Great, but not the Greatest
Written: Apr 18 '00 (Updated Jun 27 '00)
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Pros: Nice system, well designed, cool looking.
Cons: Not impressed with the cooling, not as good as the standard Area51
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| Nemmeran's Full Review: Alienware Area51:Aurora |
I have been a long time alienware fan, and I own an Area51. One of the first things you notice from the outside is that it has a great cooling system, including a fan in the side of the CPU. For some odd reason, Alienware left this out on the Aurora. I would be much more impressed with it if there were more cooling in it, which is a must for us tinkerers who may want to do a little overclocking.
The systems are all built from the parts using the online configurator, so there are no static parts besides the motherboard, which is a great. The systems are limited to Athlon 650 - 1000 mhz systems, no Intel options. Almost all of the key parts of a monster rig are available, including the new Geforce 2 GTS w/ 32MB of DDR ram.
The looks of the machine are attractive, with the black case and available black monitor and keyboard. There isnt a black mouse available, so if you want a mouse that will look somewhat in its place among the other parts, you will need to get the new intellimouse explorer. It isnt a great mouse altogether, so I would personally use a regular mouse and just not fit in.
This system has the 'Alienware Touch', as I call it. All of the cables are tied together and out of the way so you don't need to brush cables out of the way to see any of the guts of the system. All of the drivers are updated before the system leaves Alienware, and everything is well tweaked for top performance. You can be playing Unreal Tourney or Quake3: Arena online in less than a half an hour, without having to update and tweak as you would with a Compaq or other 'mass production' system.
Overall, this is a great system by a wonderful manufacturer. Unfortunately, this system is not their best. If you are looking for a great system, you should look at the regular Area51. Just deal with the beige box.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Depends on choices
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
Nemmeran
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Location: Oklahoma
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Oklahoma college student who greatly enjoys games, electronics, food, and movies.
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