More gaming desktops are adopting minimalist, more mainstream looks, but not Dell: Its Alienware Aurora R15 (starts at $1,649.99; $4,099.99 as tested) appears to have beamed in from off-planet. Our high-end review model, packing an Intel Core i9-13900KF processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, is a smooth operator for 4K fragging, but you can also get this otherworldly tower in more affordable configurations. We like its broad appeal in that regard but feel its all-plastic case isn’t up to snuff at the high end, where competition like the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 have an edge in quality. Overall, we can’t fault Alienware’s performance and consider it a fine option for a plug-and-play midrange tower with a visual wow factor.

The Design: A Galaxy of Possibilities

Mistaking the Aurora R15 for any other desktop is impossible. This large, bulbous tower—measuring 20.1 by 8.8 by 20.8 inches (HWD) and weighing about 38 pounds—would be at home on the set of any sci-fi show. Dell introduced the “Legend 2.0” design in late 2021 with the Alienware Aurora R13; it’s largely unchanged for the technology refresh that is the Aurora R15.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The Aurora is chock full of design details, starting with the tower’s upward-angled chassis. (Maybe it’s preparing for blastoff?) Other aspects are functional, like the cylindrical top that’s really an air shroud and an airflow grate behind the clear front panel. Our unit has the Lunar Light color scheme, while black is standard.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Our unit also has Alienware’s optional magnetic rear cover to hide cables. Not even boutique desktop builders include something like that. Then, of course, you have the case lighting. The Aurora has up to eight RGB zones individually configurable in the AlienFX section of the Alienware Command Center app.

(Credit: Dell)

All told, the Aurora’s design and lighting make it one unique tower. Then again, it could also be polarizing; most of you will probably either love or hate its looks. I give Alienware a nod for its willingness to not be universally liked.

The Aurora faces a more objective challenge with its all-plastic case, which might work in its entry level configurations but is harder to sell when it costs as much as our review unit. The Corsair Vengeance i7400 and the aforementioned Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 use metal frames.

Connectivity and Upgradability Galore

Alienware’s plentiful connectivity starts on its front panel with a headset jack (headphone/microphone), three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (5Gbps), and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps). Three AlienFX lighting zones reside here: the power button, the ring, and the ambient surrounding light.

Around back, the Aurora’s motherboard backplane contains two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, four legacy USB 2.0 (the bottom two supporting smart power-on), one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps), and a Killer E3100 2.5Gbps Ethernet jack. Surround audio jacks and S/PDIF round it off.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Naturally, the antenna jacks are for the wireless card, a Killer AX1675x, which supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. It would have been better had the antenna been built into the chassis.

The GeForce RTX 4080 has the usual one HDMI and three DisplayPort video outputs. Below, the Aurora’s bottom-mounted power supply avoids the dangling power cord. On that note, don’t lose the cord that comes with this Alienware; it has a standard three-prong wall connector but a nonstandard plug at the power supply end, so you can’t just use any cord.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Accessing the Aurora’s interior is less straightforward than it could be. The left panel comes off after pulling a rear latch, though first you’ll need a screwdriver to loosen a screw that secures the latch. A Kensington lock slot is built into the latch.

The blacked-out interior looks aggressive and is well laid out with reasonably neat cable management. A warning label says not to use the Alienware lightbar spanning the top of the case as a handle.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Alienware’s Cryo-Tech CPU liquid cooler seen here has two lighting zones and a top-mounted 240mm radiator with two 120mm fans. You'll also find two 120mm front intake fans and a 120mm rear exhaust fan. The fans are noisy while gaming, audible clear across my living room. I’ve tested many quieter desktops.

Though most of you will never swap out the motherboard or power supply, take note both are proprietary: The 11-by-9-inch Intel Z790-based motherboard has a nonstandard extension at its top right, and the power supply isn’t ATX form factor. (The power supply is still removable, with directions printed inside the case.) Also, remember that the power cable is proprietary. Our model has the base 750-watt unit; a 1,350W model is a required upgrade only with the GeForce RTX 4090. Notably, Dell lets you order the 1,350W model with lower-end configurations, a plus if you’re planning future upgrades.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The Aurora is limited to just two DDR5 memory slots when high-end desktops typically have four, so it tops out at 64GB of RAM (two 32GB modules) instead of 128GB. Storage expansion is average, with two M.2 2280 motherboard slots and one toolless 3.5-inch bay. Our unit’s 1TB PCI Express 4.0 SSD doesn’t have a heatsink, but the area appears to get sufficient airflow.

Alienware covers the Aurora with a one-year warranty and premium support. It also comes with a basic USB keyboard and mouse. Its factory install of Windows 11 is nearly free of unwanted apps. The most important app is the mentioned Alienware Command Center that, besides controlling the AlienFX lighting, has processor overclocking controls for systems with Intel K-series Core chips.

