Alienware Gaming PC Desktop Aurora R7 - 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8700, 16GB DDR4 Memory, 2TB Hard Drive + 32GB Intel Optane, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X, Windows 10 64 bit

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I purchased this because I also have an R5 I purchased the year before and it is awesome. This R7 is lightning fast but the problem was the out-of-the box use of some pretty basic functions. The operating system will not shut down or put the system to sleep (learned this the first day and called Dell the next day). The front power button will also not put the system to sleep unless it is held in for a hard shut down. Called Dell and went through the hour+ long process of trying to diagnose the problem with this brand new machine which only had factory installed software. Unfortunately I now have to schedule an evening to reinstall the factory image with Dell support. Kind of a hassle. This has apparently been a recurring problem with R5s and R6s, though my R5 has never experienced this issue. UPDATE: So Dell technical support (in India) was absolutely horrible and are clearly not knowledgeable about this issue and the very, very simple solution which I found on the internet while on hold for an hour (run Windows Powershell as Administrator and simply type: powercfg -h off; then type: exit). So simple, but the technical support wanted to wipe my system and start from scratch, which probably would not have changed this setting anyway. Thumbs down for their technical support, but the system is really great.

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I have using this computer nearly 2 mouths, its really quick, quiet, and cool~ the computer is air-cooled. but the illustration of the advertisement shows a liquid cooling. I think the suppler should make it more clear, because the liquid cooling system may cost nearly 80$ if you want make an improvement. the supply power is 480W, if you want dual graphics, you have to change the power too. The design of this computer is cool, but the heat dissipation is very general. The air-cooled standby temperature is 60 degrees. If it is replaced with liquid cooling, it is 40 degrees. you cant say this is a very good performance. Lets talk about the advantages, this computer is very solid, although the shell is not metal, but there are steel plate support inside. The envelop ensures its quietness. The CPU of this computer is 8700, not 8700K. Less heat rejection also ensures stable system operation. 1070 graphics can do any job under 2K. and dont forget the nemv SSD，there is no jerry cut. consider at the price, the computer wont let you down. I think it is a good product.

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Well I was happy with the computer till last night. Bought the computer for my wife who is a photographer. She need a computer that was great for editing. It was doing its job perfectly. Then last night we lost power while the computer was running and once the power was restored the computer will not restart. It is running only in the safe mode because the boot drive was corrupted and can not fix itself. After a internet search I found this is not a fluke occurrence. I need to do some more troubleshooting but I hoping I dont have to replace the motherboard like some others had to do. I am very disappointed!!! I guess it is a Microsoft problem not a Dell issue but regardless the Alienware brand is the one that will take the hit.

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So glad I bought this. Im running Battlefield 4 on ultra at like 200 FPS. Same for Battlefield 1. Minecraft gets well over a thousand frames per second. And this machine is so fast for regular tasks like loading programs, etc. This is well worth the price I paid (I think $1300 or $1500?). I dont know much about computers but wanted to play pc games like Total War, Battlefield, etc. and this machine lets me do it all with great performance. I was wrestling with the idea of investing more money in the variation that has the 1080ti but I dont think there was a significant enough boost in performance in order to warrant the additional couple of hundred dollars for the upgrade, at least based on what Ive read online with performance reviews, etc. My next step for this machine is to get some VR games on it. I highly recommend this machine.

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Quiet, blazing fast, should last for years, so far I consider it well worth the price. I have it hooked to my HDTV (via HDMI) and my monitor(DVI to HDMI) so I can work on it if I need to and play games with it hooked to my 55 inch tv. Been playing prey, graphics are great on both. Im also a software developer, this handles Visual Studio development very easily. Strongly recommend!

