Entered CNET Catalog: 12/09/2004
SKU: CNETAurora ALX
Manufacturer: Alienware Corporation
Content [Hide]
Manufacturer description
When you demand high performance, superior build quality, innovative style, and award-winning support, turn to Alienware to deliver the definitive solution. Alienware delivers the peace of mind that can only come from an unparalleled tradition of excellence and an impeccable reputation for creating systems powered by the most advanced, non-proprietary technology. PRODUCT FEATURES: AMD Athlon processing power; Breakthrough SLI Multi-GPU technology; Cutting edge performance-enhanced hardware.Product summary
The good: Nvidia SLI technology provides powerful 3D graphics platform; liquid-cooled for quiet operation; dual 10,000rpm drives; superior service and support.
The bad: Expensive; custom painting not an option.
The bottom line: If you can stomach the price, Alienware's Aurora ALX SLI serves up big 3D gaming performance backed by some of the best customer service you'll find.
Average user rating: from 25 users
2.5 stars
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 User Rating: 
1/10
Okay price but doa
Pros: none, cannot spend enough cash to get a working system
Cons: 2 dead systems, 2 months, no refund yet
Review: I received a doa system and returned it, the repaired unit died in less than one week, I ask for a refund and instead am getting repair parts and a tech coming to fix it. I am not happy and will never buy from them again for any reason. Cyberpower will get my business for now on.
User Rating: 1/10
No Alienware Support After Sale
Pros: No Pros at all
Cons: Alienware product did not work when delivered and warranty proved to be fraudulent
Review: I bought a an Alienware Aurora ALX SLI that, out of the box, did not work and does not work to this day. I paid nearly $ 6,000 for it including nearly $ 500 for 4 year on-site warranty. Alienware never honored the warranty in any respect. I would warn any would-be purchaser of an Alienware product to beware. I essentially wasted $ 6,000 on a bogus product that never worked out-of-the-box. I own eight other computers from reputable manufacturers, all of which work as promised and when warranty work was required on two of these units (HP, Sony), that work was supplied as promised. But, not Alienware. They refused to honor their warranty in any respect at all.
User Rating: 
4/10
Glad I didn't buy one
Pros: Looks good from a distance.
Cons: problems are obvious
Review: After reading all this feedback, I am glad I did not buy an Alienware.
What I started to realize after comparing laptops is that the Alienware gives less for more money. After realizing this I came to CNET to read everyone's opinions. Thank God for this website, and the ability to post opinions! YOu guys just saved me a lot of headaches.
What I started to realize after comparing laptops is that the Alienware gives less for more money. After realizing this I came to CNET to read everyone's opinions. Thank God for this website, and the ability to post opinions! YOu guys just saved me a lot of headaches.
Updated
The idea that someone gets a 15% restocking fee is ridiculous. Such a policy is a great reason to stay away from a merchant. All they are doing is assuring their profit when you return the crappy unit. That should be illegal if the unit you are returning is defective. I am surprised that type of return policy is legal.
The idea that someone gets a 15% restocking fee is ridiculous. Such a policy is a great reason to stay away from a merchant. All they are doing is assuring their profit when you return the crappy unit. That should be illegal if the unit you are returning is defective. I am surprised that type of return policy is legal.
User Rating: 
2/10
Way over priced
Pros: Good cooling system and Case
Cons: Over priced
Review: I put together a system using the same mother board, similar processor,hard drive, memory, and Radeon X800 card for under a $1000 . Yes its not exactly the same, but if your a serious gamer you probably know how to build a computer. You could make your own almost exactly like this for under $2000. Way over priced, and not worth it
User Rating: 
10/10
This pc is one of the most expensive and best pcs on the market.
Pros: REALLY REALLY REALLY NICE GRAPHICS AND SPEED! Huge RAM speed and REALLY fast hard drives. Nice blask finish.
