Lean, mean gaming machine
There’s a difference between items being budget or a great value because the former is not necessarily good quality while the latter means you may be paying cash for something which boasts quality. This is true for the most recent upgrade to its Aurora gaming desktop of Alienware .
At $2,904 (#2,569, AU$3,749) for our review config, the Alienware Aurora R7 isn’t exactly the most economical on the marketplace. However, with features such as a killer, 6-core Intel Core chip, a high-end GPU that boasts frame buffer electricity, an array of ports that will allow you to establish your very own little gaming village, and its own tool-less design makes upgrading easy as playing with Legos, this rig definitely offers great price.
That is raw power, convenience and flexibility we would be glad paying more cash for.
- Alienware Aurora R7 in Amazon for US$1,429.97
Price and availability
Like its predecessors, the Alienware Aurora R7 comes in various configurations, the least expensive of which is at $999 (#949, AU$1,499). This most basic config, only about $150 over the Aurora R6’s, that was furnished with all the Intel Core i5 8400 chip, 8GB of DDR4-2666MHz RAM, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, plus a 1TB hard disk.
Step up one config up for $1,329 (#1,099, AU$1,785) and you are VR ready thanks to this configuration coming with a more powerful Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card, plus twice as much memory.
Meanwhile, the priciest version, that will put you back $4,279 (#4,029, AU$6,619), is tricked out with the Intel Core i7 8700 CPU, 64GB of RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, 2TB HDD and dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB GDDR5X each. Apart from the eight settings you may choose from, you could even select and choose your own specs and then personalize your desktop according to your gaming requirements and demands.
Our own setup, as seen to the best, costs $2,904 (#2,569, AU$3,749). This machine is future-proof, although the price tag might be on the end. It’s got large enough specs to basically allow you to run almost any game you need at the greatest settings without issue. A fair price for a monster — that value.
Design
Though less tricked out as other gambling PCs, the Aurora R7 is a good-looking machine. It has got a more down-to-earth style than the Area-51 and simple yet customizable LED light on both sides and on the Alienware logo front (which also serves as the power button).
At 18.6 x 14.2 x 8.35 inches (21.1 x 47.2 x 36.1cm: W x D x H), it’s not necessarily compact in design. Nonetheless, it isn’t big and bulky . It will have some heft to it in 37.67 pounds (14.81kg), but it’s not hard to lug around thanks to its handle in the top. Massive exhausts also across the top of the machine requires the majority of the internal space, complimented by a few fairly large intakes on the ideal side and at the front, giving it good airflow.
The very best thing about its design, if not its own portability, is its availability. The chassis features which readily upgradable design we adore. Taking the right-side lid off only requires a simple pull of the lever in the trunk, revealing the power source mounted sideways on a panel attached to a hinge.
It may look complex, but the only trick to it is undoing the two switches that this panel in place. From that point, you are able to swing out the PSU back and forth effortlessly to show the rest of the hardware including the processor, graphics card, motherboard and memory. And on the trunk are just three expansion slot covers which readily slide right off.
Seeing how easily everything else is to handle, it, although securing back the lid is a little tricky.
Plus, it’s oodles of vents. The top front includes three USB 3.0 interfaces, a headset jack, a mic jack, and a USB-C port. The back has six USB 2.0, four USD 3.0 plus one USB-C ports in addition to a DisplayPort, an Ethernet port, a Digital Optical Audio, along with HDMI interfaces. This implies flexibility in regards to connecting a plethora of devices.
Upgradability
Alienware Aurora R7’s chassis is designed for upgradability. Its size means lots of room for components, particularly those important for gaming. Furthermore, its design and its design allows for optimum accessibility. This means that replacing and/or updating components is a breeze, so much so that even beginners can do it.
The drive, sits beneath the the power supply, is readily replaceable, removable and upgradeable. Below the pre-installed GeForce graphics card in our inspection unit are two expansion slots on the motherboard–a short PCI-E X4 slot and another PCI-E X16 slot machine (the primary one being used by the GPU). These slots allow for yet another GPU card and elements that are additional.
