Battle Alienware Aurora R7 VS Alienware Area-51

[Lightning_Brian]

Hi All,

Looks like my Alienware Aurora R2 took a nose dive in the past two weeks. I have been fiddling with a weird cooling issue with the fans going 100% at random - for no reason. I have reformatted a few times to try to resolve the issue. Looks to be hardware related...

Right now, I'm looking at getting an Alienware Aurora R7. However, I want to know how this compares to a Alienware Area-51. Which one is more future proof?

~Brian

 

[Lightning_Brian]

I'm mainly looking at the CPU chip and overall features. Seems like the Area-51 has much more upward momentum with the CPU being that it is a newer generation compared to the R7.

I'm in the ball park of $2,300 with the R7 on maxed out best CPU currently offered. I dont have all the specs right off hand as it is midnight here. I'm going to go for the 5 year warranty no matter which model - pro not the pro plus.

The Area-51 seems to cost quite a bit more money with lesser (relative) specs. I do see that it has or what appears to be greater upward momentum with the CPU being that the CPU is a newer version. With second lowest CPU with various upgrades on certain stuff including a 5 year warranty - premium not the pro plus I'm at $2,600 ish.

Let me know your thoughts. If I built the same computer with relative specs the machines would cost a bit more unless I got super good deals on everything by waiting a long time. Pros and cons of building vs buying. I had my R2 for 10 years. I would like to future proof my next purchase as well.

Only upgrades I did with the R2 was the GPU jumped it up to a GTX 960, case fans, and more RAM - from 6 to 12. Speaking of which...one could still run a 960 in a new computer but SLI wouldnt work correct?....I'm not an SLi expert but I would not expect it to work at least not from my years of experience.

Thanks for your thoughts and help! Feel free to recommend builds within the price ranges for the Aliemware R7 or Alienware Area51 (both from 2018) not the older builds.

-Brian

 

[slash/]

Alienware Aurora R7 - $1999.99

Alienware mid-tower case
i7-8700
Alienware liquid cooling (proprietary)
W10 Home
16GB RAM, 2666MHz
GTX 1070 8GB RAM
128GB M.2 SSD
2TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
850W PSU
WLAN + Bluetooth

Custom - $1722.43
System Builder - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core, GeForce GTX 1070 8GB, 300R ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Corsair mid-tower case
*i7-8700K (overclockable)
*Corsair H100i liquid cooling (replaceable)
*Asus ROG motherboard
W10 Home
*16GB RAM, 3000MHz
*500GB SSD
1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
*GTX 1070 8GB RAM (MSI)
EVGA 750W PSU
WLAN
+$10 for a Bluetooth dongle from Amazon

* = technically an upgrade. I'm calling the GTX 1070 an upgrade because I don't think they give you a good variant like the MSI. For an extra $40, you can pick up the Asus variant which is the best. For an extra $15, you can pick up a 2TB SATA HDD to match the Alienware R7. Even with both of these upgrades, the total would be less than $1800.

You don't need to wait an extremely long time to get all the parts you need. You can build your entire PC within a week or two if you wanted to. Plus, you don't need to deal with all of Alienware's proprietary parts (liquid cooling).

*** The build above is just a rough draft with components similar to the R7. We can do better.

 

[Vasudev]

I'm mainly looking at the CPU chip and overall features. Seems like the Area-51 has much more upward momentum with the CPU being that it is a newer generation compared to the R7.

I'm in the ball park of INR 157 688 with the R7 on maxed out best CPU currently offered. I dont have all the specs right off hand as it is midnight here. I'm going to go for the 5 year warranty no matter which model - pro not the pro plus.

The Area-51 seems to cost quite a bit more money with lesser (relative) specs. I do see that it has or what appears to be greater upward momentum with the CPU being that the CPU is a newer version. With second lowest CPU with various upgrades on certain stuff including a 5 year warranty - premium not the pro plus I'm at INR 178 256 ish.

Let me know your thoughts. If I built the same computer with relative specs the machines would cost a bit more unless I got super good deals on everything by waiting a long time. Pros and cons of building vs buying. I had my R2 for 10 years. I would like to future proof my next purchase as well.

Only upgrades I did with the R2 was the GPU jumped it up to a GTX 960, case fans, and more RAM - from 6 to 12. Speaking of which...one could still run a 960 in a new computer but SLI wouldnt work correct?....I'm not an SLi expert but I would not expect it to work at least not from my years of experience.

