Customer Ratings & Reviews

I've always wanted an AlienWare PC but the price always put them out of my reach, and it seemed like you were paying extra for the name. I already owned a decent gaming rig that I purchased while I worked at BBY. The only weak link it had was the graphics card that it came with... so here lately I'd been shopping around for a graphics card! LOL, talk about bad timing! with the crypto coin mining craze going on at the moment it was a losing battle. I was on the verge of giving up on PC gaming for a while and just get an XBOX-1X with the 12GB on board graphics card. So days away from totally giving up on gaming PC's for the foreseeable future, I found this gem, and it was on a good sale! (This PC is worth it on sale or not) When I initially found it I was in class attempting to buy one while I was supposed to be paying attention to the lecture. I was literally watching them sell out of every BBY... I was finally able to get my transaction to go through for a store pickup in Chicago (about 2 hrs away). Regardless I was happy that I'd reserved a unit, and was eager to make the drive to get it. The graphics card alone in this rig is selling for around 600 at the moment, I made a quick list of what I'd need to build an equivalent rig... and based on what the prices are on everything right now, this was at least 400 cheaper than a custom build! Even discounting the GPU to what it's supposed to sell for, and you still save at least 250 over building your own rig. And that's not taking into consideration that ANY rig you could build would not have an enclosure that is anywhere near as cool as the AlienWare R7 build. This PC just looks AWESOME, and not in an overstated way. BTW: when I was unsure of the availability and whether I'd get one or not, I went to their site on DELL to see if the manufacturer would pricematch? Dell wouldn't pricematch, which I thought was odd. But what was even odder... The price they had for the same model R7 was 200 more than BBY's regular price. BEST BUY ROCKS!!!!

