Alienware Aurora R12 Heat Issues?

hwgs1971

I finally decided to upgrade to a 3090 via an Alienware Aurora R12. After I ordered it, I found lots of articles about people having major heat issues with this prebuilt. Wish I saw this YouTube video before I bought it...the R12 is essentially a metal box within a plastic shell with only a couple of vents...a terrible design. Hopefullysomeone in this community can give honest insight. I saw where Dell recommended throttling back, which makes me wonder...if you throttle back a 3090+64GB+1000 Watt system, why buy it in the first place? I may cancel this order before they build it depending on advice given here. Thanks

benniewoodell

I have one and it gets super loud when it's rendering. I've had it for about a year and it's working just as good as the day I got it though, and I render animations so it's running pretty much 24/7. I am thinking of swapping out the fan, I don't know how exactly as I don't know the technical stuff, my friend does, but otherwise it's not giving me any real problems. But, yes, it is pumping out a ton of heat from the top vent. I want to get a second computer to help make animation rendering even more efficient and have been on the fence the past couple of weeks between getting another Alienware one or spending an extra two grand and going through Digital Storm and getting the liquid cooling for the GPU as the Alienware I have only has liquid cooling for the CPU if I'm read my specs right. I had a Digital Storm computer before and it was absolutely amazing and never did I hear it render, it was quiet as a mouse. It's just a matter of do I want to use my Dell financing option that could cover the entire Alienware computer with zero percent for a year, or just outright buy it from Digital Storm. That doesn't help your question I guess except it says I'm thinking of buying something that's not an Alienware after having one. 

It is a good computer though, it renders lightning fast (like when I render in layers, I can get most frames rendered in 30 seconds to a minute), and if you're computer savy and know how to swap out fans, that just might do the trick for the heat issue. 

Serene Night

I have one, and don't have any heat issues with it.

robertswww

hwgs1971 said:

I finally decided to upgrade to a 3090 via an Alienware Aurora R12. After I ordered it, I found lots of articles about people having major heat issues with this prebuilt. Wish I saw this YouTube video before I bought it...the R12 is essentially a metal box within a plastic shell with only a couple of vents...a terrible design. Hopefullysomeone in this community can give honest insight. I saw where Dell recommended throttling back, which makes me wonder...if you throttle back a 3090+64GB+1000 Watt system, why buy it in the first place? I may cancel this order before they build it depending on advice given here. Thanks

 

If you are still concerned about Alienware Aurora R12 heat issues, and if you still have time to change your pending order, then check out this story that came out today, as it sounds like Dell/Alienware decided to listen to its customers with the new Aurora design...

Alienware celebrates its 25th birthday with a redesigned flagship gaming desktop
October 15th, 2021

From the article:
The latest Aurora system has a redesigned chassis that has extra internal space and more efficient airflow, and it should run more quietly.

The open-air Legend 2.0 chassis increases the internal volume by 50 percent compared with Aurora R12 or R10 without major changes to the overall size of the machine, Alienware says. 

As part of the redesign, Alienware focused on improving the airflow. Every system has two 120mm fans, an intake and an exhaust. Depending on the configuration, Alienware may include one or two more fans: first, a second intake and then, if needed, a top exhaust. Since this is an Aurora system, there are of course liquid cooling options too.

Along with keeping your system cool while you're running games at max settings, Alienware says the fans can make the PC quieter. Compared with the previous generation system, the brand claims the new Aurora is up to 16 percent quieter when idle and up to nine percent less noisy during CPU-intensive tasks. While you're overclocking, the PC can make up to 15 percent less noise. In addition, Alienware says the PC can offer a five percent increase in graphics performance compared with the Aurora R12.

Source:
https://www.engadget.com/alienware-aurora-redesign-airflow-noise-performance-040051724.html

Gogger

I've got an Alienware R12 desktop with a 3090 and four external hard drives - by "heat issues" I presume you mean equipment failure due to over-heating?  I have't had any issues like that even though I typically have an Iray render going while working on a dozen or more Photoshop images, fifty browser tabs and windows at any given time, and quite often also running things like Dynamic Art Painter (DAP), Topaz Labs, Filter Forge, Escape Motions Flame Painter or Amberlight, Google Deep Dreams, etc.  But it DOES generate ambient heat that warms the entire basement up!  To be fair, I also have a really old Alienware desktop ?R3? running Star Wars BattleFront 1 continuously and an Alienware R11 desktop (RTX 2080Ti) running Bryce, DAZ Studio, Blender, or Marine Screen Aquarium screensaver all on two 3440x1440 4K Ultrawide monitors and two 24" widescreens as well as a Wacom Cintiq 24" that gets pretty warm - so yeah, that basement gets pretty toasty! But as far as issues with hardware due to the heat - no issues noted yet. 

I've been running Alienware desktops since 2009 and have no complaints at all - LOVE 'EM!  Your mileage may vary.