Is Alienware Aurora R8 (i7 9700k, rtx 2080ti) a good desktop for general use?

[benjaminlee]

Hi everyone,

 

This is my very first post here at LTT. It would be great if you could give me some advice, or slap me in the face and wake me up from the dream of buying an Alienware Aurora.

 

I am looking at an Aurora R8 from Dell website. It could be customized to i7 9700k CPU, Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 32 GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It costs about $2200 USD before tax. It looks like a pretty good deal to me. I am tempted to buy that mostly because I want something faster, cooler and quieter than my current MacBook Pro 2017 to run my python scripts, edit photos on Lightroom and Photoshop and do other random things. I am not a game player at all, but I do love programming. I've only played Diablo III on my MBP and it is hot and loud AF. I want to use the 2080 Ti mostly to see how good it is for GPU acceleration. So my major question is whether the Aurora is a good computer for general use other than gaming.

 

Before posting this, I quickly searched the posts here and found that the Aurora case was not well designed for cooling. I am wondering how bad it could be in terms of noise and thermal issues. Someone suggested to upgrade the case after the warrenty expires. Does Alienware Aurora have a good motherboard as well? Also, I saw rumors saying that Intel would finally launch their 10nm processors during this holiday season, and I would like to know whether it is somehting worth waiting to upgrade the new processor. Any other Alienware related tip is also very much appreciated.  

 

BTW, in case anyone is interested in an Alienware desktop, there is a pretty decent sale on Dell website. One Aurora model has $580 off, plus 17% off Intel game day offer and $200 visa prepaid card offer. This is my first time buying a desktop, and it seems very exciting to me. Check that out if you are interested. 

 

Thank you everyone!

[Streetguru]

33 minutes ago, benjaminlee said:

 

That is kind of overpriced, a Solid PC with a Ryzen 5 3600 and RX 5700 is around $1100

didn't see the ti* lol

What's your monitor resolution/refresh rate?

GPU acceleration benifits tends to hit a wall around mid range GPUs, unless you do blender rendering.

[benjaminlee]

2 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

That is kind of overpriced, as Solid PC with a Ryzen 5 3600 and RX 5700 is around $1100

didn't see the ti* lol

What's your monitor resolution/refresh rate?

My monitor is 60 Hz 1440p. But since I don't play games at all, FPS doesn't really matter to me. Also I am tempted to upgrade my monitor and add amother one later this year, so i thought 2080 ti wouldn't be too much an overkill.

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, benjaminlee said:

My monitor is 60 Hz 1440p. But since I don't play games at all, FPS doesn't really matter to me. Also I am tempted to upgrade my monitor and add amother one later this year, so i thought 2080 ti wouldn't be too much an overkill.

Considering an RX 5700 is 1/3rd of the price, and it's going to do just fine I'd stick with that.

 

Are you willing/able to just assemble the PC yourself? It's not difficult at all.

Also PCI-e 4.0 SSDs may be useful for programming and stuff.
 

 

[Akira Shimazu]

4 minutes ago, benjaminlee said:

My monitor is 60 Hz 1440p. But since I don't play games at all, FPS doesn't really matter to me. Also I am tempted to upgrade my monitor and add amother one later this year, so i thought 2080 ti wouldn't be too much an overkill.

bruh my 75HZ can do well with GT650M. lolololol

[Drak3]

It's extreme overkill for the task at hand.

 

I'd do a little bit more shopping around, particularly looking at machines with an R5-3600 (or R7-3700X if you want extreme overkill), and save the remainder.