The brand had been synonymous with high-end, though strangeoften polarizing designs for a while now.
It was certainly unique, but it was also cumbersome and overly large for a mid-range tower.
Alienware says this new design is 40% smaller than the past Aurora R15.
The Alienware Aurora R16 is a big departure from past case designs, but it’s better off for it.Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo
Me, not as much.
I dont need to be bathed in a veritable rainbow to get in the gaming mood.
That totals out to $3,200 MSRP.
Its all housed on the custom Alienware-branded proprietary motherboard that supports the Intel Z690 chipset.
Mind you, that graphics card takes up the entire length and width of the case.
It also sported the 240 mm liquid cooling setup attached to the CPU housing.
Even under heavy load, the PC never became overly warm.
The side air vents dont register much heat, even under stress.
I registered the rear fan at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit max.
Theres essentially no room for additional components, thanks partly to the mounting bracket supporting the massive GPU.
Suffice it to say, its a nice-looking machine thats well-built.
Just because Alienware looks more standard doesnt mean the company has compromised on quality.
That said, theres no heat shielding around the RAM, SSD, or Wi-Fi chip.
The app also lets you change the AlienFX lighting per title.
What remains its biggest issue is the proprietary nature of the motherboard.
There are only two RAM slots, meaning that future memory upgrades require replacing both sticks.
you’re able to also upgrade the GPU and storage, but you wont be doing much else.
Really, with stats like these, you already know what framerates to expect from the most demanding titles.
Other games performed very well, easily topping 250 FPS on Halo Infinite and The Finals.
It beat expectations on the QHD monitor and could hold its own at 4K.
With a Core i9-14900KF, the CPU benchmarks were rather strong.
The i9-14900KF also blasted through a video encoding test using the program Handbrake.
Its a high-end PC, and it feels that way whether youre playing games or doing practically anything else.
I cant guarantee the PC is worth its starting $1,150 price.
So all thats left is looks.
But Im not going anywhere.
Update 02/24/24 at 7:32 a.m.
ET: This post was updated to correct the ownership of the Alienware brand.
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