This month marks 25 years since Alienware was founded in a garage outside of Miami, and to celebrate, the Dell-owned company has announced major changes to the design of its flagship gaming desktop, the Aurora.

The Aurora has long been a Tom's Guide favorite, so we look forward to seeing the next iteration of this classic chassis. here's what we know so far about the 2021 Alienware Aurora redesign.

Dell has confirmed that the new Alienware Aurora R13 and the new Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 will be available on October 27.

As of October 27, Dell is selling two new Alienware Aurora models, the Alienware Aurora R13 and the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14; the Aurora R13 starts at $1,479 and the Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 starts at $1,249.

The main difference here is that the R13 comes with an Intel CPU, while the Ryzen Edition R14, as you might expect, comes with an AMD Ryzen CPU. However, the R13 is powered by the latest Intel Alder Lake 12th generation CPUs, which, like this new Aurora, will hit the market in October. These chips are Intel's first hybrid desktop CPUs and promise to deliver incredible power and efficiency.

AMD is also preparing a new lineup of Ryzen CPUs, but their debut is expected in early 2022. Nevertheless, the Ryzen 5000 series chips in the Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 are powerful enough for most PC gaming enthusiasts and should be around for years to come.

It is here in the initial announcement that Alienware shared the most details. At the center of it all is the all-new Legend 2.0 chassis. It offers more internal space, more efficient airflow, and overall quietness.

Aside from the addition of optional transparent side panels, the new chassis certainly looks familiar from the outside, albeit slightly angled. An optional cylindrical cable cover can be added to the back if you like the curves of a desktop computer, but those who need to manage cables frequently are advised to leave it off.

That said, the rather large footprint (23.2 x 20.1 x 8.86 inches) does help somewhat to explain the improved airflow. The company adds that this custom mainboard has power connections located on the edge, which allows for better cable management

for better airflow.

Additionally, the new Aurora has room for up to four 120mm fans, with liquid cooling options available. With liquid cooling and the aforementioned airflow adjustments, the new Aurora is, according to Alienware, 9% quieter than the current R10 and R12 models under CPU load and 16% quieter at idle.

The Alienware Aurora 2021 comes in two colors: Lunar Light (white) and Dark Side of the Moon (black).

Unfortunately, this is another area where the company has been fairly tight-lipped: the only thing revealed about the 2021 Alienware Aurora's specs is that it will feature up to an Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU, which anyone could have predicted. (However, the performance is 5% faster with the same GPU as the current R12, which is encouraging.)

However, given Alienware's penchant for pushing top-end specs, it could also consist of Intel's 12th generation processors. Also, we would not be surprised if DDR5 RAM is supported.

All in all, the new Alienware Aurora looks like an elegant way for the company to celebrate its 25th birthday in style.

In a way, it doesn't really matter that details about core specs are so light; Alienware's systems have always been as overpowered as the budget allows, thanks to their extensive customization options, and this one looks to be no different.

The airflow, volume, and performance gains from the new design could be much greater if Alienware's already high price were not an unwelcome adjustment to its 25th birthday.