You've got to hand it to Alienware. Despite bearing the brunt of l33t gamer criticism since the Dell buyout in 2006—after all, Alienware machines have tended to resemble something from 12-year-old's high school sketch book—the company has ploughed on, creating increasingly sleek laptops and desktops.

Its latest, the squat, mid-size tower dubbed Aurora, is the most desirable Alienware machine yet. Taking cues from the company's gargantuan Area 51, the Aurora sports a surprisingly compact form factor, restrained (for Alienware at least) aesthetics, and a price that's not far off a self-build. It even has decent cooling performance.

For the first time in a long time, if a tech-shy relative or PC gaming newbie asks whether or not an Alienware desktop is worth it, you can finally say yes.

Standing 472.52mm (18.6 inches) tall, a mere 360.5mm (14.19 inches) deep, and 212mm (8.35 inches) wide, the Alienware Aurora is smaller and wider than your average gaming desktop. Which, given the move towards smaller systems that are just at home in the living room as they are in an office or bedroom, is no bad thing. Indeed, this is probably the first Alienware you could place in a living room, in full view, and not receive cold, hard shame from a loved one.

That's partly thanks to the Aurora's flat front panel, which is finished in a sturdy matte black plastic up top, with a non-threatening piano black grille underneath. Older models were somehow both curvier and more angular all at once, which led to some questionable aesthetics. That said, there's still a light-up, RGB LED alien-head power switch, but you can turn it off if you prefer a more subdued look.

The sleeker styling continues with the side panels, which feature a soft grey finish, and the same tri-LED light bars that appear across the Alienware range. The panels aren't flat, and actually arch out from the front panel somewhere, but they look good, neatly avoiding the bulging effect that many PC cases with a similar design suffer from. The left panel also features air intake vents for the graphics card(s) inside.

The top of the Aurora features the same glossy grille as the front, as well as a 120mm exhaust fan. If you opt for the all-in-one liquid cooling solution, the radiator mounts here alongside the fan. The asymmetrical top panel also houses a useful carry handle, which makes lugging the Aurora around to LAN parties (they're still a thing, right?) much easier. And at an average weight of 14kg (32lbs), depending on the configuration, it's just about possible to lift it with one hand too.

Unfortunately, the reasonable weight comes at the expense of build materials: the entirety of the Aurora's external case is made of plastic. It's a good, solid, quality plastic, but when so many other high-end desktops are being built with premium materials like aluminium and glass, the plastic is a letdown. Indeed, when removed, the side panels make that horrible hollow, rattling sound so reminiscent of pre-built PCs from the '90s.

Yes, it's upgradable

At least the side panels are easy to remove. While the Aurora might be an off-the-shelf gaming PC, Alienware has made it easy to get inside. On the rear of the case is a plastic handle that, when pulled, ejects the vented side panel revealing a tightly packed interior and a unique layout. Where most PCs have a top- or bottom-mounted power supply, the Aurora saves space by situating the power supply above the motherboard. Just next to the side-panel lever are two sliding switches that unlock the PSU, allowing it to swing up and out from the case, cables still attached.

This gives you unfettered access to the CPU-cooler and socket, memory slots (there are four, with two populated by default), and PCIe slots. There's room for two full-length graphics cards, although using two means giving up access to one of the smaller 4X slots. There's an M.2 slot for PCIe-based NVMe storage like a Samsung 960 Pro, two 2.5-inch tool-free sleds for standard SSDs, and a single 3.5-inch hard drive slot, which sits just under the PSU. These should provide enough storage options for most users, though it isn't a great setup for anyone looking to store vast amounts of data.

The one thing you can't do is replace the motherboard. It's standard proprietary Dell fare—although it does appear close to mATX size—with little in the way of easy access. Cable management is good though, with cables neatly tied into position along the sides of the bare steel case. This particular configuration comes with a modular 850W power supply, but Alienware pre-wires any extra cables you might need into their relevant positions. There are spare SATA power connectors near the 2.5-inch bays, for example, and there's an extra PCIe power connector, should you wish to add another graphics card.

With such a unique configuration, you might be wondering how the Aurora handles airflow. The good news is that despite the location of the PSU, I didn't experience any throttling problems. The 120mm fan at the front pulls in cool air, with the top-mounted radiator and fan exhausting air out of the case. Meanwhile, the (blower-style) graphics card sucks in cool air from the grilles on the side panel. There isn't a removable fan filter on the grille, which means you've got to lug the whole side panel around in order to clear out any dust. I also wonder how well the Aurora would do with an air cooler (as is featured in certain configs) instead of the all-in-one. I suspect overclocking would be out of the question.

Not one for overclockers

Speaking of overclocking, Alienware will happily sell you a system (depending on your configuration) that's been pre-overclocked to a modest 4.4GHz. Activating the overclock involves going into the Alienware's BIOS, which, frankly, is horrendously outdated. There's no mouse support, no graphical GUI, no way to save different custom-overclocking profiles. For a machine marketed at gamers and enthusiasts, this just won't do.

But even if you're a fan of the old-school aesthetic, your overclocking options are severely limited. In the configuration I reviewed—which came equipped with an unlocked Intel Core i7 6700K and a liquid cooler—there were two predefined overclocking profiles, one for 4.2GHz and one for 4.4GHz. There's also an option to custom-configure your own overclock, or even load up an XMP profile for your RAM. However, don't expect anything like the configurability provided by a build-it-yourself enthusiast motherboard.

