Lunar light and dark side Chassis differences

Question

Hi, Just wanted to start a discussion on the different chassis and why lunar light is chargeable, I always thought it was merely just the colour (which it is but there’s more) I only found out that there are more LED setups on the lunar light (front, front inner and the side) and the dark side, led on the front only (pls correct me if am wrong). I quiet like the lunar light setup but I thought that would’ve been the same for the dark side chassis, so I wanted to change the order I spoke to customer services and guess what they can’t make any amendments to the order, even though it’s not gone into production. So they have advised that I cancel and re-order with the correct chassis, what a hassle, I told them I got the machine on cyber week offer if I cancel and reorder I won’t get the same offer and they won’t honour this. So not sure what I can do. Maybe cancel and wait around Christmas and see if they bring the same offer in.

Doghouse Reilly · Answer

Indeed, I was smitten by the looks of the Lunar Light version of my R9 and noticed the price increase over the basic black. If I recall correctly it was about 50 bucks more, which is quite expensive for ALIENWARE to light up on the side of a case, but I didn't have the time or energy to build a computer from scratch and since I usually use them for at least 10 years I decided to splurge and get as close to what I wanted as I could.

Eight months later, after upgrading to 64 Gb of RAM and installing a 1500 watt Platinum efficiency power supply, I have just the Alienware Aurora R9 I wanted.

Doghouse Reilly · Answer

If you're talented you can customize anything, but if you mean a simple swap I don't think so; it depends on whether or not the basic black allows for light to pass through the ALIENWARE logo on the side or if it is solid.

Some other people have expressed interest in other post on this site concerning replacing their R11 front pieces so that they have all the LED lighting that is available on the Lunar Light package...I think they are being held up at this point because Dell might not have enough spare parts to be selling them as stand alone.

Kpnut5 · Answer

Can you add the additional lights on the dark side chassis?

andydragon247 · Answer

The ram thing is annoying cause it looks identical i am replacing all of it but it is cheeky

andydragon247 · Answer

I didn’t realise the lunar light had more lights just that it was more expensive. My previous was a lunar light and I thought I’d go for dark this time. Not really bothered to be honest as the sides aren’t visible on mg setup but I still think they should make it very clear that you lose lights as it just implies it’s a colour thing

Doghouse Reilly · Answer

@andydragon247 wrote:

I still think they should make it very clear that you lose lights as it just implies it’s a colour thing

Indeed, this is the same Dell/Alienware that doesn't tell you that the Kingston HyperX RAM they install is proprietary and isn't the same as the Kingston HyperX RAM you buy from other retailers.

The consumer really has to do his/her homework.

Doghouse Reilly · Answer

I agree, I have never had a problem with Kingston, but I went with Crucial Ballistix since it seemed odd to buy more Kingston and then have two OEM modules sitting in a drawer.

Link to my adventure in upgrading Alienware RAM...https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R9-a-pain-free-upgrade-nice-for-a-change/m-p/7746432#M35997https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R9-a-pain-free-upgrade-nice-for-a-change/m-p/7746432#M35997

Kpnut5 · Answer

Am not bothered about the back lights but I do like the front inner ones, these aren’t on the black chassis. Am definitely cancelling and re-ordering. I know am being picky now but I also wanted to get an external Blu-ray DVD player I have a huge collection of Blu-ray movies, happens to be they don’t do any blu ray players, I could get one from another supplier but would’ve been a bonus just to get everything from dell.

andydragon247 · Answer

The computer is coming tomorrow and I was excited. I’m sure it’ll be fine, it’s only a few lights and my keyboard has individually controllable lights so that’ll be fine I’m sure

to be fair, I never changed the colours on the lunar light version anyway so probably won’t notice it. Hope so!

andydragon247 · Answer

I didnt realise it was missing the front inner lights too. That’s really not so good, they really should have made it more obvious What lights does the black have?

Kpnut5 · Answer

Only the outer one and that’s it from the looks of it. I agree they really do need to be more specific in the description of the item.

Doghouse Reilly · Answer

Just the loop and the alien's head...

Kpnut5 · Answer

Let me know what you think when you get the machine tomorrow maybe I might just leave it, remember you do have 14 days return policy. what is the spec of your system?

Kpnut5 · Answer

Very nice spec. I’ve got almost the same as what you’ve got, let me know on your thoughts when you’ve unboxed and configured it, pls send some pictures if you can. I bet you can’t wait, ENJOY.
Mine will arrive next month 13th Jan.

andydragon247 · Answer

Main features;

10th Gen Intel Core i9 10900KF (10-Core, 20MB Cache, 3.7GHz to 5.3GHz w/Thermal Velocity Boost)
Dark Side of the Moon chassis with High-Performance CPU Liquid Cooling with 1000W Power Supply
16GB Dual Channel HyperX(FM) FURY DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz
512GB M.2 PCIe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10Gb GDDR6X
Killer(TM) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless

Considered the 3900 but the price increase for such a relatively small increase is totally not sensible in my opinion

i have separately got a Samsung 970 Evo 2Tb, 64GB 3200 HyperX RAM and 2 x 2Tb MX500 to install into it. Going to put the existing NVMe onto a PCI card. Should have ample storage!

Alienware Desktops

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