Alienware Aurora R13 Review 2024: Great Gaming PC

With AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs, Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake, and new high-end GPUs from both Nvidia and AMD on the horizon, now may not be the greatest time to purchase a new gaming PC. On the other hand, if you’ve been waiting years to acquire a gaming setup due to GPU availability concerns related to bitcoin mining and the plague, you might be weary of waiting.

And it appears that we will only see new graphics cards on the very high end ($900+) this year. Alienware’s Aurora R13 is an appealing, powerful alternative for individuals who are more concerned with acquiring a gaming rig today rather than waiting for competitively priced next-gen parts to become available.

Its main drawbacks include a 120 mm all-in-one cooling that, although adequate for gaming, struggles to manage intense CPU workloads on higher-end Alder Lake CPUs. Also, as we’ll explain later, our $3,450 MSRP review model was out of stock when we finished this review.

However, an RTX 3080 Ti model with otherwise identical specifications was selling for $90 less ($3,359). Check out our Alienware coupon codes to see if we can help you save some money.

Alienware Aurora R13 Specifications

Alienware Aurora R13 Review: Design

The Alienware Aurora R13 is a significant departure from the previous Intel-led Aurora machine’s visual design. The most noticeable features to this updated edition are a clear glass on the left-hand side that allows you to see inside the device itself. There’s a custom-built pump and radiator AIO water cooler, as well as the Alien head emblem itself over the CPU.

It’s a little detail, but there’s something to be said for the transparency that comes with having your hardware exposed in this fashion. Alienware gaming PCs have always had a love it or hate it design philosophy; you either like the rounded edges and shiny plastic chassis or you don’t.

To be completely honest, I’m not a great fan of the way this machine looks, but I do like the new adjustments made to its visual language this time around, which is a step in the right direction.

Alienware Aurora R13 Review: Gaming Performance

Because the Alienware Aurora R13 we received for review is outfitted with an Intel Core i9-12900K, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM, there’s almost no game that won’t be completely blown out of the water with this device. This gaming PC has no trouble playing any game on the market at 4K with all settings maxed up, and it should do so for quite some time.

We have it in our living room, next to our entertainment center, and we’ve been enjoying a little of gaming in our spare time. Games like Guardians of the Galaxy and Cyberpunk 2077 run like a dream here, especially when using technologies like DLSS and FSR.

And the standards mentioned to the right convey a similar narrative. The issues occur when you try to use this PC for anything other than gaming. We were in the middle of working with Alder Lake for the first time when we acquired this machine, so we opened up Blender to see what would happen. You can buy this gaming CPU from its official website.

Alienware Aurora R13 Review: Software

With the Aurora R13, Alienware provides nothing in the way of software cruft. There is some standard Windows 11 fluff, such as Spotify and Xbox, but even this is minimal. Aside from that, there’s the Alienware Command Center, which controls lighting, cooling, and monitoring while also acting as a game launcher.

Furthermore, the Killer app allows you to customize wired and wireless network controls and settings. Except for the Windows 11 Home OS, that’s all you get. The Aurora R13 is sold by Alienware with a one-year warranty. You may extend your coverage for an additional year for $149 and $100 every year beyond that at the time of purchase (up to 4 years).

Alienware Aurora R13 Review: Price and Availability

The R13 starts at $1,479.99, but our configuration costs nearly three times that: $4,679.99. It has a Core i9-12900K processor, 64GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPU, a 1TB SSD, and a 2TB HDD for that. A 750-watt power supply is also included, as is an Alienware liquid CPU cooling.

The system we have is the white Lunar Light type, however it is also available in a dark grey Dark Side of the Moon variety. The $1,479.99 entry-level model has a Core i5-12600K CPU, 8GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super GPU, and a 256GB SSD.

That’s still a good gaming setup, but it’s stretching it on all but the processor for the price; I’d expect more RAM and storage for approximately $1,500.

Conclusion

The Alienware Aurora R13’s RTX 3080 and Core i7-12900KF in our review setup aren’t the most recent pieces of silicon on the gaming PC block, but they still perform well – especially when it comes to gaming.

Those searching for a setup that can also serve as a video editing machine should look for a system that can accommodate a bigger 240 or 360 mm AIO cooler for today’s thermally demanding CPUs.

However, if you’re primarily interested in gaming and your other duties don’t require your CPU to run for several minutes or hours at a time, the Aurora R13 is a powerful, quiet-running.

FAQs

Is Alienware Aurora R13 a good computer?

Alienware’s Aurora R13 is a good-looking, powerful, and quiet gaming computer with a lot of USB ports on the front. We just wish it had a better way to cool the CPU for serious work.

Is Alienware Aurora R13 upgradable?

Dell’s newest top-of-the-line gaming PC is the Alienware Aurora R13. It has a stylish design with customizable RGB lighting and works with the latest Intel processors and Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. Its best feature is that it can be upgraded, since most of its parts can be swapped out without any tools.

Is the Alienware R13 loud?

We have to say that when the CPU is being tested or when we our playing a game, the Aurora R13 gets pretty loud. It’s not a high-pitched fan noise; it’s more of a heavy hum. But there’s no getting around the fact that you can hear it while working.