Alienware Aurora ALX

Posted by on Monday, 3 January, 2011 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Specifications

Processor: Intel Core i7-975 Extreme @ 3.33GHz
Memory: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM
Hard drive: 2 x 1000GB 7200RPM in RAID 0
Optical drive: Blu-ray read / DVD+/-RW combo drive
Sound: Integrated 7.1 audio
Video card: 2 x ATI Radeon HD5870 in CrossFire
Networking: Gigabit Ethernet
Power supply: 875 watts
Multi-zone AlienFX LED lighting system
Computer-controlled louvered fin venting setup
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dimensions: 16.77 x 25.39 x 9.84 inches (HxDxW)
Warranty: 1 year limited warranty

The base price for the Alienware Aurora ALX is $2299. In this configuration, however, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $4099.

Build and Design
I’ve always been conflicted when it comes to review units from over-the-top outlets such as Alienware. On one hand, it’s an exercise in what a desktop can be when unfettered from such shackles as low-quality components, considerations of space and, perhaps most importantly, budget. The new Alienware Aurora ALX is, in typical Alienware fashion, large, imposing and anything but subtle.

It used to be that Alienware’s desktop offerings were a mess of components, model names, numbers and styles. That’s all been changed and simplified. There are now two models in the desktop lineup: the Aurora and the Area-51. Alienware packaged a few luxury items together and called it the ALX option – think of it as the deluxe options package on a new car. Choosing the ALX version of the Aurora or the Area-51 gives you a water-cooled CPU, the option to have your processor factory overclocked and dual video cards in either SLI or CrossFire, depending on the brand.

The most striking difference between the two trim options, however, is what Alienware calls its new “Active Venting thermal system”. Whereas the case tops of the base Aurora and Area-51 PCs are flat with a few stylized venting holes, the ALX version have a series of louvered fins that can open and close under computer control depending on the ambient temperatures inside the case. Alienware claims that this feature can help control temperature in the case during extended gaming sessions. In practice, however, it really seems like more of a gimmick than anything useful. It definitely looks interesting – far more interesting than the standard flat case top – but it doesn’t seem to actually do very much.

The fins are just one new aspect of Alienware’s new desktops. The entire line, now reduced to these four systems, has undergone a significant redesign. For years now, Alienware’s signature look has been a stylized ‘Grey’ alien head and a retro-futuristic look that brought to mind a rocket ship made manifest in Art Deco design aesthetics. The new look, which stretches the entire breath of Alienware’s product lineup, ties together its desktops, notebooks, monitors and even keyboards and mice. The new style is aggressive and masculine, probably a smart marketing choice given the traditional target market for these systems. Smooth textures and rounded corners have been replaced with rough, high-quality plastics and sharper lines. The weight of these machines hasn’t changed, much, however – they’re still heavy.

Traditionally, the grey alien head logo has been front and center, serving as the power switch for the systems. That’s now gone, with a power switch located on top of the machine. The alien head now opens the front of the computer. Instead of having the over-engineered door that stuck out in the way clumsy legs, a panel slides slowly down inside the front of the computer. It’s a slick effect that brings to mind the automatic pocket doors found in sci-fi shows like Star Trek. The case door has thankfully been changed, too. One of the biggest pet peeves we found with prior Alienware desktops was the annoying door handle and door – relatively easy to pop open, but a pain to get shut and locked. The new systems use what looks like another fin set in the rear of the machine. To open it, all you do is lift up, and to close it, the door sets easily in place.

One thing that sets Alienware apart, even from other high-end computer manufacturers, is the degree and polish they put into their branding and identity. Even the inside of the machine doesn’t escape – in a good way – as faux-alien characters and artwork cover all of the plastic on the interior. There’s an alien head printed on the motherboard. The inside of the case door is imprinted with more alien artwork. The heat shields covering the graphics cards have it, too. While you might not open the machine too often, it’ll look good when you go. Alienware lights the inside of the case with a number of strategically-placed white LEDs. That’s not that strange, given the company’s penchant for drenching their desktops in every color of the rainbow. The cool factor comes in when you realize that the lights are on even when the computer is off. They’re lit up even when it’s unplugged! It makes sense considering that most users are only going to root around or make changes inside of their computer when the power is turned off.

Inputs and Expansion
Alienware moved the ports traditionally found on the front of the machine to the top, hidden by yet another fin-like hinged door. Back here there are two USB2.0 ports, a FireWire port and headphone and microphone jacks. I questioned Alienware as to the usability of this design choice, since most users, sitting in front and above their computer, will be forced to flounder helplessly around with their USB stick as they blindly try and fit it into a port. Their response was that it keeps the front of the machine nice and clean since instead of having trailing cords crossing all over the computer, they fall to either side out of everyone’s way. It’s true, it does keep the cords out of the way, but it’s still a bit annoying to use.

The rest of the inputs are naturally to the rear of the machine. There, you’ll find digital audio out in both optical and coaxial ports, six more USB2.0 ports as well as one each of FireWire and eSATA. There’s Gigabit Ethernet, line in and 7.1 analog audio out. On a desktop of this stature, integrated video is naturally nonexistent, but there are two discrete video cards to take up the slack. Since the new revision of ATI’s graphics cards (in this case, two ATI Radeon HD5870s) support their new multimonitor initiative known as Eyefinity, there are an abundance of video ports. You’ll be able to connect up to six different monitors to this desktop with two DVI ports, two HDMI ports and two DisplayPort ports.

Inside of the machine there’s some room for expansion, but not a lot. This system came with two hard drives, though there are four drive bays. One of the best parts of the new systems are just how finger-friendly they are. You really almost never need a screwdriver since everything involves clever clips and plugs. Hard drives slot into place with a small circuit board in back of each bay plugging into the SATA and power ports. Even the optical drive and related 5.25-inch drive bays are all thumb-driven.