I have had this Alienware Aurora R7 for a grand total of about 36 hours now and I have put this thing through an extensive battery of tests and I must say, I am pretty happy with this system overall. There are a few things that knock it down from 5-stars to something like 4-4.5 that I'll go into a bit later in the review but on the whole, the majority of gamers that want a performance beast right out of the box will be pretty happy with the Aurora R7. First off, there are a ton of features to the Aurora R7 that more than justify the price even when it is not on sale and if you are in the market for a new gaming rig (as I assume you are if you are reading this), you should pick this up if you can find it in stock. If it happens to be on sale (which I've seen a few times over the last month), you would be stupid not to jump on that deal. One of the features that I really appreciate about the R7 is it's ease of upgradability, not that you will need to upgrade it any time soon, but this is a friendly beast when it comes to tune-ups and tweaks. Remove one screw on the back, throw a couple of switches an the side pops right off. Swing the power unit out and you have access to pretty much everything. You can see the two pictures I have attached to appreciate the nice cabling and access to RAM, HD bays, and PCIe slot. About the only thing that is not as easy to access is the M.2 slot where the Optane memory drive is located, though that is more of a function of the video card getting in the way and even with that there, you still have room to slide it out of its slot. I have already thrown in a pretty speedy SSD into one of the additional slots for game/application installs and it couldn't have been easier. I'm debating about whether or not I want an SSD in the M.2 slot as well but so far the Optane has been doing it's job and has been running the 7200rpm hard drive pretty darn well. The Aurora boots up, shuts down, and opens virtually every program I've thrown at it faster than both my iMac and my Samsung laptop, both of which are completely solid state and are pretty snappy in their own right. The new Intel Optane system is doing exactly what they promised it would, giving SSD like speed to old style spinning hard drives. Another feature I appreciate about this computer is the wealth of connection. I don't see how anyone could run out of USB slots and if you do, you are doing something wrong my friend. In addition to the four on top of the computer (one being USB-C) you have like seven more on the back (including another USB-C). I also appreciate how quiet it is for a gaming computer. It is not as quiet as my iMac or laptop but then again, neither can run games in full HD with all the settings maxed like the Aurora. I can remember when the fans and hard drives of just regular computers, let alone gaming computers, sounded like small jets taking off right next to you. It does this all while still keeping everything relatively frosty for a computer. Even when I was pushing this computer pretty hard with Elite: Dangerous and X-Plane 11, this thing never pushed past 41 C at the CPU or 63 C at the GPU. I've also had this on top of my desk right near me and it didn't fry me out with the waste heat blowing on me. I've had computers before that turned my office into a sauna in no time flat. I used to have to open up my window in Wyoming during winter when I was doing some serious MechWarrior 2 gaming in the mid-90s (yeah, I'm old, so what). I've played several hours of both Elite: Dangerous, X-Plane 11, Everspace, Arma 3, and Pillars of Eternity and the Aurora hasn't even blinked at any of them. It just ate them up and spit out all the pretty pixels on the screen. That being said, it is only ever driving like 2K resolution on my monitor but I think it still looks lovely. So what don't I like about the Aurora? First-off, the bloatware is pretty bad. I'm buying a serious gaming rig and you are throwing on silly programs to play Facebook style games? Come-on, that is just silly. You may want to throw in the Alienware software in the category of bloatware but that would be a mistake. On many computers the 'utilities' they throw in are anything but useful but the tools that they give you here are actually pretty darn good. Still too much other junk though. I'm also not so crazy about how dusty this thing gets inside so quickly. I'm a neat freak and my house is spotless but it took no time at all for this thing to suck in a lot of dust already. Now that means it is moving a lot of air and keeping things nice and cool but I may have to see about finding some filters for this thing if I don't want to be cleaning it out every week. That being said, since it is so easy to crack open, it would not be a hard thing to do every week. The thing that really shaved off the fraction of the star on this thing was the fact that I seemed to have a problem with the installation of virtually every game I loaded on here. Every installation had to either be repaired or deleted and retried. I still have not nailed down what the problem is, but if I figure it out I'll add it in the comments section. Right now it is just one of those things that left a slightly sour taste in my mouth. I'm not going to blame it all on the computer though because there are a lot of things that could be to blame. Finally, I was less than impressed with the keyboard and mouse that ships with the computer. Granted, most gamers are probably going to go for some serious peripherals to go along with this beast but the keyboard and mouse were just sad. Again, they are probably only intended for you to plug in and get things set up before you get the chance to load up the drivers/software for some high-end mouse/keyboard combo. While it may have four stars above it is probably more like 4.25/4.5 stars, I just couldn't bring myself to give it the full 5. Those I tend to reserve for things that really blow my socks off, and while I am VERY happy with the Aurora, nothing blew my socks off. Perhaps that is because I'm expecting this thing to be a beast and it is while a lot of other products I have reviewed here on Best Buy have been more of a surprise. If you are looking for a well-priced and high performing gaming computer, look no further than the Alienware Aurora R7. Despite a few quibbles with it, I have been very pleased so far in its performance and have zero hesitation in recommending it to others.

Very good computer. Easy to upgrade. Fast, comes VR ready and is liquid cooled. Computer Updates are easier and much faster than any other computer I've owned. Graphics are phenomenal. But I do plan on buying one of the new RTX 2080 ti graphics cards. In the near future. The processor is very fast. But I plan on upgrading to an Intel i-9900k. Just personal preference. Can't go wrong with Alienware. Dreamed of owning an Alienware since I was a kid.