Cons: The better it is the more expensive
Review: Had this pc for about 7months now. This is one blazing fast pc and its really great with multi-tasking. It took only ten minutes to reinstall Windows Xp pro! The liquid-cooling kept the temp around 20c. With four gigs of ram and two 10,000rpm HDs this machine is really fast, Although its really expensive just the cpu itself cost over 6grand. But it was woth every penny this machine is the untimate gaming system! It ran F.E.A.R. really smoothly and it also did really well with WOW. Not only that with two nvidia 7800 gtx cards it ran battlefield 2 @ 420fps! I can't understand why the reviewers ahead hated alienware. If money is no object to u then this is the machine but if ur a little low this machine is still a great investment.(You wont need to upgrade it for the next 15years!)
User Rating: 1/10
My Alienware was DOA
Pros: Biggest Paperweight in my office
Cons: Sloppy aeembly, Nasty customer service reps
Review: I purchased ALienware for the 1st time this Spring. After waiting 3 weeks to assemble and "test" a PC that should have taken 2 hrs to assemble, it arrived with the sound card mounted improperly (not seated) due to the motherboard being mounted incorrectly. Cust Service called me a liar, and said they never reeived the pics I emailed... so much for the value of their "free" 2 yr warranty extension. Bottom Line: Build your own, or buy Dell.
User Rating: 2/10
6000$ that is a one line summary
Pros: people think youre rich when u throw money around like that
Cons: they also think youre an idiot
Review: when i bought my 51m i was forced to have a laptop and needed to replace my 2 year old desktop... 2in1 yay nope... crap idea... the point was i got AW because laptops are difficult to piece together... this isnt... to prove my point goto fry's and ask the pimply kid behind the counter to help you put 1 together, and itll be a matter of puting a to a and b to b... really hard to mess up these says as nothing really fits the wrong slot... i have looked over this computer very closely and i just cant seem to find WHY!!!??? is it so damn expensive, its crap! for 6k im nt only ging to have mine faster but also have enough mney saved over to buy a chest freezer for the computer to chill in... and anyone who dares tell me the styling and support get smacked for ignorance
User Rating: 1/10
returned within 2 weeks
Pros: no pros, except for the free t-shirt
Cons: bad system, hard to return too
Review: i saved money to buy one and it turned out to be of poor quality. i had a hard time returning it, i paid my own shiiping and restocking fees. very bad experience...
Updated
Kinda pissed off at Alienware for a moment, my boyfriends is running fine and is having none of the problems that I was having on mine, so i guess I had an atypical experience with Alienware...
Kinda pissed off at Alienware for a moment, my boyfriends is running fine and is having none of the problems that I was having on mine, so i guess I had an atypical experience with Alienware...
User Rating: 10/10
Those who are negative about the Alienware Aurora ALX, obviously don't own the monster, unlike me.
Pros: ALX Graphics Performance-Enhancement, Liquid Alcohol H20 Cooling, Video Optimizer, Alien Ice 2.0 Fan regulator, Dual (2) EVGA Geforce 7800 GTX Overclocked by Alienware, AMD X2 Dual-Core 4800+ OC
Cons: no complaints
Review: PROS(Countinued): Corsair 2GB XMS 550MHZ(THE HIGHEST END AND STRONGEST RAM ON THE MARKET FOR PC GAMES), FRAME RATE PRODUCTION FROM ALX HARDWARE ENHANCEMENT, AND THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE YOU CAN FIND.
This calls for an actual review...by an actuall owner of the Alienware Aurora ALX:
!*WARNING*! THOSE WHO ARE ANTI-ALIENWARE ACTIVISTS WILL FIND THE BELOW INFORMATION TO BE FACTS! IF YOU ARE AN ANTI-ALIENWARE ACTIVIST, YOU "WILL" FIND THE BELOW INFORMATION TO BE DISTURBING!
I recently recieved my Auroa ALX, and by all means, my $6,000.63 investment is probably the best investment any PC Gaming FREEK could make. If you are craving for the speed and power to make those high-end games run rediculously smooth with all graphic details maxed out...This truly is the ultimate monster.
