The $1,750 Aurora R16 gaming PC has a more boxy, streamlined design, which Alienware claims is smaller, quieter, and has more effective cooling.
Alienware’s latest mid-sized tower PC resembles a desktop computer far more than an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
Alienware has never shied away from outrageous, costly, and occasionally garish case designs. That said, Alienware is attempting something a bit different this year, as the latest in its Aurora mid-sized desktop PCs, the R16, now includes a boxier form that the firm claims decreases the tower’s footprint while also making it cooler and quieter.
Alienware’s mid-tower desktop PC brand has pushed the limits of tower cases with more out-of-this-world appearances. The Aurora line, with its “Legend 2” profile, had come to represent the pinnacle of this design philosophy. The case was tilted up like a cannon, with a big, floating LED oval eye in front.
The Aurora R16, in comparison, is significantly more limited and smaller than previous models. It is now 16.5 inches tall, as opposed to over-20 inches in previous incarnations. This “Legend 3” design has reverted to the old square shape in order to blend in with the other mid-sized towers.
Alienware’s previous case design angled the components and stood just over 20 inches tall.
There’s still the optional see-through plastic window to peer inside the machine’s guts, but it now looks more like a PC tower, with simply a single blazing LED “Stadium” lighting loop ringing the main vent on the case. There are more airflow vents on the side and top of the desktop, and Alienware claims it has improved cable management to boost airflow.
According to Alienware, this architecture has several additional advantages. According to the business, this “streamlined” current casing has a 40% lower total volume than the R15, allowing more users to put it under their desk. According to the business, the Aurora 16 should be 20% quieter and operate 6% cooler on the GPU than prior models.
In terms of actual components, the R16 supports Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 Series and either the 12th or 13th generation Intel processors. There are two RAM options: 64GB of 5200 MT/s DDR5 RAM or 32GB of 5600 MT/s DDR5 RAM. The system can be configured with up to 8 TB of SSD storage (through two 4 TB drives) and an additional 1TB of hard disk storage. And, in case you hadn’t guessed, this is a Windows 11 PC.
The case also has the new Commander Center 6 dashboard, which allows you to adjust the color of the lighting strip as well as monitor and customize the internal thermal profiles. Alienware has stated that it will release fresh GPU and CPU options for allegedly beefier cards in the future. Given that certain versions of the RTX 4090 are roughly 6.4 inches wide, that’s a lot of real estate for a case with a reported width of only 7.76 inches.
Dell will begin selling the Aurora R16 for $1,750 on Thursday. The system has a 13th generation Intel Core i7 processor and a GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. More models with varying price ranges are expected in the future.