This computer is a dream come true. It is not 100% perfect but is extremely well rounded and great for expansion. I received it in the mail in a sturdy package. The packaging is fairly basic with just a white Alienware box inside, the computer, a keyboard, a mouse and some quick start documentation. There is not much else inside. The setup was easy. Connect power, connect the monitor, key board, mouse and press the cool alien shaped power button. The first start is rather slow, and the computer is sluggish at first as it installs all the updates. After this is all good to go your computer will quickly get extremely fast with the introduction of Optaine memory in conjunction with the hard drive. You really will notice near SSD speeds on most operations once you have opened up various programs and rebooted the computer a few times. It is like an extremely high-speed cache that is non-volatile, so it never has to reload. There is not much bloatware installed, just some Alienware software and your usual Microsoft apps. After toying around with it I tossed an extra SSD drive in it, there is room for two SSD drives but no room for a traditional 3.5-inch hard drive as the only slot for that is occupied by the C: drive. Every component is modular so replacing anything is extremely easy. There are tons of USB ports on the back and top including a USB-C connector. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how it would handle a 2nd Nvidia 1070 card. I tossed it in there, there is a perfect amount of space but the power supply will not handle this setup. The primary video card has a 8pin power connector, the 2nd video card only has a 6 pin so you will need to upgrade the power supply should you want two 8 pin connectors. If you are running video cards that need 6 pin you will have no issue. The build quality is top notch. All layouts internally and all external surfaces feel as if there is a lot of thought put into it. The computer runs rather cool and I could not get the GPU temperature to go above 75 degrees C, my old computer would routinely go up to 83 C so I am very impressed by the great airflow. The cables are all neatly arranged inside and do not restrict airflow. The m.2 slots are occupied with a Wi-Fi card and the Intel Optane memory. I was skeptical of this new storage at first but the more I used the computer, the faster it got, and it really feels like there is a 1tb SSD installed now. Just remember if you wanted to install a M.2 hard drive you would have to remove the optane storage. The i7 8700 processor is a beast and it is awesome watching a program like BOINC running 12 threats at the same time. It looks like it is water cooled and will run nice on anything you throw at it. The memory is occupied by a total of 16GB DDR4 sticks (2 8gb slots) so you will have two more slots available for expansion. Games run smooth as butter. I spent a good amount of time playing Overwatch, Xcom 2, Forza Horizon 3 and Call of Duty WWII at 1080P and it never ever dropped below 60fps. Most games would run in the 100fps range when vsync was turned off. The lighting effects are a nice touch but nothing required. The software is easy to use with lots of preset profiles but you can choose any combination of colors on the side panels and the Alienware logo you wish. My kid is obsessed with a yellow/blue/red layout. There is killer networking software installed as well if you have a router that supports it. Most people will probably upgrade their mouse and hard drive but just for your info the included base keyboard is pretty good quality with great travel and a nice clicky mechanical feel. The mouse is standard fare and will do the job. The compute screams of quality and value at the same time. It is almost perfect out of the box and there is plenty of expansion ability. If I would change anything whatsoever I would toss a little more storage in the (easy upgrade if you clone a new drive and replace it, just disable optane before and reenable after) and I would have included a slightly more powerful power supply for dual video purposes. Every other detail is outstanding. Go buy this computer!

This computer will satisfy the gaming newbies as well as the tech savvy users! I'm a technology nerd and enthusiast, I usually build my own computers except of course laptops but any desktops I like to customize myself with the specs I want. It's hard to believe Alienware was able to put almost everything a gamer and PC enthusiast would want. I'm using the R7 for gaming and as well as Video editing and it does a awesome job at both! I play games like Fortnite, GTA V, Doom 2016, Witcher 3, Crysis 3, and of course Overwatch. The R7 handle them all without a problem. They all ran smoothly at 60FPS all day on 1080p. The Intel optane module is basically Cache memory which is able to load the O/S and app faster. I think this is the way to go if you don't have an SSD or want intel's 3D XPoint performance. Alienware did a great job on offering this as an option. Usually computer companies will offer an small SSD paired with a large standard hard drive to speedup boot times and loading of the other software. If you're a video editor, you'll be pleased with the GTX1070, both Premiere Pro and After Effects can utilize CUDA GPU for faster rendering (make sure you enable it). I'm using the R7 for video editing as well as gaming, the optane memory and GTX 1070 is perfect for the rendering in both Premiere Pro and especially After Effects which with my other computer took quite a bit longer. In conclusion, the R7 is an awesome computer not just for gaming but also my video editing needs. The aesthetics of the case also looked great, I like that I can also program the RGB of the case. The CPU is also liquid cooled the fan is pretty quiet, this helps the CPU handle anything you can throw at it. I'm happy with what Alienware decided to use for Cooling and really happy to not really hear hardly a sound from the fans. I would highly recommend the R7 i7 8700k CPU, Optane memory, and the GTX1070 for anyone looking for a off the shelf performance.

