Aurora R12, would all RTX 3080 work?

What you heard is true. A standard RTX 3080 will be too long for the R12. It will be interesting to see if the same will apply to the R13 and R14. Hopefully we’ll find out today unless the presentation is nothing more than marketing fluff.

The R12 uses a nano chassis and as such the GPU’s Dell uses are considered OEM. If in the future someone releases a short RTX 3080 then it’s possible to install it in an R12.

The maximum dimensions for OEM video cards is: Length: 267mm, Height: 114mm, Width: 50mm. There's very little room length wise, so the card you want to put in the system cannot be longer than 267 mm.

This will limit your options to cards 267 mm long.

You've got 280mm of space to play with.  That's with the stock air intake fan and its mounting frame.  Some people have replaced it with an aftermarket fan and gained some extra room, airflow and silence.  But from what I've seen can also throw a BIOS error upon boot.

A very disappointed R12 owner here.  My R12 came with a 3070, always ran very hot.  I was recently lucky enough to pick up a Nvidia 3080ti FE.  It measures 11.2" and I can confirm it will fit, but you either have to remove the lower intake fan or replace it with a Noctua slim Fan, which fits perfectly with no room to spare (and no bios error).  I strongly suggest purchasing a fan splitter cable and add a intake fan to the top position. Mine is not mounted in anyway, it just sits there and does not rattle.  I measured and the max room you have in a R12 with No fan is 12.2".  The 3090ti FE measures 12.3 (that is why I went with the 3080ti)  The EVGA FTW measure 11.3, so you would have to remove the fan or purchase a 80mm fan that would sit underneath the GPU. I can not believe Dell would design and market their flagship gaming PC knowing top of the line GPUs do not fit in it.  I was a loyal Alienware customer for many years, but this is my last one. 

I've been doing research on Aurora R12 cooling upgrades for the last 6 hours...I think part of the reason you run into no errors with the Noctua fan is because you're splitting it with what looks like the ML120 Pro.

Apparently when splitting Noctua fans with a known-to-work fan, there won't be a bios error...Looks like your system proves that. Well done!

Before I got the 3080ti I had corsair ML120 P on the top and bottom  (on a splitter).  I would get the system check screen only when I did a shutdown.  I didn't not get it with a restart.  Some forums had said the Corsair would produce no error.  This was not the case with me.  The system check would go through and find no problem.  Now with the Corsair on top and Noctua....I get no system check or bios error.   I would try the my same setup Noctua and Corsair and see what happens with you...keep us posted.  and Good luck 

Very few 3080's will fit your case. the case we have in our r12 is very small and many top tier cards will not fit. If you take the front fan off then you have about an extra inch but you need to find a card that is under 12inches for it to fit at all.

Just to follow up, as I previously said, I was a life long Dell/Alienware customer and was never buying a PC from them again.  Since the RTX 4090 I picked up was not able to fit in my 2 year old Alienware R12....so I built my own and I am never looking back

@Primo1995​ Lian Li Strimers! I love those things. They work very nice with SignalRGB software.

@Primo1995​ Necro-posting a reply to a Necro-post FTW!

Not only do oxygen molecules making a squeaking sound when they try to fit between the components of this absurd case, Dell loaded the Mobo with firmware that actively obstructs use outside the tight confines of their software. I recently switched to Linux because I was tired of Microsoft's and oh boy did I get a surprise! I can't control my fans. Their SMM operates in a Super Duper secret proprietary fashion that means most software can gain little or no control of the fans. Then the BIOS has the majority of it's features removed, so you can't control the fans that way. So they made a case with terrible thermal performance, packed it with components that generate tons of heat, then kneecap anyone trying to solve it themselves.

There are a total of 2 USB buses on the motherboard and all 16 USB ports are on a single one. The other sits, disconnected from everything. Wasted space and potential to save 0.000012 cents. Then they, of course, have to add their little spin on the Intel Comet Lake USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller with "Subsystem: Dell Device 0a63". The standard xhci_hcd driver has no idea what to make of this little gem and now every USB port on my PC is limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

I'll just add Dell along with Microsoft that will never see another penny from me.

 2 years into the PC I build myself and I have never once got an error or BSOD.  I was just lucky enough to pick up a RTX 5090 FE and just added it. All the space and all the fans I want to control. 

@Primo1995​ Nice! I've not even really started my new build, but I have a Monstrous DG-87 case (right) that has a built in fan controller and a 1200w PSU from my previous PC (left). The only thing I'm keeping from the R12 is the 3080. When I get my new build done I'm taking everything else out in the yard and setting it on fire. Sorry Environment but this thing doesn't deserve to be recycled.