Review Alienware Aurora R13 Review: Alder Lake Alien

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
How on earth did this earn a 4 star verdict? Proprietary e-waste garbage, inadequate cooling, loses to its competitors in practically every benchmark, includes a nice Alienware tax to boot. How is "bursty" performance - i.e. can't maintain a boost clock due to thermal throttling, a positive? Nice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heat_Fan89 and artk2219
itsmedatguy said:
How on earth did this earn a 4 star verdict? Proprietary e-waste garbage, inadequate cooling, loses to its competitors in practically every benchmark, includes a nice Alienware tax to boot. How is "bursty" performance - i.e. can't maintain a boost clock due to thermal throttling, a positive? Nice.
Click to expand...
I'll go with number of stars it saw after getting beaten over the head with every benchmark?
 
  • Like
Reactions: itsmedatguy, artk2219, AgentBirdnest and 1 other person
The Core i5 / RTX 3050 combo might work for it, but looks like the GamersNexus review of the past versions of the system still apply. This looks like the Core i9 laptops that were slower than the Core i7 ones due to thermal throttling
 
  • Like
Reactions: artk2219
It needs to be the last hurrah for that case design and that 120mm AIO. This is garbage-tier implementation at that price. You're paying for performance you literally cannot access with that cooling setup,
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heat_Fan89 and artk2219
LolaGT said:
That it is a Dell, and that it comes from Dell.
That means don't go anywhere near it.
Click to expand...
On the consumer side you may have a point, on the business side they're a different company. Tons of documentation, full service manuals for every machine, the machines are basically all field serviceable, you can order basically any part as a replacement part, they're reliable, and their support is fast if there is an issue. I wouldn't go for anyone else as a business machine. Yes the power supplies arent always standard on every model, but its meant to be a business machine with warranty support, not a gaming rig, so as long as its in warranty or we can get spares its no big deal.

https://www.dell.com/support/manual...bb11d7-9820-47bb-afaa-48fa912314d9&lang=en-us

https://www.dell.com/support/manual...72a1dc-2703-4b2e-9478-b9ed593a224b&lang=en-us
 
Well, let's look on the bright side, at least it didn't come with one stick of RAM. The other main issues besides HEAT are all the proprietary parts that are used. The motherboard is proprietary and if you lose a USB port on the front panel, you'll need a new motherboard.

But it gets better because the PSU is also proprietary with its connectors and unique size. You better have an extended warranty because when the PSU fails and it will you are up a creek without a paddle, unless you find a PSU repair shop and wait for the repair.

The egregious part is the lack of heat spreaders on the memory sticks and Alienware wants up to consider their rigs for serious gaming.

Steve Burke summed it up best. He called them FAILienware.
 
  • Like
Reactions: artk2219
It puzzles me that new GPU and CPU get reviewed from day one of release while Alienware Desktop Gaming PC gets reviewed at the end of its life. What? Dell does not want to sell or is it Tomshardware being lazy ? I dont think that Dell, HP , Lenovo and others would refuse to send you a sample from day1 (IF you asked).
 
Reviews like this can really hurt average consumers.

I have first hand experience with R13, with 3080 + 12900k. I bought it 5 months ago, because I needed a new PC very fast for work, and Dell is shipping with their own 3080, so I could get it in a week. Last week I bought a new board, new house, new AIO and a new PSU. My i9 was throttling just from opening several tabs in Chrome at once, instantly reaching 100 deg. I decided to repaste the CPU after 2 months, and I was amazed I found completely dry paste on the CPU! It helped on my idle temps but I was throttling like 10 seconds later than before under use... (I bought with the Kryo cooler btw, 4600 USD in total at the time).

I had to replace the PSU because the fans started to make rattling noise after 3 months. They changed it for free, very fast, a technician came to my place.

I had build almost a completely new PC, because the mb is not reusable in other case, the case is not reusable with other boards (not to mention that it cannot take bigger radiators than 120mm), and the same goes to the PSU as well.

ONLY buy this PC with i5!!! But even then, you can find better deals, both performance and price wise then this crap.

Silent? It is the loudest PC I ever owned in my life, and I started in the 286 ages.

