Alienware Alpha

levitronix

Im giving the alienware alpha some serious thoughts as an alternative/upgrade to the ps3 my son uses.

The system im liking is the i5 8gb ram 1tb, I know it comes in more expensive than a ps4 or xbox , but the games I ve checked out on steam are all cheaper than buying ps4 or xbox one games.
What I really like about the system is the size its tiny !

Any thoughts ?

McSasquatch II

What GPU do they come with? I'm betting you'd get far more bang for your buck building your own.

Gbear

As far as I know it's not as farcically priced as other Alienware guff but you're still best off consulting the Building forum if you're interested in value for money.

jumbobreakfast

I haven't seen any video reviews yet but I think it's a great idea for those who want a tidy PC for the sitting room or bedroom. Of course you can buy components cheaper but this isn't aimed at people who have the time or interest to do that especially while keeping the form factor so small.

Do they still make the Alienware stuff in Athlone?

Had a look on their site and there is no details on what Nvidia card is included. Personally, I'd choose the Intel i5 variant rather than the i3 one but it's hard to reccommend any if they don't clearly show what graphics card is included. I like the fact that it boots into a controller friendly interface though

Shiminay

It's definitely a tidy solution.

Until they're willing to tell people what card is being used then I wouldn't trust them to have lasting power. If you don't have a good video card, the whole thing is pointless and if you had a good video card, you'd tell people, so I get the feeling its some sub-par mass produced for Dell OEM card that's based off a mediocre commercial card...

OR...

They're still trying to get temperatures down on whatever card they've picked and it hasn't passed the reliability tests and so they're looking at having to launch with a slower than anticipated card.

ScumLord

It's a neat little package alright, I guess if you want a straightforward introduction to PC gaming it would do the job. As a PC purest I wouldn't touch it though. Little packages don't suit hot running PC components, although I'm sure Dell have an effective solution. When it comes to upgrading your going to be very restricted by that case. Part of the appeal of PCs is that when one part goes out of date you can replace it without replacing the entire machine. These Alpha boxes look like once any part starts to go past it's sell by date you'll have to replace the entire machine which makes them expensive in the long run.

Shiminay

Yea and if it's based on an 860m (no slouch to be fair, but hardly leading edge tech), it's got a 2 year shelf life before it starts showing its age. Meanwhile, the consoles will have just found their feet and will be producing the sorts of high quality graphical content that all these "next gen" rubes seem to think they're owed.

the_syco

levitronix wrote: »

What I really like about the system is the size its tiny !

I wonder if it's a full card, or an onboard yokie (it being M)? If onboard, you'll have to buy pretty much a new system when you wish to upgrade it, so small and expensive will mean the need of a new machine sooner rather than later.

jumbobreakfast

It's onboard and apparently it's a custom chip (probably for heat and noise reduction) so yeah I don't think it would be great. I won't jump to any conclusions until I see some benchmarks but its not looking good.

Genghiz Cohen

You could always build in a Raven RVZ01

Fullsize parts in a case that won't dominate a sitting room.

Sierra Oscar

Given any consideration to building a similar system yourself, but something that might be a little more upgrade friendly?

Genghiz Cohen

I actually got to play with an Alpha at GamesCom this year.
Portal 2, I got a few pictures if they are of any interest. Framerates seemed smooth.


Also, for the laugh, I put together a build for the sitting room in that Silverstone case.

Genghiz Cohen

OSI wrote: »

Not very inspiring that it's not even running a near 4 year old game (that wasn't particularly demanding at the time) at high settings.

If it were an XBone/PS4 you be getting shouted at for it being 'in beta' and 'they have yet to optimise it!'. Truth is, it can't be a hugely powerful machine at that size, unless it's using the 970M/980M gpus.

TerrorFirmer

If it is based on the 860M, you're automatically limited to about 1080p medium settings in most games, and handicapped down the line by the lack of upgradability.

It's almost a disposable gaming device really - designed to last 2 or 3 years and just be outright replaced.

It is nice and tidy and to be fair, you actually can't self build one yourself, it is unique in its size to performance ratio.

But of course you can build something a bit bigger but far more powerful for the same money - and it'll last years longer.

Sonics2k

Is the GPU in this even upgradeable?

I know the 860m can run a lot of games at a steady fps and the overall package looks clean and neat for a living room situation, but a lack of upgrades available will surely hit this hard.

Genghiz Cohen

Sonics2k wrote: »

Is the GPU in this even upgradeable?

I know the 860m can run a lot of games at a steady fps and the overall package looks clean and neat for a living room situation, but a lack of upgrades available will surely hit this hard.

The "m" denotes a laptop GPU, so its probably soldered in.

Sonics2k

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

The "m" denotes a laptop GPU, so its probably soldered in.

You're quite right. I had a quick look online and it's clear the GPU is attached directly the board. Such a waste because otherwise it would be amazing.

ScumLord

Sonics2k wrote: »

You're quite right. I had a quick look online and it's clear the GPU is attached directly the board. Such a waste because otherwise it would be amazing.

That doesn't necessarily mean you can't put a proper card in it, it's just not going to fit without some cutting.

TheDoc

I built a HTPC for €300 with parts from Amazon, mostly for playing video and downloading, but for a laugh threw on a few of my games to see how it would go, and surprisingly went perfectly fine, decent settings and smooth.

There are options out there, the joy of PC gaming is you can tailor it to your needs.

OP are you looking for a sort of setup where you can have the tower by the telly, and your son sitting back on the couch using a controller, or will he be using a keyboard and mouse?

