Bought a new Desktop CPU! Dell Alienware Aurora R15 (Update: Unbought)

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(Latest update since my early post, I have canceled the order of this model, and went for the R16 instead)

Saw my boy playing computer games in a small window in his 34″ monitor. He can’t enlarge the window to full screen as it will be very lagging due to poor CPU power or slow graphic card in our old Dell OptiPlex 3060 CPU. Instead of getting an old graphic card for the already old PC, I decided to get a new CPU for him instead.

I googled online for gaming desktop, found Dell Alienware. My original thought was to DIY a gaming rig, using Asus ROG components. I went to my local usual computer shop and try find some latest hardware parts and price, and to my surprised it is actually quite expensive nowadays to DIY a gaming desktop. Local DIY setup costs around RM11k for an Intel i7 13700KF system (RTX 4070 graphic card), whereby Dell Alienware costs about the same for a proven and tested setup configurations. In that case I might as well get a Dell with 3 years (later found that Dell got free upgrade to 4 years) warranty.

I like the stunning design of Dell Alienware R10 CPU. Tilted, great light combination, very futuristic! There are two colours available: Black & White. I chose black for the better COOL factor, and black will reflect the colourful light much more obvious!

ALIENWARE AURORA R15 GAMING DESKTOP

• 13th Gen Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7 13700KF (16-Core, 54MB Cache, 3.4GHz to 5.4GHz P-Core Turbo Max 3.0)
• Windows 11 Home Single Language, English
  (Dell Technologies recommends Windows 11 Pro for business)
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTXâ„¢ 4060, 8GB GDDR6
• 16 GB: 2 x 8 GB, DDR5, 4800 MT/s
• 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 1 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, HDD (storage)
• Dark Side of the Moon

Dell online ordering system is really easy and friendly. Do go through each options carefully, some are worth upgrading as it costs just very little. For example, it is worth upgrading the storage from the default 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 1 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, HDD (storage) to 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 2 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, HDD (storage) @ just RM45 (you get extra 1TB HDD), or in my case I upgraded to 1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 2 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, HDD (storage) at RM305. RM305 for the extra 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD space, I think is worth the deal.

I also upgraded the default 16 GB: 2 x 8 GB, DDR5, 4800 MT/s to 16 GB, 1 x 16 GB, DDR5, 4800 MHz, XMP (Overclockable up to 5200Mhz) at RM100, I chose just single slot 16GB RAM as I plan to get an extra 16GB RAM later myself. It is cheaper to buy the RAM outside than from Dell directly upgrade.

The motherboard only allows upto 2 memory slots, so make sure you chose wisely.

There is also a free upgrade from 3 years warranty to 4 years, so make sure you select that.

Since the PC is for my boy, I chose a permanent Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 license @ RM100.

By the way, for the look cool factor, I also chose the 750W Platinum PSU, Dark, Alienware Cryo-tech(TM) Edition CPU Liquid Cooling & Clear Side Panel @ RM305 upgrade price. This has the extra lighting on the CPU. Looks cool!

This comes to a total of RM 10,409.00. During checkout, I decided to just google for Dell Malaysia coupon, and found a “HLB5” coupon code for 5% discount. In the end, I got RM9888.55 final price. That’s within my RM10k budget. Happy shopping and can’t wait to see the Alienware soon!

🙂

AMD Ryzen?

On a side note, there is also an option for AMD Ryzen series of processor in the same chassis, but I didn’t chose AMD as I am still more confident in Intel processor reliability.

• AMD Ryzenâ„¢ 9 7950X (80 MB total cache, 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.70 GHz Max Boost Clock)
• Windows 11 Home Single Language, English
  (Dell Technologies recommends Windows 11 Pro for business)
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTXâ„¢ 4070 Ti, 12 GB GDDR6X
• 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 4800 MT/s
• 1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD (boot) + 2 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA, HDD (storage)
• 1350W Platinum PSU, Dark, Alienware Cryo-tech(TM) Edition CPU Liquid Cooling & Clear Side Panel

A more powerful setup of the AMD Ryzen series (better processor, graphic card, 32GB RAM) costs RM13,239.00.