The Dell Alienware Aurora gaming machine is powered by an Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition processor. It has six 2 GB DDR3 RAM Modules which make up for a whopping 12 GB of memory, two Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 graphics cards (1.8 GB each) in SLI and two 500 GB hard drives in RAID 0. It offers the Alienware liquid-cooling for the CPU, there's a Blu-ray combo drive. The machine comes loaded with Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit). There is 7.1 channel audio, so you'll find six audio jacks, and co-axial and optical S/PDIF outputs too. Display options include four DVI ports and two S-video ports. Consider the absence of an HDMI port as a downside. Other features include six USB, FireWire, an eSATA and a gigabit Ethernet port.
A RAID 0 setup is usually used in gaming machines where performance is a prerequisite, and data management takes a back seat. In any case, the idea is to get the most from your gaming experience, and that you shall get.
The Alienware Aurora is one mean gaming machine. We put it through several tests before being convinced as to how good it was.
For the performance tests, first we ran the standard benchmarks and then moved on to assessing the real-world game play. Although the GPUs aren't the most powerful individually, two of them configured in SLI make up for it. For gaming, we used Crysis, Batman Arkham Asylum and Left 4 Dead and got playable frame rates even at high resolutions and settings. At high settings Crysis Warhead was playable with over 40 fps. Batman Arkham Asylum and Left 4 Dead were relatively easier to handle with 60 fps. We played HD movies and the playback was seamless. In fact we'd say it's the number crunching power that steals the show. So, heavy intensive tasks such as working with designing suites and audio/video encoding can be done with great ease on this machine.
Dell Alienware Aurora Specifications:
- Dimensions(WxHxD): 9.84x16.77x25.39 in.
- Weight: 21Kg
- Form factor: Mid-tower chassis
- Chipset: Intel X58
- Processor: Intel Core i7 975 Extreme,3.33 GHz
- Memory: 12 GB DDR3
- Hard drive: 2x500 GB
- Bundle: Alienware gaming mouse, mouse pad and keyboard
