REVIEWS / DESKTOPS / DELL INDIA PVT LTD

Dell Alienware Aurora ALX: The Boss Of Gaming PCs

22 Oct, 2010, 6:11 pm IST | by Dushyant Khilnani | Desktops

Desktops


PRICE IN INDIA

300,000

TECH2 RATING

6.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

9.0

How we test

CONTACT

Dell India Pvt Ltd

 NA

 1800 425 4026 (Toll Free - BSNL & MTNL)

 www.dell.co.in

A known fact is that Dell’s Alienware series of gaming rigs are meant for serious gamers and enthusiasts. Not too long ago, we tested one of the most powerful machines, the Alienware Aurora gaming PC, which was quite powerful and offered very good gaming experience, click here to see the full review . However if you thought that the Aurora was fabulous, think again.


Design
Today we have with us an even more powerful variant, the Alienware Aurora ALX, yes, the one with motorized vents on top of the tower. Now, the design of this machine is almost identical to the previous Aurora gaming rig we tested, expect for the presence of active vents. The entire cabinet is plastic and black in color, except for the stylized translucent acrylic strip at either side that have LED lights behind them. Click here to read in detail about the design of this machine.


Features
Calling this machine feature-rich would be a sheer understatement, it’s too powerful to be called just a gaming rig. When it comes to gaming and performance machines, it’s the hardware that makes all the difference. Built around an Intel X58 chispet, the Aurora ALX is powered by an Intel Core i7 Extreme 980X processor, which has six cores, is clocked at 3.33 GHz and has 12 MB L3 cache.


With a hyperthreaded CPU running six cores and 12 threads simultaneously at 3.33 GHz, you can imagine the kind of performance this machine would offer. For the record, the Alienware Aurora ALX is by the far the most powerful machine we’ve tested till date, not only in terms of processing power but also the graphics.


Speaking of which, there are two ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards, in CrossFire, and each of them have 2 DVI ports, an HDMI and a display port. Now these cards, along with the rest of the hardware, seamlessly handle the most demanding games at maxed out settings. Before we start raving about how brilliant the gaming experience is, let’s first take a quick look at the rest of the hardware.


Equipped with a whopping 24 GB RAM (a very rare scenario) the machine has two 320 GB hard drives. The latter is something meager to have in such a powerful machine, as in they might as well could have thrown in atleast two 500 GB drives. Onward, on the front panel you’ll see a series of memory card readers for different formats and a Blu-ray combo drive, so if you’re connecting an HDTV to the machine, it could double up as an HTPC, a very expensive one of course.


At the back of the machine, the ports of the motherboard include 7 USB ports (out of which, one is USB3), an Ethernet jack, six audio jacks and optical out. The machine even has a Kensington lock slot, not that someone can easily just carry the machine. Finally the rig comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Ultimate.

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Tags:

Dell Alienware Gaming PC , gaming , PC games , Crysis Warhead

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Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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