Introduction to System Reviews
Alienware’s Aurora 7500 line, featuring the AMD Athlon FX-62 processor and an NVIDIA 7950 GX2 graphics card, is a screamer in games and just about everything else!
Introduction
Alienware was the first big-name boutique PC builder in the industry and basically created the idea of selling a high-end gaming system from scratch. Founded in 1996, the nearly decade-old Alienware was recently was purchased by Dell, feeding new life and new money, into the niche market PC builder. We are industry analysts here, and I can’t tell you how the purchase will affect Dell’s stocks or Alienware’s products in the long term, but we can tell you what is going now with products available now.
Alienware offered to send us an Aurora 7500 system, based around the AMD Athlon FX-62 processor and NVIDIA’s nForce 590 SLI chipset, and we agreed to do the review. Since this is our first full system review, we took our time with it, making sure we covered all the aspects we felt were important.
System Reviews
Even though this is our first full system review at PC Perspective, that doesn’t mean you should expect a shoddy, half-assed write up. We’ll look at the Aurora 7500 system from every angle, and then some. Coming from a DIY enthusiast background, we’ll look at the individual components Alienware chose for their system as well as the build quality inside the recognizable Alienware designed case. We know that performance is important to anyone buying a $4000+ system so we’ll look at the system in relation to its speed compared to computers we have built around the office for other testing. Can the Alienware system hold is own against a DIY-built FX-62 system or will bloatware or poor design hold it back?
We’ll also look over the user experience of getting the system and actually USING it. This means that everything from the box to the accessories included will be judged against competing offerings. Does the mouse and keyboard included complement the system or stick out like a sore thumb? Does the restore software actually work and how easy is it to use? These are some questions that DIY builders don’t ask but users looking to purchase a dream machine will definitely want to know.
Finally, we’ll play with the damn thing; that’s right, I spent many hours sitting in front of the Aurora 7500, dutifully doing my job and playing game after game, just to see it work. You’d be suprised how many people AREN’T doing this, and letting some synthetic tests and a couple of benchmark runs completely determine their system review outcome.
