Key Specifications
- Review Price: £2848.99
- Intel Core i9-9900K CPU
- 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 512GB M.2 SSD + 1TB SATA hard disk
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
- Windows 10
What is the Alienware Aurora R8?
The Alienware Aurora R8 represents Dell’s latest range of gaming desktops, and is aimed at those who aren’t prepared to build their own rig. With the option of 9th Gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia’s 20 Series graphics cards, you can bag yourself one of the most powerful consumer computers currently available.
Get one of the top-tier configurations and you’ll be able to play almost any PC game in 4K at 60fps, or even ogle the marvellous ray tracing with select titles such as Battlefield 5 and Metro Exodus. And if you’re not prepared to pay that much for a stonking rig, there are plenty of cheaper options (starting at £799) here that will still give you powerhouse performance.
Alienware has made sure this pre-built desktop is easy to upgrade so you can always bump up the specs at a later point if you want. Only one screw needs to be dislodged to open the whole thing up and swap in a new graphics card. It’s easy peasy. And if you’re still cagey about doing that, one year of warranty with onsite service comes bundled in as default, so you can have a Dell engineer come to your home to help solve any issues with your PC.
Alienware Aurora R8 – Design
While there are various specifications for the Alienware Aurora R8, the casing remains the same no matter which you plump for. The design is a modest affair. It’s not lavished with excessive lighting or over-the-top features, yet is stylish enough to easily be identifiable as a gaming PC.
Glowing blue streaks (that can be customised with various other colours and effects) and the Alienware logo give the Aurora R8 a cool sci-fi aesthetic. You wouldn’t blink an eye if you saw Kirk and Spock rocking these on the Starship Enterprise.
One of the greatest design accomplishments Alienware has achieved with the Aurora R8 is how it’s managed to fit on so many air vents without making the desktop ugly. There are vents on the front, left-hand side and top to ensure maximum airflow. You’ll find an exhaust fan up top, which quietly hums while dispelling heat. It does a fine job of it too, as I never noticed the Aurora R8 become notably hot.
Fancy upgrading your PC? Opening the thing up is simple enough for even the most inexperienced component tweakers. Prising the plastic panel off the side is pretty straightforward once you’ve taken out the screw, and then you simply have to undo a couple of latches and pull the PSU swing-arm to reveal all the lovely components hiding behind. The only difficulty I found was slotting the panel back in place afterwards, as cables have a habit of getting in the way.
The only component that would be an ordeal to replace is the processor, as you’d need to unscrew the fan and whip out your thermal paste. But with this configuration rocking an Intel Core i9-9900K , I see little reason why you’d want another processor anytime soon.
Every single model of the Aurora R8 shares identical port options. On the front you’ll find connections for headphone and microphone one USB 3.0 Type-C port and three standard USB 3.0 ports with two of those enabled for charging.
On the rear there’s a smorgasbord offering of ports including a whopping eight additional USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, a USB 3.1 Type-A and a Display Port. Then there’s also the typical trimming such as ports for Digital Output and Ethernet. Don’t worry if your rig isn’t close to a modem though, as the Aurora R8 boasts Wi-Fi, with two 5GHz signal amplifiers helping to significantly improve network performance over longer distances.
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