Items tagged with Alienware
Here in the early going, benchmark comparisons pitting Apple's latest custom silicon against other hardware are a mixed bag of results. That's how it will probably go when the revamped MacBook Pro 16 and 14 laptops hit the street—how they fare will depend on the application. One that appears to favor Apple's newest silicon is Adobe Premiere Pro, with a leaked M1 Max benchmark score trouncing an Alienware laptop outfitted with a mobile GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. This is in line with Apple's claims about its M1 Max and M1 Pro, which purportedly not only deliver a huge performance gain over the company's first-gen M1 hardware, but also is supposedly capable of matching the performance of a high-end...
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Alienware is fast approaching its 25th birthday, and in celebration of the special occasion, Dell is gifting the iconic brand a visual and functional makeover for the new Alienware Aurora desktop. Yes, when you reach adulthood, it's typically a good time to consider a new look. The revamped desktop still maintains its trademark design language, mind you, but in a different mold aimed at vastly improving airflow while reducing noise output at the same time. Dell says it designed (or re-designed, really) the Alienware Aurora from the inside-out, with an aim towards harmonizing performance, easy upgrades, and optimized acoustics. What it came up with is another uniquely shaped chassis with 1.5x...
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Thin and light gaming laptops are a bit of an enigma. They essentially aim to defy the laws of physics, eschewing size and thermal dissipation area in an effort to strike a more portable, stylish design while still maintaining respectable gaming chops. Let's face it, no one really likes the bulk and chunky demeanor of most high-end gaming laptops that are designed for all-out performance. It's a difficult, fine line to walk, but a worthy, noble one to develop a compelling, quality thin and light gaming laptop, and that's exactly what Dell went all-out for with the new Alienware X15. The new Alienware X15 laptop we're looking at here today is only 15.9mm thick and weighs just 5.2 pounds,...
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Our friends at Asetek and Alienware recently came through in a big way want to give one of you a powerful Alienware Aurora R12 gaming PC, liquid cooled by an Asetek-powered closed-loop AIO CPU cooler! If you recall, Asetek pioneered the All-In-One liquid cooler design approximately 20-years ago, and currently enjoys over 90% market share in the space. Up for grabs this time around was an awesome, fully decked-out Alienware Aurora R12 gaming PC in “Lunar Light” trim, powered by an Intel Core i9-11900F 8-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 networking, and a 1TB NVMe SSD boot drive, backed by a 2TB HDD for additional storage. All...
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It has been a while since our last amazing gaming PC giveaway, so we figured it's time to get things rolling again and offer you all something truly awesome. Our friends at Asetek and Alienware have come through in a big way want to give one of you a powerful Alienware Aurora R12 gaming PC, liquid cooled by an Asetek-powered closed-loop AIO CPU cooler! If you recall, Asetek pioneered the All-In-One liquid cooler design approximately 20-years ago, and currently enjoys over 90% market share in the space. Up for grabs this time around is an awesome, fully decked-out Alienware Aurora R12 gaming PC in “Lunar Light” trim, powered by an Intel Core i9-11900F 8-core processor, NVIDIA...
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The running joke about Valve Corporation is that the company cannot count to three, in that there is no [traditional] follow-up to Half-Life 2, Portal 2, or Left 4 Dead 2. However, some of the developers of Left 4 Dead left Valve to create their own game, Back 4 Blood, whose release is just on the horizon. As such, the open beta to test the game out is also quite close, and you can pick up a key for free today. Back 4 Blood is a “thrilling cooperative first-person shooter” from the Left 4 Dead franchise developers. Players will find themselves at war against the Ridden: terrifying parasite-ridden corpses that once were normal people before the infections began and humanity collapsed....
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You probably thought you were done with brain-jarring algebra and trigonometry from your school days but that may not be the case, thanks to some legal lunacy out of California. New energy efficiency regulations, which went into effect on July 1st and may be adopted by five other US states, limit the amount of power desktop computers can draw in a year, based on their components and expandability. Due to this, PC manufacturers are scrambling, gamers are up in arms, and everyone is confused by the math at hand, but it is not as cut and dry as you would think. On July 26th, writer and content creator Marie Oakes spotted a new warning on Dell’s website under Alienware PCs, stating that “This...
