Alienware Alpha thoughts - PAPERNUT's Blog

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Alienware Alpha thoughts

Posted on January 22, 2015 at 12:08 AM.

(4)

Alienware Alpha:

I picked up the Alienware Alpha recently in order to supplement my other consoles and get back into PC gaming. I was looking for something easy to use for a Theater setup and to expose my daughter to the world of PC gaming. Also needed a desktop to do the occasional documents and prints. The Alpha covers all this in one single package. Here are my initial thoughts on it.

First thing that shocked me was the size. The Alpha is around 3/4 the size of the PS4. This is what the PS4 and Xbox should have been and if Valve gets the Steam Machine concept running again, this will resonate with a lot of gamers and with the spouse approval factor as well. I picked up the I5 version as the I3 is a bit weak on the memory and drive space. It uses the 360 controller and after using it again, I prefer it to either the PS4 or Xbox One controller. I am using a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse for gaming and desktop use and it works great. Setup was simple as it took around 30 minutes for updates and more, but the process is straight forward. It uses a UI to go to Steam Big Picture direct or you can go to the desktop to use Windows 8.1 as a standard PC.

I'm a newb to Steam, so this has been my first experience with it and I now understand why I always heard those asking for Sony and MS to be more like Steam. I agree 100%, but will not focus on all that now. Just know Big Picture works great on the big screen and the Alpha. As far as games, I have not played anything graphically intense at this point, but it has played well with the games I have tried so far. One of the drawbacks to the Alpha is the GPU as it is not upgradable, but you can upgrade the CPU, memory, and hard drive and Alienware has made it upgradable to Steam OS as well. The hard drive is slow as many recommend adding an SSD as it has been shown to improve the loading speed of the UI and more. I could have saved by going with the I3 and upgrading the memory and drive, but I'm not looking to get into all that. This is certainly not for the hardcore as they will be building their own rigs anyway, but it has enough to give a few years of service with adjustments and has a lot under the hood compared to the PS4 and Xbox One now.

To sum it all up, I have been impressed with the Alpha at this point. I wanted to get into Steam. Needed to have a desktop for the occasional use that a tablet cannot cover. I also wanted to load emulators to play older systems on the big screen without having to unbox all my older systems and hook them up. The Alpha has been great for all of it. It has its drawbacks when it comes to future compatibility for sure and is not cheap depending on the version you choose, but it is perfect for those looking to get into PC gaming gradually and not worry about upgrades. I can see this being the start for the gaming PC to invade the living room and expand into the casual market as more learn the benefits of Steam.

Comments

# 1 rawdog805 @ Jan 25

What games have you tried with it?

# 2 PAPERNUT @ Jan 25

Fallout New Vegas, Legand of Heros, The Stanley Parable, Way of Life, Unturned, I am Bread. No issues so far, but looking forward to pushing it harder with some newer releases soon. System runs quiet and does not get hot, so impressed at this point.

# 3 PAPERNUT @ Feb 8

Another update: Just got into Twitch streaming from the Alpha. Installed OBS and after some trial and error figuring out settings, it has worked great. Mostly an issue learning the software than anything to do with the console itself as this was my first time trying it out. Tried a few more games and have still had no issues with it.

# 4 PAPERNUT @ Dec 15

Update. Installed an SSD and 16 GB RAM and this thing loads faster than it takes my TV and receiver to turn on. Just made the jump to Windows 10 with it and so far it has been very stable in gaming and other uses. Playing Fallout 4 on high 1080P and getting around 35-45 FPS. Just cant say enough good things about this PC. Plan on using it for another year or two and finally building my own.