Alienware Aurora ALX Desktop PC Review
Alienware was founded in the year 1996, and in the first decade of its existence, they created a reliable name for themselves in the market of enthusiasts. Irrespective of the consumer need of a high performance desktop, notebook or a HTPC, Alienware just were ready to offer something that was really capable. This power, when combined with their innovative futuristic and unique styling, they have galloped the discerning consumers. In the year 2006, Alienware went through a major make-over behind the scenes, when they became a part of the Dell Corporation. For the first three years of the changeover, the products were released by the two divisions that continued under the existing branding with Dell keeping its ‘XPS’ for its high end enthusiast products. This scenario changed in June when Alienware or Dell launched the M17x, which is their first co-developed machine.
In the following review, we will have a look at the latest of the Alienware and Dell’s co-developed desktop range, the Aurora ALX. It is stuffed with temperature sensing fins, inspiring branding, top of the range hardware and most significantly a cool sliding door, the Aurora ALX is definitely not for the weak heart, or the weak wallet. Is the new face of Alienware worth the price? Read on to find out.
Design:
Industrial:
Over the past couple of years, Alienware have been slowly redesigning their chassis. They have still retained some of the old style aspects of the machine such as the alien head. But, their laptops such as the M17x and the M15x now look more like some performance cars then a HE Geiger inspired device. With the Aurura systems, Alienware has called the design “industrial” and we have a feeling it is more like an art deco train. The exterior features the dramatic lines and matte black finish that we have come to expect, and every crack and crevice is filled with a light which, of course, can be changed to a colour of your choice, or even made to pulse and flash. In the fascia of the chassis, the alien head logo serves a couple of purposes; the first one is to release the optical drive cover which slides down slowly. The second use is to indicate that the power in on through the outline and eyes glowing.
Connectivity:
At the rear, you will be able to see the PSU, which is located at the bottom of the system, along with four additional card slots, two of which is used by a graphics card, a 12 cm exhaust fan and I/O ports. The ports on the Aurora ALX Gaming PC starts with an optical and coaxial out (Realtek 7.1), and it runs through 2 USB2.0, Firewire, eSATA, 2 USB 2.0 again, Giga Bit LAN, 2 USB 2.0 and lastly an analogue audio out. Along these ports, you will also find a small and almost invisible switch that switches on the rear lighting of the Aurora (we will discuss about this in detail later in the review). In the side view of the case, you will be able to clearly see the light up section of the chassis. This strip of lighting extends the entire length of the side and across the bottom of the front and round to an identical panel on the opposite side. On the internal view at the bottom right of the picture, it is possible to view the connector the powers the lights.
Optical drive:
There is nothing fancy about the optical drive front, it is just a standard 16 x DVD writer but the default configuration of the two hard drive in RAID 0 are present. The array has been split into few different partitions with the OS on one; recover on the other and a partition for the sake of quick access to support tools such as memory testing. You will find more impressive configuration options that allow you to change CPU to a 950 or 975, install an X-FI Titanium and even move to a dual 300GB VelociRaptor RAID 0 setup.
The fins:
The top edge of the Alienware Aurora ALX Desktop PC is split into seven sections. One section that is closest to the rear is used as a release mechanism for the side panels. The next five vents are the ones that open automatically when the power is turned ON and can be controlled by the Alienware software. The final section that is at the front of the chassis opens up manually in order to reveal two USB 2.0 connectors, front panel audio and Firewire. You will also be able to see the silver power button just above the ports.
Lighting:
As you can imagine, lighting is a huge part of Alienware’s system and the FX screen allows you to configure the 8 lighting zones. You get to do up to 25,600,000,000 lighting combination. What we have not mentioned yet is that, there are another set of lights in the system that are a little different to the norm. Alienware have named it as Internal Theater Lighting. You will find a selection of white LEDs positioned around the inside o the chassis and around the back panel connectors. These white LEDs have a power source that is independent of the main PSU. These lights will turn on under certain circumstances such as, opening the side of the case. This is an extra touch that is quite nice; probably the most impressive aspect of the lighting is that, when you unbox the system, you will be able to see it glowing through the cloth bag.
Peripherals:
Typically we skip over the keyboard and mouse that come included with most desktop systems since they are generic and cheap, and most users will end up replacing them at some point. Not so with the Aurora ALX. Alienware sources out their peripheral manufacturing, at least at the high end, to Logitech. The resultant products are Alienware style and Logitech quality, meaning most gamers should be pretty happy with the experience. They are chunky and backlit and corded, so you will not have to worry about batteries.
