Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC Evaluation

Introduction and Pricing

Earlier within the 12 months, we took the Aurora R15 for a spin with a top-of-the-line SKU that featured an Intel Core i9 13900KF, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 paired with 32GB of DDR5 and strong storage that includes each a 1TB NVMe and 7200RPM spinner from Seagate. The R16 doesn’t change this a lot, outdoors of the brand new chassis aesthetic, which opts for a extra streamlined design in comparison with the R15.

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That mentioned, our construct is printed above; this time, we went with a extra entry-level SKU that options the Intel Core i7 13700F, a 16-core providing that gives eight efficiency cores and eight effectivity cores. That is paired with 32GB of DDR5, 5600MHz modules in our machine. Graphics are equipped by NVIDIA, the GeForce RTX 4070 being the top-end mannequin at the moment obtainable. Storage for our machine consists of twin 1TB NVMe options, which may be configured a number of methods with drives as much as 4TB obtainable from Dell.

Growth features a single PCIe slot, which is occupied by the graphics card. There may be an M.2 Wi-Fi slot and two PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots for storage. Legacy gadgets, too, may be deployed with a prewired SATA tray. The rear I/O connectivity consists of 4 USB 2.0, two of which assist Good Energy. Moreover, there are two USB 3.2 Gen 1, one USB 3.2 Gen 2, and one Gen 2×2, each utilizing the type-C connector. Networking features a single RJ45 for the Killer E3100 Gigabit ethernet. Additionally, you will discover an antenna connection for the Intel Killer AX1675.

The MSRP of the Alienware Aurora R16, as configured, is available in at $1799.99.

The R16, BIOS and Software program

The System and BIOS

The Aurora R16 does away with the fairly fascinating “Alien” design of the R15 in favor of this extra mainstream aesthetic. This consists of the Alienware brand on the high, which can be the facility button, together with a number of USB ports tucked away within the cutout.

The aspect panel on this mannequin is plastic as a substitute of tempered glass, and the massive opening within the entrance of the chassis permits air to maneuver by means of the chassis, together with being an RGB level for Alienware.

The rear I/O consists of audio outputs on the high, adopted by twin USB 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1 in blue, and each Gen 2 ports utilizing Kind-C. On the backside, the RJ45 ethernet port and the WIFI antenna are mounted to the chassis.

Opening the aspect panel, we first notice the open design, although that’s rapidly diminished by how ugly the internals are with growing old blue plastics on all of the modular items and the 12VHPWR adapter getting used on the 4070 Ti. That is furthered once we dig additional into the system under.

Persevering with, the Aurora R16 does characteristic a superb quantity of storage growth with two NVME slots. We additionally took notice of the 2 DIMM design for the reminiscence. That mentioned, we have now a proprietary motherboard with little or no cooling for itself. The AIO itself is probably going customized however does nothing for the aesthetics of the machine.

A more in-depth have a look at the underside half of the internals reveals the 12vHPWR adapter used on the 4070 Ti regardless of having a good platinum-rated energy provide. Including to this, we have now extra of the ugly 1998 plastics getting used alongside modular fan shrouds made for servers, not gaming PCs.

Alienware did do a fairly good job inside the rear panel; all wires are tucked away very properly.

Final, we have now the system booted up above alongside an Alienware keyboard and mouse that work very properly with the system’s lighting.

BIOS

The BIOS is kind of easy, with the principle web page providing {hardware} info.

The superior menu does provide some configuration, together with RAID assist, ReBAR, and CPU configuration.

Subsequent, we have now the safety menu that features TPM and firmware management choices.

Boot settings may be seen above.

Software program

The software program for the Aurora R16 is Alienware Command Heart. As seen above, this features a dashboard exhibiting system useful resource utilization with a number of preset modes.

The efficiency tab goes additional into the presets for the system and permits for a customized setup for anybody desirous to tweak.

AlienFX means that you can configure the lighting of the system and any gadgets related, like keyboards and mice.

Titles will let you handle your video games from the app.

The system tab has a hyperlink to the Dolby app for the R16.

Cinebench, PCMark and AIDA64

Cinebench R23

Beginning with R23, the R16 picked up 1764 single-core and 18825 multi-core.

Crossmark

Crossmark completed with an general rating of 1881, with Creativity being very robust at practically 2300 factors.

AIDA64

AIDA64 gave us 82K learn, 77K write, and 75K copy. Latency was very excessive at 99.9ns.

PCMark

Diving into PCMark, the R16 picked up a rating of 12024.

UL Benchmarks and Charts

3DMark

CPU Profile began simply above 1000 factors at 1091. Sixteen threads landed at 10293.

3DMark Time Spy completed at 21129, the CPU pulling 14K itself, good for 200+FPS in BFV.

Working by means of Pace Approach, we have now a rating of 5503 for the R16.

Storage efficiency was not the very best. We landed a rating of 2624 with bandwidth at 453 MB/s.

Charts and Comparisons

Shifting into our charts, the R16 lands simply above the MG-1 we lately reviewed.

Crossmark general charts have the R16 slightly below the XPS 8960.

PCMark charts have the R16 simply above the MG-1 and a contact decrease than the 8960.

Digging deeper with PCMark, the workloads present the R16 doing fairly properly with Digital Content material and Gaming.

CPU Profile had the R16 as soon as once more a notch higher than our MG-1 construct.

Time Spy has the Aurora very near the Y60 from iBuyPower.

Pace Approach has the Aurora R16 beating the iBuyPower by just some factors and shutting in on the Origin.

Storage was not excellent with the R16, although it was higher than the R15 examined earlier within the 12 months.

Gaming did give us first rate numbers from the R16. 208 FPS at 1080p Excessive in Cyberpunk, whereas 1440p landed at 152 FPS.

Worth and Closing Ideas

Worth

Regardless of all of the miscues from Alienware, the R16 nonetheless holds a superb quantity of worth for its efficiency. Contemplating this efficiency and its value, we discovered it to match the MG-1 at 100%.

Closing Ideas

Having examined the Alienware R15 in the beginning of the 12 months, I actually had no thought Dell was planning to take a step backward with the R16. I will begin first with the chassis as a result of a considerable amount of the issues on this machine come from the growing old design that was clearly meant for servers with its modular fan shrouds and blue plastics, not gaming machines.

I will converse for each gamer on the market once I say, “players care what their machines appear to be”. Dell, although, clearly cares solely concerning the backside line, constantly reusing the identical steel chassis and dressing it up with new plastics. Final 12 months’s R15 was capable of get previous this due to its intriguing design, however the R16 does not. The plastics are less expensive in look and really feel, making them appear to be they have been 3D printed in-house.

This extends even additional to the proprietary motherboard, which does not even use any ATX requirements that we see on conventional motherboards, which in flip pushes it to the facility provide, which makes use of its personal proprietary energy connections. This is not good for players who wish to have management of their machine however as a substitute must continually rely upon Dell to maintain their machine operating.

So as to add a little bit of sunshine to this fairly darkish evaluate, the R16 is not all unhealthy. Dell does use a legit Intel socket on the R16, so with any hope, this machine may very well be upgradable. And so they additionally use normal DDR5 reminiscence slots, so a capability improve is probably going one thing you can do as properly.

Like I mentioned above, it is not all unhealthy for the R16. It performs properly sufficient to maintain up with different machines with the identical construct parts, just like the XPS 8960 we examined earlier within the 12 months or the iBuyPower Y60 we simply tried. Pricing, too, is kind of good for the Aurora R16. It beats the Maingear MG-1 Diamond by $500 and the iBuyPower Y60 with comparable parts by $400.