Thanks for your thoughts and help! Feel free to recommend builds within the price ranges for the Aliemware R7 or Alienware Area51 (both from 2018) not the older builds.

-Brian

Buy your desktop. It seems some Win 10 updates, BIOS updates and drivers are buggy. Had same issue with my AW laptop as well.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Buy your desktop. It seems some Win 10 updates, BIOS updates and drivers are buggy. Had same issue with my AW laptop as well.

@Vasudev Bummer that you had some issues with your AW laptop... Seems like the combination of drivers, updates, and BIOS updates are causing some odd issues!

Alienware Aurora R7 - $1999.99

Alienware mid-tower case
i7-8700
Alienware liquid cooling (proprietary)
W10 Home
16GB RAM, 2666MHz
GTX 1070 8GB RAM
128GB M.2 SSD
2TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
850W PSU
WLAN + Bluetooth

Custom - $1722.43
System Builder - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core, GeForce GTX 1070 8GB, 300R ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Corsair mid-tower case
*i7-8700K (overclockable)
*Corsair H100i liquid cooling (replaceable)
*Asus ROG motherboard
W10 Home
*16GB RAM, 3000MHz
*500GB SSD
1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD
*GTX 1070 8GB RAM (MSI)
EVGA 750W PSU
WLAN
+$10 for a Bluetooth dongle from Amazon

* = technically an upgrade. I'm calling the GTX 1070 an upgrade because I don't think they give you a good variant like the MSI. For an extra $40, you can pick up the Asus variant which is the best. For an extra $15, you can pick up a 2TB SATA HDD to match the Alienware R7. Even with both of these upgrades, the total would be less than $1800.

You don't need to wait an extremely long time to get all the parts you need. You can build your entire PC within a week or two if you wanted to. Plus, you don't need to deal with all of Alienware's proprietary parts (liquid cooling).

*** The build above is just a rough draft with components similar to the R7. We can do better.

@root/ This is true! I may build my own. With the amount of work I have had I felt as though I may not have time, but I may just carve out some to build my own rig.

~Brian

 

[SumTingWong]

Build your own computer. Alienware is like Apple. You are paying a lot for the brand. Alienware laptop is more worthy than the desktop. You can bring your parts to your local computer repair store to have them assemble it if you are afraid or don't have time to do it. Once you get your motherboard into your case, everything else will be easy.

 

[slash/]

Even at an inexperienced level, it would take you 4-5 hours tops to build it. Setting aside an hour per day, you'd finish building it in a week. Let me know if you need help.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Oh, I'm not inexperienced at all. There are pros and cons to each side of prebuilt and build your own. However, I will no longer be going with Alienware. Going to build my own. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Lightning_Brian]

z370 or x229? Future proof with X229, but cost a ton. The starting i7 with x229 is far less "powerful" when compared to the 8700K with the Z370. What are your thoughts?

Not much different between the 3000MHz vs 3200 MHz... Toss up...Pulling hair in a way? I can see some improvement.. Thoughts?

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming or ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero WiFi - Siding with ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero WiFi? Thoughts?

850 Watt EVGA SuperNOVA G3 - Overkill? I think it may be enough for upgrades down the road.

512GB Samsung 970 Pro PCIe NVMe M.2 or a Samsung Pro 860? Fairly large price difference? Worth it in the end? I feel like it might be..

Go with a 1050 now and upgrade for the 11XX series when it comes out? I don't think the pricing will fall a ton though... @root/ I'm thinking your right about that 1070. I may go for that.

~Brian

 

[slash/]

I have the Maximus VII HERO, so I'm pretty biased because I love the Maximus line.

The only difference between the STRIX Z370 and the Maximus X HERO is that the HERO has built-in WiFi for an extra $50. That way, you wouldn't need to buy a separate WiFi adapter, which would regularly cost you $35.

I would go with either the 750 or 850W SuperNOVA. 850W gives you more room for more upgrades, and possible SLI in the future.

970 Pro is much faster than the 860 Evo. 860 Pro is very slightly faster than the 860 Evo. I would choose the 860 Evo over the Pro, but the 970 Pro over the 860 Evo if price isn't a factor.

I would go for the 1070 and call it a day. The 1080 and the Ti models are far too expensive, and I think the 11xx series will be overpriced for a good year after launch. For reference of performance, I'm still using a 980 and running most modern games at very high/ultra settings. I got the MSI variant since it was the most overclockable, and OC'd the hell out of it in Afterburner.