Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC With Radical Redesign Available Now

The Alienware Aurora family has been among the best-selling gaming desktops on the market for a long time. These systems are particularly popular among those who just want to play games without having to fret too much about component selection or building their own rig. The mass market approach leverages parent company Dell’s tooling which has pros and cons to its approach. While it can keep costs low and maximize consistency, it has also made it more difficult for the lineup to adapt to emerging trends like the rising power limits of processors and graphics cards. The new Aurora R16 confronts these pain points head-on with its most radical redesign in years focused on airflow and maximizing the performance of high-end components.

The Aurora R16 is far more conventional in appearance but retains the essence of Alienware’s distinctive Legend styling. The new design sheds the plastic shell used in prior generations and the system is much smaller as a result. Alienware uses an RGB-lit oval motif called the Stadium Loop across many of its products, including laptops. The Aurora R16 uses the Stadium Loop to highlight the air intake on the side of its front panel. The rear exhaust fan and power button also receives the AlienFX lighting treatment, but the system is otherwise refreshingly light on RGB bling.


The interior of the Aurora R16 is otherwise nearly blacked out, including the motherboard PCB. A lot of the wiring is connected to the backside of the board to maintain a clean aesthetic. There are few light blue tabs are scattered about to indicate user-serviceable components and the edge of the steel chassis is unpainted, but neither should be particularly visible when the side panel is in place. That side panel appears to be very similar to the one found on the Aurora R15. The top section is transparent while the bottom third-or-so is perforated with an array of (now larger) hexagonal holes. These provide the GPU with additional fresh air, which is always welcome.

The Aurora R16’s internal volume is identical to the R15’s at 25.2 liters, but the external volume has been reduced from 60.7 liters to just 36 liters. This suggests the R16 is using approximately the same steel chassis that was at the core of its predecessors, but it will be able to breathe much easier. Alienware says the R16’s intake features a 54.5% better open ratio than the R15 and its exhaust has a 59.6% better open ratio. It didn’t elaborate on how exactly the open ratio is calculated, but the point remains that it should be a significant improvement. Using equivalent configurations to the R15, the Aurora R16 should be 20% quieter on average while keeping CPU temps 10% lower and GPU temps 6% lower (relative to 0°C).


Alienware is still using a custom motherboard for the Aurora R16. It features 12-phase voltage regulation, which is fairly standard. It may support some overclocking but won’t compare to high-end boards that regularly surpass 20 power phases for better stability under extreme conditions. It is a bit of a reminder that the Aurora R16 is intended for those who seek a “hassle-free” gaming experience that works out of the box with warranty and support options more so than tinkerers and hardware enthusiasts. Memory options are similarly limiting, topping out at 5600 MT/s DDR5, depending on the selected capacity. Alienware says it is not supporting memory overclocking at launch.


The Aurora R16 has limited configuration options to start. The base launch config features an Intel Raptor Lake Core i7-13700F processor with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ada Lovelace GPU, 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR5-5200 memory, a 1TB SSD, 1000W PSU, and liquid cooling for $1749 US or $2299 CAN. Additional configuration options will include:

• 12th and 13th Gen Intel Core Desktop Processors
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs (RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti at launch)
• Wi-Fi 6 or 6E and 2.5Gbps Ethernet
• Up to 64GB DDR5-5200 or 32 GB DDR5-5600 Memory
• Up to 8TB (2 x 4TB) of SSD Storage
• Optional 1TB HDD Expanded Storage
• 240mm AIO Liquid Cooling
• 80 Plus Platinum Rated Power Supply (500W or 1000W)
• Windows 11 Home with One Month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Included

As always, Alienware plans to introduce higher- and lower-tier configuration options throughout the Aurora R16’s lifecycle. The company says the R16 is planned to become its most powerful desktop by the end of the year, and it's current product page at Dell.com can be found here.

Alienware is hosting a livestream at 11am Eastern over on Twitch for those interested in learning more about the system in a live session.