(Credit: Dell)

This app has two overclocking presets for our model’s Core i9-13900KF, the first bumping it to 5.9GHz and the second 6GHz. (The chip normally maxes out at 5.8GHz.) As we found when reviewing the 6.0GHz Intel Core i9-13900KS, you simply cannot squeeze much more out of this chip, but Aurora models with the Intel Core i5-13600K or Core i7-13700K should have more headroom. You can also create your own overclocking profiles, and units that have uprated 5,200MHz memory also allow tweaking of memory settings. I’d nevertheless like to see Dell include 5,600MHz RAM, like Lenovo does on its Legion Tower 7i Gen 8.

Testing the Alienware Aurora R15: Stellar Power and Style

The Aurora R15 is a one size fits all model for Alienware, covering the entry-level with its $1,399.99 starting price and scaling even beyond our lofty $4,099.99 review model, which has an Intel Core i9-13900KF processor (24 cores supporting 32 threads and boosting to 5.8GHz), a GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, a 1TB SSD with Windows 11 Home, and a 1TB spinning hard drive.

Dell’s pricing is on the high side; the HP Omen 45L was $3,258 and Lenovo’s Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 $3,349 at review time. However, the Alienware’s premium could be negated with a sale; I saw our configuration drop to $3,799.99 and even saw a GeForce RTX 4090 model go for $3,599.99.

The base Aurora is also pricey, carrying only a Core i5-13400F and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050; I saw HP’s Omen 40L and Lenovo’s Legion 5i Tower with a Core i7 and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT for equivalent dosh. It also has just 8GB of RAM and a small 256GB SSD, but the ease of upgrading the Aurora means you could drop in your own memory and storage for potentially less than what Alienware charges.

The base Aurora also doesn’t look like our showy review unit, with its black case, solid plastic side panel, CPU air cooling, and just three RGB lighting zones. The clear side panel is $100, and the lunar light color is another $30. Basic CPU liquid cooling is a reasonable $50 (it’s required for K-series processors) while the RGB-infused Cryo-Tech version is an additional $50. Our unit’s rear cable cover is $50.

The competition we lined up for performance testing against the Aurora starts with the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 in a nearly identical configuration, the only other RTX 4080 tower in the group. The others, including the Corsair Vengeance i7400, the Falcon Northwest Talon, and the Origin Millennium 5000D, all pack the significantly more powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090.

On the CPU front, the Origin uses the 6.0GHz Core i9-13900KS, but as our review shows, that chip’s advantage over the standard K or integrated-graphics-less KF variants is practically insignificant. Falcon’s Talon employs the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 7950X for a little variety. (Alienware isn’t selling Team Red’s latest CPUs in the Aurora just yet.)

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We begin with UL’s PCMark 10, a benchmark that simulates real-world productivity and office workflows and generates an overall system performance score. It also includes a subtest for storage drives. The Aurora didn’t come out on top in either test but performed well overall, and just about tied its Legion rival. The scores from these towers are incredibly high next to the average PC.

Next are three CPU-focused tests. Higher scores are better in Maxon’s Cinebench R23, which renders a complex scene, and Geekbench 5.4 Pro by Primate Labs, which simulates popular apps from PDF rendering to speech recognition and machine learning. Meanwhile, lower times are better in our HandBrake 1.4 test, where we use the open-source app to transcode a 12-minute video from 4K to 1080p resolution.

The Aurora also scored competitively in our last productivity test, PugetBench for Photoshop by Puget Systems, which uses Photoshop version 22 to execute realistic photo-editing tasks, from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

Overall, Alienware's latest Aurora trailed the group, but the scores are so tightly bracketed that it’s hard to say one machine is definitively faster than another. However, the Aurora has a 240mm CPU liquid cooling solution whereas the Legion has a larger 360mm version, so perhaps the Legion scored better for thermal reasons.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

The most important tests for a gaming PC are, of course, related to graphics. We start with synthetic tests, specifically UL’s 3DMark lightweight Night Raid and the more demanding Time Spy. We also run the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5 to gauge OpenGL performance. The Aurora was a touch off the Legion’s pace but scored in line for its GeForce RTX 4080.

We also run real-world gaming tests using the built-in benchmarks from F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege representing simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooter games, respectively. We run all three games on Ultra quality, and we run through F1 2021 a second time with Nvidia's performance-enhancing DLSS technology enabled.

We again saw the Aurora nipping the Legion’s heels but not quite catching it, but you should have no doubt its GeForce RTX 4080 is a fearsome performer, especially at 4K. In fact, it’s hard to recommend spending the money for that card unless you’re going to play at that resolution. At this configuration, you should be able to play any AAA PC game at 4K for at least a few years.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Verdict: A Mainstream Cosmic Powerhouse

Dell’s Alienware Aurora R15 is a flashy mainstream tower with the performance to match its competition. Its alien-inspired design is next-level—albeit arguably over the top by 2023 standards, but we like Alienware’s willingness to stand out. We also appreciate that this tower is sold in budget-friendly configurations, so you don’t need a relative fortune to get in.

Upgradability is where the Aurora R15 is a little weak, but that won’t be an issue for most of you looking for a plug-and-play no-fuss tower. Alienware even backs the Aurora with premium support. Lenovo’s Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 remains our Editors' Choice pick for a high-end mainstream gaming tower for being a little more polished, but the Aurora R15 is still an inspired choice, especially if otherworldly looks top your list.