Super fast processor. Never regret of buying a top of the line gaming computer! Boots fast no glitch!

Ok so I went to the dell website and built an Aurora R-7 with these exact same specs all the way down the the liquid cooled chassis....dell wanted over $1000 more and 2 weeks delivery. If you want an “upgradable” gaming pc with enough power to play and stream as well as much more all at the same time, then go buy this pc!!! If your a gamer you can find me on TTV just search for FromTheGrave Happy gaming

If you are a PC gamer and prefer not to build your own rigs, this Alienware model is a terrific choice. The I7 processor, coupled with the GTX1070 graphics card and 16GB of RAM ensure a top notch gaming experience. One of the best things about this rig was the lack of bloatware. There was NONE. I didn't have to spend 30 minutes removing unwanted apps and trial offers which was a very pleasant surprise. Thank you Dell/Alienware! Other companies need to follow suit with you guys! One drawback to this system is that it only comes with a 1TB hard drive. This will fill up quickly and you will find yourself deleting games frequently to make space for others. Thankfully, there is plenty of room for expansion to add as much additional storage that you would like. Alternately you can spend more for the 2TB Aurora rig. Games played incredibly well with fantastic frame rates even at the highest settings. If you are a hardcore gamer, you will be very pleased with this PC!

Alienware - Aurora R7 Desktop Setup/Testing/Conclusion Let me first start off by saying this… The Alienware Aurora R7 Desktop (with the specs listed below) is a beast! Every single game that I fed this gaming monster it ended up gobbling it up without any issues at all. You would be getting FPS in the range of 70 to 100+ depending on the game (tested on Ultra, 1080p). I tested games like Assassins Creed Origins, Battlefield 1, Crysis 3, Doom 3 (2016), GTA V, Star Wars Battlefront II, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and Witcher 3. If you’re wondering how Intel Optane did, I personally feel like it did what it’s intended to do. What do I mean by that? Well, it definitely speeds up your traditional mechanical HDD. Is it faster than an SSD? Depends. You can technically buy a really cheap SSD but the Intel Optane with an HDD would outperform it. While if you spend a fair amount of money to invest in a really fast SSD, the Intel Optane with an HDD might not be able to outperform it. The reason for the Intel Optane with a Mechanical HDD is to save on the cost for some individuals. Aesthetically in my opinion, the Alienware Aurora R7 Desktop is a thing of beauty. I personally like I size of the desktop itself and the simplicity of it. It’s not a full tower, more about a mid-sized tower. It’s pretty heavy though as it weighs in at about 33 lbs so don’t be fooled! Although it has a carrying handle on top, make sure you support it on the bottom when moving it around. Now, a lot of folks inquire about upgradability (when purchasing a pre-built gaming PC). I would say that you can upgrade this to a certain extent. I would say people either purchase a pre-built gaming PC for 2 reasons. One, it's sometimes cheaper due to things like Crypto Mining. Two, you buy it pre-built so that you don’t have to build it yourself and have it customized from wherever you’re buying it. I would say this… If you’re looking to always upgrade parts in your PC, custom building one is the way to go. Prior to the Aurora R7, I had a 10+ year old gaming PC that I just kept upgrading. I purchased a full tower case so it’d always be easy to take things out and put things in. I always knew what went in and always did the cable management myself, which made it a lot easier to upgrade. When you have a pre-built gaming PC, it gets a little bit more difficult IMO. I’m not saying it’s not possible, it’s just more difficult to upgrade. I just simply got tired of keeping up with the trend and cost with upgrading. So I turned to the Alienware Aurora R7. Let’s just say, I’m not disappointed with my decision. Oh and might I add, I added a 500GB SSD into the Aurora R7 without any issues and it was super simple. Like I said, it’s doable. Now for the con(s) of where I knock off a star. I would’ve given the Aurora R7 a 5 out of 5 but there’s somethings I wasn’t too fond of. One, I’m not sure if it’s with all Aurora R7s; but mine specifically has a weird noise coming from the front intake fan. I know it’s that fan because as soon as I gently stop it with my finger, that sound goes away. It’s either a coil whine or some sort of rattling. I may end up changing out that fan if I can’t take it in the near future. The second thing has to do with the sound the Aurora R7 makes. Now, coming from a Noctua DH14 CPU fan cooler to a water cooler, my expectations were that the Aurora R7 was going to be whisper quiet. During idle, it’s definitely not too bad. But as soon as you’re gaming, the PSU and the other fan(s) in the system get quite loud. Thankfully I have headphones with noise cancellation but my spouse next to me can hear it as well. This leads me to the last problem I have which relates to the fan noise, temperature(s). On idle, the i7 8700 sits around 30c which isn’t bad. On load, the i& 8700 got up to 75c. I guess that isn’t TOO bad, but I expected lower temps. I’m aware that Coffee Lake (i7 8700) runs quite hot but with an AIO (all-in-one) watercooler, I expected lower temps. Again this brings me back to my custom gaming rig. I ran an i5 3570k overclocked to a stable 4.4 on air and never really experienced high temps. The GTX 1070 FE (Founders Edition - Blower Style Fan) got quite hot too. On idle it sat around 30c but on load it got up to 80c. Again, this isn’t unsafe but it’s just higher than what I am used to. I came from a MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G video card which never reached above 60c. So a 20 degree difference is a lot for me. Overall, the Aurora R7 is a great gaming rig. It will handle any game you throw at it. To any gamer out there like me that doesn’t want to fully customize and build your PC yourself, pre-built custom gaming rigs are definitely the way to go. The Alienware Aurora R7 did not disappoint me and it played all the games I could possibly throw at it. Sure there were some gripes I had about it which is listed right above this paragraph, but overall; I would definitely recommend the Aurora R7 to friends, family, and co-workers. Oh and one last thing… Dell/Alienware, let’s get some filters on this beast! This way when it comes time to clean it, it’s a lot easier and less dust gets into this beauty. Specs 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8700 (3.2GHz up to 4.6 GHz Max Turbo Frequency. Intel Optane Memory Supported with Intel UHD Graphics 630) *Intel 300 Series Chipset* 16GB DDR4 2666 MHz Memory (2x8) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5) 16GB Intel Optane Memory Module PCIe M.2 80mm 1TB HDD 7200RPM Killer Wireless AC 1535 DVD/CD Burner Windows 10 Home Edition (64 Bit) 7 SuperSpeed 10Gbs USB 3.1 Ports 6 USB 2.0 Ports Bluetooth 4.1 What's in the box? Alienware Aurora R7 Desktop Alienware Keyboard & Mouse Quick Start Guide Warranty, Safety, and Regulatory Information

