Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7 14700F, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB GDDR6X Graphics, Windows 11 Home, 1 Year Onsite/in-Home Service - Basalt Black

When my wife's old Alienware gaming computer lost the ability to connect to the USB ports, it was time to replace it with a faster computer. I showed her all of the Alienware versions and she selected this one, based on speed, graphics and cost. It has met her requirements and is running fine.

It worked perfectly

OK, it was supposed to be refurbished. It wasn’t. The previous owner still had their profile and was locked with a PIN 😑. I went into RECOVERY mode and downloaded online new software with out saving any data on the SSD. Rebooted, and it failed to get to Win11😑. Rebooted into the Recovery Mode and tried to download software against but the computer could NOT find a WiFi signal 😑. Any WiFi signal. So, it set up the Recovery Mode to boot from USB and install Win11. The computer could not find the SSD😑. I had enough and started the process for a refund. 🫥

I was surprised with the performance this smaller desktop can produce, for the price this is a great deal for a plug n play pc. I will say it would be a good idea to uninstall the bloatware and set the Alienware software to performance mode with the fans on med or high. 135+ fps on Escape from Tarkov with all the settings on Ultra or high with the Nvidia control panel on Max quality @ 200hz 2k resolution playing Streets of Tarkov and Lighthouse with discord running while sharing my screen. If you were on the fence, do it, this has been a great purchase! Also you can add more storage via the extra NVME slots and you can add a 240mm AIO or more fans. Ram is limited to two slots so you could upgrade with two 32gb sticks but honestly the 32 gb of 5600mhz ram is more than enough. It has both WIFI and Bluetooth built in with its own antenna included in the box.

I bought this Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop “Used – Like New” directly from Amazon, expecting maybe a scuff or missing manual. What I got was a full-blown system resurrection project. Out of the box, the system booted to the Windows 11 Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) just fine—connected to Wi-Fi, no problem. But immediately after I named the device, the entire setup crashed and looped endlessly. No repair options worked. No reset paths. I was locked out of my own desktop before I ever saw it. Turns out, this system’s SSD is hidden behind an Intel VMD storage controller, which Windows 11 can’t detect unless you manually load specific drivers mid-installation. That’s right—you need two USB drives: one bootable Windows installer, and one with the extracted f6vmdflpy-x64 drivers from Intel (which you have to hunt down on Dell’s or Intel’s site, then extract using a second Windows PC). I spent hours: • Downloading Windows 11 ISO and Rufus just to build the installer • Digging through Intel’s confusing driver ecosystem • Figuring out which VMD folder to copy to a USB • Plugging both drives into the right ports (because yes, that matters) • Manually loading the drivers during setup just to make the SSD appear Only then was I finally able to delete the garbage partitions from the failed OOBE and clean install Windows. Now that it’s working, it runs beautifully—but this should not be what “Like New” means. If Amazon is going to sell these as refurbished or open-box, they need to reset and test them properly. The average customer is not going to be able to recover from this kind of failure. Buy only if you’re ready to go full IT tech on day one.