Board 8 > Is Alienware still super overpriced?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like I know building is your best option but let's assume we're going with premades for the purposes of this topic. The Alienware Aurora r16 is the new one that doesn't cost a million dollars.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/alienware-aurora-r16-gaming-desktop/spd/alienware-aurora-r16-desktop/useapctor16icc1

How is that out of the box? It looks decent and like it'd be able to game pretty well? Is there something better from Lenovo or someone else? I've did some brief reddit snooping and it seems like the alienware PCs are thought to be decent value now? Or is this wrong?

Biggest flaw is that Intel chips have been awful the last few years

You all have failed

@Wanglicious save me I must know the truth

Oh right when I post someone posts.

I thought Intel 15th gen was sketch but 14th was ok?

14th gen is slightly more powerful but extremely power hungry. Your going to have more cost in electricity.

I have a 15th gen CPU and I'm pretty happy with it tbh.

Unless you are running 4k max settings your cpu probably isn't bottlenecking anyway(The 4070 is already going to be the bottleneck in that case).

AMD's X3D chips the last few gens have been a good deal better than Intel offerings

I have a lot of experience with Alienware lately:

Around 2013 I bought an Alienware gaming laptop. I loved it, it was amazing. Very durable. I still use it daily to watch Youtube on my couch, still runs great for that purpose. The only trouble with it was the gamma curve on the screen was weird: no matter how much I changed brightness settings, certain parts of certain video games were too dark to see anything.

Around 2017 I bought an Asus gaming laptop. It was great for a while but within a couple years it started having a serious issue where it'd heavily stutter until I put it to sleep and woke it up. I had to do that a couple times an hour. I think it was something to do with USB and power.

So around 2019 I replaced that one with an Alienware pre-built PC. Not their highest model, but pretty high. I absolutely loved it, not a single complaint about it. I only decided to replace it a month ago because there are two 2025 games I was extremely excited to run at max settings and super high framerates.

So in December 2024 I ordered an pre-built PC from Newegg by a company called "Yeyian Odachi", it was a pretty good deal, about $3200 and had a Geforce 4090 (best graphics card) and an i9-14900KF (great processor). Unfortunately I could tell something was wrong immediately. There were like 5 screws bouncing around freely in the case, and a couple plastic pieces floating as well. Something about the case also felt shoddy. It came with no instructions whatsoever, except an unmarked DVD (but who has a dvd player or dvd drive anymore??).

Sure enough, it didn't boot up. I tried re-connecting some stuff, didn't help. Sent it back for a refund. I shoulda seen it coming, quite a few Newegg reviews complained about similar stuff, and suggested they cheaped out on minor parts. The average score was below 4/5 with quite a lot of reviews, pretty unusual for that site.

Then in January 2025 I decided to go back to Alienware, I got their best possible model of the Aurora R16: it has the same main components as the Yeyian one I returned: a Geforce 4090 and an i9-14900KF. About $3600 though, so a bit more than the Yeyian. ...But it felt worth it because it actually booted up :D The games are running better than I ever dreamed, super happy with it. And just, something about the design of the case feels so high quality, sturdy, and gorgeous.

-----

So, there's a clear pattern for me, the Alienware products lasted way longer, and felt higher quality to me than the other ones. I don't remember the prices of all those past laptops and PCs, but the $3200 -> $3600 was probably the typical upcharge ratio.

I'll also mention I own a ~2017 Alienware monitor that's one of my pride and joys in life. It's 1080p, but 240fps, and let me tell you, certain games at 240fps are smoother than real life. I have no interest in a side monitor because I love looking at this one so much.

Thanks a lot for that breakdown Epyo. And red for the clarification on the chips

I personally always went AMD when I built stuff but never had an issue with Intel so I'm not gonna think that's a deal breaker.

i have been summoned.
so the short answer is yes they're overpriced and not worth it.

intel 14th gen is trash, avoid it at all costs. the 13th and 14th gens in particular were among the worst chips we've seen in years with major overheating issues that they kept trying to pass the blame on. issue got so big that they ended up admitting that their chips had a voltage issue and that if a 14th gen chip ends up having the issue it's already too late, permanent damage will be built in. there's a patch they released back in August but i just don't trust anything that has gone through that issue. amusingly, 15th gen is worse than the 14th gen chips running correctly but it doesn't have any notable issues.

AMD meanwhile has absolutely dominated, especially for gaming with the X3D chips. can't understate how much better they are; legit takes Intel 2-3 gens to catch up to be on par with them due to the extra cache.

for Alienware their biggest issue is that almost all the parts are still proprietary, their support is "ok", and you can get better pre-builds elsewhere. generally Starforge is at the top due to a mix of great customer support, relatively competitive pricing, and paying attention to media reviews (e.g., gamersnexus) but they aren't alone.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuVSmND84QuM2HKzG7ipbIbE_R5EnCLM

apparently there was a computer with similar specs to the one you linked to that reviewed very well too from Thermaltake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR1oHs73Fn4&ab_channel=GamersNexus

https://thermaltakeusa.com/products/vista-470m-v38m-b650-47s-lcs

though it is currently sold out.

Darn. That one does seem like a good deal. I'm gonna sign up for the notifications and hope for the best.