Let's get this out of the way: this computer is a beast. It looks great, can handle pretty much anything you throw at it, and it's all in a package that's mid-tower size. The ONLY drawback (and it is a big one) is the upfront cost. It also looks like BB somehow upped the price to $1599 instead of $1499, so factor that into the decision. All in all though, this computer is rigged up for the now and the future, with the only real upgrade needed is the RAM (for content creators out there.) As it stands, out of the box it's a heavy tower (at about 30lbs), but the size will make you believe it's lighter. Coming with the Intel Optane drive, some may think it's just a gimmick but I found startup and sleep resume speeds to be really good. The 1TB HD is small, but easily up-gradable. Inside the tower itself you have small room to work with, though I doubt you'll need it. It does have an extra 3.5" slot out of the gate, as well as other bays, for upgrading the storage ASAP. Cable management is good, and the everything is kept very tight due to an innovative swinging arm to hold the PSU in to place inside. Everything is accessible, and I've already thrown in another 16GB of RAM to bump the total to 32GB (using Adobe After Effects with only 16GB is slightly limiting.) Moving on to the big hardware, the new i7 8th gen processors are powerful. Unless you're really keen on OC your machine (really, you won't need to with this as Turbo Boost can push it to over 4GHz), the 8700 will handle pretty much anything you throw at it without hesitating. The liquid cooling also keeps temps down over long periods, and the whole tower is SILENT; quietest computer I've ever owned and it's not even close. The GTX 1070 is a stock, OEM MSI Aero design, meaning that it doesn't have green glowing NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX on it, and doesn't look as cool, but performs better overall and runs quieter. The GTX 1070 will be able to run most games at 1440p 50fps+, which is perfect for my tastes. Most I've thrown at it (Kingdom Come Deliverance, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Metro series, etc) all handle at 55fps on very high. Essentially, the GPU will bottleneck the processor here, not the other way around. There is room in the case to throw in another card if needed. The stock keyboard and mouse and pretty bad, but more than likely those will already be on your wish list of immediate upgrades. Overall, a really good prebuilt machine. Sure, it's a little bit spendy, and in that case watch for the sales. The AlienFX lights look great, and they're not overbearing. This handled everything I threw at it, without fail, and I've been benchmarking it for the past two weeks to make sure nothing was failing/money was worth it. If you're looking to get into PC gaming, or heavy content creation, this is a perfect way to do it. Alienware and Dell hit this new Aurora out of the park. Find it on sale and you're good to go.

