TB of NVMe storage . At that price , the Aurora R16 is squarely competing with the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i , while coming in for importantly less than theLenovo Legion Tower 7i .
The glow-up and grow-down
The Alienware Aurora R16 looks so much skillful . It ’s now the size of a Dell XPS Desktop 8960 , much unlike the monumental fictile shell that covered late version . The goal solvent is a flyspeck PC that ’s about 18 inches thick , 16.5 in tall , and just diffident of 8 inches wide , all while packing the most powerful constituent money can buy .
With a slimmer configuration , the Aurora R16 look much nicer . It also descend with some update flourishes . My favorite , by far , is the open breathing in at the front of the machine that ’s adorned with Alienware ’s Stadium Lighting . It looks great , and it serves a practical use for airflow . I do Bob Hope , however , that Alienware will tot some obliterable dust filter to this design in the futurity .
The side jury looks great , as well , assuming you choose for a clear side panel . Alienware use acrylic instead of tempered crank , and it bound the window to only the top component part of the interior chamber . That imply you do n’t see the cable television peck below , but it also imply you ca n’t fully take account the build at bottom . gratefully , the bottom portion includes a honeycomb pattern for airflow , which looks great when stuck up against the window .
Inside the Aurora R16
fetch inside the Aurora R16 is even well-heeled than it was in the late generation . Undo a single screw on the back , draw a tablet , and the side instrument panel will pop off . For the other side control board , you may just pop it out with enough violence , though you should n’t need to get to the backside of the motorcar .
Everything is focused in the main sleeping room , as is usually the case for prebuilt desktops . Alienware still has its own motherboard design and a thin , host - similar office supplying , so those are off the table for upgrades . There ’s nifty accession to other rise you may make , though . three-fold M.2 slot are usable , one or both of which will be concern bet on your shape . You also have clear memory access to the two DDR5 RAM slot , as well as the LGA1700 CPU socket if you want to upgrade to the rumour Raptor Lake refresh .
The big affair here is the preconfigured hard parkway sleigh . All you need to do to elevate your memory board is take off the side panel , link a 2.5 - inch SSD or 3.5 - inch HDD to the sled , and stop up in the two rout cables . I wish more prebuilt desktop had pre - routed cables for reposition expansion because it ’s an upgrade that almost anyone can do for very little money .
That ’s a bountiful upside , but I still question what the Aurora R16 would calculate like with off - the - shelf factor . There ’s an argument here that you need the special motherboard and king provision for how small-scale the machine is , but the end result is a pile of brackets and supports that create the internals bet less good than they could .
A CPU problem
Although Alienware claims that the Aurora R16 will be its most hefty desktop ever , now uncommitted with up to an RTX 4090 , the CPU is slue back . That ’s because Alienware opted to use non - K model , unlike former version . These models are n’t unlocked for overclocking , and based on my examination , the Core i7 - 13700F inside the Aurora R16 is a little slower than the K simulation inside theDell XPS Desktop 8960 .
The F suffix has implications , too , particularly in apps like Premiere Pro where you’re able to leverage structured graphics along with your GPU to speed up certain tasks . Both the Lenovo and Dell contender here arrive with an RTX 4080 , explain their much higher scores in Premiere Pro , but the excess boost from integrated computer graphic would assist to speed up these workloads .
From my examination , it seems the poker chip is tuned slightly low-toned to keep thermals and noise at bay . That sour , but it also think of you have a less sinewy central processor as a result . That ’s not a huge stack for gaming , but for substance abuser who need to have productiveness and gaming public presentation , a big machine like the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i will be a better alternative .
Great for 1440p, acceptable for 4K
You ’re going to purchase the Aurora R16 for gaming in the main , and it ’s blisteringly fast . Building your own microcomputer can still net mellow performance , specially with some part modification , but my testing shows that the Aurora R16 is leverage most of the power of the RTX 4070 deep down .
depart with 3DMark , the Aurora R16 is within spit length of a custom RTX 4070 background withAMD ’s Ryzen 9 7950X. The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i is far forward in Time Spy , but it ’s also packing an RTX 4080 . say ourRTX 4080 reviewto see just how much faster that GPU really is .
Onto real games , the Aurora R16 can handle most plot at 4 KB Ultra while cracking 60 frames per second ( fps ) . The major exclusion isCyberpunk 2077,which definitely needs the service of Nvidia’sDLSS 3to pass on higher levels of operation at this resolution . gratefully , DLSS 3 is available to the Aurora R16 with its RTX 40 - serial nontextual matter carte du jour .
you could really see just how much faster an RTX 4080 is here . The Legion Tower 7i has a nicer central processor , as well , but at 4 K , you ’re almost always define by the graphics card . The Aurora R16 is also slightly behind the custom RTX 4070 desktop , but never by more than a fistful of frames . Overall , you might be look at a performance loss in the low single digit , but nothing that should be concerning .
TheRTX 4070isn’t built for 4K. That ’s the purpose of the RTX 4080 , so 1440p is more naturalistic for people in the market place for the Aurora R16 . Here , the machine can easily clear 60 fps in games likeCyberpunk 2077and generally top 100 fps in most other titles .
While that ’s a good mark for the Aurora R16 to hand , you may see the gap between it and the custom RTX 4070 grow at this firmness . That ’s likely an influence of the CPU — the Ryzen 9 7950X is importantly more powerful than the Core i7 - 13700F — but it ’s not a full explanation . The Aurora R16 , even disregard the central processing unit difference , is still gaol a bit behind what you could get with a custom desktop .
Although the Aurora R16 is n’t quite as powerful as a custom microcomputer , it ’s still very fast . The constituent for a similarly configure screen background would run you around $ 1,700 , make the Alienware ’s building fee essentially free .
Be gone, sidebar
Alienware ’s desktops come with a variety of utilities , some of which are more useful than others . I appreciate the update center for grabbing new BIOS versions and graphics drivers , and the update Alienware Command Center allows you to customize lighting and see stats like your GPU temperature and average frame pace in game .
My big issue is the Alienware Command Center overlay . It hold out on the side of your monitor ; a midget cyan paring that never disappears . you could open it up through a hotkey to see organization stats , as well as come home on it . That ’s the problem . All too often , you ’ll select the sidebar while playing game , force you out of the plot and into Alienware ’s utility . gratefully , you may disable this in the circumstance of Alienware Command Center ( thanks to the lecturer who point that out ) , but this should definitely be an opt - in utility program .
Multiple improvements
Despite a few exit — the locked CPU and Command Center sidebar chief among them — there ’s no traverse the Aurora R16 is a monolithic bounce forward for Alienware . Not only is the design attractive and hard-nosed , but the Aurora R16 also comes in at a significantly tacky monetary value than previous versions , in conclusion making it militant with other gaming desktops .
As common , build your own gaming PC is the best way to go for cost and overall performance , but the Aurora R16 forfeit very little by being a prebuilt . Even the proprietary components , which have amaze out in late versions due to the massive case pattern , make more horse sense here with the Aurora R16 ’s overall slim form factor .
