Alienware Aurora R11 review: A GeForce RTX 30-series beast
Our Verdict
The Alienware Aurora R11 packs powerful hardware in a distinctive chassis, although information technology'south loud, heavy and expensive.
For
- Powerful hardware
- Distinctive design
- Plentiful customization options
- Good for both gaming and productivity
Against
- Runs hot and loud
- Software needs piece of work
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Alienware Aurora R11 packs powerful hardware in a distinctive chassis, although information technology'south loud, heavy and expensive.
Pros
- +
Powerful hardware
- +
Distinctive design
- +
Plentiful customization options
- +
Good for both gaming and productivity
Cons
- -
Runs hot and loud
- -
Software needs work
Alienware Aurora R11 Review: Specs
Processor: Up to Intel Cadre i9-10900F
RAM: Up to 128 GB
Graphics Card: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
Storage: Up to two TB SSD + 2 TB HDD
Accessories: Dell Multimedia Keyboard, Dell Optical Mouse MS116AW
Ports: USB-A, USB-C, 3.5 mm audio, optical audio, DisplayPort, HDMI
Size: 19.0 x 17.0 ten 8.8 inches
Weight: 39 pounds
The Alienware Aurora R11 is ane of the nearly powerful pre-built gaming PCs you lot can purchase. Naturally, that likewise makes it one of the most expensive. Ever since the brand's inception, Alienware'south value suggestion has been articulate: Get a stylish, functional gaming PC correct out of the box, but exist set up to dish out a few thousand dollars for it.
The Aurora R11 is the latest evolution of that philosophy, and information technology's a pretty good machine. But exist aware that information technology requires a lot of coin and space, as well as some patience to deal with lackluster software.
While you can theoretically get the Aurora R11 for as piddling equally $one,110, you'll be saddled with an outdated GPU, relatively trivial RAM and an old-schoolhouse hard disk drive. More future-proof models of the R11 start at $2,440 and become up from there. Whether information technology's worth the premium depends on how much the Alienware make proper name means to y'all — and how much y'all need the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series right now.
In our tests, the Aurora R11 performed beautifully for both games and productivity, in spite of a few usability hiccups. If you like how the system looks and don't mind springing for the best hardware, the Alienware Aurora R11 may be one of the best gaming PCs — indeed, one of the all-time computers period — you tin can buy.
All the same, as of September 2021 Alienware discontinued the Aurora R11, and then you may take a hard time finding ane for a reasonable toll. Yous can bank check our best gaming PCs listing for some alternative, and there'south a new Alienware Aurora 2021 model in the works with a bigger, libation (literally) case and the latest components — then proceed an eye peeled for our review of that model once it becomes available.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Price and availability
The Alienware Aurora R11 is available right at present, although your preferred model may not be available for delivery right abroad. That's because these machines utilise Nvidia GeForce RTX thirty-series GPUs, which are in pretty brusk supply lately. At the fourth dimension of writing, shipping time is 2-3 weeks — which, absolutely, might be amend than trying to find the GPUs à la carte.
Pricewise, the Aurora R11 runs the gamut from $ane,110 all the way up to $5,000 — or more. I was able to configure a $5,120 system with an Intel Core i9-10900KF CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPU, 128 GB 3200 MHz RAM, 2 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD storage and a 1000W power supply.
At the accented other end of the spectrum, for $1,110, yous can get an Intel Cadre i5 10400F CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super GPU, 8 GB 2933 MHz RAM, 1 TB HDD storage and a 550W ability supply. Personally, I'chiliad not sure these specs are worth even the pocket-sized request price, merely you can also mix and friction match desired components to find some kind of affordable compromise.
Tom'southward Guide reviewed a high-end Aurora R11 model with an Intel Core i9 10900K CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPU, 64 GB RAM and 2 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD storage. This configuration would cost about $four,100, depending on your software and case options.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Design
One of the most striking aspects of the Alienware Aurora R11 is its physical design. Instead of a boxy rectangle, the Aurora R11 has an oval face up and a rounded chassis, somewhat like a flattened egg.
It'due south futuristic and distinctive, and makes a much ameliorate conversation slice than "hither's a blackness box total of parts."
Granted, this inventiveness comes at a cost (in addition to the monetary one). The Aurora R11 is a hefty machine, at 18.9 x 17.0 x eight.7 inches, and whopping 41 pounds.
This auto eats desk-bound space for breakfast — assuming your desk won't crack and splinter nether its weight. On the other mitt, if it lives on the floor, then you won't really get to appreciate its design.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Ports and upgradability
Because its hardware, it should come as no surprise that the Alienware Aurora R11 comes with a plethora of ports. On the front lone, you've got three USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and 3.five mm ports for discrete mic and audio.
On the back, you'll discover 10 more than USB-A ports, another USB-C port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio port, half dozen different 3.five mm sound inputs, and a handful of DisplayPorts and HDMI ports (depending on your GPU).
Generally speaking, it's a generous amount of ports, although I feel like having only two USB-C ports is non as forward-thinking as it could exist for a automobile that could very well last between five and ten years.
What's odd about the Aurora R11, though, is that for all of its girth and weight, in that location's non much room to maneuver when yous open information technology upwards. If you desire to upgrade the machine, y'all can slide off the side and back plates easily enough by manipulating a few switches.
But the interior is very cramped, and unless you lot desire to add a hard drive, or some more RAM, the parts may not play nicely with the PC'south curved chassis. Purchase the Aurora R11 with a CPU and GPU you similar, because odds are, you'll be stuck with both for a while.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Gaming performance
The Alienware Aurora R11 represents my first time using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 card, and the GPU was as impressive as I'd hoped. Coupled with the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor (with a 360 Hz refresh charge per unit — more on that shortly), the Aurora R11 played some of my favorite PC games more beautifully and fluidly than I'd e'er seen them before. Whether you desire to fuel ultra-high-framerate 1080p gaming, cinematic 4K gaming or something in-between, the Aurora R11 tin can support your setup.
