Read the Dog Blog

• Home
• Dog Blog 2023
• Dog Blog 2022
• Dog Blog 2021
• Dog Blog 2020
• Dog Blog 2019
• Dog Blog 2018
• Dog Blog 2017
• Dog Blog 2016
• Dog Blog 2015
• Dog Blog 2014
• Dog Blog 2013
• Dog Blog 2012
• Dog Blog 2011
• Dog Blog 2010
• Dog Blog Singapore
• Family Photos Archive

Aurora

I got my HP Blackbird PC way back in 2008 while I was living in Singapore. It was about as hot a gaming rig as you could get back then. It really is a classic design. It even has its own Wikipedia entry. I did a major upgrade in 2012, and another upgrade in 2016. This fall I was still using it as my desktop PC.

Sadly, it started to have some intermittent problems. Over the Christmas holidays my friend Ivan was in town visiting family, and he came over to help me debug. We determined that the power supply needed to be replaced. I got a new one off the shelf from Best Buy and we did the swap. That was when disaster struck. There was a problem with the cabling for the SATA backplane. We inadvertantly put 12V on the 5V line and blew up the SSD and both of the HDD's.

This was pretty serious. I still wanted to see if I could get the Blackbird up and running again, but it was going to be a lot of work and would take a lot of time. I wasn't willing to go without a desktop computer indefinitely. I decided that I would buy a new PC. I would keep working on the Blackbird to get it running again, but there would be no time pressure. I could take as long as I needed. For the moment I set it aside and started shopping for a new gaming PC.

First I looked at HP. My laptop is an HP Omen that I bought in 2018 and I've been very happy with it. The current Omen desktops had mixed reviews though. Most of them said something like "It's a great PC. The only problem is it tends to overheat." That's a pretty serious flaw though. It's a little like saying a boat is really good, except that it tends to sink. After all the years that I spent working for HP, sadly I scratched them off my list.

After looking at various other options, I narrowed it down to a Dell Aurora. During the time I worked at HP I never had any respect for Dell PC's but the gaming PC's are all done by their Alienware subsidiary. Alienware was acquired in 2006 by Dell and has remained a mostly autonomous division of the company. Their gaming computers are quite different from run-of-the-mill Dell PC's. This is a different strategy than HP pursued when they acquired Vooddo Computers about the same time to get into the gaming market. HP absorbed and then ultimately killed off Voodoo.

My biggest decision ended up being whether to go for eleventh generation (Rocket Lake) or twelfth generation (Alder Lake) for the Intel processor. I was worried that since the new architecture had just started to ship the previous month, there might be an availability problem. I didn't want to end up waiting a really long time to get my system. But I decided to go for it. The newest Aurora R13, which featured an Alder Lake CPU, had enhanced cooling. That was still my number one purchase criterion.

The rest of the decisions were pretty easy. I went with an nVidia 3070 graphics card. It's not the top of the line, but since I don't play shooters I didn't need a 3090 or even a 3080. Besides, you can't get them anyway because cryto miners buy them all up. Even with my 4K monitor, video cards have progressed to where you don't need the absolute fastest card to drive a UHD display at a reasonable refresh rate.

Just like the graphics card, I didn't need the absoulte fastest CPU for my system. An Intel i7 was good enough. I added 32 GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for the system disc and a 2TB HDD for extra storage. The total came to $3500, which was the most I had ever spent for a PC. Even though it isn't a top of the line system, supply chain problems and crypto miners had driven up prices. Still, I thought it was a good price/performance compromise for a system and worth the price.

My next worry was availability. I was afraid that it might take months to get my system. But when I ordered it on Christmas Eve, it came back with an estimate that I would receive it on January 18. I could live with three and a half weeks, if their estimate was really accurate. I could log into my Dell account to check the status of my order and I did that every day. Several times every day. Ok, like every fifteen minutes. As anxious as I was to get my new system I had to admit that I was skeptical. But I was pleasantly surprised in early January when the status changed from "awaiting production" to "in production". Then less than a week later, it changed again to "shipped". The package arrived on January 15 - three days early! Needless to say, I was pretty excited. And I have to give (mumble) Dell credit for doing better than their estimated delivery date.

I unpacked it and took it into my game room at first. I set up and turned on. I loaded basic software on it, configured Windows the way I like it, and pretty much got it ready to use. The whole process was pretty easy. The system came with Windows 11 preloaded and I have to admit that after about a half a day to get comfortable with it, I was happy with Windows 11. I don't know why so many people complain about it.

Eventually I moved it into my office and set it up with my dual monitors and speakers. My final change was to upgrade one of the monitors. I swapped out my twenty eight inch, 4K Samsung. I moved it to my Blackbird, which I am still in the process of trying to restore. I bought a new thirty two inch 4K Samsung monitor for my Aurora.

So far I have been very happy with my new Aurora. It is really quiet, which was a big change. The fans on my Blackbird sounded like an airplane taking off. Even with two monitors, a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160)and a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) monitor, the graphics card in my Aurora doesn't even break a sweat at 60fps. The fan barely runs and you can't hear it at all. There are some pretty fancy lighting options and a clear side of the case on my Aurora. It was fun to play with for a day or two but after a while the novelty wore off. But for the games that I play and other software that I run, my Aurora is just awesome. I'm a happy guy.

The Blackbird still has a special place in my heart after fourteen years of loyal service. My project to restore it continues.