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I got the 1080 with optane version and just set it up last night, so far so good. I have it hooked up to a 27" Dell 2k monitor with G-Sync. A monitor with G-Sync is an absolute must for this graphics card, and currently the one I got is on sale at bestbuy and is the cheapest on the market. Only tested two games so far: Arma 3 on ULTRA settings, was hovering at around 80 fps. Pretty good for a terribly optimized game. League of Legends (never looked so good lol) at max settings peaked at the beginning of the game at over 500 fps, and hovered in the mid 200s to 300s for the majority of the match. Some pros so far: >The case looks even better in person, and you can customize the lights. Hands down best looking AW case Ive seen, some of them can look really ridiculous. >Powerful. If it can handle a game as terribly optimized as Arma 3 on ULTRA, it can handle anything. >Alienware Command Center is definitely a neat tool to monitor your thermals, and manually adjust your fan profiles. >Although I havent done it yet, its very easy to take it apart to get at the internals. Ive seen videos of people doing it, and it requires no tools; just pop off the side and push a lever and youre looking at the motherboard. Only con Ive noticed so far: >Thermals. Seeing as this Amazon config is *NOT* running liquid cooling, you need to manually adjust the fan profiles to actually make a difference. They dont do too much at default settings. They are super loud, and it makes me a little nervous. I personally will be looking at liquid cooling options very soon. The verdict so far is that its a fantastic beast of a machine. I will update this review as I spend more time with it and notice any more pros/cons.

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A few things about the Alienware machine. I had an R4 before this, and my expectation was that the R7 would be as well designed as the R4. It is not. On my machine, the side panel does not stay closed, Small parts (a power cable inside the machine) seemed to be missing, and it seems a bit cheaper than the R4. That was a disappointment. Other small items, the DDR memory came in 2 8G modules, instead of one 16G module, which means you cannot upgrade memory to the full capacity without having to replace those two 8G modules (which adds cost). The dumbest design issue, is that the slots for additional hard drives are laptop sized! Meaning, I was hoping to swap out my old 3.5" harddrives from my R4, with family pictures and videos, but couldnt. I had to buy smaller capacity 2.5" hard drives. Which seems a pretty poor design and made converting to the new machine a real pain. All in all, I am fairly disappointed. I rarely post reviews, and am generally pretty easy to please, but this machine seems like Dell has cheapened the Alienware brand.

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Ran beautifully....for a month! Sent it to Amazon designated repair, Computer Care in Santa Clara CA. After a week, was informed the OS was corrupted; no visible data on the drive. Even though Id had it barely a month, and have a 3 year protection plan, they (Computer Care) wants $65 to install a new OS. Im POed. I bought it on Amazons Prime Day, its now $300 more. Amazon agreed to refund the $65 for the repair, which makes me feel a little better. Im just worried that if it crashed after only a month, did I get a lemon??

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11/15/update I spoke too soon. The evening of 11/13 computer crashed. Diagnostic...unable to repair computer at this time. Throwing in the towel!! Returned yesterday. 11/12/18 Up date...See my one star review below. The morning I was going to re-box and send back I thought what the hell...pushed start. This time the comp started & auto ran tests, connected to internet, dwl updates then restarted & ran configure... After comp. finished tests I restarted and held my breath....Eureka success!!! Go figure...had tried many times previous to no avail. Two crashes since and I was able to restart. Windows kernel problem. Im very happy w/the comp. So far running games on ultra setting...fantastic! Paired w/Asus VG278Q gaming monitor. 3DMark bench test very good. This grumpy ole vet is happy!!! Received today...10/24/20. After setting up windows etc., tried to install Steam app. Computer shut down. I restarted and message stated that comp. had been improperly shut down, than auto ran a diagnostic. Sign in window loaded, entered pin # than black screen! I gave up after a few tries...same result. Im very frustrated! Went on line w/old comp. I found out this is a common problem w/many solutions. Im too old ,74yr old DAV-Army, to spend hours of trouble shooting and changing settings. I want to spend my time playing open world games on Steam! Unfortunately I will have to return computer!

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Fourth non-recoverable crash in less than 6 weeks. Four hours on the phone with Dell and another crash after they got it up and running again. I am beyond frustrated. Amazon won’t take it back, Dell wjust wants to fix it, but it is unfixable! Nothing but problems since day one, $1,700 should get you a great machine, apparently it doesn’t. Don’t purchase this Dell machine, get a Mac.

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