Alienware Aurora 7500

Supreme quality and performance at a supreme price.

The monolithic nature of Alienware's box made us briefly wonder whether a landmark in human evolution had arrived when it landed in our offices. Once we'd managed to remove the PC from within we saw why, this monster is worth protecting. The Aurora's full-tower case has been around for a while now but it never ceases to impress us - a cross between an alien spaceship, tombstone and old Chevrolet pickup truck.

Opening it up, you're greeted with one of the best-made PCs around. The cabling is supremely tidy and the noise insulation foam sports Alienware detailing. Even the speedy Corsair RAM sticks have blinking LEDs on them and the PCI cards all have supports to prevent them dislodging.

The specs are all top end with an Athlon X2 4800+, 1GB of performance RAM and two 160GB hard disks in RAID0. Not surprisingly it flew through our benchmarks scoring a whopping 1.22. The Aurora prides itself on its 3D graphics performance too: sporting two 'rare' eVGA overclocked 7800 GTX graphics cards, with additional passive cooling and running in SLI mode. It waltzed through our game benchmarks scoring 99.8fps in Half-Life 2 and 77.5fps in Far Cry. However, this isn't overkill as Alienware use a 20in top-end BenQ LCD monitor (the supplied model comes with Alienware detailing unlike the one pictured). It needs this grunt to play the latest games at the native 1600 x 1200 resolution.

The monitor also sports Composite and S-Video inputs and a three port USB hub. The stand pivots and swivels to a large extent and the display performance was the best on show. However, the other peripherals were a let down. The Microsoft keyboard and optical mouse are adequate but distinctly mid-range offerings despite the Alienware detailing. Both are sensibly wired for improved responsiveness for gamers, though. No speakers are included and there is only one optical drive though it covers dual-layer DVD+R9 and DVD-RAM formats. At this price we'd like a second.

But there's plenty of space to add your own. Four hard disk bays are spare along with three 5.25in and a 3.5in external bay. A PCI slot is available - the other is taken up with an X-Fi sound card, though the two 1x slots will be tricky to use with the SLI set up.

With the side on there's not too much noise but you'll certainly notice it in your home or office. But this machine drawing attention to its glorious self is no bad thing.

Yet we can't quite recommend it. For this much money you should be getting unrequited luxury and there's too much missing. The one year RTB warranty is decidedly stingy and no speakers are included at all. The peripherals should all be top notch and they aren't. If money is no object or you're a top gamer then it's the one to go for, but to everyone else, we can't justify the premium.