Alienware Aurora positives and negatives

What do other Alienware owners think of their Aurora?  This would be a good thread to post your thoughts, expierences and how to improve the Aurora in future installments and revisions. 

I agree with the power supply issue, however once the warranty is gone some will appear on EBAY in a couple yrs. I haven't had a problem with the paint and I use car wax to keep it shiny. I have 2 HD 5870 and have been happy with it.

There should not be a problem swapping power supplies. On the Aurora, the MIO-Board uses a standard power connector.

However, if you want the side panel to light:

1. The contact plate will have to be remounted. If there is room, a mounting plate could be bolted to the bottom that holds the contact plate.

2. You can just hard-wire it (with a proper multi-pin connector).

I have had mt aurora for about 6 months . I really like it.,its very powerfull and a pretty design . The only issue I have had was the power button had to be changed out . When I got mine it was dusty with greasey finger prints on it . Later I was told that its made in Mexico in a non clean enviroment . I have to say its built cheaper than the 710 I had . As other have said its cost effective to buy the AW rather than build one .

There was a post if I remember correctly that said someone did replace the power supply with a 3rd party one . You have to change out everything (power supply and wire).

I think the reason there are curent problems with them,are due to them being produced in other countrys . I have 4 other dells and each one was made in the USA. All came in perfect working order and have very very little go wrong with them .

As other have said its cost effective to buy the AW rather than build one .

Yes. If you compare apples to apples, the Aurora is about the same price as a DIY build. About 4 months ago, I compared both in an Excel spreadsheet. Parts pricing from Newegg. The Aurora was only about $100 more.

I have had my Aurora nearly a year now and have not had a single hardware problem with it at all.

(I've probably cursed myself now, as my warranty runs out in a couple of weeks)

My machine cost me nothing as it was a prize from a TV show here in the UK ('Gadget Show'); I have spent money on it though, replacing the GTX260 with a GTX460 and doubling the memory to 6Gb.

It plays the latest games with ease, and Windows 7 64-bit has proven to be extremely stable (Microsoft's best OS yet ? Quite possibly !).

On the negative side, I don't think I would have bought it if I hadn't have won it.

Yes the design is distinctive, but (in my humble opinion) it uses too many specialist parts and the inside seems unnecessarily complicated, what with all the extra IO boards & shrouds etc.

It also lacks decent case cooling; the one & only extractor fan on the radiator has to do all the work and can get very noisy at high revs/temps.

Purely personal preference, but I would have put just the essential components in a better ventilated case.

Wouldn't look like an Alienware then though, I suppose ...... 

hi guys

after a couple days of reading this post i thought id chime in on the issue,,,here is a breif history that led me to getting my aurora.. back in 1998 i bought a dell dimension 4500,,it lasted a very long time with no problems what so ever(so i came back to dell)......in november of 2009 i got a xps 8000 which at first worked fine until i had a hdd fail so i contacted OVERSEAS support and they had me reinstall win7(not fun i was on the phone for over 4 hrs).....it failed again a day later...they sent a tech out to replace both the hdds so i had to reinstall everything again.at this point i already had about 20 hrs of phone time with "tech support"......a couple of weeks later another hdd fail with a tech coming out to fix it,,,then a sound card issue...then more hdd fails.......they send me an exchange unit and that pc had the same issues as the first one so i contacted a dell resolution specialist and she got me a full refund on the xps because they would not give me another exchange unit because the 8000 was discontinued....the problems with 2 machines and 8 service calls to my house not to metion the massive amount of phone hours went on from nov.09 till july 2010....i ordered the aurora on july 12 and had it by the 21st they totally expidited the build and shipping very quickly to satisfy a very irrate customer....

       i fired up my aurora on july 24 and has been running flawlessly ever since with only two minor blue screen issues,and the occasional side blinking light..(oh and i made sure that i got premium care north american support that i only had to call one time for the b s o d issue that was solved with a "restoration to an ealier time")i could go on a lot more about the issues with the other machine mostly about the overseas nightmare but that is water under the bridge.......the people at dell treated me very well to keep me as a customer.......my alienware machine is awesome and is not having any of the problems so far i read every day on the forums......i would like to give a great thanks to chris M ,tesla1856,moreblore.. and anyone i havent metioned for the continued help you guys give to this forum.......im not a noob to computers but never had an alienware,these forums are a great asset...

