a gaming PC in the living room is a concept they can lose companies have tried to execute in the past recently about came and they said that they finally have an all-encompassing solution that will take all love your games from your Steam library and to bring them to the living room now even though the alley or alpha isn't really the steam machine that we were promised early on this year it really is something that we kinda worked expecting most importantly it's a follow-on windows-based PC that comes with hardware they could definitely el pais all the next generation consoles and plus at a compact size it even makes the Wii U look like a giant.
so let's get right into my review the Alienware alpha and see if they can actually take up some of that precious living a real stay away from the next generation parts when one thing I'm really impressed with with the Alpha is how contacted as compared to the experts one and at the PlayStation 4 its completely tiny only measured about 20 centimeters by 20 centimeters and when the reason why it is so small as that del an Alienware have designed a completely custom internal architecture they're using both laptop technology in terms of the GP you and I standardize desktop a CPU configuration all in one PC be so in terms the overall compact size is very difficult to replicate this even if you're making your own are custom-built a steam machine or steam box or living room gaming PC now looks can be deceiving a you do have to keep in mind that the only way out but does not come with a built-in power supply you still have to deal with a massive break that will definitely add to the overall kinda bulkiness
you have to hide at this power supply somewhere to our maintain that streamlined look that the Alpha maintains centers in the design itself I don't think the ALF are really has any major design issues that is stand out in any aspect civic work or it just has a kinda a boxy angular look and it's pretty neutral in terms of its overall kinda design and aesthetic luck now in terms of the i/o at the front and the only way out for we have the Alienware logo which also doubles as a LED PowerLite as well as a button for the main power and on the other side we also have a triangular LED light.
now you can change the actual color and brightness other both LED lights you can try different combinations within the software so that's kinda nice if you want to customize they look at your alpha I just near the front of the Alpha we do also have two USB 2.0 connections and i'm looking at the back and the Alienware alpha we have a plethora have connections is one of the best things about this consul compared to a conventional gaming console where you don't have all this kinda collectively we have one HDMI input as well as a the HDMI output so you can feed in I HDMI devices all within the outside and play it through its menu system and won't get into that what we talk about the UI you also have a optical out for a high definition the surround sound audio you can also on the sea output audio through the HDMI we also have a full Ethernet connection as well as an AC at connection for your power supply and two USB three connections for fast data transferring know if you take a look at the bottom the Alienware alpha we find a little compartment which actually probably for the wireless a USB dongle for the steam controller that hasn't actually been released yet and most likely what happen is that at Dell wanted to shift the Alpha before the holiday season and valve is still for developing and the testing controller as are making up this video so that's not available right now so right now actually comes pair with a standard Xbox 360 controller parrot with a a wireless receiver and now works pretty well
I have no complaints about the x-box 360 controller whatsoever Abida eventually I'm sure this site unit will be paired with the steam controller once that controller actually comes out also the specifications over here we actually have at the baseline configuration other the officer comes with a standard core i3 you can get it upgraded to a core i5 or core i7 and those are quad-core CPU's we have the dual core with hyperthreading enable and is pretty fast overall frequency at two points 19 hurts no real complaints in terms of the speed other the jewel CPU I think forget most games out there there are certain games that will definitely take advantage of higher I core levels and and the more threads you have the better overall FPS course you're gonna have but generally speaking the GP is the main thing and that's probably the biggest our problems or with the configuration system up the Alpha is that all love the idea for malls are you can choose from del are the same graphical specification parameters they're all using the same GTX and video graphics card that's very similar to the GTX 860 a.m. witches are typically a laptop CPU that you would find in a %ah medium to high performance gaming laptop and it is a powerful GP you it has two gigabytes gddr5 and in a most lovely your ID me applications it definitely provides some pretty decent performance as war look at in the benchmark results but I would love to see a higher-end version of the GP because there are certain games that you're not really having proper playable framerates especially if you like the crank those details up know what the cool things are very low but the Leo ralph is that you can doubt open the back using of four screws that are located at the bottom of the device and simply slide open at the top and yet revealed all are the inner guts and inside we find
