Alienware's Aurora desktop storms back: AMD Phenom 9850 included

Check it: AMD's potent Phenom 9850 processor, which had a fairly impressive showing during its recent benchmarking test, has teamed up with a pair of ATI's Radeon HD 3870 X2s to bring the Aurora desktop back on the scene. Available now and starting at just $999, Alienware's (potentially) "value-priced" gaming rig can be equipped with one of four AMD CPUs, a liquid-cooling system, twin 512MB 3870 X2 GPUs, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a few terabytes of HDD space, a Blu-ray reader (or burner if you've got the cash), an optional (but totally necessary) Killer K1 gaming NIC, Ageia PhysX processor and your choice of colored enclosures. Of course, speccing this beauty into a rig worth gloating over will easily set you back four large or so, but hey, you only live once, right?

[Rob @ Apr 15th 2008 1:39PM]

That thing looks nice and clean, almost like a MacPro.

[Kurian @ Apr 15th 2008 1:50PM]

My Antec Titan is better. Bigger and better and spacious enough to stuff like 10x HDDs and not get the wires tangled up.

[Urnamma @ Apr 15th 2008 2:00PM]

But, unlike a mac pro, it can actually play real video games ;)

[Dave @ Apr 15th 2008 1:59PM]

yeah except you can upgrade the video cards in these simply, not like a Mac Pro

[nerdtalker @ Apr 15th 2008 2:56PM]

Except alienware and other boutique PC makers like Falcon Northwest have been doing it better and even more cleanly for a long-ass time now?

Not sure whether the comparison is even poignant. Why does everything always need to be compared to apple's equivalent product?

Oh, I see, alienware copied apple. /facepalm I see what you did there!

[Rob @ Apr 15th 2008 3:09PM]

@nerdtalker
I was not intentionally picking Apple because everything has to be compared to it. As we all know, all these pictures are staged. So, all the wiring is as organized as possible. However, in case you haven't noticed, Apple pc's look very clean and organized when shown in pictures. Most Windows pc manufacturers, other than high end pcs of course, tend to show their system like a bowl of spaghetti. Like it or not, that's the truth.

[billmao @ Apr 15th 2008 3:27PM]

And friggen expansive, like a Mac Pro :D

[jhaks @ Apr 15th 2008 5:25PM]

@ Rob

You aren't quite right with your assumption. Typical PC manufacturers like Dell and HP don't always have the cleanest case management but manufacturers like Alienware, Falcon and even HP with their Black Bird build PC's for gamers and computer enthusiasts and the internal management reflects this. I'm not sure where you get your false impression from but these PC manufacturers don't get their good reputation from making sloppy computers.

[Erasure25 @ Apr 15th 2008 6:13PM]

I must also disagree with you. Alienware isn't some $200 eePC purchased from a nasty Wal-Mart. It is a high end brand. I would think a large percentage of people custom build their orders from their website.

Also, Dell acquired Alienware. I own a Dell XPS 410. It's not quite Alienware, but it is still a really nice and great looking PC. My Dell hardly looks like a "bowl of spaghetti." So, I would imagine a person paying even more for an Alienware would get a PC that looks just as clean on the inside as in the image above. It wouldn't be all that hard to install those black wire casings shown in the picture for those made-to-orders.

[Evan @ Apr 15th 2008 7:29PM]

But it lacks the engineered air-flow management of a Mac Pro. The Alienware has case fans and video card fans just pushing air around inside a big box, like something a local shop would throw together.

[Blunt @ Apr 15th 2008 8:14PM]

I looked at their website an to upgrade from an X2 5200+ to an X4 9850 costs $450!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hell, the damn cpu only costs about 235.99 on newegg. What a rip-off.

[retro77 @ Apr 15th 2008 1:51PM]

Thank you for correcting the GB MB snafu.


Its still good to see AMD being used in powerful systems.

[no @ Apr 15th 2008 1:56PM]

When I built my system online it came out to $6,850 not $999.00 and I ran out of PCI-E slots

[kris @ Apr 15th 2008 3:03PM]

they meant the starting price

[Musouka @ Apr 16th 2008 5:46AM]

Hmm... here is a list of the specs of my soon-to-be-built gaming rig:

Thermaltake VH6001BWS ESA
Intel QX9650 3.0 GHz
CZ ReaperX DDR3-10666 4GB (2x2GB)
SB X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum
eVGA 790i Ultra
eVGA 9800 GX2 x 2
Thermaltake Toughpower 1400W ESA
Bigwater 780e LCS ESA
WD Raptor 150GB
WD Caviar 750GB SATA II
WD My Book II 2TB
Sony Blu-Ray Internal Drive
LG Lightsribe 22X
Dell 3008WFP

All of this for a little over $6000

[Musouka @ Apr 16th 2008 5:55AM]

Opsss... I meant a little less than $6500

[DaLa @ Apr 15th 2008 1:57PM]

Both Hard drives are SATA and I only see one hooked to the motherboard.

And wouldnt the Optical drives be SATA as well?

