Aurora R13, a year in summary

What are your rig specs and did you do any mods?

I am just over a year with my R13 (i7/3080ti/32gb). I purchased it due to the gpu shortage, every other option at the time was $500+. At first very excited, plays just about all titles at ultra settings with easily over 100fps+. But demanding titles fps runs about 10% slower than competing options, still not too bad overall. For heat cpu runs about 60-75degrees, except for demanding titles. For example in AC_Odyssey, generally runs about 70-75degrees but it does have spikes to 100degrees in certain conditions like conquest battles, I recently added a second fan to the radiator for push/pull, which did reduce my max spike to 95degrees (a great $20 mod, I posted the details in another thread here), eliminating thermal micro throttle while gaming.

The proprietaryness would not be soo bad if they didn't abandon their customers and would sell upgrade (or even replacement) parts to confirmed owners. I would go for their 4090, but would need their updated powersupply as well. It would add some more life to the system. As it is now, the only way to upgrade is for a case swap, which means the only salvagable parts are the cpu and ssd. The ram is too slow at 4400, the gpu could be reused but that is what I am trying to upgrade, all other parts are proprietary.

That is actually a fair way of looking at the situation. You are correct. If they use a lot of proprietary parts, they should at least provide customers with support in the form of an acceptable upgrade path. 

Purchasing a completely new machine every year or so becomes expensive really fast.

Case swap is not the only path. I think the 1000 watt PSU is obtainable . . . either from Dell or 3rd party. There are some 'open box' units on the big auction site right now @ $300. The nVidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition PCB is only about 230mm long. If you put it on a water block it would easily fit length-wise . . . you would need about 150mm in width; one slot tall. External radiator and pump/reservoir combo. You would have to love your Aurora R13 to undertake this kind of effort . . . but it should be doable.

To upgrade to a 4090 done right you would want 4 feeder cables to get maximum horsepower.  Even the Alienware 1000watt psu only has 2 feeder cables, then one would have to play with splicers and splitters.  To do it safely, you need the new Alienware 1350 psu with the native 12vhpwr cable.  Or you could sawzall a hole in the bottom of the case to counter-sink in a normal psu, there is plenty of room below the sheet metal in that plastic bottom    (then you just need adapters to plug into the proprietary mobo)

"Or you could sawzall a hole in the bottom of the case to counter-sink in a normal psu, there is plenty of room below the sheet metal in that plastic bottom (then you just need adapters to plug into the proprietary mobo)"

And that belies the problems with Alienware desktops. You pay top dollar and you have to resort to mechanical re-engineering. I could cut Dell some slack if it was the same with HP or Corsair desktops but it appears this is specific to Alienware desktops. This is why I cancelled my orders because I would order a PC then think about how I am locked in to Dell's design and would cancel. And this doesn't even get to performance issues because of its design.

I've settled on the HP Omen 45L. At least they use standard parts and the only proprietary design is their Cryo-Chamber which works exceptionally well. And their all aluminum case just looks sick.

agree the 1350 watt PSU is the way to go

Are you referring to this box? It doesn't look much different than the iBuyPower rig you can get at Walmart. I'm not sure what that stuff hanging off the back is supposed to represent. Cryo-Chamber is an external radiator . . . not anything new.

Yup that's it. Based on all the complaints regarding iBuyPower on Tom's forums, I wouldn't consider them. The HP Omen 45L case is exclusive to HP, though i've read it was made or designed by Corsair. In fact HP sells the case by itself with the RGB controller included.

No one said the Cryo-Chamber is anything new. It is an external AIO that pulls cool air from the outside and cools the CPU really well. External liquid cooling systems have been around for years. The top area is the Cryo-Chamber which also doubles as a handle so you can lift the unit.

I own an HP Omen 30L and the entire PC is upgradeable with standard parts. The 3080 is a retail card.

I wasn't suggesting iBuyPower as a realistic alternative . . . just that the case aesthetics are similar, and uninspiring. When someone says the "case just looks sick", my mind conjures up something like this

I would lock the door, hide the kids and wife and would not turn my back on that thing.

Well put. I owned an R7 and was forced to buy new because it was locked to the CPU and GPU generation it was sold with in the BIOS.

I knew what to expect from Dell so opted for the highest spec Intel R13.

As I say I now like my R13 but I just wish Dell would open the door a little when it comes to upgrades. They have obviously accepted the R13 does not have great cooling so the R15 gets a 240mm upgrade. Offering that to customers as a paid for upgrade option would be a start, as would the offer of a, again paid for, PSU.

R13's were not cheap, especially the high end ones. Dell continue to think though they can pull the same old tricks again.

Problem is I reckon they will just quietly drop the Alienware PC range as they did with the Area 51, rather than offer upgrades.

The Aurora R13 can be upgraded to a 240mm AIO liquid cooling system.

I understand a 240mm will fit, my point was Dell have a tailor made 240mm solution, and a upgraded PSU for the R15 that would fit in an R13 case, because it is the same case with a new side panel.

Neither are offered for sale by Dell as an upgrade.

The only "upgrades" for the the R13 here in Australia are memory chips approaching double the retail price, slow old fashioned hard drives and SSD's that are again ridiculously overpriced. 

The high end Alienware range is now approaching the price point where "Sorry you have had a couple of years out of it, now buy a new one" wont do.