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Fireworks are not the only thing popping today, so are all kinds of deals on games and PC hardware. If you have not already, check out Steam's Summer Sale, and be sure to claim your copy of The Spectrum Retreat for no cost at the Epic Games Store. Then after stocking up on games, if you decide you could use a gaming laptop upgrade or some fancy new peripherals, we have rounded up some more deals that might be of interest. Let's start things off with the Alienware m15 R4, discounted to $2,279.98 at Amazon (save $120.01). We reviewed the Alienware m15 R4 with the a similar configuration as this one, and donned it with our coveted Editor's Choice award for offering excellent gaming performance and...
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Just a few months ago, we reviewed the Alienware m15 R4, a seriously powerful 15.6-inch form factor laptop that, at the time, posted the best gaming performance benchmark results we had ever seen from a notebook. Not that we were particularly surprised—armed with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU based on Ampere and a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10870H CPU (Comet Lake) CPU, it packs some serious artillery. Well, we've now tested an even faster gaming laptop, and it just so happens to be the 17-inch Alienware m17 R4. Call it sibling rivalry, if you wish, but the bigger 17.3-inch brother to the m15 flexes a bit more muscle as it arrived to us. Specifically, it touts an even burlier GeForce...
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Dell first announced the Alienware m15 R5 gaming laptop back in April, and we got a chance to review the "Ryzen Edition" late last month. What makes these Alienware m15 R5 so compelling is that you can pair AMD's most potent Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 APUs with NVIDIA's powerful GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs. Our review unit, for example, came loaded up with a Ryzen 9 5800H processor and a GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile GPU. Although we didn't encounter any issues during our testing, some new owners of the m15 R5 report some disturbing findings regarding the GPU inside their gaming laptop. Several users configured their rigs with a GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, which is just one step down from the current flagship...
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Early last month, Dell gave us just a tiny taste of its thin and light Alienware X-Series gaming laptops powered by 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake-H processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere Mobile GPUs. The laptops are official today with the launch of the X15 and X17, so we're getting the full rundown on specs and available features. The X15 is perhaps the most impressive of the two, as it is billed as the world's most powerful sub-16mm gaming laptop and the thinnest ever produced by Alienware. As we previously reported, the X-Series uses an Element 31 thermal interface material (Gallium-Silicon-based) to improve cooling performance. There's also a Quad Fan arrangement that improves...
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Over the last eight months or so, segment by segment, AMD's various Zen 3-based processors have taken the world by storm. High performance servers, desktops, and notebooks all feature AMD's flagship silicon, thanks in no small part to its excellent perf-per-watt and strong overall value proposition. That dynamic really started in 2020, but we could sense a bit of hesitancy on the part of manufacturers with last year's Ryzen 4000 series gaming notebooks, since those topped out with midrange graphics. This year, though, the kid gloves have come off and higher-end graphics options have been made available. That's especially true with Dell's Alienware gaming brand. Last year, there wasn't a...
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Dell is looking to expand its Alienware gaming laptop family and is teasing the introduction of its new X-Series. With the new X-Series, a significant emphasis is being placed on improving overall performance and keeping the system cool at the same time. To this end, Dell says that the X-Series will feature an industry-first gallium-silicone thermal interface material for wicking heat away from the processor, which it calls Element 31. The new laptops will also bring another industry-first: a patent-pending, "Quad-Fan" cooling setup with extensive copper piping. Dell says that this design "Produces dedicated airflow using evacuative fans and dual opposite outlet fans," while "moving extensive...
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In this latest episode of HotHardware's 2.5 Geeks, the guys recap some of last week’s happenings and discussing all of the recent NVIDIA news. From the rumored GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, to dedicated Crypto mining cards, to hash rate limiters and Grace CPUs, NVIDIA has a lot going on... Show Notes: 02:47 -- What's in our the lab 08:56 -- New Spectre Chip Security Vulnerability Found 15:52 -- Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 Review 27:51 -- HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 33:44 -- What's NVIDIA Up To? GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 48:07 -- Hash Rate Limited Products And Crypto-Mining 56:25 -- No Chia Jokes Please 57:12 -- What's NVIDIA Up To? NVIDIA Grace 1:03:46 -- Check Out Val! And A Troll Hits The Stream...
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Dell is one of the most popular PC brands globally, selling millions of laptops, desktops, and server systems to everyday consumers and businesses alike each year. However, SentinelLabs researchers warned this week that five critical security flaws have been lurking in its firmware update driver since the early days of President Obama's first term. Attackers could have potentially exploited these flaws to conduct escalation of privilege attacks for kernel-level access on hundreds of millions of Dell and Alienware PCs. Multiple vulnerabilities were traced to Dell's firmware update driver version 2.3 (dbutil_2_3.sys) module. This module is responsible for Dell firmware updates using the Dell BIOS...
