Dell Alienware Aurora ACT1250 Basalt Black 2025

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 is a beast, landing in the 93rd percentile for CPU performance, making this one of the fastest pre-built desktops for work. You get a best-in-class port selection and a solid RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM. Just know that the GPU, while strong, isn't the top performer in this price range, so pure gaming rigs might offer more frames per dollar.

Let's talk about that CPU. The Core Ultra 9 285 with its 24 cores and boost up to 5.6GHz is one of the best processors you can get right now. It's a genuine powerhouse for development and home office tasks, where our scoring puts it above 90 out of 100. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM is solid, though it's more middle-of-the-pack at the 78th percentile. It's plenty for gaming and most creative work, but power users might eye a 64GB kit down the line. The real conversation starter here is the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM. It's a strong card, sitting in the 74th percentile for GPU performance. That's well above average, but it's not going to set any records. You'll play modern titles at 1440p with high settings without breaking a sweat, but it's not the absolute fastest GPU in this price bracket. The liquid cooling keeps the CPU temps in check, and Alienware claims this chassis runs 7% cooler and 20% quieter than the older R15, which is a welcome improvement.

Stacked against the competition, the Aurora's CPU is its biggest flex. The Lenovo Legion 34IAS10 and HP Omen GT22 often ship with slightly weaker processors at similar price points, making the Alienware a better pick for CPU-heavy tasks. The ASUS ROG GM700TZ and MSI EdgeXpert are fierce rivals, often matching or beating the RTX 5060 Ti with an RTX 5070 or 5080 for a similar cost. You're trading some GPU horsepower for that top-shelf Intel chip and Alienware's excellent port selection. The CLX SET is a wildcard, as those are often custom-built and can be spec'd to beat the Aurora in raw gaming performance, but you'll likely lose the polished, quiet chassis and the sheer number of ports.

Pricing is a bit of a rollercoaster here, with a spread of $880 across different configurations and vendors. The sweet spot seems to be the $2,399 listing on Amazon for the Core Ultra 9, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB combo. That's a solid price-per-performance ratio for a pre-built with this CPU and a 16GB GPU. The pricier $3,279 configuration steps up to an RTX 5080, which is a massive leap in graphics power, but you're paying a hefty premium for it. For most people, the base high-end config we're looking at is the better deal, especially if you catch it at the lower end of that price range.

The Alienware Aurora ACT1250 is a bit of a mixed bag on paper, but the numbers tell an interesting story. Our database puts its port selection in the 98th percentile, which is basically best-in-class. You're getting Thunderbolt, a ton of USB-A and USB-C ports, and Wi-Fi 7. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 is a real standout too, landing in the 93rd percentile for CPU performance. That means this chip crushes most other desktops we've tested, making it a fantastic pick for heavy multitasking, compiling code, or any CPU-bound work. The 2TB NVMe SSD is also top-tier, sitting in the 91st percentile for storage speed and capacity.

Pure gamers on a strict budget should look elsewhere. The RTX 5060 Ti, while capable, is the weak link in this specific configuration for the price. You can find pre-builts from competitors like the MSI EdgeXpert or ASUS ROG GM700TZ that sacrifice a bit of CPU power for a much beefier GPU, giving you higher frame rates for the same cash. If you don't need 24 cores for work, you're leaving gaming performance on the table.

The Alienware Aurora ACT1250 is a CPU monster disguised as a gaming PC. If your day involves code compiles, video editing, or running a dozen VMs, the Core Ultra 9 here is a legitimate reason to buy this over almost anything else in its class. The RTX 5060 Ti is a capable gaming partner, but it's not the star of the show. You're buying this for the processor, the fantastic connectivity, and the surprisingly quiet operation. It's a workstation that's really good at games, not the other way around.