the only thing i would have done differently is get a gtx 460 or better when i ordered the machine but i can always do that later......and about a month or so ago i purchased two more years of premium warranty support(just in case)........sorry for the long winded post but im am sure you guys would like this feedback about our aurora machines.it was a good idea texit had to keep this post up to share thoughts on the aurora.. i did a great amount of research on building my own before i got this one and the aurora was not much more tesla and cowboycat is absolutely right..........  

so far for the almost 4 months i have this machine it has been running very well except for the above mentioned issues,,i like the easy acsess to every thing in the case,,when i got the pc i opened it up right away to make sure all was in place!!..i keep it clean with a interior detail spray that is good for plastic,vinyl,etc..not sure i can mention any brands here!!  as for the flashing lights issue that is due to just the way the system works im sure it will be taken care of in the future,,and i sometimes get the staticy noise at start up but not enough to panic just yet.. lol   and i do agree with the cooling issues there could be a couple of more fans and control of ALL of them in the command center.....     

congrats to all that just got their auroras....they are so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                                                                   

Well I don't have an Aurora but I thought I would share my Alienware experience nonetheless and my own Positives/Negatives about the Area 51 ALX.

I originally come from a high specced Dimension 950 that lasted me over 5 years and is still running (albeit a bit wonky, it probably needs a complete reformat and start from scratch).  My partner also has  a Dimension that has not had any major issues in 4 years and her mother recently bought one of the mini desktops.  Also without major issue for some time now (about 8 months).

Although I am not a gamer I required a high end machine as I do 3D modelling so I looked at what I could get.  As I have a vision impairment building my own system was out of the question and so I settled on the Area 51 ALX and I maxed it out (Overclocked to 3.7GHz, 12GB DDr3 1800 RAM, 2 ATI's, SSD Primary drive).

I was very impressed when I received it.  Things like the leather bound manual went a bit of a way to it's impressiveness and the machine was certainly solid (I had to drag it over my tile floor).

Sadly the power source died about 4 hours after I booted it up.  Next business day a tech came out and replaced it.  Since then its worked quite well although I've turned it down a Balanced power mode rather than High Performance (I only need the performance when I'm modelling).

Other niggles could be third party (trying to run 2 USB 3 external HD's, Bluetooth keyboard not connecting occasionally, a DiNovo Media Desktop).

The Area 51 ALX gave me an opportunity to have a high end desktop for a relatively decent price without needing to be too tech oriented while still allowing some amount of flexibility and adjustability.  I don't think you can quite beat it for a "WOW" factor (My partner kept turning around and saying "Wow the fins are moving...." and "Look, our study really looks like a NASA space station now".).

My only main complaints and they are more personal preference than anything else....

1. I don't particularly like the front bezel design.
2. The motorised door is sweet but only if you have your machine somewhere you're not likely to knock it accidentally.
3. I haven't looked into it personally but I have read things about needing additional fans etc on the top of the case.  If that is actually an issue later then I am surprised AlienWare are not installing these from the factory considering their machines run quite hot and any and all heat extraction and ventilation would help.
4. You can use this machine as your home central heating unit!!!

BTW when I dealt with Tech Support they were very pleasant and said the local tech would get in touch with me.  It was late on Friday (about 5pm) and I received a call 15 minutes later to schedule a time for Monday to have the tech come to fix it.  He took about 30 minutes and had completely replaced the power supply.

Compare this with my previous machine which was a HP bought from HN.  I had to bring it in once a year or so for repairs in the 4 year extended warranty period.  I eventually had to take it to a tech at a private shop and he clearly identified the main issue as a common problem with that particular machine (apparently HP not leaving enough room between the powersouce and the CPU etc was leading to overheating and continual automatic shut down of the machine every 15 mins).

I love my Aurora but I have had some problems.  Mostly with the Bios.  That is why I am here to make a post about what just happened.  Though it has happened before.