Hands-on with the Alienware Alpha Steam machine

[Scorpus]

The $550 Alienware Alpha is the company's first attempt at a compact PC gaming console for the living room, powered by an Intel Core processor and a custom-built Nvidia GPU. In the video above, we take a look inside the box, show you around the console, and even take a peek under the hood at the tightly-packed internal components.

The Alienware Alpha is essentially an unofficial Stream Machine. The system runs Windows 8.1 but boots into what’s called the Alpha-UI, a gaming-minded user interface that provides easy access to Steam Big Picture mode. It also comes with an Xbox 360 controller as the Steam Controller was also delayed.

TechSpot's full review of the Alienware Alpha is coming soon.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/59157-alienware-alpha-preview.html

 

[Guest]

I get alot of the disdain people have towards alienware, but I've had my alpha for 2 weeks and can say for my situation its fantastic. Ive wanted a 2nd micro PC to compliment my gaming tower out in my living room, and for its tiny form factor and dang decent performance I'm incredibly happy with the purchase.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Kinda reminds me of an original xbox.

 

[penn919]

Kinda reminds me of an original xbox.

The original Xbox was probably like 6 x bigger. have you ever seen one?

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Kinda reminds me of an original xbox.

The original Xbox was probably like 6 x bigger. have you ever seen one?

I own two, I was commenting more on the hardware specs being an intel processor and nvidia graphics.

 

[theBest11778]

I've been using my Alpha since launch, and I have to say I'm very impressed. I wanted the smallest gaming PC I could get my hands on. Unfortunately even MITX builds were too big. The Alpha was the perfect solution. It's definitely not right for everyone, but if you only want it to run games from 2013 on back (Basically to retire my X360,) and size/power consumption are your main priorities then this machine is for you. The Alpha will not compete with the PS4 and XBO. PC games are horribly optimized, and the Alpha is actually weaker than the PS4, but stronger than the XBO. So in theory it could compete, but due to lack of optimizations it won't. As I said it's best as a PS3 or X360 replacement as all those ports will run 1080P/60 no problem, even Crysis 3 on medium/high (You need an i5 model or better for that though.)

The only real issue is the Alpha will NOT take standard Nvidia Driver Updates, doesn't have GeForce Experience (which would be great if as it would auto optimize games... to me this was a no brainer, but it's not there,) so you have to rely on Dell/Alienware to produce Driver updates, and they're already lagging behind. However as I said I'm really only using it for older games, or less demanding games, this isn't a major issue for me.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

[Guest]

Anyone with an alpha. Will it output 7.1 audio? I want to use tha alpha as a remote pc in my media room to steam media and games from my main high end pc in another room.

Don't really get what the above poster is saying comparing it to current and last gen console. I have all 4. It's better than an Xb1 but worse than a ps4. Dude you just split a hair with a hair. Ps4 and xb1 play display games nearly identical. Only difference is xb1 accepted early on it struggles with 1080p. Ps4 was like just let the frame rate drop. We need a marketing number. Anyway. You say it's only as good as a 360 or ps3 but better than an xb1. So the xb1 in your opinion is equivalent to a 360 or ps3. You must be using the i3 version.

What I mainly want to know is if it will output 7.1 specifically using kodi. I've ripped my entire bluray collection to full quality digital but I currently can't pass the HD sound.