Dell got a pat on the back for R15 (one user review)

great for AW but the 240mm radiator (wich is not even that much of an improvement if it is supposed to cool overclocked CPUs with 12 or more cores...), also feels a littlebit like a kick in the face to the people that have a 120mm rad in their auroras...

For users who paid 5000 last year and bought R13, R15 is more enviable.  
There might be some marketing background behind this review as the same YouTuber just did a R13 tear down last year.  It could be a Dell licensed retailer.  A normal person without some connection to Dell, well, a normal consumer would probably not buy one R13 and another R15 within a year.  On the other hand the video feels less smug and complacent than the AW’s own promotion.

The video is helpful to note that R15 has moved hdd drive to bottom of chassis, all black ram stick, two memory slots only, and the heavy duty power cord as well as Dell puck like antenna for wireless.  Quantitative demo of noise db and cpu/gpu temp also good.  What I would appreciate but the video did not show is Dell part number or spec of various components, the connectors of 1350w psu, whether there is a Dell adapter from 8 pin to 12VHPWR for 4090

Steve does excellent teardowns of Alienware and Dell machines, amongst others.

I think it should be a thing for Dell to send a sample of each new machine to Steve for a teardown, and see what he recommends as improvements.

Even owning the R13, I am fine with the improvements in the R15, tech just gets better every year! (like that shiny new 4090 I keep drooling over)  That and the R13 was much cheaper at the time in the middle of the shortages and scalping, the R15 is just crazy overpriced.  The comments are more interesting as people are analyzing the test results.  The cpu is still being power throttled, and even with the dual fan radiator its hitting thermal throttle on occasion.  The benchmarks are still showing ~10% below average results, just like the R13.  Its interesting he responded to some comments that now he is getting higher scores, of course no proof or what was overclocked was shown. 

I was able to tame my R13's i7 with a second Noctua fan on the single cryo-radiator, no more spikes to 99+ in AC_Odyssey, so its working for my use-case for now.  I am upset with the zero after sales support: no way to upgrade parts (I would be up for a new psu swap to the 1350w directly from dell, so later I could upgrade the gpu), and no way to replace a broken part (its basically e-waste landfill when the mobo or psu die outside of warranty).   Thinking about it more, you can trash the mobo by accidentally knocking into an inserted usb drive/cable in the front slots. 

It's true that Steve is clearly no fan of Dell/Alienware. But it's also true there are some issues with the machines he takes apart and analyzes. From the over-engineering of the case/mechanics, to the mounting holes for the AIO being directly drilled into the case rather than using a backplate. And the limited upgradability due to the OEM design, and the limited available upgrades.

In my opinion, the value of the higher end models is questionable because of the pricing, the OEM design, and the limited support for future upgrades.

Not everybody wants to shelve out 5K every few years for a PC upgrade, and currently the PC market is taking a big nosedive. The industry will have to reposition itself to what consumers are willing to spend, and being a mostly fully integrated OEM design puts Alienware systems at a competitive disadvantage in todays market.

I think Steve trashes Dell whenever he got a chance although I do like his hair style and store backdrop etc.  He wants Dell to be like cyberpower that uses standard retail components. that would probably not happen in foreseeable future.  Dell uses its own supply chain not affected much by others.

what I do not get is I heard people say the 3090 is way too powerful for gaming, and that probably goes to 4090 too.  you could get decent gaming performance out of slightly older and less powerful cpu/gpu or some Ryzen cpu (5800x3D?).  It seems the Dell-Intel alliance is just pushing the edge beyond what common consumer needs.  Well it is good from the tech advance point of view, but the marketing seems to want people to spend more on things they do not actually need.  Well isn't that the essence of online consumerism?

I run a 5900X at 4.6 Ghz on all cores, 32 GB Ram, a few SSD's, an RTX 3080, 2 monitors, and some RGB bling and case fans on a single UPS.

Power draw is around 500 Watts when gaming, with the 3080 being loaded at an almost constant 100%.

If you have a good power supply from a reputable manufacturer, 1,000 Watts will be sufficient for almost all but the most power hungry builds.

I use a 1,000 Watt Seasonic Focus PSU and it's hardly breaking a sweat.

basic psu calculator shows one does not really need the 1350w psu for i9-13900KF, 32GB DDR5, RTX 4090, NVMe SSD

Load Wattage:769 W
Recommended PSU Wattage:819 W

so this suggests R13 user can run the 4090 using the 1000w psu.

https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

The nice thing about the 1350w psu is it has the new 12VHPWR cable for gpu power.  The other psu's only have 2 gpu power cables with daisychained 8pin and 6pin connectors.  I get the 4090 is overpowered, and I can easily sit tight with my 3080ti for another few years!  Its just my main hobby and I like to tinker.

The dell proprietary parts would not be so bad if they offered them for sale.  For example third parties want $400 for the 1350w, and its of unknown status, where I can buy a new 1200w modular corsair for $300 with warranty, or a 1000w for $250.

Steve Burke now refers to them as Failienware

So based on that, the 4 sensing pins cannot operate since it's a adaptor rather than a true 12VHPWR cable.

Interesting choice to not design a proper 12VHPWR PSU and instead rely on an adaptor solution. I guess that's yet another design decision and one of those things that make it though to recommend these systems at the asking price.

The new 12VHPWR cable is a Dell adapter cable (aka extension cable) connected to the Dell 1350w psu 8 pin PCIe connectors, not a fixed connector of psu itself based on 1350w psu photo.  The Dell 1000 w psu has two Video/PCIe cables each with a 6-Pin and piggy-back 8-Pin PCIe connector.

The Dell 1350 w psu has two gpu power cables each with an 8 pin and 6+2 pin in piggyback or daisy chain.

.1350w

3090 and 4090's ect with the 24 gb vram is a VR favorite for us simmers. I wish there was cable adaptor or longer gpu cables available so I could upgrade to a RTX4090 and have it outside of my R11. I would love to have the MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIMX water-cooled for my r11. 

according to R15 tear down video (1:22) the 8 pin gpu cables are plugged into four 8 pin sockets of a Dell psu plastic cover about 1 inch behind the top rear end of psu.  these sockets serve as GPU power relays which are electrically combined into a 12 pin 12VHPWR for the 4090.  This plastic psu cover with socket was previously used in R13 too.

this is the Dell way of cable management.  It is called extension cables.  Dell also uses extension cables for the two 4 pin CPU connectors.  The only direct psu connection to motherboard without extension is the 12/10 pin white connector.  This is nice because to remove the psu, the only direct cable to disconnect is this 12/10 pin one, the rest all from extension relays without need to unplug directly from gpu or motherboard.  It is also a very good idea to avoid fire hazard because the 12VHPWR needs to be securely connected to gpu (pushed all the way in). 

1350w

You can water cool your graphics card & CPU with an external radiator.