That probably brings a PC desk into play, where being "neat and slick" isn't really a factor, and you can avail of building a good PC on a really good budget.

Like with most things nowadays, if your going for slick/compact, your sacrificing some performance, and your going to pay more for the convenience.

TerrorFirmer

ScumLord wrote: »

That doesn't necessarily mean you can't put a proper card in it, it's just not going to fit without some cutting.

Well, it does - the Alpha GPU is soldered to the board. That's how it's so small, it's not using desktop components.

ScumLord

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Well, it does - the Alpha GPU is soldered to the board. That's how it's so small, it's not using desktop components.

I would have thought an onboard gpu could just be disabled and as long as you have a pci slot you can put something else in.

Darwin

My xbox 360 packed up during the summer so instead of getting another I recently decided to give one of these a go. I have already have a decent PC mostly for sim racing but it ain't setup in the warm living room So this will do for some casual gaming from the sofa and anything it struggles to run I can always stream games from the PC upstairs. The best bit is it was on sale during the black Friday weekend with a 15% discount and I managed to snag another 10% on top of the that by using a VIP code. I went for the min config to keep costs down and will replace the HDD with an SSD when it arrives.
@scumlord pretty sure the mobo has no PCI slot, see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaARnTp6ds0

levitronix

TheDoc wrote: »

I built a HTPC for €300 with parts from Amazon, mostly for playing video and downloading, but for a laugh threw on a few of my games to see how it would go, and surprisingly went perfectly fine, decent settings and smooth.

There are options out there, the joy of PC gaming is you can tailor it to your needs.

OP are you looking for a sort of setup where you can have the tower by the telly, and your son sitting back on the couch using a controller, or will he be using a keyboard and mouse?

That probably brings a PC desk into play, where being "neat and slick" isn't really a factor, and you can avail of building a good PC on a really good budget.

Like with most things nowadays, if your going for slick/compact, your sacrificing some performance, and your going to pay more for the convenience.

Im actually thinking about spending the same amount of money on a mini atx build , seem some nice cases that wont look out of place in the sitting room. Youtube is great for research the building looks fairly easy and I can get a descent staff price on an ssd and cpu, so will save a bit there.

Will be mainly used with xbox controllers , but will get a wireless mouse keyboard from work

TerrorFirmer

ScumLord wrote: »

I would have thought an onboard gpu could just be disabled and as long as you have a pci slot you can put something else in.

It's not a normal desktop board. It's a custom board and it's really more like a laptop motherboard - it doesn't have any normal desktop slots, you can't add any pci or pci-e cards to it (apart from mini pci-e like wifi adaptors etc). The 860M is a dedicated GPU but it's soldered to the motherboard. It might have been nice if they used a modular GPU design like some of the laptops but they didn't.

Skerries

ScumLord wrote: »

I would have thought an onboard gpu could just be disabled and as long as you have a pci slot you can put something else in.

I suspect there wouldn't be room in it and you would have to run a card externally attached to the box

ScumLord

Skerries wrote: »

I suspect there wouldn't be room in it

That's what hacksaws are for. :pac:

Shiminay

pffffff Dremel FTW!

ScumLord

Shiminay wrote: »

pffffff Dremel FTW!

Probably better, my HTPC didn't make it through the procedure.

If I got one of these would I be able to replace my Intel NUC (only running OpenElec) AND also be able to play Steam games as well as running Kodi? Moreover I was hoping to stick Hyperspin on there as well (never tried it before!). Basically hoping that I could still have a media centre but add the capability of playing some games at a moderate degree.

I've read all your lukewarm comments on the device but I'm drawn to it as it's small, convenient and pre-built.

Darwin

Well I'm running both Steam and Kodi on mine. I ordered the base spec and replaced the HDD myself which was a cinch. I also managed to get a 20% discount on mine at the time so it was a no-brainer in comparison to anything else. The 860m is good enough for most modern games (I'm currently playing the Golf Club and Spintires), though the fan revs up a fair bit when playing the Golf Club. They now come with the 960m GPU which basically an overclocked 860m. If you also have a decent desktop, steam in-home streaming works great when you need some more horsepower for gaming. Don't forget to sign up to the Dell VIP club and get another 10% off.

I assume you replaced the HDD with an SSD? The thing about that is unless you pay silly money then the SSD is always going to be smaller - storage wise. But don't you need a good bit of storage for Steam games?

I'm showing my ignorance here but primarily I was looking for something to emulate the systems of my youth and play my media. Hyperspin has a great reputation but I have to say the spinning wheel looks a little crappy in my opinion. Too fancy for my needs maybe.

Darwin

Yes I replaced the existing drive with a 256GB SSD. Indeed big SSDs are pricey and Steam games can run into tens of gigs, I suppose I am selective about what I install out of my steam library on the Alpha. I bought a USB enclosure for the mechanical drive that came with the Alpha which helps a bit. Perhaps you could install Hyperspin to an external drive if storage is an issue?

Genghiz Cohen

Deleted User wrote: »

I assume you replaced the HDD with an SSD? The thing about that is unless you pay silly money then the SSD is always going to be smaller - storage wise. But don't you need a good bit of storage for Steam games?

I'm showing my ignorance here but primarily I was looking for something to emulate the systems of my youth and play my media. Hyperspin has a great reputation but I have to say the spinning wheel looks a little crappy in my opinion. Too fancy for my needs maybe.

It should emulate most anything you can throw at it. Might struggle a little with newer WiiU titles, maybe.