Alienware R9 desktop
Is Alienware’s PC powerhouse a bright spot in the gaming hardware scene or just another flash in the pan?
“We tested the Aurora R9 with 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super, for a nicely balanced configuration that offers a lot of power without being too expensive.”
Alienware’s Aurora R9 was released earlier this year and while it’s taken a little while for us to cover it, this isn’t a reflection on how keen we’ve been to look at this machine.
The Aurora range from Alienware have traditionally been some of the most powerful pre-built PCs money can buy and the R9 is no different. The Aurora R9 utilises a 9th generation Intel Core i7-9700K, which is an unlocked CPU that can be easily tweaked using the Alienware Command Centre. This bundled software takes a lot of the complications out of overclocking and is a great solution for those wanting the power of a custom machine without having to jump through all the hoops to get one.
It isn’t just the CPU that can be controlled from Alienware Command Centre either, you also have the option to tweak GPU and RAM frequencies in a controlled environment that will reinstate earlier settings if any instability is detected.
We tested the Aurora R9 with 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super, for a nicely balanced configuration that offers a lot of power without being too expensive.
When running the PC using stock shipped settings the unit performed within the ballpark of what we expected, lining up with the mobile Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU running on an Aorus 17 with double the RAM. However the CPU never got above 67 degrees, so it was clear there was plenty left in the tank. A little tweaking in Alienware Command Centre and you could push between 5% and 30% more performance from general computing benchmarks.
Once overclocked we were able to get the Aurora R9’s i7 to match the performance of the top 10th Gen mobile processor (the i9-10980HK) in a number of benchmarks.
The unit performed nicely with the desktop 2070 Super delivering on games like Total War: Warhammer II and Ghost Recon: Wildlands comparable with a mobile GeForce RTX 2080 Super (Max-Q). The only outlier in this equation was a disappointing score of 40fps on the The Division
benchmark, about half what we generally get using a mobile 2080 Super Max-Q.
The Aurora R9 has actually been superseded by the Aurora R10 (using AMD parts), which isn’t available locally, and also the Alienware Aurora R11 which is basically the R9 with 10th generation CPUs. The Aurora R11 with equivalent specs as the one tested here costs $4,199, which is a reasonable price for the latest components configured to be overclockable out of the box. It’s definitely a more expensive process than building your own PC from scratch (or at least it can be), but the Aurora units have a more compact form factor than anything you could easily construct and they’ll save you a heap of time setting up software. If you want the best, but don’t want to have to build it yourself then this is a great option. JOEL BURGESS
A premium performance PC that makes overclocking easy if you don’t mind paying a little extra.