Are the 1080 TI's in the new Aurora R7 Founders Editions? If not, what are they?

The most recent Alienware video shows a number of video cards that were the very generic black cards, one in a Aurora and two in an Area 51. They did not say which cards they were, so it's possible that the standard less expensive cards are the plain black without the green illuminated lettering. I'm not clear as to if the illuminated lettering with higher quality metal casing are FE addition but I would be pretty disappointed if I were to order a high end card (1080 or 1080 Ti) and it came looking like these OEM looking ones.

Do It Yourself! | Alienware - YouTube 

I presently have an Area 51 R2 (and love it) with original 980 that has the nicer casing. I have no idea if it's considered Founder's Edition, I just know it looks a lot nicer than those in the video. And am concerned that Dell has changed the quality of the cards they presently use with the Aurora R7's and newest Area 51's. Plain ugly cards don't belong in an Alienware IMO, those black plain cards do a real disservice to the brand. But again that's just one longtime patron's opinion.

Looks like the 1080 Ti @speedstep mentions is the one now included with the Aurora R7's. There's a new youtube video showing inside the Aurora R7 with 1080 Ti and it sure looks like this one to me...the video is called Alienware Aurora R7 - First Impressions / Unboxing!

Looks like this card:

PNY GeForce GTX 1080 Ti - Blower Edition graphics card 11 GB GDDR5X 3 x DisplayPort | Dell United States 

I'm not an official answer but from everything I can tell at the moment the answer to your question is....No, it comes with something else....unfortunately.

Although after watching this video, the card is pretty buried in the Aurora case and as long as the casing keeps the card cool, the look of the card is pretty obscure unlike they are in the Area 51's. 

appears to be the same card found in A-51, lime green accent basically IDs it as an MSI Aero made for Dell; it makes sense that this is the card they're shipping out

What Brand of the GTX 1080 Ti is in my Alienware Area 51 R2?

• https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GTX-1080-Ti-Video-Card-from-Alienware-Area-51-PC-352-Bit-GDDR5X-/232503859799?hash=item36224f5a57%3Ag%3A-OsAAOSwpC1ZzEGn&nma=true&si=fEKVQ7KyYcWTW2jPkvymz3R7iCk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

bkervaski wrote:

The 1080's that came with my Aurora R5 were Founders Editions.  

Yes, reportedly a few early ones did (remember, the GXT-1070/1080 had just been released). But then, they switched to the cheaper Dell OEM card that is similar to an MSI-Aero.

Same Dell-OEM (MSI-Aero clone) was shipped in most Aurora-R6. I have one of those 1070's in my Aurora-R6. It works fine.

The RED board parts are Dell OEM

The Aero has black color circuit board.

Overview for GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AERO 11G | MSI Global 

Ya but thats a BIT TOO SMALL for my eyes.

 Dell-Alienware-Aurora-R5-R6-nVidia-GeForce-GTX-1070-06MKK-8GB-Graphics-Card

The Dell China PN is the white box with QR code.

speedstep wrote:

The RED board parts are Dell OEM

The Aero has black color circuit board.

 

My Dell/Alienware-OEM GTX-1070. Notice the MSI silk-screening. It's easy to slap-on a different plastic cover at build-time. My impression is that it is just there to control the air anyway.