Alienware Aurora R15 Gaming PC Review: Re-Designed For Peak Performance

We would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that Alienware's Aurora systems have been through their ups and downs in previous iterations, with noise and thermal performance weighing down what was otherwise a well-built, powerful PC Gaming desktop. However, with this latest version of the Alienware Aurora R15, Dell's gaming products group not only amped up the machine's thermal solution with a new, 2X larger 240mm heat exchanger, but also a total of five 120mm intake and exhaust fans. In addition, Dell has adopted Intel's 13th Gen Core series processors, with a Core i9-13900KF in our test rig, as well as NVIDIA's powerful GeForce RTX 40 series, in this case a burly GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card for tons of pixel pushing firepower. 

Find The Alienware Aurora R15 At Dell.com Starting @ $1399.99

Other top-line spec standouts are a 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD, 32GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM and a custom Intel Z690 chipset-based motherboard. Performance of the system could likely be improved some with higher speed memory. Intel's 13th Gen platform officially supports up to 5600MHz speeds, but Alienware needs to warranty the systems on a much larger scale versus boutique builders, for example, and high-speed DDR5 can be more temperamental than prior generations. Also on board is a custom, but beefy, 1350-Watt power supply feeding this beast and its GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

Getting under the hood of this alien spacecraft is as easy as pulling a lever on the back side of the machine and releasing that perforated plexiglass side panel...

This is the Alienware Aurora in its Lunar Light color, which has a nice satin white finish that contrasts well against the black accents of the front and side panels, for a striking but still understated appearance. Again, this is a mostly tool-less design and removing the machine's side panel is as easy as pulling on the latch you see above.

Once inside, we're treated to a well-organized layout that's much cleaner than previous gen models that relied on a swinging PSU cage to be pulled out of the way to get at the motherboard area and other primary components. The 1350-Watt custom Alienware PSU resides in the bottom of the chassis now in a more traditional configuration, though it is proprietary and not something you could service with a standard ATX power supply replacement.

Regardless, this is a minor quibble, since Alienware's new Platinum certified PSUs, which range from 750W to 1350W, are top-shelf components. Down here you can also see the 2.5-inch bulk storage HDD drive bay, though you can configure the system in a dual SSD setup as well, with its spare M.2 slot.

As you can see, the chassis configuration in general now is much more traditional, with enough area to accommodate the massive stance of a GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. That also has a 120mm fan and fan shroud directing cool air intake over the card itself. There's a cable guide that could use one more clip on it to keep the GPU power connector gathered a touch better, but you could easily tweak something in there yourself if you were in neat-freak mode.

The OEM version of Alienware's GeForce RTX 4090 GPU is supported by a spacer and GPU retention bracket at the bottom of the chassis that mounts to the edge of the PSU cage.

Then there's the Alienware Aurora R15's redesigned front panel IO and chassis shroud. This design has been present since at least the Aurora R13 series, and it has a perforated honeycomb insert that lets in a lot more cool air through the front of the chassis, but also provides good structural rigidity. Through the back panel IO (above on this page), you get a bunch more USB-A and Type-C ports, but none of which are Thunderbolt-equipped, which is a drawback, and only support up to 20Gbps. There are various USB-C and Type-A ports as well on the front panel, which max out at USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds (20Gbps) with Powershare.