Makes me believe all the wiring is not completed to make this PC look a bit tidier.

[Mike @ Apr 15th 2008 4:55PM]

Both cables are there, they just run parallel to each other. Look at the picture closely and you can see the gap.

http://image.alienware.com/Images/product_detail_page_images/aurora/creative/aurora-cc-3.jpg

[jhaks @ Apr 15th 2008 5:41PM]

You should take a closer look at the picture. Mike is correct; the SATA cables from the two hard drives are together. If you look closely you can see there are actually two cables there.

And no, the optical drives are PATA in this rig. You can see the black round PATA cables coming out from the back of the optical drives and going into the motherboard.

[KC @ Apr 15th 2008 2:05PM]

Second Radeon HD 3870 X2,
Killer K1 gaming NIC
PhysX
Sound Blaster X-Fi

looks like you can only pick two of the four...

[coffee @ Apr 15th 2008 3:14PM]

do away with the killer nic and physx, not worth the money

[MIKEEE @ Apr 15th 2008 2:05PM]

Damn that is one clean sick design!! I want one

[Ubuntu 7.10 WindowsXP @ Apr 15th 2008 2:14PM]

I really like that cooler. It is good to see a computer by Alienware under a $1000. After the Dell buy out their prices when up a lot.

[benman2233 @ Apr 15th 2008 7:27PM]

@ubuntu 7.10 windows xp
Ya its under 1000...for maby the shell....once you put anything thats worth anything in it, it will become a 2-4 thousand dollar piece of shit, its so much cheaper to buy all the parts seperatly and then put it together urself or get someone to do it www.tigerdirect.com, most amazing place to buy computer parts in, really fair priced, have everything you need, and you can build a monster that would be worth 8 grand on alienware, for only about 1800 or less,

[Ronnie @ Apr 15th 2008 2:19PM]

Alienware is overpriced and overrated.
Built your own for maybe half the price?

[Carl Vitullo @ Apr 15th 2008 3:01PM]

that's not the point. alienwares are for gamers who aren't actually l337, but want to pretend they are.

REAL gamers make their own cases
:D

[Abuzar @ Apr 15th 2008 3:52PM]

WELLLLLLL

I'm not sure we have to build our own cases. A Thermaltake Armor, or a NZXT Lexa works just fine...

You can also get a Cosmos 1000. It may not cool as well as the Armor but it's the best looking case EVER made.

[Carl Vitullo @ Apr 15th 2008 3:00PM]

that is some delicious cable management.

[Kookr @ Apr 15th 2008 3:13PM]

That CPU cooler looks like one of those robot things from the Matrix. ^_^

[michas_pi @ Apr 15th 2008 6:32PM]

You're right, it does look like a Sentinel.

Also, the Matrix runs on a 56K modem.

[Frankenstein Black @ Apr 15th 2008 3:51PM]

Why couldn't the case really look like this?
http://image.alienware.com/Images/product_detail_page_images/aurora/creative/aurora_features-main.jpg

[Shinigami @ Apr 15th 2008 4:01PM]

The cable management is Great! And the fact that there is nothing standing in the way of the low intake air cooler is awesome! CPU cooling looks nicely (yah, I know what it is but I wouldn't use it myself, its expensive and you can get enough cooling with an air cooler of high quality).
But guys! This is totally unacceptable!!!
See that second video card? Its almost stuck into a wall of metal with no place for air! I have a similar setup (I build my PCs myself) and I can say for sure the second card will overheat very well and then rotate its cooler at MASSIVE speed, making sound similar to a not-so-loud vacuum cleaner (means will make you go crazy unless you're deaf). I could barely kill it with a louder sound from my games on 7.1 sound system. Its LOUD.

If you are going to use a SLI configuration and going to keep one videocard close to the bottom of the case with little possibility for air cooling, I recommend one of 2 things:
a) a water cooling setup, at least for video cards, and yes, thats what I did, now even quiet music kills any sound PC makes.
b) get some noise canceling headphones, high quality ones.
The price of both possibilities is about the same - $300 or more. But if you're as much of a hardcore gamer as me xD you should really get one of two.

And yes, its pretty loud during watching movies as well.

My config? C2Q6700, 4gb ram DDR2 800, 1,4Tb space, 2x8800GTX SLI water cooled, x-fi sound card, built on nforce 680i. Yes, it runs crysis. Yes, its not 60 fps :P but after patches I can play fine in 1680x1050 (but my native resolution is 2560x1600, 30 inches). All packed into a CoolerMaster Stacker 830 case. And yes, you don't even need 700W to run this, 650W should be enough (but just in case I have 770W for quad-sli systems due to 4 power plugs).

Hope this information was helpful.
Oh and for those without either of 2 options for overheating problem - just attach a 80-120mm cooler just outside the second video card (yep, outside the case) in such a way that it pulls out air from the video card using its ventilation holes. This helps lower the temperature for 20 degrees and removes overheating even during gaming sessions. There was much less sound with an externally mounted cooler compared to the lack of one. I'd recommend the same for over-heating PSUs, worked for me like magic.

