Alienware’s new Aurora R16 desktop sheds gobs of plastic for a 40 % smaller construct

Alienware has clearly heard the suggestions. Its prebuilt Aurora desktop PC wants work, significantly within the cooling division. So the brand new Alienware Aurora R16 is laser-focused on fixing that — to the purpose the corporate is essentially ditching its trademark out-of-this-world look.

The brand new Aurora R16 has largely the identical fundamental metal chassis inside, with the identical 25.2 liters of house to your elements. However its boxy new design ditches a number of kilos of plastic to make your entire laptop 40 % smaller in quantity — shrinking all the way in which down from 60.7 liters to 36 liters in complete.

The objective of not being “impeded by plastics” was particularly for elevated airflow, Alienware advised journalists.

The result’s “as much as” 10 % decrease CPU and 6 % decrease GPU temperatures, and a 20 % quieter system on common. It’s the quietest Aurora that the corporate has ever constructed, says long-time Alienware vet Eddy Goyanes.

The PC now pulls its air in by the “Stadium Loop”: giant looped vents on each side of the entrance of the rig, with a single 120mm consumption fan behind them. The window-side of the loop is roofed in 44 distinct LEDs for lighting, one among three RGB LED zones within the laptop. (The 120mm rear exhuast fan and the alienhead brand within the entrance even have RGB LEDs inside; there’s additionally an optionally available 240mm liquid cooling radiator with twin 120mm followers up high. The opposite facet of the PC has no lighting.)

The facet of the chassis can be lined in hexagonal vents, the entrance of which it expects to consumption air, whereas the rear ones exhaust it too — doubtless relying in your GPU.

The brand new R16 comes customary with Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E, a 500W 80+ Platinum energy provide and 12-phase voltage regulation, and two reminiscence slots and two M.2 SSD slots for as much as 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and as much as 8TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. (Aftermarket storage and reminiscence costs are at the moment at historic lows, by the by.)

You possibly can match a 3.5mm spinning exhausting drive in there as properly. There’s additionally an optionally available 1000W 80+ Platinum energy provide relying in your CPU and GPU.

The 33.8 pound (most weight) chassis additionally has fairly a couple of ports: simply round entrance is a USB-C port working at 10Gbps, three 5Gbps USB-A ports and a 3.5mm headset jack, and the rear gives a 20Gbps USB-C port, a 10Gbps USB-C port, two 5Gbps USB-A ports, and a pair of USB 2.0 ports in addition to 2.5Gbps ethernet and an array of audio out.

It’s accessible as we speak beginning at $1,750 in the USA (or $2300 CAD in Canada) with an air-cooled Core i7 13700F and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics. You gained’t get a lot greater within the GPU division for a bit: Asia and Europe can begin with a RTX 3050 or improve to a RTX 4080 for those who like, however in the USA the one different GPU possibility is the RTX 4070 Ti till later within the 12 months. A thirteenth Gen i9 13900F can be accessible, although, and the corporate says the R16 will change into its strongest desktop by the top of the 12 months.

Additionally lacking from this new mannequin is correct upgradability: the ability provide and Z690 motherboard are nonetheless proprietary. Alienware lead Matt McGowan tells me that’s all the way down to focus and time: “It was extra environment friendly for us to maneuver ahead with this structure and iterate on that than it was for us to fully redesign the product.”

McGowan advised journalists the group iterated across the previous-gen Alienware R15 to give attention to house financial savings, complexity, and airflow earlier than it probably considers upgradability for future fashions — however no guarantees there. “We’ve clearly talked about how a lot upgradability we wish to have with this product given all the opposite benefits it supplies,” he says.

The corporate’s additionally not commenting on whether or not it should supply an AMD model of the R16. “We’re that for future roadmap however not commenting on that right now.”