Alienware Aurora R15 Review | The celestial gaming powerhouse with a price to match

If the price is not an issue, the Aurora R15 is one of the best gaming desktops you can buy. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Alienware's Aurora R15 is a powerhouse machine that is built for enthusiasts who want no compromises on performance. With Intel's top of the line 13th Gen processors and Nvidia's high-end RTX 40-series GPUs, the Aurora R15 promises to do just that on paper.

But does it deliver? Read on to find out

Design and upgradability 

Alienware's pedigree in unique aesthetics extends to the Aurora R15, one look at the desktop and you will not mistake it for any other PC chassis. With a loud, oval-tinged design, the R15 looks like an other-worldly space-ship, with a weird front that is angled upwards making it look like its preparing for take-off.

The unique look of the chassis is complemented by customisable LED lighting to make it look even more alien and futuristic. The case has eight RGB zones you can customise using the Alienware Command Center app.

Dell is using the 'Legend 2.0' design language that it debuted back in 2021 with the Aurora R13, and it's largely similar, which is not a bad thing. Like the R13, the R15 is largely tool-less; meaning you will not have to fiddle around with nuts and bolts to get your hands on the internal components. The company also offers an optional transparent side-panel, and a magnetic cable cover to manage wires.

The design is also practical with the top doubling as an airflow grate for better thermals. Our unit also came equipped with two 120mm front intake fans and 120mm rear intake. The Alienware Cryo-Tech liquid cooling solution is top mounted and the radiator has two 120mm fans.

While Alienware claims that the chassis is quiet, the combination of intake fans all around make it loud enough to hear from across a small room.

Another problem is that while Alienware touts easy upgradability, the company still uses a non-standard motherboard and power supply unit (PSU) which means the machine will be outdated once Intel moves on to their next chipset. You are also limited to just two RAM slots.

On the whole, the Aurora R15 is a unique looking system, with a design language that makes it stand out among the more angular and sharper looking PCs.

The system comes with Windows 11 pre-loaded and covers an assortment of ports from USB 2.0 to Type-C along with display options like HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4. It is a handsome list of port options, both on the front and back and I never really had any problems with running out of space for my peripherals.

For ethernet, you get Intel's Killer RJ45 port along with support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

(Image: Moneycontrol)

Performance

The unit we received for review had Intel's 13th Gen Core i9-13900KF processor, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, 512GB of M.2 PCIe storage, and a secondary 1TB SATA hard drive.

With specifications like that, we already knew what to expect from the performance, and the Aurora R15 did not disappoint.

From Shadow of the Tomb Raider to Calisto Protocol and Cyberpunk 2077, there is nothing this system can't handle. We were seeing framerates in excess of 150 fps at 1080p, and easily in excess of 60 fps at 4K.

With Vsync, we were able to lock almost every game to smooth 60 fps barring Gotham Knights, which for some reason dropped frames at 4K. Performance across the board is spectacular, and if you have a 4K monitor handy, you're in for a treat.

Considering the RTX 4090 and DLSS 3, you should be theoretically able to push framerates even higher, but honestly, I never felt the need to turn on any kind of image upscaling technology for this beast of a machine.

Synthetic benchmarks like PCMark 10 and Cinebench also posted amazing scores.

Thermals for the device were surprisingly good too. In our testing, the Core-i9 13900KF peaked between 97 and 98 degrees during extended gaming sessions, while the RTX 4090 GPU barely broke a sweat, peaking at 84 degrees during benchmarks and testing.

Whether you are a gaming enthusiast or a professional, there is enough raw power here to handle the most demanding of tasks with relative ease.

On the software front, Alienware doesn't overload the machine with too much bloat, bundling only three pre-installed apps. My Alienware for warranty, SupportAssist for driver and BIOS updates, and importantly, the Alienware Command Center which lets you overclock your system, make game-specific optimisations and customise your LED lighting.

(Image: Moneycontrol)

Should you buy it? 

This is a difficult question to answer. At Rs. 5,39,990, the Alienware Aurora R15 will burn a serious hole in your pocket.

There is no denying the performance on offer here, from daily workflows to extended sessions of gaming, the R15 did not slow down once but at nearly Rs. 6 lakh, you start to question if the performance is worth it?

If you were to take the same specifications and assemble your own machine, you could undoubtedly do it for much cheaper. On the flip side, Alienware's strong design language makes a case for itself and it is positioned at people who do not want to go through the hassle of building a PC from scratch.

Then there is the question of upgradability. An assembled system is infinitely upgradable but that is not the case with the Aurora R15. Thanks to the proprietary motherboard and power supply unit, you could soon find yourself staring at a complete upgrade sooner rather than later.

The Aurora R15 makes sense for the gaming enthusiast that wants no compromise when it comes to raw performance. It is also perfect for professionals who want a beefy system for video editing, animation, or 3D modelling.

If the price is not an issue, the Aurora R15 is one of the best gaming desktops you can buy.