Aurora R11, 802.11AC or 802.11AX

Question

For those of you that are ready to order the Aurora R11 today or ordered it earlier this week, I just want point out a minor difference in the Aurora R11 I ordered on May 15 and the Aurora R11 that can be ordered today. But first, I started off ordering an Aurora R8 on May 12 before the R11 was released. As soon as it was released, I cancelled my R8 order and put in the following order for the R11: Dark Side of the Moon chassis with High-Performance CPU Liquid Cooling with and 1000W Power Supply2TB M.2 PCIe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)10th Gen Intel Core i9 10900KF (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 3.7GHz to 5.3GHz w/Thermal Velocity Boost)Killer(TM) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless and Bluetooth 5.164GB Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)Windows 10 Pro, 64bit English The selling factor for me was the Killer™ Wireless/Killer™ Network Card combo. The R11 was the first configuration to ship with the Killer™ E3000 Ethernet LAN and that could be combined with the Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 to give you 2.5GB Ethernet and WiFi 6 802.11AX capability along with the DoubleShot Pro. This was the combo I have been waiting for from Dell for a long time. If you ordered an R11 this week, you may not have noticed that Dell has replaced the Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless and Bluetooth 5.1 with the Dell Wireless DW1810 (1x1) 802.11ac with Wi-Fi, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0. If you want WiFi 6 802.11AX capability and DoubleShot Pro in your PC then don't order the R11 yet. It will still come with the Killer™ E3000 Ethernet LAN but the PC will only have 802.11AC capability and will not be able to combine the Ethernet channel and the WiFi channel to give you a significant speed boost. For me, the Killer™ Combo was the main reason for spending so much money and getting the R11. It's just something to look for when you place your order for the R11 but, if you're like me, and want that Killer™ Combo then I would recommend waiting until it comes back in stock. Thanks for reading.

R tW · Answer

What is your delivery date?

jdsmock · Answer

June 25'th ...

v00j00 · Answer

@jdsmock Thank you!

I just ordered this today and noticed the main product page mentions the Killer 802.11ax but my order did not. Did some Googling and came across this post.

I just reached out to Dell Support to see if they can modify my order or if I should cancel it and re-order once it's back in stock.

Thanks for the tip, I just got a 802.11ax router, hate to miss out.

PS - I don't understand, given the specs of this machine, why even offer a Dell 802.11ac option?! Doesn't make sense.

v00j00 · Answer

For anyone else interested to know.

I chatted/called with the online team, the order customization team, and the sales team, and no one could tell me any more info about why the Killer (or even Intel option) is no longer available. They don't have any recommendation if I should cancel and wait for it to "come back in stock" or if they just don't offer it anymore. I checked the Canada Dell site and it still lists all 3 wireless cards.

So, proceed with caution.

Based on what I've read, it looks like it's just an M.2 Key E card that should be user upgrade/replaceable. - I think it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Wi-Fi-AX1650-Module-Bluetooth/dp/B07Q4YYQC2

I'll just likely have to upgrade it myself. I'm going to keep checking the Dell's customization page over the next few weeks as my order isn't scheduled to be delivered until July 13th (with express delivery, ordered yesterday/today).

GTS81 · Answer

@v00j00 :

Based on what I've read, it looks like it's just an M.2 Key E card that should be user upgrade/replaceable. - I think it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Wi-Fi-AX1650-Module-Bluetooth/dp/B07Q4YYQC2
I'll just likely have to upgrade it myself. I'm going to keep checking the Dell's customization page over the next few weeks as my order isn't scheduled to be delivered until July 13th (with express delivery, ordered yesterday/today).

I hope you're right. After all, the R7 owners thought that it's just the same socket 1151 and Z370 chipset as the R8:

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R7-upgrade-to-i9-9900K/td-p/6180735

R tW · Answer

My order went in on May 29. The paperwork lists the Killer board.

v00j00 · Answer

Yeah, I hear ya.

Luckily, in the context of just the wifi card, this is all current gen stuff and looking back at earlier R7/R8 versions, and the latest wifi cards, they all appear to be using the M.2 wifi slot (key A/E socket).

I'll probably order the Wifi card in early July once the R11 ships. I wish I would have looked into this unit sooner and purchased it earlier.

jdsmock · Answer

The Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless and Bluetooth 5.1 option showed up on the configuration page for the Aurora R11 today so if you were waiting to order the R11 because you wanted this wireless card, now is the time to order before they run out of stock again.

RJ0670 · Answer

Has any one who ordered before swapped out the Dell DW1810 for a Killer AX1650 yet.  I see in the service manual it should be pretty straight forward, but I was just curious if anyone has done it yet?  As we all know with our Alienware they are sometimes a little different.  I just updated my R4 with the AX1650 and its is working wonderfully.

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