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Alienware Aurora 7500

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Alienware's reputation for building high-end gaming systems precedes it, and the Aurora 7500 ($4,250 direct without monitor) is another good example of their handy work. Powered by an AMD FX-60, it's a high-performance PC for gamers, multimedia mavens, and other speed fans.

The liquid-cooled system runs a 2.6-GHz FX-60 CPU overclocked to 2.8 GHz, giving it a slight advantage over lesser desktops. Sadly, though, the Aurora's power supply is a little on the loud side—bring your earplugs, or better yet, turn up your speakers. Also, the signature Alienware case, once seen as innovative, is dated, especially since it is mostly plastic. On the plus side, the system does come with an excellent Logitech G15 keyboard with its own LCD info panel and G5 laser mouse, and both are tailor-made for gaming.

The Aurora 7500 is a well-configured system: It also comes with dual Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10,000-rpm hard drives in a RAID 0 array for performance, with an additional 250GB hard drive for storage. Continuing the dualness theme is a pair of 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900GT graphics cards in an SLI configuration. Additionally, the system we received came equipped with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and a TV tuner, though it'll be hard to squeeze a lot of recorded programming and digital content onto the desktop's 250GB main drive. For a $4,000+ MCE system, you really want—and expect—at least 400GB to 500GB of storage space. Sure, you can record live TV in the background and do the other neat multimedia activities in Media Center, but the Aurora really is a gaming box at heart.

On the SYSmark 2004 SE Internet Content Creation test, the Aurora proved itself competent among such high scorers as Falcon Northwest's Mach V and Velocity Micro's Raptor 64. As for my 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 benchmark tests, the Aurora again held its own, though the dual-Radeon X1900- and CrossFire-powered Gateway FX510XL outperforms it at 2,560-by-1,600 resolution. The Aurora also delivered playable numbers on both Doom 3 and Splinter Cell Chaos. It predictably dominated the Doom 3 tests, though it gave up a little ground to the FX510XL on the Splinter Cell tests. That said, both games certainly play well, even at the higher 1,600-by-1,200 and 2,560-by-1,600 resolutions.

Compared with similarly priced but richly equipped systems such as the Gateway FX510XL, the Aurora comes up a little short. The FX510XL sports more powerful 512MB ATI Radeon 1900XT CrossFire cards, a 20-inch widescreen LCD panel, and speakers, all for just $500 more. And even though higher-end desktops such as the Falcon NW Mach V FX-62 Quad are much more expensive, their technology brings an immense amount of bragging rights, and they are wicked fast.

The Alienware Aurora 7500 tries but is not necessarily the most successful fusion of gaming machine and Media Center. Though it's a lot cheaper than the $6,000 systems Which have been tested lately, there are systems, such as the Gateway, that offer more bang for your buck.

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Weight for gaming mouse

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The Aurora 7500 uses some excellent technology, but there are better choices out there.

Good gaming performance. Not as expensive as 7900 Quad SLI systems. Tested configuration comes with Logitech gaming keyboard and mouse.

Pricey for a system without monitor and speakers. Cooling fans are obnoxiously loud.

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Type: Gaming, Media Processor Family: AMD Athlon 64 FX RAM: 1024 MB Storage Capacity: 398 GB RAID: Yes Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7900GT SLI Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

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-- Edited by chintan9 at 00:09, 2006-10-18