Alienware recently unleashed the SLI (Dual video Card) motherboard with the new NVIDIA Graphics processor: The Geforce 7800 GTX. What I'm really pleased with is Alienware's Aurora ALX Graphics Performance-Enhancement, whihc is when the ALX technician who is building you machine will Overclock the Geforce 7800 GTX Video Cards to 450MHZ from the Card's Stock Core Speed of (430MHZ). Game performce wise...All I can say is "UN FLIPPING REAL!" And on top of the Overclocked Graphics Processors, the new NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX CARDS are ALSO CONNECTED UP TO THE LIQUID COOLING CYCLE. I have been able to play Battlefield 2 and Farcry (With HDR "High Dynamic Range" Enabled) on full specs with NO SLOW DOWN...WHAT SO EVER. Surprisingly these new Nvidia Cards have not even been able to use all of it's architecture, becuase it's made for the Next-Generation PC games like Unreal tournement 2007. Put it this way, Half-Life 2 runs so perfect on Maxed Details, that it feels like I'm not playing a Graphically challenged game.
I also have the new AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core Processor (Which Alienware also Overclocked a bit). Now, when you think of the current-generation games, such as the ones mentioned above, they DO NOT SUPPORT THE 2 CORES, THEY ONLY SUPPORT ONE OF THEM. So when I play Battlefield 2, my Dual Core Processor is using only One of its Cores instead of both. However, in the future more games will start supporting Dual-Cores such as Unreal Tournement 2007. So it's always good to look ahead before purchasing this specific machine.
To conclude, my machine is ready for the future of PC games. With all my Hardware Maxed out and Overclocked, with Alienware who obviously spent alot of time and took a lot of care with my machine (Making it the monster it is), and with the best customer support IN THE WORLD...You can bet that my time spent with my ALIENWARE AURORA ALX so far IS worth the 6 GRAND, and Alienware's efforts to building me a Luxury Monster.
This calls for an actual review...by an actuall owner of the Alienware Aurora ALX:
!*WARNING*! THOSE WHO ARE ANTI-ALIENWARE ACTIVISTS WILL FIND THE BELOW INFORMATION TO BE FACTS! IF YOU ARE AN ANTI-ALIENWARE ACTIVIST, YOU "WILL" FIND THE BELOW INFORMATION TO BE DISTURBING!
I recently recieved my Auroa ALX, and by all means, my $6,000.63 investment is probably the best investment any PC Gaming FREEK could make. If you are craving for the speed and power to make those high-end games run rediculously smooth with all graphic details maxed out...This truly is the ultimate monster.
Alienware recently unleashed the SLI (Dual video Card) motherboard with the new NVIDIA Graphics processor: The Geforce 7800 GTX. What I'm really pleased with is Alienware's Aurora ALX Graphics Performance-Enhancement, whihc is when the ALX technician who is building you machine will Overclock the Geforce 7800 GTX Video Cards to 450MHZ from the Card's Stock Core Speed of (430MHZ). Game performce wise...All I can say is "UN FLIPPING REAL!" And on top of the Overclocked Graphics Processors, the new NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX CARDS are ALSO CONNECTED UP TO THE LIQUID COOLING CYCLE. I have been able to play Battlefield 2 and Farcry (With HDR "High Dynamic Range" Enabled) on full specs with NO SLOW DOWN...WHAT SO EVER. Surprisingly these new Nvidia Cards have not even been able to use all of it's architecture, becuase it's made for the Next-Generation PC games like Unreal tournement 2007. Put it this way, Half-Life 2 runs so perfect on Maxed Details, that it feels like I'm not playing a Graphically challenged game.
I also have the new AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core Processor (Which Alienware also Overclocked a bit). Now, when you think of the current-generation games, such as the ones mentioned above, they DO NOT SUPPORT THE 2 CORES, THEY ONLY SUPPORT ONE OF THEM. So when I play Battlefield 2, my Dual Core Processor is using only One of its Cores instead of both. However, in the future more games will start supporting Dual-Cores such as Unreal Tournement 2007. So it's always good to look ahead before purchasing this specific machine.
To conclude, my machine is ready for the future of PC games. With all my Hardware Maxed out and Overclocked, with Alienware who obviously spent alot of time and took a lot of care with my machine (Making it the monster it is), and with the best customer support IN THE WORLD...You can bet that my time spent with my ALIENWARE AURORA ALX so far IS worth the 6 GRAND, and Alienware's efforts to building me a Luxury Monster.
