Alienware’s new Aurora R16 desktop sheds gobs of plastic for a 40 p.c smaller construct

Alienware has clearly heard the feedback. Its prebuilt Aurora desktop PC wants work, significantly within the cooling division. So the brand new Alienware Aurora R16 is laser-focused on fixing that — to the purpose the corporate is basically ditching its trademark out-of-this-world look.

The brand new Aurora R16 has largely the identical fundamental metal chassis inside, with the identical 25.2 liters of area on your elements. However its boxy new design ditches a number of kilos of plastic to make the complete pc 40 p.c smaller in quantity — shrinking all the way in which down from 60.7 liters to 36 liters in complete. The objective of not being “impeded by plastics” was particularly for elevated airflow, Alienware instructed journalists.

The result’s “as much as” 10 p.c decrease CPU and 6 p.c decrease GPU temperatures, and a 20 p.c quieter system on common. It’s the quietest Aurora that the corporate has ever constructed, says long-time Alienware vet Eddy Goyanes.

The PC now pulls its air in by means of the “Stadium Loop”: massive looped vents on each side of the entrance of the rig, with a single 120mm consumption fan behind them. The window-side of the loop is roofed in 44 distinct LEDs for lighting, considered one of three RGB LED zones within the pc. (The 120mm rear exhuast fan and the alienhead brand within the entrance even have RGB LEDs inside; there’s additionally an optionally available 240mm liquid cooling radiator with twin 120mm followers up high. The opposite facet of the PC has no lighting.)

The facet of the chassis can also be lined in hexagonal vents, the entrance of which it expects to consumption air, whereas the rear ones exhaust it too — probably relying in your GPU.

The brand new R16 comes customary with Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E, a 500W 80+ Platinum energy provide and 12-phase voltage regulation, and two reminiscence slots and two M.2 SSD slots for as much as 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and as much as 8TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. You may match a 3.5mm spinning onerous drive in there as nicely. There’s additionally an optionally available 1000W energy provide relying in your CPU and GPU.

The 33.8 pound (most weight) chassis additionally has fairly a number of ports: simply round entrance is a USB-C port working at 10Gbps, three 5Gbps USB-A ports and a 3.5mm headset jack, and the rear provides a 20Gbps USB-C port, a 10Gbps USB-C port, two 5Gbps USB-A ports, and a pair of USB 2.0 ports in addition to 2.5Gbps ethernet and an array of audio out.

It’s obtainable immediately beginning at $1,750 in the USA (or $2300 CAD in Canada) with an air-cooled Core i7 13700F and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics. You gained’t get a lot larger within the GPU division for a bit: Asia and Europe can begin with a RTX 3050 or improve to a RTX 4080 in case you like, however in the USA the one different GPU possibility is the RTX 4070 Ti till later within the yr. A thirteenth Gen i9 13900F can also be obtainable, although, and the corporate says the R16 will grow to be its strongest desktop by the tip of the yr.

Additionally lacking from this new mannequin is correct upgradability: the ability provide and Z690 motherboard are nonetheless proprietary. Alienware lead Matt McGowen tells me that’s all the way down to focus and time: “It was extra environment friendly for us to maneuver ahead with this structure and iterate on that than it was for us to fully redesign the product.”

McGowan instructed journalists the workforce iterated across the previous-gen Alienware R15 to concentrate on area financial savings complexity, and airflow earlier than it doubtlessly considers upgradability for future fashions — however no guarantees. “We’ve clearly talked about how a lot upgradability we wish to have with this product given all the opposite benefits it offers,” he says.

The corporate’s additionally not commenting on whether or not it’ll supply an AMD model of the R16. “We’re taking a look at that for future roadmap however not commenting on that right now.”