Alienware Aurora R14 Review: AMD Ryzen 9 5900 Edition
Duane Beckett
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Alienware is a well-known brand of gaming PC, and the latest, the Alienware Aurora R14 Ryzen Edition will set you back a whopping $2,400.
Whether you’re a PC Gamer or an Astrobiologist, there’s no situation the Alienware Aurora R14 cannot handle, effortlessly. It is able to run multiple simulations, play AAA games on Ultra, and plow through video editing tasks with ease. And this is what sets the Aurora R14 apart from the competition.
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Beyond its sleek and playful design, this is a beast – when maxed out. But is it worth the hefty price? Let’s have a look and find out!
Features Include:
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (12-Core CPU)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- Up to 128GB DDR4 at 3600 MHz
- Up to 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD
- Up to MediaTek MT7921 Wi-Fi 6
- VR Ready
Performance
- Our review unit of the Alienware Aurora R14 is a maxed-out configuration. It’s loaded up with 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB GDDR6X) graphics card. And we can confirm this combination, which cost close to $2,400, handles every game we have thrown at it. Pushing out ridiculous amounts of frames on AAA games, even on Ultra settings.
- We expected some dips when running 4K with all the graphics settings maxed out, but we’ve not seen a dip, even in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Death Stranding. Even Red Dead Redemption, which allegedly pushes RTX GPUs to the max, ran at 60 FPS without any hiccups.
- The Aurora R14 has powerful, yet quiet components, however, after an intensive gaming session, the cooling keeping all this hardware cool, gets noticeable. It doesn’t overpower headphones or earbuds, but if you’re playing without those, it will be audible, and could even be offputting, depending on how close you are sitting to the machine.
- As a former animator and video editor, we tested out the machine using Adobe’s Creative Suite and Maya. When it comes to handling 4k video and rendering, we experienced no slowdown, no delays, and exporting clips was rapid. Additionally, working in Maya was lightning fast, even when scrubbing through an animated textured scene.
- After a weekend of non-stop use, the only negative we could find in terms of performance was the fan sound. The Alienware Aurora R14 is second to none in terms of gaming and creative performance.
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Build Quality
- The Aurora R14 is flashy and futuristic. If it didn’t pack high-end performance, this would be comical, however, as it does pack a punch in performance, looking expensive on the outside is important. And when up close and personal with this computer, it definitely looks expensive.
- It has a carbon fiber design, with a deep striking red on its chassis and a conspicuous set of diamond-cut vents throughout. That said, the design definitely makes it look like it has power, again, an important aspect when paying big bucks for tech.
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Is It Worth Checking Out?
The Aurora R14 has greatly improved Alienware’s desktop family in every way. It has a beautiful design and its performance is out of this world.
Pros
- Insane performance in 4K gaming
- The maxed-out specs make it perfect for editing, animation, and no doubt simulations.
- Numerous ports for monitors and peripherals
Cons
- Fan noise is noticeable after heavy-use
Yes, the $2,400 price is pretty heavy, but what makes this PC premium is both the brand and the fact that you are paying more for PC parts which are in global shortage right now.
Overall, we are very impressed with this product. And considering the components it’s packing, even at $2,400, it’s Nerdable recommended. It really can handle everything (even VR).
Find out more about the Alienware Aurora R14 on Amazon now.