I drove 60 miles to pick up this PC after debating all night, and finally biting the bullet to jump on it. I placed my in store pickup order late at night, and grabbed it the following evening. At the time, Best Buy had a pretty decent discount going for this machine, which definitely swayed my decision. It's been a long time since I've bought a pre-built PC. With what the market is these days for videocards, going for anything modern while trying to build your own is a terrible value, because GPU prices are ridiculous right now. So I decided I would give this machine a shot. I've been pleasantly surprised. My initial impressions when I opened the box was that this machine was quite heavy for it's size. It's a little smaller than most mid-sized PC cases, but it's a pretty densely packed machine. This isn't a bad thing, they did a good job of packing a lot of hardware into a smaller chassis, and accessing all the hardware on the inside is pretty easy. If you pop off the cover, the first thing you'll discover is the power supply. Pop the two tabs on the rear, and the powersupply slides out of place to allow access to the internals. The design of the case is to allow mostly tool-less upgrades. This is a benefit, as one of the first things I did, before I even initially booted the machine, was to plop in some upgrades. This machine has a 1tb HDD, with a 16gb Intel Optane card. While not a bad setup, I had the budget to go ahead and throw some extra upgrades in. I picked up an M.2 Samsung 250gb SSD while I was at Best Buy, and a 5tb Toshiba drive from another vendor that sells books or something located in a jungle. No beef with Best Buy, but I can't drive to the store at 2am. Got the space upgrades out of the way pretty quickly, and then it was time to reinstall Windows. Since this is a Dell machine, I popped the service tag into their website, downloaded a program, which produced a Windows 10 install on a Thumbdrive in about 20 minutes. The install obviously took no time at all, and it's just the standard far of installing Windows. No surprises or anything, but I was completely impressed by a total lack of bloatware with the OEM version from Dell. Bloatware is one of the biggest concern with going prebuilt, but no issues here. I ran through the rest of the process obviously, started installing some games, and running some benchmarks. I was blown away, this thing is quite the upgrade from my 3rd gen i7 with a 960ti videocard I maxed out GTAV, and ran a few benchmarks at 1080p (new monitor will be soon). The game ran fantastic, and the framerate barely dipped below 60fps. I also ran a few benchmarks with 3DMark, and found myself extremely happy with the results, as the numbers were quite good. Long term, I'm feeling extremely confident in this machine, and it's abilities. The price was good, as current the FE 1070 nVidia GPU is going for about 3/4 the price for the entire computer. I hope that this review comes across as unbiased. The deal was fantastic from Best Buy, I ran the numbers myself to see if it would even be possible to build the same computer with the absolute cheapest of hardware, using the same CPU/GPU combination, and everything I came up with was still $300 higher than the store price. if you have a ton of data, and a vast gaming library, I would recommend tossing the 16gb Intel Optane card, and the included 1tb HDD, and going with something larger. I've seen the question come up a lot, to answer them real quick, the computer does have 2 PCI-E x16 slots, one occupied by the videocard. 1 M.2 slot for SSD upgrades. 1 3.5" spot for a full sized HDD, and 2 2.5" spots for further drive expansion. The CPU in this model is cooled by a liquid cooled system, and the nVidia 1070 used in this machine is a de-badged nVidia 1070 founds edition graphics card. The factory installed 16gb ram occupies 2 slots, and there are 2 free slots for upgrades. It has a ludicrous amount of USB ports as well, but no build in SD card reader which would have been cool. Everything is super easy to access, almost Apple Mac Pro level accessibility. Once you remove the shipping screw from the case, you can basically put away your screwdriver, unless you're ripping out the Intel Optane card to install a proper SSD. I definitely recommend this PC. Good price, build quality is good, working on it is easy, expandability is a thing, it's quick, and nearly silent.