basically I 20 large of their and housing systems and how one label GP-one one labeled CPU and I basically these are your main cooling unit for your CPU and for your GP you and even though I think I the cooling system is quite adequate in almost all of my kindest Jeep you stress tests in Cebu stress test they're really maintain a manageable amount to about temperature and most operating conditions in fact that the GP stresses that I did with for Merkel only had about 81 degrees which is i certainly acceptable but the biggest problem
I have with the anywhere outside is definitely the noise now with things that they could have done to improve the noise is a use a a little bit love larger and typically larger fans can spin at lower rpm and they can provide the same level as the airflow and they could have a modified and the fan housing to reduce any unnecessary air turbulence was also causes excess noise now certainly the noise is not bad for a gaming PC that a is optimized for airflow but compared to the experts warn plated four the end noise level on the fan is a little bit louder than typical next-generation consoles based on I kinda and configuration now you can easily remove the fans and here we see heatsinks that are also easily removed and now we are revealed the internal architecture out
the ILO Ralph it's pretty much using a desk our base has well as CPU there you can swap out yourself as previously mentioned we are using a laptop GTX 860 derivative other GP you which is completely attached to the PCB that is on modifiable likely if you do want to also upgrade the RAM it's pretty easy you have to a slot for ddr3 laptop style memory at the bottle altho we have a compartment that houses are hard drive which is a $500k based on our stock configuration this of course is very easily upgraded to an SSD or to a hard drive with a larger capacity now essentially the only way our for is a windows-based PC that has a skin on top of that so when you first start up the author you get right into what they call the alpha you why which is basically a couch friendly interface design with a controller in mind for basically controlling all the different aspects other the actual console itself now there is a desktop mode so you can use it as a conventional a gaming PC with a keyboard and mouse inca play obviously keyboard and mouse games with it since it has all those USB connections but specifically this is a machine geared towards a living rooms so they've really optimize most things to be used with the controller and I here in the main menu you we can actually access a couple a different aspects out the alpha in terms the settings the different Hemi setting for resolution and sound we also have a area over here where you can a pipe in an HDMI connection so you could not basically use the Alfa Aesar import device and a watch TV or what I've done is actually I looked at my x-box one to the office I can actually use the only way ralph to go through the x box one which is kinda fun sometimes coming back to the main menu we also do have a a launch steam icon and here it will just launch steam in big picture mode and it's pretty much a way you would expect from big picture mode you have all your games are available to you to download and demanded you have your entire Steam library and here is the best part about the anywhere alpha compared to a conventional steam machine that is running
I a Linux OS and that's a fact that every steam game that's available to you on Windows is available to you on the Alienware alpha so it has the full steam library verses if it was running the Linex based on steam alas in would have a limited selection only a run game specifically for steam OS or leg space kansan out library is growing pretty rapidly as well but the best thing about this is if you can play a game on your PC you can play it on the Alpha now he resided there were bad part about it it's really optimize for steam so if you have origin based games or games are free from any DRM you pretty much have to exit at that whole interface and use a keyboard a mouse to navigate to your games on your desktop in Windows what really needs to be done is a they need to create a unified system for Origin games DRM free games n Steam games to come to live in one area and unfortunately this is really a steam century consul so our vision when that happens at the living room PC will be I really streamlined and personal machine I will play all the games are you never want on your PC in your living room that'll be an exciting time now before you guys go nuts I know that you can launch on on Steam games in steam I've personally had some issues with a launching some or Gentile had some drm-free titles on a steam big picture mode on the elf itself it had a issues where when actually launch into the game or we're going to some kinda blooper something like that so I haven't had a great tremendous amount of success with cross-platform Steam games on the actual steam big picture mode but I eventually I'm sure with updates that will improve so let's go ahead and take a look at some performance benchmarks %uh the Alienware out we're gonna first arnelle with us in a bench r15 in terms this CPU score itself forget about 271 points which is a note that it is considered to be a little bit of a lower and CPU so that score is definitely