There are six RAM slots available, which is inline with Intel’s Core i7 tri-channel memory limits; in this case three are full for six gigabytes of memory, leaving three more open for users to fill. There are two free PCI-e x1 slots in this machine but good luck using them; all the space is taken up by the huge dual graphics cards. Above the graphics cards is the water cooling CPU block and radiator with accompanying fans; below is the large power supply. Just like with the last revision of the desktops, the doors contain LEDs for Alienware’s AlienFX lighting system. Instead of putting a messy cord connecting the door to the machine, there are a series of metal contacts similar to what you’d find in a battery compartment. It works very well. Additionally, the rest of the cords in the case are managed within a plastic column in the center section of the machine.

Software
It’s worth taking a special mention out to talk about the bloatware on the machine. There was none. Similar to their recent Inspiron Zino HD launch, Dell seems to be taking something of a stand with respect to how bloatware impacts their PCs. It’s great. There are a few manufacturer-designed pieces of software that bear discussing. Alienware includes an application that controls the lighting, dynamic vent system and power plans (which has a special section for the lighting as well). As part of the thermal controls, you can let the computer decide when to raise and lower the fins on top (based on fan speed percentages) or lock them closed, halfway open, or fully open.

When it comes to lighting effects on a computer, users typically find themselves in one of two camps – love it or hate it. While I can’t say that I’m generally a fan of flashing computers with rainbow lights and blinking fans, Alienware deserves props for the high tech implementation of their system. There are eight different lighting regions to control, each of which can be off or one of nineteen different colors. Additionally, each region can be solid, pulsing, or morph between two separate colors. Everything is independent of each other so if you hate beautiful things, you can even have every region blinking different colors at different times. If you go into the advanced section of the control panel you can even set the lights to do different things depending on if the computer is awake, asleep, or experiencing system events like new email. Snazzy.

Performance
It’s almost unnecessary to discuss performance on a machine like this. The components are all pretty much top of the line – dual high-end graphics cards, high-end CPU. Two hard drives in RAID 0, six gigabytes of RAM. I don’t want to say it’s excessive, since there’s no doubt people out there who need the hardware, but it’s definitely a few standard deviations to the right of the bell curve.

While the storage is comprised of two traditional 7200RPM hard drives, the fact that Alienware arranged them in a RAID 0 configuration means that the overall throughput is still substantial. In fact, it surpassed some solid state drives. Granted, the latency is still comparable to traditional media, but the overall speed is nice. Since it is in RAID 0, however, it means that if one drive goes, so does all of your data. That means you’re at twice the risk of catastrophic data loss and need to be vigilant about backing things up.

Now, the clear purpose of this system, more than anything else, is gaming. We installed several recent games on the Aurora ALX, like Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Bioshock 2 and Aliens vs Predator. Unfortunately, I left the framerate scores on the review machine and sent it back to Alienware so we can’t provide specifics. I can, however, say that every game played with max settings at 1920×1200 with silky smooth gameplay, zero stuttering and very high framerates.

Keyboard and Mouse
Typically we skip over the keyboard and mouse that come included with most desktop systems since they’re generic and cheap, and most users will end up replacing them at some point. Not so with the Aurora ALX. Alienware sources out their peripheral manufacturing, at least at the high end, to Logitech.

The resultant products are Alienware style and Logitech quality, meaning most gamers should be pretty happy with the experience. They’re chunky and backlit and corded, so you won’t have to worry about batteries.

Power and Noise
I had some hopes that with the water cooling kit installed on the CPU that Alienware’s Aurora ALX would be, well, if not quiet exactly, then at least quieter than other offerings. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The best description of the sound that this desktop makes when under load is by comparing it to an oncoming tornado. That’s manageable, and some people, especially gamers, often don’t mind. It’s definitely worth pointing out, though.

It’s also no surprise that it uses a substantial amount of electricity to maintain its components. After all, its a high-end gaming system and that’s essentially standard practices these days. Still, Alienware packs in an 875 watt power supply, and it gets put to good use. At boot, the system draws up to 260W of electricity (in this configuration). Once the operating system is fully loaded and the machine is idling, the power draw drops down to 155W. Under average gaming use, we didn’t see the system rise above 340W. That just goes to show that it’s hard to stress these graphics cards with even today’s games since purposefully maxing out the graphics cards (as well as every other component in the machine) pushes power use up to a staggering 688 watts of electricity. For reference, if you were maxing this system out (let’s say by running tasks while using Folding@Home, or something, and you drew that amount of power, it would cost you an average of nine cents an hour to use. It doesn’t sound like too much, but it certainly adds up over time.

Conclusion
The Alienware Aurora ALX is an impressive piece of machinery. It represents a new face for Alienware and Dell by turning away from the style that’s been their signature look for the past several years in favor of a new, harder, more industrially-oriented design. The branding is spot on, accessing the internals has never been easier and upgrading your components doesn’t even require a screwdriver. It has well thought out lighting setups, no bloatware and a front door panel which, if you’re five (or me) is fun to open.

On the downside, however, this configuration costs over four thousand dollars. That is a staggering sum of money. It’s also Loud. You can definitely take steps to ameliorate that wallop, though, by getting the Aurora instead of the Aurora ALX, which means you lose out on the (admittedly gimmicky) active venting setup and water cooling, as well as the luxury keyboard and mouse. That’s not a bad trade-off for saving something like a thousand dollars right off the top, and you can save another thousand by not going with the extreme processor, which, when you stick with dual ATI 5870s, will have less of an impact on your gaming performance than you might think.

In the end, however, Alienware has crafted a good experience. The Aurora ALX is designed to play games and it manages to do that fantastically well. It’s not quiet, but it’s pretty and fun, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Pros