The package:
In the past, the Alienware desktops arrived in huge packages, some big enough to fit an adult in and this Aurora ALX is not an exception. The main reason for this kind of packaging is to protect the system as carefully as possible and they just go all out to make sure this is done. In between the main system and box is a cloth bag, plastic suspension or what is called as crumple brackets, a cardboard box, further plastic suspension blocks, a large cardboard box above the outer plastic layer and also a cardboard tray below then finally a large, thick outer cardboard box. It is very unlikely that couriers will be attempting to play football with this package, but in case it gets into any roughest transit, it has enough protection to get through. Inside the package is the Aurora ALX, with a bundle of extras. Some of the standard items include thorough manual, software CDs, DVI to VGA connector, stickers, a cap and a mouse mat.
Features:
Internal specs:
Now, let us move on to the internals of the Alienware Aurora ALX. Inside, the major components are sequestered into their own areas to improve airflow and heat dissipation, while the processor is chilled by a Cool-It water-cooling unit. By taking away the side of the casing, you will find gears within the computer, however, the view is blocked by a large plastic segment, which covers the 5.25 drive bays and across the graphics card prior to moving to the bottom of the case next to the 875w Dell labelled PSU. The horizontal section of the device folds out to provide way in to the PCIe slots if necessary. This is not the first time that we had seen this kind of cover; manufacturers like Cooler Master have made use of them in the earlier period arguing that they improve the tunnel airflow in the place of graphics card.
Basic specs:
The motherboard used in the Alienware Aurora ALX is Alienware labelled and has the identical set of features that we had seen on a majority of the other high end Intel boards. This one has support for the i7 900 series CPU range, together with the 975 Extreme and 6 triple channel memory slots that allow 1600MHz operation and a maximum population of 24GB. You also have RAID as an choice with the default configuration of the ALD model being 2 x 500GB Drives in RAID 0. Along with the primary 16x PCIe slot, the mATX motherboard also has a second 16x connector for SLI/Crossfire operation. In case you do not make use this, it is also possible for you to install an I x card in the slot below this.
Memory:
Alienware has kitted the system with a four core, eight threaded D0 i7- 920 CPU that runs at 2.66GHz. This is paired with 3 x 2GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 and the GPU provided is an ATI Radeon 5870 1GB that runs at 850MHz and 1200MHz memory. All of these products have got excellent reputation, so we are more than happy to find them here.
Wiring:
Alienware has also done the wiring in the Aurora with a great deal of caution, cable ties and clamps are used in the entire chassis and four drive bays in the ALX version have tool free installation with pre-wired docks. You will also find an 8cm fan placed between the drives for added airflow in this place. It is a very neat system and it means there are no hanging cables to be seen anywhere. The only way the drive bays could be made better is if they were hot-swappable.
Software:
As with all of the system in the Alienware range, the Aurora ALX Desktop Computer too is supplied with the Windows 7 Operating System. The default option provided for this model is the Home Premium 64 bit version and all of these updates are certified by Alienware and it will be installed before shipping. Dell seems to like MacAfee’s security suite, and so it comes in as no surprise that it has been provided as an option. The default option on the web configuration is “not-installed”, so most users will have the option to use their own, less bloated and resource hungry alternative. We really look forward to the day Dell offers Avast or Microsoft Security essentials, both of which are free, highly reliable and also offer a small resource footprint.
Software wise, you will also fins the usual selection of useful applications such as Flash player, Adoble Reader and power DVD. Though the latter should really be a Version 9, Alienware continues to use V8. As always, you will find a selection of Alienware utilities installed. The thermal controls allow you to view information from three temperature sensors, the CPU fan and control the speed of other fans. There is also another option that will allow you to control how far open the top vents are. There is Fusion software that allows you to select and configure power profiles for the system. Alienware also offers a keyboard and mouse software that allows you to configure the devices to match your specific requirements. Alienware use an American Megatrends BIOS on the Aurora ALX and while it is not quite as configurable as most high end desktop boards there are still plenty of options available such as CPU and memory voltage. There is even a profile to enable factory configured over clocking.
Performance:
High end:
We would even go to the extent of saying it is needless to review the performance of a gaming PC such as this one. All of its internals are at the top notch; some of them include the twin high end graphics cards, the high end processor, 6GB of RAM and two hard drives in RAID 0; we will not say that all these high-ends are too much. Because, there are a lot you would want that kind of hardware, however, there are still little departure from the usual. The storage includes a couple of conventional 7200rpm hard drives and considering that they have arranged in is a RAID 0 configuration is, the complete performance is quite sizeable. The good news is that, it even managed to beat a few solid state drives. We also have to accept that the latency still seems to be comparable to conventional media, but all round speed is acceptable. Again, one of the biggest disadvantages of RAID 0 is that, in case one of the drives get spoiled, you will end up losing all of your data. Hence, you are at two times the risk of losing your data, so be very careful to backup your data. As you know, the main purpose if the drive is gaming.
Cooling:
The Alienware actively cools the Northbridge and has a fan sitting above it creating airflow around the heat sinks. Located at the top of the chassis is a small daughter board, there are several small PCB’s in the system. These smaller boards control the enhanced lighting and features which are available on the ALX model. The main cooling in the device is offered by a modified version of Asetek’s latest liquid cooler, which is the same product which Corsair makes use of their impressive H50. It sports a 1700rmp fan with a 12cm aluminium radiator. The CPU cooling fan also acts as the system exhaust on the PLX PC.