I have built my own computers and bought from HP and Cyberpower. I knew I needed a new graphics card, but the bitcoin craze made it all so expensive. I went into Best Buy and was informed about the Alienware Aurora 7. The selling points were it is small, has many USB ports, and runs cool. I was skeptical but there was a 30 day return policy. I never associated running cool with small. HARDWARE/NOISE: I heard about Alienware when I was in high school and I knew they were expensive, but this one was very reasonably priced; in fact, the whole Aurora line up is reasonably priced. I looked over the specifications and they are all solid. It is liquid cooled closed loop for the CPU and the has two case fans and one graphics card fan. I plugged everything on and turned it on and I didn't hear a bit of noise. I saw the lights were on, so I wondered if the fan was turning. I put my ear right against the case and I could barely hear the fan. That was impressive. The GPU has plenty of room to breath and it looks like you can add a second card, but I would recommend it. It would be too demanding on the power supply and most games are drifting from the SLI technology from what I have read. There are two additional slots for 2.5 drives at the bottom, and that is the only thing I wish I had more of is Hard Disk Drive (HDD) space. Go for the 2 TB if you can afford it, or just have one installed. SOFTWARE/BOOT TIME: I went to download software to see what the temperature was on the CPU, and it already had it there. It had the read out for the CPU, GPU, fan speed in RPM and percent; that was a nice touch, and I really appreciated them saving me the effort. The temperature is always around 27 - 32 Celsius. My old system idled at 36 - 44 Celsius with more than twice the fans. It comes with an App that cleans your files and updates the drivers without being in the way, it is called Support Assist. It also uses Alienware software to keep your drivers up-to-date and it better than most. Nvidia Control Panel was optimized already, and the M.2 drive made the boot times and applications blazing fast. I have had it for 7 months now and it still boots as fast as the first day (18-22 seconds). It could probably boot even faster if I disabled some of the monitoring software, but I don't mind waiting 5 seconds more. BENCHMARKS/GAMES: I have found a single game that gives me any issues and I have played many of the more popular titles on Steam, Origin, and Uplay. CONCLUSION: I would highly recommend this PC build to anyone just trying to get a serious gaming rig, but they don't want to spend too much money.

Great as is, but many upgrades made since purchase. The GTX1070 is a capable 1080p gaming card. 16GB of system RAM is more than enough for Windows 10. Liquid cooling allows this system to run cool - the only fan you’ll generally hear is the GTX1070 when under load. Core i7-8700 is a fast processor. Nearly everything can be upgraded from the power supply, to RAM, hard drive, video card - even the DVD drive can be upgraded. This is a very nice system.

Overall: The good -This computer is what I consider a good "bang for your buck." It has handled multiple tasking and gaming on ultra settings with 60 FPS or better. It is not loaded with bloatware. It has the essentials and Alienware command center which i find useful. The intel optane memory does what Dell says it will. Boot-up time is anywhere between 18-24 seconds. I will be purchasing an SSD soon to have some additional space. The CPU stays below 55 when under load for me, so all those questiong the 460w PSU that comes standard. For an average gamer this will be sufficient. Upgrades are always welcome, but not needed. Something else i will be purchasing is an extra 16GB of RAM. The Bad- Well i haven't had it long enough to have any bad. All I have seen is good. In conclusion- If you are looking for a solid gaming desktop that has room for upgrades in the future I would seriously consider purchasing this Rig. I was not disappointed and for someone who wants a computer that is reasonably priced... I would go ahead and pull the trigger on this. P.S. Get the Bestbuy Warranty just incase you have any issues. Peace of mind my friends.

