Acer Veriton M4660g vs. Alienware Aurora R8

Differences between Acer Veriton M4660g and Alienware Aurora R8

Both computers, the Alienware Aurora R8 and the Acer Veriton M4660g, were released during the same year - 2018.

If you are looking for the smaller form factor the Alienware Aurora R8 is the right one for you. It is smaller than the Acer Veriton M4660g and will fit more easily under your desk.

Processor

The two models have the same generation of Intel processors. We think that the 9 generation of Intel Processors have enough power to execute all of the home and office tasks that most people will care to do.

Memory

Both models have have equal amount of ram slots (4 RAM). Usually two RAM slots are more than enough for most cases. However, the count should be taken into account when planning how much and what combination of RAM you are going to need for your system.

The Alienware Aurora R8 is using the faster 3000 MT/s RAM. The Acer Veriton M4660g is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 2666 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Acer Veriton M4660g as it has the ability to run 124 GB of RAM. The Alienware Aurora R8 can do a bit less at max 64 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.

Ports

In total the Alienware Aurora R8 has 12 USB ports. The Acer Veriton M4660g is inferior in this regard and packs 8 USB ports. In any case, if you miss USB ports, you can always purchase a USB hub. What is nice about the Alienware Aurora R8, is that it has 2 USB 3.1 port(s) which allows transfer of up to 10Gb/s. Unfortunately, the Acer Veriton M4660g has no such port, thus restricting your transfer speeds significantly. For people who want to use external drives on regular basis, this might be an issue.

Nowadays, almost every new computer comes equipped with a DisplayPort. However, none of the devices being compared here has one. Don't worry though, DisplayPort adapters are very cheap and you can get virtually any combination of conversion types.

The Acer Veriton M4660g comes with an HDMI port, while the Alienware Aurora R8 does not support the interface. Of course missing HDMI port is something that can be easily fixed with a good adapter (e.g. DisplayPort to HDMI).

SATA ports are placed on the system board and it is where you connect your HDD, SSD and Optical Disk Drives. More SATA slots will allow you to have more drives running at the same time. In this regard the Acer Veriton M4660g is better equipped as it comes with 5 SATA slot(s), while the Alienware Aurora R8 has 4 slot(s).

If you want the fastest transfer speeds for your SSD, an M.2 interface is crucial. Thus, if the M.2 SSD slot is a mandatory requirement for you, go with the Alienware Aurora R8. Sadly, the Acer Veriton M4660g has no such slot, and you will be forced to use the SATA interface instead.

Make sure that the available M.2 slot supports the PCIe (also called NVMe) interface. This is important as there are M.2 slots which support only the inferior SATA III interface. For comparison, the SATA III interface has max speeds of 6Gb/s, while the PCIe 3.0 x4 will support speeds up to 32Gb/s!

Power Supply

Having a Power Supply Unit with high power rating is important, if you are going to use components which require extra power. The Acer Veriton M4660g comes with a decent 300 Watt PSU, but the Alienware Aurora R8 has a more powerful one rated at 850 Watts. Choosing either one depends on your specific requirements and use case. Also don't forget that some models might have more than one PSU option - try to always get the most powerful one, especially if you plan to upgrade to a powerful GPU.

Motherboard