There are four RAM slots on the left side of this multi-core chip. Our unit includes two sticks of 8GB sticks of DDR4 RAM, which makes two slots to upgrade up to 32GB — or simply start from scratch for a full 64GB of RAM. Last, there are two 2.5-inch drive bays at the bottom for secondary drives.
Performance
With its excellent chip, top of the line GPU and sizeable RAM, it looks like the Aurora R7 can do no wrong. In reality, all of the elements are strong in our inspection arrangement that it is difficult to pinpoint faults, if there were no.
At the center of it is, of course, that the Intel Core i7 8700K. This CPU is a big step up from most of of the processors that powered previous itterations of the Aurora. Alienware asserts the flagship chip of this 8th generation is said to allow the R7 to perform up to 25% greater than its predecessor.
It’s also a unlocked CPU, which allows overclocking for faster speeds — though it did not seem to need a reason for this. The R7 cuts through demanding games like butter and handles regular computer works seamlessly.
There is also the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Nvidia’s flagship GPU the company promises to provide up to 3x boost in functionality. Its 11GB GDDR5X of memory assists while eliminating any noticeable latency the frame buffer send faster loading.
Here’s a fantastic illustration of the GPU’s capacity: the first room of Doom where you are swarmed by demons from all directions is a circumstance where you might expect frame rate and feel drops from a stronger machine. But the R7 handled it like a professional, staying sharp, making frames quickly enough and keeping up with all our hectic, massive POV moves.
After playing Call of Duty, while this reviewer had a little difficulty keeping up with what was happening, this monster handled the math.
And we can not overlook the 32GB of dual channel DDR4 RAM our review unit includes. There aren’t that many games that require that system memory, but it is better to know that if we would like to play one, it can be handled by it.
Basically, because the Alienware Aurora R7 can take whatever you throw at it–Doom, Call of Duty: World War II, Middle Earth: Shadows of War — every game is rendered in stunning detail using a steady, plodding frame rate that doesn’t quit. Couple that with a computer speaker system connected via the optical audio, and you are in business.
As expected, Aurora R7 fared considerably better in the benchmark tests compared to Aurora R6 along with the VR-ready MSI Infinite A. It scored bigger on the GPU-leaning 3DMark Sky Diver and Time Magic tests as well as the GeekBench and Cinebench tests for the CPU.
The Sky Diver, Fire Strike and Time Spy evaluations failed to push it hard and you may hear the fan going — although not overly dumb to be deemed annoying, just enough so it’s definitely noticeable particularly once you don’t have your speakers or cans on. Still, it did swimmingly at 8,802 and 47,362, 20,729 points respectively.
It also scored with Chillblast’s Fusion Spectrum Ryzen 7, which features the octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 1800X and the exact same GPU. These results imply a whole lot, considering that these three are some of the very best in the market today.
Additionally, it ran using the War: Warhammer II benchmark that demonstrated how powerful its i7 8700K chip is. On this heavily CPU leaning match, which essentially controls hundreds of different”characters” and contains all these elements acting independently, it surpassed 60fps on ultra configurations and well over that at 146.6fps on the bottom.
We tested it. Though this is not the best-looking match or even the most CPU intensive, it is still worth noting that the R7 attain results at 110 fps on ultra with reasonable loading times and crisp textures.
On top of these, we played Doom, Call of Duty: World War II and Nier Automata, all of which it handled.
Final verdict
After we’re reviewing equipment there is a little guilt, albeit unnecessary, because nothing is perfect when we’re raving about a specific product. But you’d be hard-pressed hard to find fault.
This system is stunning out and in, not necessarily in gaming-type aesthetic–it doesn’t include all the bells and whistles of this Chillblast Fusion Spectrum or the Darth Vader matches Transformers look of this MSI Aegis 3 — but in its own power, functionality and expandability.
Aurora R7 boasts a more approachable look, made for gaming but not too aggressive to put off some buyers. It has also got a highly evolved inside design without having so much as a screwdriver, so you can add, switch and update components. Beyond that, this rig runs matches beautifully crisp textures, with no frame rate drops, and no latency issues even at the highest settings. And with components that are such, it’s also future-proof.
It’s not the gaming desktop. What it does offer is great value, and that is what matters more. Plus, if you’re really looking for a budget, there are configurations.
