Final thoughts and rating
What can we take away from our time with Alienware's most advanced desktop to date? Well, we've learned that the Aurora R4 has a lot in common with previous Alienware PCs; it's every bit as eye-catching, but more to the point, it's still somewhat overpriced and a little underpowered.
Dell's base configuration, fetching £1,500, features a blisteringly-quick Intel processor and pairs it with a distinctly mid-range Radeon HD 6870 graphics card. In terms of hardware, you don't get the required amount of bang for buck, and that's made plainly evident by our review sample - which costs roughly £2,500 and still offers only 8GB of memory, no Blu-ray drive, and just a single graphics card.
The machine still packs a good deal of performance into a mid-tower frame, but it's easily out-performed by rival solutions that are cheaper and, as far as internal components are concerned, better equipped.
The ALX chassis is admittedly stunning, and there's a chance you'll never tire of its illumination or transforming vents, but look past the bling and you'll find that the Alienware Aurora R4 is more show, less substance.
Bottom line: The Aurora R4 is a quality PC that could be so much better.
The Good
ALX chassis is still lust-worthy
Strong all-round performance
Good CPU and GPU cooling
No bloatware
The Bad
Limited graphics options; no Radeon HD 7970 yet
Alienware brand continues to carry a hefty premium
HEXUS Rating
Dell Alienware Aurora R4
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Alienware Aurora R4 desktop PC is available to purchase from dell.com.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