Updated
I had a few spelling errors in the 3rd or 4th Paragraph, I'm sure you can figure out the words, but I do apologize.
I had a few spelling errors in the 3rd or 4th Paragraph, I'm sure you can figure out the words, but I do apologize.
User Rating: 
6/10
Good gaming pc, but it's very expensive.
Pros: All of the features this case packs inside!
Cons: Case style is old like previous models, very expensive!!!
Review: Overall this is a great gamer's pc, but you might be able to build a computer with the same features for less than the msrp of this pc. I think the case style of this pc is a little flashy and odd looking. Alienware might want to change the case on future models. Using the same case over and over leaves you bord! But, if you want a gaming pc, I would recommend this to anyone!
User Rating: 
9/10
If you know your stuff, build it now, with all the goodies.
Pros: Absolutely everything.
Cons: If anything, price. But worth it.
Review: I have 20 years experience and many computer purchases under my belt and I must say that Alienware Aurora ALX SLI is the best, most creative, most powerful, sleek, smooth and truly original desktop computer on the market today. I'm greatly satisfied with every penny I spent on my red-eyed monster, and I use it for everything you could imagine. I've owned my machine for over a month and this is my second Alienware PC after my 4 year old laptop, which is amazing in itself and still going on strong. But if price is an issue, which has not been for me, I would look at my options without fear. Alienware support has been great, but not perfect. Stay away if you are an amatuer, be it HW or SW.
Updated
If the price is turning you off, think about the hours you'll spend building it yourselef, not to mention testing it and not including Alienware's designe. I got my system in less than 3 weeks and I am very satisfied with everything it has to offer. If you have the time and energy and want to save a bundle, build a similar system yourself. If not, Alienware is the way to go, regardless of what others are saying here, who seem to have never even used the thing.
If the price is turning you off, think about the hours you'll spend building it yourselef, not to mention testing it and not including Alienware's designe. I got my system in less than 3 weeks and I am very satisfied with everything it has to offer. If you have the time and energy and want to save a bundle, build a similar system yourself. If not, Alienware is the way to go, regardless of what others are saying here, who seem to have never even used the thing.
User Rating: 1/10
Alienware is D-
Pros: 100% nothing
Cons: ugly looking, extremely expensive for no reason, poor performance, bad CS
Review: I couldnt believe that some website claim alienware as an A level, that is just ridiclous, this machine is totally not worth the price, first the ugly looking, they wont have something new, secondly, very expensive, i could build one for 70% cheaper then buying the same thing from alienware. I dont even wanna waste time on writing bad things about this crap.
User Rating: 
3/10
$5000? Are you kidding me? Waste of money.
Pros: Nice Looking Alien
Cons: Bad customer Service, Advertised Speed Wrong
Review: I could build a better one for $2500. Alienware is becoming the Gucci of gaming Rigs. You pay for the name brand, but benchmark and in-game machines parallel tests are very poor, far from advertised specs. Customer service doesn't know their job. Warranty and Return policies are shrewd, very close to a scam.
User Rating: 2/10
Watch out - very frustrating experience
Pros: Excellent tech support if you get the right person
Cons: Horrible sales and service.
Review: Horrible experience. Had to return the machine twice for repairs in 8 months. Not once in the 3 times I have had to unpack the machine was it in complete working order or configured correctly. Not once!
Eddie in ALX sales is a liar and useless. Stay away from him at all costs. In fact, do yourself a favor and buy something else. If you are foolish enough to buy one of these things, make sure you have a backup machine. You are definitely going to need it...
Eddie in ALX sales is a liar and useless. Stay away from him at all costs. In fact, do yourself a favor and buy something else. If you are foolish enough to buy one of these things, make sure you have a backup machine. You are definitely going to need it...
User Rating: 1/10
Friend Has the ALX AMD H20 Cooled
Pros: Neon lights
Cons: Price,Service,Performance, and weight?
