Alienware Aurora R14 Liquid Cooled Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 9 5900, 32GB 3466MHz RAM, 1TB SDD + 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Graphics, VR Ready, USB-C, Windows 11 Home – Black

Very powerful machine for what I need. Kids love to play their games on it.

Ive had several gaming laptops from Lenova and Acer and was excited to see the power of a Alienware desktop. Too bad Alienware is partnered with Dell. Beautiful design and the hardware and specs seems high end but a hour after getting set up with steam and game pass, Dell sent a software update. The audio for the games wasnt working so the update was mandatory. Almost immediately after the update, the computer went into a perpetual loop between a blue screen of death restarting itself and the Alienware logo. It was impossible to boot even into safe recovery mode no matter what. I spent a whole day working with Dell techs, who didnt know much more than me, I created several live flashdrive with windows updates and recovery systems on it to no avail. Ive worked around computers for over 15 years and have never seen anything of the sort. Dell literally bricked my desktop with their update.

Let me start off that I really like this PC. Came ready to plug and play. Set-up was a breeze and updates were starting as soon as I plugged it in. I opted for the 3080 with the R9 5900. Its fast. The Alienware software allows for good control of your components from Thermal to Over clocking. Good Price when on sale. 3/17/2022 Contacted support for a 2 Amber, one White blink. The PC Would not turn on. Waiting for a resolve. 3/22/2022 Resolved as the HDD was not activating after sleep mode. Changed the program to never let the HDD go inactive.

Windows 11 keeps crashing, while the computer is idling. The Blue Screen appears, offering me many options, including re-installing Windows 11 and losing all installed programs and data. After determining that the problem was not caused by hardware (I told them), Alienware (Dell Computers) offered to help me with the software problem at $99 a session. Should have built from scratch, like I did my last machine 16 years ago. Will not buy another Alienware or Dell unit.

Never had a NEW PC that takes 3 min to start from time to time, and occasionally runs into a blue screen when its idle and needs to restart.

Got this machine mostly for gaming, for what it is, Rtx 3080, Ryzen 9 and 32gb of ram….it severely under performs. Again games run ok, nothing amazing. When it comes to other tasks like photo editing (Lightroom, Photoshop) it’s borderline unusable. For the specs this should have no trouble editing 20mp photos. Nowhere near worth the money

I got this computer on a sale and that’s really the only way it’s worth it. The BIOS is configured wrong from the factory (make sure XMP and resizable bar are enabled), the thermal paste on the video card is applied incorrectly, and the pre installed software and drivers are not configured properly. As is, this computer is great for parts if you can get it on sale or if you need a learning project. If you can find it on sale and don’t mind extra work, you can fix these issues yourself. I recommend GamersNexus YouTube channel. Search Alienware on their channel. They document most of the issues and show you how to correct them (the ones that can be corrected anyway). Also, they don’t talk about it, but uninstall all pre installed software. Including the Alienware Command Center and Nvidia geforceexperience. The manufacturer does not install it properly and they will not work unless you uninstall and install the latest version from the support site. For Geforce experience, download and install directly from nvidia’s site. The one on Dell/Alienware’s support site does not work. You’re welcome. Correcting the video card takes the most time and effort. You’ll need to disassemble your video card, remove some part stickers, and repaste. Hopefully this post will save you the time I’ll never get back. If you don’t want to put in the time or can’t find this PC on sale, I recommend you move on and filter your search to NOT include Dell or Alienware.

As im writing this review I’m in my 2nd machine. The first one I bought decided to update on its own and kept updating for over 10 hours. Finally I restarted the machine and all the lights started to blink and I had to troubleshoot just to get it to turn on again. Then for the next week every time I’d turn on the machine I would get a “no signal” on my monitor and a black screen. More manual restarting and mashing buttons to try and get the thing to work. I returned that machine and got a replacement, and this one does the exact same thing lol. It’s shocking how bad these Alienware’s are. I will be returning this machine as well and hopefully finding something more reliable.

Received computer, set it up and ran it for 24 hours, over night I am guessing it performed windows updates or something but it was stuck at black screen. Contacted dell who, trouble shoot issue and said mobo was bad. They refused to replace entire thing they wanted to send out a 3rd party tech who may or may not be competent enough to basically replace the heart of the computer, then put everything back properly including CPU and liquid cooling.... No thanks. I called Amazon and they had replacement sent out immediately. Otherwise great system for the price.

I have built PCs in the past, but I decided to go with this pre-built system for a variety of reasons. I purchased the computer Nov. 3. It stopped booting Feb. 6 and said there was an issue because a CPU fan could not be found. I called Dell Feb. 7, sent it in for repairs, and Dell received it Feb. 11. On Feb. 21, I was told the computer was out of warranty because I upgraded the hard drive and was charged $150 for repairs. I was initially told the computer would be out for repairs for 10-12 business days. Today is Day 46, and I keep being told that a part is on backorder. That part is a hard drive. Remember, the issue wasnt about a hard drive at all. I was told there was an issue with the CPU fan and the heatsink. Ive been waiting on my computer to be returned over a hard drive that is on backorder. I told them I could order a hard drive from Amazon and have it to them by tomorrow. I had my computer for 89 days. Dell has had it for the past 46 (and counting). The system was great while it worked, but now it feels more like a memory than something I owned. UPDATE: I finally received the unit back after its lengthy absence, and its once again working fine. But Im hesitant to make any changes to the unit, including adding the Alienware Command Center, because Im scared it will go down again. Again, I like it when its running. Hope I dont have any more problems.