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We are no strangers to Alienware’s Aurora line of gaming PCs here at HotHardware. In fact, we have reviewed many Aurora systems over the years, and for good reason. Aurora desktops embody the essence of a powerful, mainstream prebuilt rig, with semi-custom, almost boutique styling, in a manner that makes them more attainable for the masses. Yet, every time we receive an Aurora in for review, it has something added we have not seen in the family before and this Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition is no exception. Strictly speaking, this is also not the first time we have had an Aurora R10 Ryzen Edition in our lab. Back in 2019, we tested Alienware’s first Ryzen-imbued iteration which housed a...
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Starting today, Alienware is taking its gaming notebooks to the next level with the arrival of optional Cherry MX mechanical keyboards on the m15 R4 and m17 R4. The Cherry name is synonymous with high-quality mechanical switches, and the latest evolution of that robust mechanism is ready for laptop duty. Cherry developed with its calls the MX Ultra Low-Profile switch, which is only 3.5mm thick. That's compared to 18.5mm for the original MX switch and 11.9mm for the low-profile MX switch. The switch employee a design that resembles the gull-wing doors that were first popularized on the classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. There's a sturdy spring mechanism, a two-piece keycap, a "gold-based" cross-point...
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In this episode of Two And A Half Geeks we'll discuss the dizzying array of GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPU SKUs, how to sift through them, and our experience with the new Alienware m15 R4 with GeForce RTX 3070. We'll also share key Ryzen 5000 desktop CPU performance optimization tips and discuss AMD's new Ryzen 5000 Mobile CPU platforms as well... Show Notes: 06:34 - AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Explored: The Future Of Zen 3 Laptops 17:47 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop Performance: What To Expect 27:31 - Alienware m15 R4 Review: A GeForce RTX 30 Series Invasion 33:12 - NVIDIA's Dizzying Array Of GeForce RTX 30 Mobile GPU Configs Detailed By ASUS 46:08 - Maximizing Ryzen 5000 Performance With AMD Curve...
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Alienware's m15 series of notebooks has typically impressed us, thanks to the family's performance and unique good looks in a relatively svelte mobile package. Performance always hinges upon having the latest platform hardware, so perhaps it's no surprise that the laptop we're looking at today has one of NVIDIA's latest mobile Ampere GPUs on board from its new GeForce RTX 30 family. When NVIDIA pulled the lid off mobile Ampere, it made some pretty big promises. Performance across the Ampere lineup that spans from RTX 3060 to 3080 should be faster than NVIDIA's previous mobile powerhouse, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. That bodes well for the middle child in NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 Mobile...
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Over the years, Dell has produced some sleek yet almost alien in appearance products, hence the Alienware brand. These computers have always been on the bleeding-edge of technology, and Dell continues that trend at CES 2021. We get to see a refresh of the Alienware m15, m17, and Alienware Aurora R10, which should pack a punch for gaming and productivity. Alienware m15 R4 and m17 R4 Back in October, we took a look at the Alienware m15 R3 that we found to be a high-performing option when it came to gaming laptops. Now, Dell gives the lineup an update with the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000-series graphics, but it retains 10th gen Intel processors with up to an Intel Core i9-10980HK. Because of...
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Most of you reading this have long since moved on from using those bulky CRT monitors of yesteryear, the kind of big and heavy displays that would break your back if you had to lug them up a flight of steps (been there, done that). Nevertheless, you might still be on the hunt for a new monitor, one that is primed for gaming. If so, now is a good time, with Cyber Monday deals bringing discounts on a bunch of models. One of the more affordable gaming monitors is the HP X24C, priced at $189.99 at Amazon (Save $40 - 17% Off). It features a 23.6-inch VA display with a 1500R curvature and 1920x1080 resolution. This display also boats a speedy 144Hz refresh rate, and is a FreeSync Premium model, making...
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The deals keep pouring in, and we're doing our level best to keep up with them. While building a PC by hand can be a fun and exciting project, sometimes (like right now) components are hard to come by, and buying an off-the-shelf desktop presents itself as a convenient and time-saving method for getting a new system up and running. The folks at Dell and Alienware have a nice selection of PCs on sale for the unofficial shopping holiday, and we've got the best ones picked out here. Amazon has deals on a pair of Dell G5 Gaming Desktop systems that are a bit lighter on the budget. The first has a Core i5-10400F, 8 GB f system memory, GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER graphics, and a 256 GB SSD...
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