I put the Aurora R11 to the test with Doom Eternal, Age of Empires Iii: Definitive Edition, Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy 14 — all of which can put demanding machines through its paces, if you turn the settings up high plenty. With 1080p resolution, frame rate capped at 360 fps and the rest of the settings turned upward as high equally they would go, I still got incredible results. Doom Eternal ran at more than 300 frames per 2nd, even during intense firefights; Final Fantasy XIV never dipped beneath near 150 fps, fifty-fifty when I was in a crowded city center, replete with other players.
We also benchmarked the Aurora R11 with a variety of games at 4K and Ultra settings. Assassin's Creed Valhalla reached 53 fps; Grand Theft Motorcar 5, 61 fps; and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 59 fps.
Contrast with the similarly powerful MSI MEG Trident X, which employed the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and it's not even a fair comparison. That motorcar earned 52 fps on Assassinator's Creed Odyssey (Valhalla was not yet available), 45 fps for GTA V and 44 fps for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The RTX 3090 represents a significant upgrade with noticeable gameplay benefits — although for the toll, nosotros suppose it had better provide top-notch visuals.
The Aurora R11 also fared well in terms of 1080p performance, reaching scores like 152 fps on GTA Five, and 136 fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The Trident X, for comparing, achieved 134 fps and 120 fps on those games, respectively.
Overall, the Aurora R11 is ane of the near powerful gaming machines we've always tested — only that's not really surprising, given the hardware that's gone into it. Whether it's worth $4,000 is a petty harder to quantify.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Overall performance
Equally you might imagine, the Alienware Aurora R11 is a productivity powerhouse. Between the PC's powerful hardware and a 360 Hz monitor, I found that even Windows appeared to run quicker and smoother than usual. I couldn't faze the machine with my everyday programs. Even with Microsoft Word, Slack, Discord, Steam, Spotify and a multimedia-tab-filled Chrome up and running simultaneously, I was hard-pressed to utilise more than near xv% of the system's retentivity; the CPU was even less bothered. Movies and TV stream without a hitch; music sounds great, provided you can supply high-quality headphones or speakers.
In terms of artificial benchmarks, the Aurora R11 also excelled, copying 5GB of files from a thumb drive in four.1 seconds, achieving a transfer charge per unit of one,243 MBps. Oddly, that's not quite up to the Trident X'southward standards, which achieved a transfer rate of 1,275 MBps, but information technology'due south close enough that you'd never be able to tell without a stopwatch.
On an older Geekbench 4.iii general performance examination, the Aurora R11 earned an impressive 41,822 score, compared to the Trident X's 40,378. A newer Geekbench five.iii test pegged the Aurora R11'south functioning at 11,143, simply nosotros don't yet have other systems against which to compare this. In a vacuum, at least, it's a very high score.
Still, there are some qualitative issues with the Aurora R11's performance. During everyday productivity tasks, the Aurora R11 runs a little warm and emits a tranquility fan hum. Merely during gaming, the machine essentially becomes a very loud space heater, blasting sound and heat beyond anything in its immediate vicinity.
Afterwards about 30 minutes gaming on the Aurora R11, I took off my sweatshirt and checked my thermostat to come across if I'd accidentally turned it up. Imagine my surprise when I came dorsum to my seat and discovered where the estrus was actually coming from the PC. The GPU can hit temperatures of 80 degrees Celsius later on prolonged use — within tolerable technical limits, only enough to warm up your firsthand surroundings.
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Software
If I have ane big criticism of the Alienware Aurora R11, information technology's the potentially prohibitive cost. Just if I accept a second criticism, it's the broken, unintuitive software. While the Aurora R11 doesn't come up with much "bloatware," per se, information technology does come with a suite of Alienware tools: Command Center, Digital Delivery, Updates and so forth.
When I showtime set up the Aurora R11, the figurer recommended that I run the built-in Dell SupportAssist software. The system ran a series of long, tedious tests — and the second it was done, pinged me with an urgent alert that it had been aught days since my terminal test; did I desire to run it again? I thought that perhaps updating the software would iron out the kinks, just no: After taking a whole afternoon to download nearly 400 MB worth of files, the organisation restarted and informed me that information technology had been zero days since my last scan, and I had to run ane again ASAP.
I somewhen turned off all the Alienware software and went through Windows Update instead. While Alienware's middle is in the right place, it's disappointing that its bespoke software provides a clunkier feel than the default Os. (You can use Alienware software to command some LED lights on the front of the PC, though, which can admittedly be very pretty.)
Alienware Aurora R11 review: Verdict
If nada else, the Alienware Aurora R11 is consistent. When we reviewed its predecessor, the Alienware Aurora R10, nosotros pointed out that the organisation provided excellent performance in a stylish and potentially very expensive package. The aforementioned is true here. I have a hard time recommending a $4,000 system to PC gamers — particularly when, with a little know-how, they could build something like for thousands of dollars less — but there's no reason why yous'd have to buy the verbal model we reviewed. You could customize a perfectly good Aurora R11 for $2,000 or then, and have a stylish, functional centerpiece for your gaming setup.
The system's physical design has some charms and some drawbacks, and the performance depends very much on how much you're willing to spend on parts. Simply generally speaking, Alienware'southward reputation for premium PC products is well-earned. The Aurora R11 could brand a sizable paring in your bank account, but you exercise, at to the lowest degree, get what you pay for.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/alienware-aurora-r11
Posted by: nettletonbuilithe.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Alienware Aurora R11 review: A GeForce RTX 30-series beast"
Post a Comment