I represented a %uh that processor and from the Open GL test we get about forty seven-point eight frames per second which is i certainly not bad for at this category GPO yes we're going to a synthetic benchmark we use a Univision Valley benchmark I we're gonna set everything at 10 et/pt with high overall details and a score for this benchmark is a forty-two .6 average free for second with a minimum rate of seventeen frames per second and a maximum freeway at eighty frames per second so now let's go ahead and move on and take a look at my actual gaming benchmarks the first game there were gonna take a look at is for cry for its a brand new title that is a very demanding in pretty much every kind of PC you can have we finally had games I will push a graphics card and in terms at any BP ad hi details that were selling or a GP settings at we get about thirty three frames per second which is pretty a lackluster and %uh certainly unplayable you're definitely have to either lower down the detail settings or lower down at the overall resolution to a lower score so if you wanna play far cry for its a very demanding title and it's pretty hard at to pull off in the Alienware health next if you thought Far Cry 4 was hard I tried to play a dragon age: inquisition which is even harder again with the same high detail settings at 1080 P we hover around the 29 frames per second which is again pretty unplayable you're gonna have to again lower down and the detail settings or change the resolution to play Dragon Age inquisition on the author now they'll feel for we're getting a little bit more other better result at thirty eight frames per second again at 1080 P with a high overall details and I'm sure you're in most circumstances this %ah game really hovers around the forty France per second which is just playable
in my opinion i get if you lower than that resolution and you'll definitely get a bump up in terms at PS and take a look at colin duty advance warfare this is a game that will be easier for our alpha to run a where basically getting forty five frames per second on average based on my fraps analysis and i cant ATP with higher or detail rate overall environmental and character elements and at the Alpha deafening shines Ford compared to what we saw on the PlayStation and on the x box 1 no civilization be on earth is getting about forty two frames per second at 1080 P hi details and a game at that is a specifically designed for keyboard and mouse so you're gonna have to bring your keyboard mouse into the living room if you really want to take advantage of this strategy game rid too is i certainly a title that's not as demanding these days it we're getting about fifty a first for second with high anti-aliasing settings and at 10 EPA with high overall details and the latest a racing game that's available right now the crew is a little more demanding title then agreed to sell we're getting about 48 frames per second there 1080 P with high overall details and the game is certainly playable if you do
I'll bump down at the detail settings but I think forty a first for second is I definitely a frame rate that I find his ass certainly playable in most instances nonetheless when I'm gonna mention is the overall price point at the Alpha compared to the consuls are right now which is a really interesting thing to bring up because the a console themselves are coming down in price as we go on into 2015 and into the future the concert beginning a cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and we're gonna have a PC hardware that's going to get better and better better at lower your price I'll that that's a constellation they all have to deal with were right now at 540 999 it is a little bit on the pricey side now if you're building your own PC for around that price range you could definitely get a better performance overall and that's exactly what I did in this video if you can click on right there and see my own results basically spending five hundred fifty dollars on PC hardware and outputting at head to head against South a double check that out if you're interested in that
I also put out videos compare the health of from a graphical standpoint compared to the ex parte 1 and the place is therefore so definitely check those two videos that if you haven't already but in truth the price point it's all at 540 999 compared to what you get at the four hundred dollar mark on the PlayStation and the ex parte I would have to say generally speaking unless you have a massive steam library and you're hardcore PC gamer and you wont AR little box that is very very compact and very unobtrusive dad put in your living room I think really well for is definitely worth that price but if you're already at person that has up previous generation consulate has a couple again from there in its excited about certain system exclusives that are gonna come out whether you're a hell of an hour perhaps a uncharted fan I you're definitely gonna have to think about what is the best in terms of your specific needs but overall I would have to say in terms of price point does have good value it definitely are delivers everything it's kinda promising there are certain things that I wish that it would do better in terms of its a graphical performance I wish and really fair to give me an option to buy a thousand-dollar a gaming console that was this size and I had an upgraded graphics card they might be deadly war there for a lot of people out there that want a potentially I just use this as their phone gaming reagan and that could definitely have a lot of benefits if they just at allowed you to upgrade the actual graphics components in there and fortune right now that's not the case but devil let me know what you guys think I've the Alpha love to hear all your thoughts thank you so much for watching make sure to give us a thumbs up if you liked the video and we'll see later taken way web