[Patriks7 @ Apr 15th 2008 4:05PM]

not only does it look good (kinda) from the outside, but also from the inside :o

[digitallysick @ Apr 15th 2008 4:08PM]

Over priced, but , i do like the cpu cooler and cable management. Its a nice rig i admit, i still think intel would be the better choice, lower voltage and heat. You can still stomp this computer with one built from newegg

[Abuzar @ Apr 15th 2008 4:33PM]

Real world performance of the 3870X2 isn't that great. Two 9800GX2s and a Q9450 OC to 4Ghz would be much better and cheaper if you do it on your own.

Hell you don't even need water cooling. Get a Thermalright 120 Extreme and a nice high speed Scythe fan to go on it and you're good to go.

[Shinigami @ Apr 15th 2008 4:59PM]

Wow you look like someone who knows a lot!
Then you surely know 9800GX2 doesn't throw its hot air outside of the case, it returns VERY hot air into the case. You either water-cool two of these, or have an open case (or better no case at all). Or make an incredible air cooling which throws all hot air out of the case.
And don't tell I didn't warn you OCing is dangerous!

But hell yes! Doing it on your own can save you LOTS of money! No, you don't lose warranty for components if you don't burn 'em during installation xD

[Abuzar @ Apr 15th 2008 5:51PM]

I was talking about the CPU not the graphics card. I get your point about the 9800GX2. All the heat back in the case is disgusting. That's the reason I hate single slot coolers.

Water cooling those video cards would be an excellent idea. I'm not sure how the chips are laid out though, so I don't know if it's possible to cool both of them with water.

[Shinigami @ Apr 15th 2008 5:06PM]

WAAAAAAAAAAAIT A SECOND!

I thought nVidia bought Aegia and is going to add physx support through driver update! And they still offer us to BUY the thing? Thats a robbery!!!

Just get an nVidia video card of 8-th or 9-th generation and wait for nVidia to come up with drivers. But first try to look for supported hardware, I don't have a list of certified hardware for physx drivers.

[Darkled @ Apr 15th 2008 5:17PM]

Funny thing how alien ware seams to be able to pull off the apple thing ( price not looks) with computer hardware and there are fanboys lining up at the street to dish out the cash. Last time i went to the computer store and put together a computer i spent a total of 200 for case / memory / cpu / motherboard. When you know the price of the stuff they use you find that your getting raped. But hey there are people out there that buy antec stuff because they think its better then the cheaper stuff. Like a $190 power supply..... I think i would rather save the cash for something worth it like a big screen or a better video card. But then again i still would have $1000 more in my pocket.

[Abuzar @ Apr 15th 2008 5:47PM]

Wow, would you really would skimp out on the PSU? Shows how much you know about computers. A Corsair 650TX PSU costs about 95 dollars and will beat any Antec PSU. General rule is NEVER GO CHEAP ON THE POWER SUPPLY. A cheap PSU will burn down your whole computer so you end up losing 800 in the end just to save 50 or 60 bucks.

[js @ Apr 15th 2008 6:19PM]

Can it play Crysis?

[Oend @ Apr 15th 2008 6:22PM]

What disgusts me the most about these systems is the pricing factor involved compared to most other hardware builders.

Take for example the CPU pricing: the base is an x2 5200+ which retails around 105 dollars, while the new phenom 9850 is around 240. To upgrade to the processor it costs you 450 dollars more on their website while it only costs 120 dollars more.

Also, the default video card is the 3850, which is around 110 dollars as well while the 3870 is around 150. To upgrade costs you, of course, an extra 200 dollars. These two estimated retail costs to you for them to slap in the processor and graphics card are 555 dollars and 310 dollars respectively, over double the actual retail price for each! And i'm not even going to go into how they require a 1000 watt PSU for 2 graphics cards.

With this pricing it isn't very hard to see why only certain people can be fussed into interest with Alienware products. It also explains why they don't need to worry about selling that many systems to remain in business.

[Blacksheep @ Apr 15th 2008 6:23PM]

That wiring makes me drool, look at what a great job they did! I thought I was getting better, but that is my dream wiring job. Good job Alienware, wow.

[Ubuntu 7.10 WindowsXP @ Apr 15th 2008 8:02PM]

I seem to have started something, so let me throw this out their. Yes true gamers build their own. I do in fact build and customize PC's for fun as a side job. I have built a lot of computers and what I have learned is some people just don't have the know how to build a computer. That is why I like to see companies like Alienware. While they are ALL overpriced, over-hyped, and complete rip offs in comparison to do it yourself or my work, it is an option for people.

If we didn't have Alienware and companies like them, how would it completely pwn online?

[Schfelzerberg @ Apr 15th 2008 8:13PM]

$999*

* - Excludes GPUs and all the other expensive crap

[DiscoCat5 @ Apr 19th 2008 1:25AM]

that looks TUFF

[Armoured @ Apr 19th 2008 9:13AM]

I love the CPU cooler. I really like how it leads all the way to the outside of the case so no hot air from the CPU is blown around the case. Really good idea.