What you need to know
- Intel just announced its 13th Gen Raptor Lake desktop CPUs, which promise high-end performance.
- NVIDIA recently announced its RTX 40-series GPUs, which also feature excellent specs.
- Dell just unveiled the Alienware Aurora R15 with a 13th Gen Intel CPU paired with the best graphics cards from NVIDIA or AMD.
Following Intel and NVIDIA announcing new high-end PC parts, several companies have unveiled systems with the new CPUs and GPUs inside. Today, Dell announced the new Alienware Aurora R15 featuring 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs from Intel paired with NVIDIA RTX 40-series graphics. The refreshed Alienware desktop hasn’t just received a spec bump, it also has a refined design that improves cooling (via Tom’s Hardware).
The new Alienware Aurora R15 features 240 mm coolers featuring a pair of 120 mm fans. In total, the PC has five 120 mm fans. In contrast, previous Aurora PCs had 120 mm coolers.
Furthering its efforts to keep the R15 cool, Alienware added side venting to the machine. As highlighted by Tom’s Hardware, the Aurora line has suffered from heating issues in the past. We’ll have to see how the new desktop performs in the real-world, but it appears that Dell has listened to feedback and made appropriate changes to keep system temperatures down.
A 1,350-watt power supply sits inside the Aurora R15, which is a significant bump up from the 1,000-watt supply in its predecessor.
Alongside the CPU and GPU upgrades, the new R15 has DDR5-4800 memory and 12-phase voltage regulation, which should help sustain peak performance.
All of the changes add up to “double-digit” performance improvements, according to Dell. Despite delivering 58% more power to the CPU, the new Alienware Aurora R15’s CPU will run up to five degrees Celsius cooler.
| CPU | Up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900K/KF |
| GPU | Nvidia: Up to GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 3090 Ti |
| AMD: Up to Radeon RX 6900 XT | |
| Memory | Up to 64GB DDR5-4800 |
| Storage | Up to 4TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD + 2TB 7,200-RPM SATA HDD |
| Cooling | Air cooler or 240mm AIO |
| Power Supply | 750W or 1,350W 80 Plus Platinum |
| Motherboard | Custom Alienware motherboard with Intel Z7490 chipset |
| Chassis Volume | 44 liters |
| Chassis Dimensions | 23.2 x 20.1 x 8.85 inches |
| Availability | Fall 2022 |
| Price | TBA |
Pricing for the new Alienware Aurora R15 hasn’t been released yet. Intel’s new CPUs range from $294 for the Core i5-13600KF to $589 for the Core i9-13900KF. For comparison, Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs started between $264 to $589.