Power:
It does not come in as a surprise that this PC makes use of a considerable amount of power to keep up all of its hardware. Again, it is a high end PC and this is kind of a standard practice nowadays. The manufacturer has included 875W power supply and Alienware has put it in to good use. While booting, this gaming PC will draw in 260watts of power and, as soon as the OS is completely loaded and when it is idle, the electricity consumption comes down to just 155W. At the period of average gaming, the computer will not go over 340 Watts. With today’s graphics heavy gaming, the power goes up to a staggering 68w. For instance, if you were maxing out on this system, it will cost you about 9c an hour. Though it does not seem like a lot, it will add up over time.
Warranty:
Computers, however convenient and useful, can cause a lot of headache if something is not working correctly. Dell’s site offers just about every type of help for troubleshooting problems with your Alienware Aurora gaming PC. You can also download drivers for your video card and order other hardware directly from their site. If you run into any problems within the first year of having the computer, simply send in your computer and they will get things working again. A three-year warranty is an option and might be a good choice since computers are not always predictable.
Verdict:
The Alienware Aurora ALX gaming machine is a very inspiring computing device. It puts on a new look for the manufacturer by doing something different from its signature style that it had been prevailing of a lot of years, which is more industry oriented style. The branding seems to be quite spot on and getting to the internals of the devices have not been easier. And, the best part is, you will not any screwdriver to upgrade the insides. The lighting is very well thought out, with no crapware. Moving on to the disadvantages, firstly this high-end machine will cost you a fortune. That is a staggering sum of money. It is also noisy. That is not a bad trade-off for saving something like a thousand bugs right off the top, and you can save another thousand by not going with the extreme processor, which, when you stick with dual ATI 5870s, will have less of an impact on your gaming performance than you might think.
Overall, the Alienware has crafted a good experience in this PC. The Aurora ALX is designed to play games and they manage to do that fantastically well. It is not quiet, but it is pretty and fun, and sometimes that is all you might need.
Alienware Aurora ALX Gaming Computer – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Dell |
| Model Name | Alienware Aurora ALX |
| PC Type | Gaming PC |
| Chassis Form Factor | Mid-Tower Chassis |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 426 x 250 x 645 mm |
| Weight | 20.41 Kg |
| Motherboard | AlienwareTM Approved Intel® X58 mATX Motherboard Socket 1366, Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple-Channel DDR3 Memory Support |
| Chipset | Intel® X58 Express Chipset w/ Unlocked BIOS for Overclocking |
| Processor Options | Intel CoreTM i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor Intel CoreTM i7 950 3.03GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor Intel CoreTM i7 975 3.33GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor Overclocked Intel CoreTM i7 975 3.60GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor |
| Cooling | AlienwareTM High-Performance Liquid Cooling |
| Video Card Options | Dual 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 240 – SLI® Enabled Dual 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260 192 Core- SLI® Enabled Single 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 |
| Supported Memory Options | 6GB Triple-Channel 1333MHz DDR3 24GB Dual Triple-Channel 1333MHz DDR3 6GB and 12GB Triple-Channel 1600MHz DDR3 |
| Supported Storage Options – Hard Drives | Up to 4 SATA2 3.0Gb/s Storage Drives 7,200RPM Hard Drives – 500GB,640GB,750GB 1TB, 2TB 10,000RPM Hard Drives – 300GB Solid State Drive Technology – 256GB Supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 1+0 Storage Configurations |
| Operating System Options | Internal High-Definition 7.1 Audio (Standard) Soundblaster X-FI Extreme Soundblaster X-FI Titanium |
| Network Adapters | Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet NIC (Standard) Killer Xeno Pro NIC |
| Wireless Connectivity | Internal 802.11 a/b/g/Draft-n Wireless LAN (Optional) |
| HDTV Tuners Options | Internal PCI-e Digital/Analog TV Tuner (Optional) |
| Memory Slots | 6x 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM Slots |
| PCI Slots | (2x) PCI-Express 2.0, PCI-e x16
(2x) PCI-e x1 |
| Front I/O Ports | (2x) High-Speed USB 2.0 (1x) Firewire IEEE 1394 (1x) Microphone In (1x) Headphone/Speaker Out |
| Rear I/O Ports | (1x) eSATA (1x) RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet (6x) High-Speed USB 2.0 (1x) Firewire IEEE 1394 (1x) Microphone In (1x) Line-In (1x) Front Left/Right Speakers (1x) Center Speaker (1x) Rear Left/Right Speakers (1x) Side Left/Right Speakers (1x) SPDIF Digital Output (TOSLINK) (1x) SPDIF Digital Output (Coax) |
| Warranty | 1 year hardware warranty In-home service after remote diagnosis |
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