It's barely worths 2 stars, the LED was the only thing I actually liked.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: The Historical Fidelity
artk2219 said:
On the consumer side you may have a point, on the business side they're a different company. Tons of documentation, full service manuals for every machine, the machines are basically all field serviceable, you can order basically any part as a replacement part, they're reliable, and their support is fast if there is an issue. I wouldn't go for anyone else as a business machine. Yes the power supplies arent always standard on every model, but its meant to be a business machine with warranty support, not a gaming rig, so as long as its in warranty or we can get spares its no big deal.
Click to expand...

Or they could just use standard components and they would be just as "field serviceable" I mean, as a buisness does your IT tech need documentation telling you how to replace a GPU or flash a BIOS? Hopefully not. DELL/Alienware is in it for the $$$ and thats OK but don't try to pretend it's for our good.
 
newtechldtech said:
It puzzles me that new GPU and CPU get reviewed from day one of release while Alienware Desktop Gaming PC gets reviewed at the end of its life. What? Dell does not want to sell or is it Tomshardware being lazy ? I dont think that Dell, HP , Lenovo and others would refuse to send you a sample from day1 (IF you asked).
Click to expand...
Because Dell and Alienware has to find a way to overengineer every single thing for mindboggling anti consumer and anti usability standards while being told to rehuse whats left from 10 years ago in terms of cases.
 
funguseater said:
Or they could just use standard components and they would be just as "field serviceable" I mean, as a buisness does your IT tech need documentation telling you how to replace a GPU or flash a BIOS? Hopefully not. DELL/Alienware is in it for the $$$ and thats OK but don't try to pretend it's for our good.
Click to expand...
No you dont need it, but it helps to have if you have an issue. Can you tell me a better alternative? Because in scale its either going to be HP or Lenovo. Lenovo has done a decent job in recent years but their documentation and support arent quite as good, the machines are fine though. HP, ahhhh HP, hit or miss on the models, somewhat decent documentation, lousy support. They all do the same crap with custom power supplies and components so thats not a plus for any of them, dont get me wrong id love everyone to converge on standards, but they wont on most things. If I have to support hundreds of somethings, id rather they be something reliable, that i can get parts for, have decent support for, and have documentation for, even if the parts arent always standard. Its a different mind set from a standard gaming build, and honestly were mostly supporting laptops not desktops so its kind of a moot point since our models all use standard displays, batteries, ram, and storage, and if Dell does a weird thing that we dont like, then we dont buy it, easy as that. Someone tried to make a push for us to support XPS's instead of latitudes for our exec machines, that failed hard after about a year because they all had issues, the XPS, inspiron, vostro, and everyone elses consumer lines are just not built to the same standards as the corporate lines, theyre built to the lowest bidder because most people wont get the extended support and theyre pumping out millions, so if it dies after a year, its no longer their problem (yes this applies to ALL of the major OEM's). The business lines are built for 3 to 5 years of use atleast because those are the usual warranty periods, and they are meant to be supported during that whole time, thats the difference.
 
Last edited:
What the hell is with that price? The chip shortage is over. A 3080 doesn't cost $2,000 anymore.

The Corsair One i300 reviewed at the start of this year isn't $5,000 anymore. A Corsair One i300 comparable to this R13 is $3100, has a better CPU and RAM, and is properly cooled.
 
Last edited:
The Historical Fidelity said:
Yeah Alienware was an actual good high end boutique builder before dell bought them
Click to expand...

It was overpriced and looked ridiculous. I guess you could say that at least it performed well.

  • Capable gaming and bursty productivity performance
Click to expand...

That a very nice way to say that it throttle.

And to have been forced to use a few of these along the year (Alienware is the only way I can get RTX/GTX hardware for my work) I wouldn't say they're silent.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Heat_Fan89
If you want readers to believe you have integrity and dont publish reviews that are influenced (or even paid for) by mfg's then you really need to score better.
This Alienware performed worse than its competitors across the board, is built with proprietary parts, has a horrible design, and is expensive.
It should have had more like 2.5 stars.
 
  • Like
Reactions: peachpuff
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom