Alienware shows off new 13-inch OLED laptop, Steam Machine and two powerful desktops

[Jos]

Alienware is showing off four new systems at this year’s gaming-focused E3 conference. The lineup include the Alienware 13 OLED notebook, a new version of the Alpha Steam machine and new Aurora and Area 51 desktops.

Alienware 13 OLED

Dell first teased the Alienware 13 OLED laptop at CES in January, but is now launching it officially starting at $1,299. The device packs a Samsung-made panel featuring a resolution of 2560x1440, a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and a 1–2ms response time. Dell claims these are the lowest response times for any notebook currently on the market.

Inside its carbon-fiber, anodized aluminum and copper case you’ll find up to a 3.16GHz i7-6500U CPU, up to 16GB of DDR3L memory and either a GeForce GTX 960 with 2GB GDDR5 or a GTX 965 with 4GB GDDR5. The Alienware 13 OLED is also compatible with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier for some serious gaming when docked.

Other features include Klipsch speakers, a 4-cell 52-watt-hour battery, two USB 3.0 ports, one Thunderbolt 3 port with a USB-C connector, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1.

Alienware Alpha R2

The living room centric Alpha is also getting an update with support for the latest Intel Core CPUs, an an optional M.2 SSD and up to 16GB of RAM. The base version offers an AMD Radeon R9 M470X with 2GB of GDDR5, while the higher-end Alpha will offer a GeForce GTX 960 GPU with 4GB of GDDR5.

Starting at $599, the Alpha will also support Alienware’s graphics amp, and will come in two variants, a standard version with Windows 10 and another billed as a Stem Machine which launches directly into Valve’s environment.

Aurora R5, Area 51 R2

Rounding out the announcements are a pair of powerful desktop systems with the new Aurora and Area 51. The former is a tool-less mid-tower that starts at $799 and can be specced up with any 6th generation Core Intel chip, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, a pair of graphics cards including the GTX 1080 , a 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD with 2GB of RAID HDD storage and liquid cooling. The machine is designed to make future upgrades easy.

Lastly, the latest Area 51 desktop retains the massive, triangular design of the original, but now features a liquid cooled Intel i7 Broadwell-e CPU, DDR4 memory and either Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire technology (up to three cards). Pricing starts at $1,699 but expect to pay plenty more for a fully souped up build.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/65196-alienware-shows-off-new-oled-laptop-steam-machine.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

SO no real improvements, with both the alienware alpha and the alienware 13 offering the SAME chips as last year. Yawn.

Why not wait for pascal so we can get some actual improvements?

 

[Bao Nguyen]

SO no real improvements, with both the alienware alpha and the alienware 13 offering the SAME chips as last year. Yawn.

Why not wait for pascal so we can get some actual improvements?

I'm so confused at your comment. They did improve significantly for the Alienware Alpha? Intel 4th gen upgraded to 6th gen CPUs, RAM now can be maxed out at 32GB DDR4 2133Mhz up from 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz, GPU from custom 860M to 960 (desktop) which is huge. All that in the exact same form factor.

 

[psycros]

Steam Machines, LOL. Still make zero sense in any context. And why won't Alienware make a laptop with a *#$^ numpad so it's useful for more than ASWD shooters?? Or maybe they do and I've just never seen an ad anywhere.

 

[poohbear]

That OLED laptop looks sick!!! but what's up with the 960m?? They couldn't acquire a 1070?

 

[texasrattler]

That OLED laptop looks sick!!! but what's up with the 960m?? They couldn't acquire a 1070?

The laptop was made well before the 1070 was even known about. You have to factor that it. Deals are made months before a product is released. The 1070 wa sonly known about in April and the Alienware laptop in question was likely well into what hardware would be in it. Likely a revision in the fall or early next year will happen.

 

[texasrattler]

Steam Machines, LOL. Still make zero sense in any context. And why won't Alienware make a laptop with a *#$^ numpad so it's useful for more than ASWD shooters?? Or maybe they do and I've just never seen an ad anywhere.

Dell don't use a number keypad for most of their laptops. It's nothing new, been that way for years. Custom build if you want certain features.

 

[BingoFishy]

100k:1 contrast ratio on an OLED laptop? What?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

SO no real improvements, with both the alienware alpha and the alienware 13 offering the SAME chips as last year. Yawn.

Why not wait for pascal so we can get some actual improvements?

I'm so confused at your comment. They did improve significantly for the Alienware Alpha? Intel 4th gen upgraded to 6th gen CPUs, RAM now can be maxed out at 32GB DDR4 2133Mhz up from 16GB DDR3 1600Mhz, GPU from custom 860M to 960 (desktop) which is huge. All that in the exact same form factor.

To say the least, going from 4th gen to 6th gen gives you a whopping 1FPS more! YAY!

More importantly, the alpha is a gaming machine. High speed system RAM doesnt really benefit gaming unless you are using an iGPU or are doing super high end SLI rigs. The alpha is not powerful enough to need faster memory performance.

I'm not interested in 2133 DDR4, because skylake needs 3000 MHZ ddr4 to match 2133 DDR3 haswell. So 2133 MHz ddr4 offers no real improvement over 1600 MHz ddr3. Not that it matters too much, since this is a gaming machine. Why on earth do you need 32GB of RAM in a gaming machine? My full desktop has 16GB, And I've yet to use more then 50%. (But then, I dont keep 90 tabs open at a time either. )

And the 960 GPU, Even if it is confirmed to be the full desktop chip and not the mobile variety (as the 960m can also come with 4GB of RAM) its a low end maxwell part. The 960 is not exactly impressive, and since pascal is here, and low end pascal will probably be coming out within three months, why not wait for the 1060, and put that in there? The 960 is a decent upgrade, but not when pascal is about to kick it to the curb performance wise.