Dell has announced it's refreshing its XPS desktop system and the Alienware Aurora R12 with the latest Intel 11th-generation processors. You'll be able to order both systems from March 18th and we're expecting both to soon make their mark on our look at the best home computers.
The news follows Intel's announcement of new 11th-generation Rocket Lake-S desktop processors earlier this week. The processors are expected to offer better speeds equating to an up to 19% performance bump, but the processors also offer fewer cores which may make a difference for those that perform complex tasks on their PC. For the majority though, the Dell refresh should be a huge help.
Crucially, for gamers, single core performance and high speeds are everything so the Alienware Aurora R12 should still be remarkable for the price. Intel reckons that the latest processor included in it -- the 11900K -- will be around 14% faster in Microsoft Flight Simulator than its predecessor while playing in 1080p with high settings. If you want to keep costs down, you can always stick with the still highly respectable Intel Core i5-11400 processor which is the system's starting spec.
Alongside that, the Alienware Aurora R12 will also be available with 16GB of RAM as a minimum and you can opt to go for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or 3070 graphics card. However, there's no option to upgrade to Nvidia's RTX 3080 or 3090 graphics cards. We're guessing this may be due to stock issues with the GPU with it being increasingly difficult to track down either card.
It's a similar story for the Dell XPS 8940 desktop which is aimed at creative professionals. That's fancy marketing talk for a system that should actually be able to contend with many of the most demanding games, much like the Alienware Aurora R12. Users can choose to add a graphics card up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 or an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT along with the same base processor as the Alienware Aurora R12 -- the Intel Core i5-11400.
Perhaps the biggest difference here is when it comes to looks although they're not changing from previous models. The XPS 8940 looks more like the kind of system that would fit into an office setup while the Alienware Aurora R12 is suitably flashy right down to its over the top blue lighting arrangement.
Whatever you decide, the systems will be available from Dell as of tomorrow - March 18th.