Overclocking isn't for everyone, of course. But these days there are so many boutique PC builders around (as well as not-so-boutique ones like Origin) offering fully-fledged gaming PCs with all manner of customisation options—and better future-proofing thanks to the use of standard motherboards, power supplies, and cases—that the Aurora is something of a compromise.

Thankfully, Alienware isn't charging anywhere near as much as a typical boutique PC-builder does. Indeed, the Aurora is exceptionally good value for money, particularly if you live in the UK. The cheapest Aurora configuration costs just £649 ($799), with a core i3-6100 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 950 graphics card. That's just about enough to scrape by for 1080p gaming, but realistically you'll want to step up to one of the beefier i5 or i7 configurations, which come equipped with an AMD RX 480 or better.

The machine I tested was the top-end model, which sells for £1,789 in the UK, and $2,229 in the US. As you'd expect for the price, it comes fully loaded with a top-end Intel Core i7-6700K processor, an Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB Toshiba PCIe NVMe SSD, a 2TB hard drive, an 850W modular power supply, and an all-in-one liquid cooler. And if that doesn't quite suit, you can customise pretty much every component on Dell's site.

A similar configuration from Overclockers UK—based on an mATX build with a decent NZXT S340 case—came to £1,610; not far off the Alienware. Sure, the custom build is ultimately more flexible in the long run. But if you're not interested in building a PC, an extra £180 for a machine that's been pre-built, tested, and shipped with a one-year on-site warranty is a great deal.

US folks don't quite get as good a deal, however; the same custom configuration on Newegg costs $1,841, around $400 less than the Alienware price.

Performance

There's good news all round when it comes to the Aurora's performance. Obviously, the exact performance you get will vary greatly depending on how you spec out your Aurora. In the case of the review model, however, there are no surprises. The key components—the Nvidia GTX 1080, the Intel Core i7-6700K—are known quantities at this point, which is to say that the i7 is great processor, and the GTX 1080 is fantastic graphics card. Paired with 16GB of DDR4 memory and the fast SSD, they blaze through pretty much any game you can throw at them, so long as you're not playing at maximum settings with 4K resolution. You can do it, but you're looking at a locked 30FPS rather than the more desirable 60FPS.

At 1080p resolution, expect games to run at hundreds of frames per second, even at maxed-out settings. At 1440p, 60FPS is no trouble at all, even in modern games like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Ashes of the Singularity. For a full look at the sort of performance you can expect, read the full Ars review of the GTX 1080.

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What's more important with the Aurora, really, is to see whether or not its components throttle due to the unique layout and smaller case. Fortunately, there are no issues: the GTX 1080—a Founders Edition model that blows hot air out of the case—boosted past its rated speeds to just shy of 2GHz before hitting any thermal limits. And that's with no overclocking and the default fan profiles enabled. I eked out an extra few MHz with an overclock, but don't expect anything too crazy on that front: airflow in the Aurora is enough to run things well, but not for wilder overclocks.

The all-in-one liquid cooler works wonders for the CPU, which sits at just under 30 degrees centigrade when idle, and peaks at just under 60 degrees during a synthetic AIDA64 stress test. With a mild overclock to 4.4GHz, the temperature rises to 68 degrees, leaving some thermal headroom for a more aggressive overclock.

The Toshiba NVMe SSD is an outstanding performer too, with sequential reads in CrystalDiskMark of 2,549MB/sec and writes of 1,115MB/sec. That's up there with Samsung's market-leading 512GB 950 Pro, although its upcoming 960 Pro will likely move the goalposts once again. Still, these are crazy-fast speeds and any games stored on the SSD load extremely quickly. Really, the only flaw with the Aurora's storage is the fact that there's a slow, spinning-platter hard drive included by default, as the NVMe SSD is a configurable extra.

Me, I'd sack off the old-school hard drive entirely, and opt for either a bigger NVMe drive, or an NVMe/2.5-inch SSD combo, particularly as the latter has come down in price hugely over the past year or so.

Verdict

The Aurora isn't perfect by any means. The plastic construction feels cheap, the bare-steel interior and electronics-green motherboard look naff, and the exterior aesthetics, while far more restrained than most Alienware systems, still won't be for everyone. But if you like the looks (and I have to say, I'm more of a fan than I thought I would be) the Aurora is easily one of the best gaming systems around. Few prebuilt PCs feature the kind of interior access and upgradability that the Aurora does, nor do they perform as well.

And, surprisingly, it's extremely good value for money—which means more money to blow on dozens of games you'll never play in a Steam sale.

It's easy to dismiss systems like the Aurora as being purely for PC gaming newbies, or those who lack the chops to build their own systems—at least, that's what a good chunk of the Internet thinks. But there's a sizeable audience of disaffected console gamers and curious beginners for whom building a gaming PC from scratch isn't feasible, and who simply want to get set up with a great system without the hassle. For them, the Alienware Aurora is a good, safe choice.

The Good

Restrained (for Alienware) compact chassis design and aesthetics
Easy access to interior for upgrades
Customisable lighting effects that you can turn off
Great thermal performance
Excellent value for Money

The Bad

Plastic construction feels cheap
Dated BIOS and overclocking options
Bare steel interior

The Ugly

The abuse you'll get from PC gaming snobs for buying an Alienware