It's been just two months since the launch of Alienware's compact Aurora R16 gaming desktop. Still, Alienware sees the need for a refresh. Upgraded configurations of the Aurora R16 go on sale October 17th and include the latest 14th Gen Intel CPUs, plus NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.
This isn't all that surprising. Even at launch, the original configurations of Aurora R16 were considered somewhat "mid-tier." They used 12th Gen and 13th Gen Intel Core processors, and the most expensive configuration only had an RTX 4070 GPU. Alienware withheld the RTX 4090 option in anticipation of Intel's 14th Gen CPUs, which were finally revealed on October 16th.
The upgraded Aurora R16 comes with a choice of Intel Core i7-14700KF or Core i9-14900KF processor. These are the unlocked "K" variants of Intel's 14th Gen processors and can be fine-tuned by the user for increased performance. Unfortunately, the 12th and 13th Gen configurations of Aurora R16 (which are still available) do not use unlocked CPUs.
On the graphics side of things, the most expensive configuration of Aurora R16 now includes an NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU with 24GB of GDDR6X memory. But Alienware offers plenty of GPU options, including the aforementioned RTX 4070 card. Those who want to save a ton of money can even buy the Aurora R16 with an RTX 3090 graphics card, which is perfectly capable of running modern games at modest settings.
As a gaming PC, the Aurora R16 is notable for its sleek design, customizable lighting, and thermal capabilities. This machine has a 40% smaller footprint than its predecessor, the Aurora R15, and it uses an advanced thermal system to provide next-gen performance with minimal throttling (it runs 7% cooler than the R15). Customers can even purchase the Aurora R16 with a liquid cooling system, and top-of-the-line configurations include 64GB of DDR5 XMP memory with 4TB of SSD storage. That said, RAM and storage are user-upgradeable.
Alienware will begin selling the upgraded configurations of Aurora R16 desktop on October 17th. If you want this system with a 14th Gen Intel Core processor, you will pay at least $2,200. Cheaper versions of the Aurora R16 start at $1,300.
Source: Dell