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Pros

  • A plethora of ports
  • Stylish, organized and compact case

Cons

  • Cramped case discourages tinkering.
  • Relatively poor performance for the price

At A Glance

The new Alienware Aurora is well-designed with a great case and a few neat features, but it’s a little pricey and doesn’t keep up with category leaders in our performance tests.

Manufacturer’s Description

Not Available

The Specs

Pricing
Part Number AAS2263MSB
Processor
Processor type Intel Core i7
Processor speed 3.4 MHz
Cache size 8.192 KB
Bus speed 100.0 MHz
Processor count 1
Memory
Memory size 4096.0 MB
Memory type DDR3
Memory speed 667.0 MHz
Graphics
Graphics Type Discrete
Secondary Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon HD
Number of Graphic Cards included 2
Video Bus PCI Express-SLI
Storage
Other storage
  • CompactFlash
  • Memory Stick
  • SD Card
  • SD/MMC Card
  • xD-Picture Card
Drive type Hard Disk Drive
Expansion slots
Number of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots 2.0
Ports and Connections
SD/MMC Card 1
Ethernet Type Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbps)
MultiMedia Card (MMC) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) Yes
Available Interfaces
  • DVI
  • DisplayPort
  • Ethernet - RJ45
  • FireWire Port (rear)
  • HDMI
  • Keyboard - USB
  • Mouse - USB
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus (front) (x2)
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus (front) (x3)
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus (rear) (x6)
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus 2.0
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus 3.0
  • eSATA
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Speed 16.0
Optical Drive Type BD-R/RE/DVD±R DL/DVD±RW
Storage Media
Compact flash Yes
SD card Yes
Memory stick Memory Stick
XD picture card 1
Included Software
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Other Features
Devices
  • All-In-One Flash Memory Card Reader
  • Keyboard
Case
Chassis style Tower (Midsize)

Performance

Overall Rating
WorldBench 6 Score 170
Office Productivity
Web Browsing 133  seconds (lower is better)
Office Suite Use 304  seconds (lower is better)
File Compression 138  seconds (lower is better)
Content Creation
Image Editing 248  seconds (lower is better)
GPU Graphics Rendering 268  seconds (lower is better)
CPU Graphics Rendering 164  seconds (lower is better)
Video Encoding 129  seconds (lower is better)
DVD Burning 248  seconds (lower is better)
Video Editing 147  seconds (lower is better)
Multitasking
World Bench 6 Multitasking 154
Gaming
Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 1024x768 286.8  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 1680x1050 293.5  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 1920x1200 291.3  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 2560x1600 266.7  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1024x768 178.4  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1680x1050 181.6  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1920x1200 178.9  Frames per second (higher is better)
Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 2560x1600 183.1  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, High Quality, 1024x768 118.1  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, High Quality, 1680x1050 86.4  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, High Quality, 1920x1200 76.6  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, High Quality, 2560x1600 54.2  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, Low Quality, 1024x768 178  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, Low Quality, 1680x1050 149.9  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, Low Quality, 1920x1200 140.4  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, Low Quality, 2560x1600 109  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, High Quality, 1024x768 99.9  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, High Quality, 1680x1050 78.1  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, High Quality, 1920x1200 71.2  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, High Quality, 2560x1600 53  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, Low Quality, 1024x768 180.7  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, Low Quality, 1680x1050 145.2  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, Low Quality, 1920x1200 130.4  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, Low Quality, 2560x1600 97.1  Frames per second (higher is better)
Dirt 2, Ultra Quality, 2560x1600 48.1  Frames per second (higher is better)
Far Cry 2, Ultra Quality, 2560x1600 50.7  Frames per second (higher is better)

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