Review: I built a full copy of their $5100 AMD ALX Water cooled system, my friend baught the same system, so we decided to bench mark them against eachother, He was supprised to see my rig runt 3d mark 2005, and performance test and beat his by almost 20% on each one. One last thing he had two blue screens during the test. the kicker? i only paid 3120 including tax to build mine. all baught from frys electronics. Build your own, or buy a good Dell or Hp and buy a water cooling system for 200. thats my advice
User Rating: 
8/10
Alienware 7500 SLI w/ AMD FX55 Nice!
Pros: Unbeatable performance!
Cons: SLI price is high
Review: I already priced out half a dozon SLI systems (Voodoo, Falcon, etc..) and researched all the parts (same brand and quality) as the Alienware Aurora 7500. There is no dramatic price diffence from any other manufactuer using the same componants. some may offer a specials like a free 15 inch usless LCD, but that's it.
The problem here is they reviewed the ALX, everything is already spec'd out with top end features. Look at their 7500 SLI and you will see you can get close to the same system as the ALX for about $3500. I do this stuff for a living. I know computer manufactures buy in bulk reducing the price they pay for things like video cards. You pay $550 for an NVIDIA 6800; they pay $300.
You will not be able to do it yourself for less. How much is your time worth, you have to add that too. Oops bad memory modual have to go back to the store. Oh yeah sales tax in my state! Oh you mean I have to pay for shipping on all the individual parts? see what I mean? Building your own is a great learning experience; I recommend it, but it's not cheaper.
As far as their support I have pestered them with almost unreasonable demands and they have done whatever I asked with no hesitation. their service is no different that any other vendor. They will do whatever they can within reason to make you happy.
Although most of the reviews are helpful, I find these sites often have morons with nothing else to do but write reviews on products they never even heard of nevermind used. Many look like they were written by 13 year old kids that wouldn't have a hundred dollars to cough up for a PC never mind 3K. If your one of them and I just made you mad then write a usless comment that I'll never read.
The problem here is they reviewed the ALX, everything is already spec'd out with top end features. Look at their 7500 SLI and you will see you can get close to the same system as the ALX for about $3500. I do this stuff for a living. I know computer manufactures buy in bulk reducing the price they pay for things like video cards. You pay $550 for an NVIDIA 6800; they pay $300.
You will not be able to do it yourself for less. How much is your time worth, you have to add that too. Oops bad memory modual have to go back to the store. Oh yeah sales tax in my state! Oh you mean I have to pay for shipping on all the individual parts? see what I mean? Building your own is a great learning experience; I recommend it, but it's not cheaper.
As far as their support I have pestered them with almost unreasonable demands and they have done whatever I asked with no hesitation. their service is no different that any other vendor. They will do whatever they can within reason to make you happy.
Although most of the reviews are helpful, I find these sites often have morons with nothing else to do but write reviews on products they never even heard of nevermind used. Many look like they were written by 13 year old kids that wouldn't have a hundred dollars to cough up for a PC never mind 3K. If your one of them and I just made you mad then write a usless comment that I'll never read.
User Rating: 4/10
Buy something else..
Pros: NOT MUCH, ITS FAST
Cons: EXSPENSIVE!!!!!!!!!
Review: Here's what I think this thing is 5700 bucks. I can think of tons of machines I would rather have. A Bully Juggernaut is only 100 bucks more and you get dual ultra's & much more. You can buy two good ABS's for that price. Its just not worth it. Buy something else.
Updated
Look I was an Alienware fan along time ago but it is safe to say they cut corners. There case is a pile of junk. Its plastic & steel people not to menton your door will brake and stop closing.
Look I was an Alienware fan along time ago but it is safe to say they cut corners. There case is a pile of junk. Its plastic & steel people not to menton your door will brake and stop closing.
User Rating: 
5/10
decent computer- way overpriced (any from them is) awful customer service!!!!!
Pros: Runs well- upgradeable unlike a Dell
Cons: WAY OVERPRICED and TERRIBLE customer service
Review: I like the computer (I didn't get the SLI- way too ecpensive) but only purchased it becuase of the $500 mail-in rebate at the time. I figured that it was worth it after that. I haven't had any problems with the computer, but when I tried to call about the mail-in rebate, I was told that the sales invoice that was emailed to me was insufficient for the rebate. Unlike other companies they never let you know if there is something wrong with the rebate submission. So if you wait the 12-24 weeks for payment like they tell you to, it is too late to send in the correct information and you just get screwed out of the rebate and they won't do anything about it. Crappy service if you ask me. I would never spend the money to buy from them again. The computer isn't worth the terrible service.
