Aurora was built in August 2021 a replacement for my previous dedicated LAN PC, Artemis. Artemis had started to become lacking in the performance department and the years of constant world travel had started to take its toll on its case. It has way too much sentimental value to me to tear apart for parts so a new build was in order.

I fell in love with the design of the Raw S1 after watching the Linus Tech Tips review and didn't make it to the end of the video before placing my order. Originally I had planned to build with an RTX 3080 Ti for thermal considerations but when the opportunity arose to purchase an EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 for MSRP, I jumped on it. I picked the EVGA SuperNOVA GM 850 to give myself the most power headroom as at the time of writing, 850W is the biggest SFX non-L power supply available. The GM 850 also supports both 120V and 240V power without any physical switch. This is extremely common for modern PSUs but nonetheless was an important consideration for me.

Whether the Raw S1 will rise up to meet my travel needs remains to be seen but building in it was a pleasant experience. The case was manufactured in and shipped from Jönköping, Sweden which is also home to DreamHack's biannual flagship festival. I attended DreamHack Summer in 2019 and it was an incredible experience and I hope to go back and bring my case home as soon as I can.