I'm actually not asking for myself, just a friend of mine who doesn't want to build one. I get a good deal on Dell as I'm a licensed Dell reseller but I mostly sell business line Optiplex/Latitude stuff-- so I wanted to sanity check whether the Alienware stuff was actually any good yet. The answer seems "better but still maybe not quite there yet even among pre-built stuff"

Pretty much yeah. They're starting to use conventional parts finally, and if it's screens they legit are fantastic. Just their pre builds in a surprisingly competitive market right now

I was thinking this one seemed best of the ones in stock

https://thermaltakeusa.com/collections/gaming-pc/products/view-460-v35s-b650-460-lcs

Honestly he just wants to run Baldurs Gate 3 at 60 FPS and do FFXIV raids without lagging at just standard high def so to me that seems like, more than fine?

Friend here

I'm kind of a monkey when it comes to tech stuff so it's all Greek to me

I don't even know that guy

Rude

ehh i'd still go for something with an X3D chip and better than a 4060. it's a pretty notable gap, honestly that's a bad GPU that doesn't belong in that line. that AMD chipline meanwhile does show major performance improvements in FF14 specifically too.

Well ideally but seems like all with that one are sold out or $2700

But yeah I guess I'll just tell greengr-- er my friend to just hold out for one of the out of stock ones to get in stock or shell out that cash

Well we shall see in a few weeks

Gotta get a desk and some space for it anyway !!

ahh, gotcha.
starforge would be something around 2200-2300 and better than the alienware:

https://starforgesystems.com/products/navigator-elite?_pos=1&_fid=bf6405210&_ss=c

which also runs circles around the dell. the extra cost there largely comes in the GPU bump, the Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB performs around the level of the 4070 Ti/4080, with the added benefit of 20GB VRAM which becomes relevant when you want to game at 1440p or 4k in the future. that's really going to be the bottleneck for anything that's 12GB or less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XVdsKHBcPE&ab_channel=GamersNexus

comparison between GPU there when they revisited it. basically it's available now, $500 more but on a GPU that's better and a 2TB NVME drive instead of 1, so even less reason to open it up to upgrade storage. 1TB is uh... kinda smallish nowadays.

Hmm how long of a shelf life will this thing give me theoretically

I wouldn't mind going above what I wanna spend if I can get a real long run on it or whatnot

out the box? let's see... PS6 is probably going to be AMD again, rumors for it suggest as such. so when it comes to console ports, won't be an issue. 2027 estimate for that.

7800X3D should be fine for at least another 5-6 years. at which point, if the current path follows the previous one (so far, looking like it is) you'll likely have an option to just swap it out for a newer CPU. though it released in 2023 it still outperforms Intel's latest in gaming so this will hold strong. realistically it can be fine for longer than that but you might start feeling the bottleneck at some point then.

4070 Super with 12GB VRAM will be worse than the 7900 XT with 20GB VRAM. former will be to 1080p what the latter is to 1440p based on the power and VRAM.

both will be good for 4+ years. raytracing favors NVIDIA but by and large this isn't a big deal in most modern games, lighting tweaks are honestly more beneficial to older games with subpar shaders in the past (e.g., if you look at the N64 games with it on they look incredibly better) and games that heavily, heavily lean into it. that said uh... you kinda need the VRAM to really make this better and this is outright better GPU than the 4070 Super, so the stronger one will be better.

you'll definitely need to open up the computers for storage down the road. the all AMD computer will have this less because it comes with 2TB but eventually you'll add more storage yourself.

Hmm okay that's pretty good. I think I'll order the 2300 dollar model on my day off tomorrow.

Thanks for the help

Wanglicious posted...

raytracing favors NVIDIA but by and large this isn't a big deal in most modern games

I feel like this is starting to change, since we're getting stuff like Indiana Jones and Doom that require raytracing. But yeah, the 7900XT's better in general.

true, for people getting into gaming now or who were sitting on older GPU that's a big deal because it's actually saying you can't play a game that isn't able to do this. basically those on a 1660, which i think is still one of the most popular GPU on Steam.

i just meant in terms of that visual "wow" factor. those games have it as a requirement and while things generally do look better with it maxed, a GPU with 12GB of VRAM just plain can't do it. NVIDIA does a better job on this field technically but i don't think losing 8GB VRAM or power is a worthwhile exchange there. that's what i meant by that, and i think you generally agree but i want to be sure there's no confusion.

amusingly that did remind me of the digital foundry video on indiana jones with specs that are surprisingly relevant:

https://youtu.be/araZUoSOPmM?si=V3HE_Zq2x8UH38Iy&t=1393

timestamped it to the performance discussion, tested on... a 7800X3D CPU with a 4070, running at 1440p. due to the game being not that gameplay intensive, it's not that hard on the CPU so this is all a GPU check.

12GB VRAM is the minimum for full RT, that might actually be a standard going forward for the near future. next gen could easily have that become 16GB. no prob for the AMD card there.
best textures in game and full RT off, game is smooth 60 FPS.
full RT on, system absolutely died as the VRAM just got eaten like nothing. that's really where the bottleneck on this tech lands at the moment, to get proper performance he had to tweak a couple settings to make it work and that's on a current gen game. going forward... yeah, more power and VRAM will be so much better.

of course, this is also assuming you're doing 1440p gaming, which i still find to be the sweet spot, even if i mainly do 1080p honestly (so my 3070 with 12GB VRAM doesn't care as much).