User Rating: 
7/10
Great System Lowsy Service
Pros: Great components, bleeding edge styling and options
Cons: HORRIBLE Customer Service
Review: You have to want to go to call center pergatory if you buy these systems. They look awesome and have all the latest features, but if anything goes wrong (and based on feedback on cnet, it happens a lot) be prepared to have to spend hours self-repairing and diagnosing your system, followed by pulling teeth to get anything resolved from Customer Service. Apparently no one at CNET.com has ever dealt with the customer service people at Alienware or they would revise their comments (and maybe read the reviews from customers which tell the same thing.)
User Rating: 9/10
Alienware finally gives you power for price
Pros: state-of-the-art hardware
Cons: Alienware, expensive
Review: Although people are gonna disagree with me about this, Alienware has always overcharged for "quality" and for their logos. But this is one computer that should be expensive. Dual 10,000rpm RAID 0 drives?! DUAL 256mb top-of-the-line PCIe graphics cards?! ATHLON 64 processor (finally, intel isn't the "gaming" processor, because they suck)?! PCI Express and SLI for the graphics cards! PC 4400 RAM?!!!!!! Aside from the fact that Nvidia is supplying the graphics cards, this is the perfect machine, no matter how much it costs. That hardware has been in my dream for a computer for years, and now a good manufacturer is making it. This is sweet, and if I had the money I'd get it faster than it can load Pong.
User Rating: 9/10
Great! But this could be done yourself.
Pros: SLI technology. Enough said!
Cons: Pricey, Could be done yourself.
Review: This system look and operates terrifically! The major downside to this however is the fact that I could build one alot cheaper. However, the sheer cleaness of the inside could not really be replicated by someone building it himself. But I do believe there are cooler cases out there. Not meaning to step on toes here, but does anyone who would buy a game machine this expensive even purchase from companies. I had it figured that most avid gamers biult there own custom rigs. Mostly because the vendors make HUGE systems that ALWAYS lack in one particuar thing.
User Rating: 3/10
This is a ripoff
Pros: AMD FX SLI
Cons: You can get a much better computer from many vendors. This is just to expensive
Review: How can a pc with a combo drive, 1gm of ram and 74gb of hard drive be worth this much. This just amazes me. Go buy an ABS for half the price
User Rating: 9/10
Great over-all product.
Pros: Uses AMD which is a nice platform for games, and uses silent cooling so the tower is quiet.
Cons: AMD is not an effective business processor and the towers styling has not changed over the years. its like looking at an old case with new parts inside.
Review: Overall amazing product, nothing compares to the SLI tech inside the computer. Liquid cooling a must for gamers. Downside is that AMD is based on gaming characteristics and isn't very good with math intensive programs (CAD, Autodesk Inventor, etc..). Altogether though this is a gamers tower not a business tower. my rating of nine out of ten is only because alienware continues to re-use the same case design over and over and its like looking at just older systems being equipped with newer parts. I don't know about the rest of you, but when i get a new computer or something of the like, i want it to be different in style at least then what i had before unless i thought the original style is perfect. So my bias is the case, but other then that, excellent product.
User Rating: 10/10
great big thing
Pros: great graphics fast to
Cons: wuts can u find wrong
Review: the case aint bad but i prefer the area 51 seris better cause i dont like amd
User Rating: 9/10
Product rating based economics
Pros: Excellent use of high quality parts and careful fabrication
Cons: In use of parts in this catagory, there are no 'cons'
Review: Some reviewers will use the price of a product as a hatched on the overall quality and performance rating of a product, which I don't think is fair to the endeavor. The best automobiles in the world fetch some of the highest prices yet that does not detract from there ratings. This alienware product is one of the best and it will take deep pockets to play. This should never become the reason or factor in influencing the rating of the product. Unless the reviewer states what he/she conciders their bias and states it upfront.