Ever since I was a child I've heard of AW's products. They were always highly talked about. As I got older owning one was always a dream. Welp!!! I'm finally a proud owner of an alienware p.c. The Aurora R7 is a heck of a machine. Originally I purchased an entirely different gaming p.c. unfortunately that one did not work out for me. I got this product at a very sweet price. It was indeed an open box purchase. I've had this p.c for a few weeks now. I mainly got it for gaming. Frame rates are amazing. I've kept this beast of a machine running for days straight. Since I've had it not once have I heard it make any noise. Which is the major reason why I returned previous p.c. Everything boots up and runs smooth and fast. The optane memory does wonders. Not once have I experienced any lag while running multiple programs. If you can get this p.c while it's on special or not it is still worth every penny.

Super nicely built computer. This computer is one of the best computers I’ve ever seen felt super quiet super cool and very fast. The LEDs are super nice on the side of the computer and the set up is really easy.

I bought this for my teenage son because he plays streaming video games online and other computers just can't handle it. This Alienware PC is a champ and he hasn't had one issue since we got it!! It stays cool and doesn't overheat because of the liquid cooling system inside. It is VERY quiet! It even has some cool accent lighting that you can adjust for the color you like. It was easy to set up and it comes VR ready, too! Great computer for the money! It seems like a lot of money to spend, but I'm really glad I did because it's worth every single penny!!! We jumped on this sale the day it came out! Think again if you think you can't afford an Alienware, because YOU CAN! This is a midpriced unit and it is remarkable! Go get you one!! You won't be sorry, I promise!!

A really great computer at a great price!! Setup was very easy!! Runs cool and fast!! You won’t be sorry if you buy this computer!! I am very happy with my new computer!! Thank you bestbuy and Alienware!!

I had been considering building a new PC or purchasing one of the Dell Inspiron gaming Desktops with the Ryzen chip, but this deal (at $1149) blew it out of the water. 8770 Intel Coffey Lake CPU/MBoard are top of the line. Nvidia 1070s are going for 5 or 6 hundred dollars along with the crypto currency crazy going on. I tried to price it out on a similarly equipped system PC Part Picker and Dell's own site and couldn't even get close to the price. So if this deal ever is on again, I highly recommend picking it up. As far as the unit itself, it's a very sturdy carefully constructed system. Quite a bit heavier than my previous Mid tower desktop. It's technically upgradeable but if your not familiar with putting together or taking apart PC's, upgrading anything other than the graphics card or a hard drive are going to quite difficult To be fair, Dell has lots of detailed documentation online that shows you how to get to various other upgrade components like Ram and M.2 drive but it's quite a bit more work compared to build it yourself systems. The optane drive is neat feature, but I wish they had included it with a 2 TB HDD instead of the supplied 1 TB drive as that's kinda small for anyone doing PC Gaming. I compared the drive performance with Optane drive enabled vs disabled and it definitely improves load times for frequently used programs and games. It doesn't feel as fast having a dedicated SSD drive, but significant improvement over a mechanical drive alone. Cooling is more than adequate in the system with Liquid cooling system for the CPU and 3 case fans. The fans are very smart and run quiet. I hear the hard drive more than I hear the fans. I haven't benchmarked the CPU or Graphics card for performance, but will add that to this review when I do. Ultimately, this a great mid level gaming PC that should keep the average PC gamer playing the latest games at high FPS for several years. Being able to upgrade the components is an added plus

This computer is lightning fast, reliable and runs games and my flight simulator program like a boss. It has tons of Hard Drive memory, and plenty of RAM. I love it! The only thing that is slow is the time it takes to reboot. I may have to let the Geek Squad look at that. But no stars off for that minor issue. Did I say I love it? Yes!! In short, I am very pleased with Alienware computers.