Alienware Alpha -- I'm actually kinda digging it so far

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1_legged_sheep

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
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So I decided to come back to the world of PC gaming but the kids aren’t much older than when I left so I needed something childproof. I caught the Alienware Alpha on sale via a place with easy returns and figured I’d give it a shot. I’ve had it for 2 or so weeks now and so far I’m pretty impressed.

First things first, the base configuration is kinda meh.. i3, 500gb slow platter drive, and only 4gb of memory. Dell is pretty cool though and opening the case and upgrading your system does NOT void your warranty. I actually had a 4gb stick of laptop DDR3-1600 memory laying around the house and the 2nd slot was empty so I popped it in. In all of 5 minutes I was up and running with 8gb of dual-channel DDR3-1600 (on my desktops I normally run 2133 but it’s an i3 so.. yeah).

The hard drive was just as easy. Pop the cover off (4 screws) unscrew the HD cage (1 screw) and then remove the actual drive screws (4 screws), slap the SSD in and put all the screws back in. Took in total about 5 minutes. I’m still semi-new to Windows 8 but I discovered a cool trick. With the Windows key stored in BIOS all you need to do is make sure you install the exact same version of Windows that was on it originally and you are good to go. I download the Windows 8.1 (non-N) USB installer, installed Windows, and blammo it’s working fine and shows as genuine Windows 8.1.

I was not impressed with the Hivemind interface and didn’t actually put it back on after the SSD reload. The drivers for everything else are on Dell’s site and they even give you the correct order to install them in. Happily running Skyrim with the high-res pack at 1080p on medium-high settings. Only thing that sucks is I can’t use the HDMI pass through without Hivemind but my TV has 4 or 5 HDMI ports so no loss.

I use a wireless Logitech KB/trackpad and wireless headset those along with the 360 controller and I can safely game without having to worry about one of the kids pulling on a cord. I am now once again a happily gaming father.
 
The Alienware Alpha was part of my inspiration to build H2O-Micro, mostly as a high-end option to it, besides the ease of changing out parts what do you like about the Alpha?
How is the noise, the performance and maybe even more importantly the size?

I look at the Alpha as more of a budget gamers NUC while staying affordable, at least with the lower end SKU. Haven't found much sense in paring an i7 with a GTX860M.
 
I could see the alienware alpha being very attractive with a 970m for the next revision.
 
CknSalad said:
I could see the alienware alpha being very attractive with a 970m for the next revision.
Click to expand...

If they are willing to up the power consumption that would be nice, GTX970m is comparable to GTX960 so 1080P gaming should be very good on it.

However going from a GTX860M that has 45W TDP GPU to a GTX970M that has a 100W TDP GPU might mean they have to revise the cooling.

I wonder why they haven't made a unisink.
2692552-gametech_alienwarealphaupgradedemo.jpg


Making it 1 large heatsink with maybe 3 heatpipes through will improve cooling capacity a lot more at least with a stronger GPU.
 
QinX said:
I wonder why they haven't made a unisink.

Making it 1 large heatsink with maybe 3 heatpipes through will improve cooling capacity a lot more at least with a stronger GPU.
Click to expand...

Solder height and thickness of chip may vary a bit so if you made a unisink you could end up not properly landing it on both chips.
 
SaperPL said:
Solder height and thickness of chip may vary a bit so if you made a unisink you could end up not properly landing it on both chips.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, didn't think of that. But if you'd connect 2-3 heatpipes between the 2 heatsinks you'd some "flexibility" and better heat dissipation for the GPU.
 
But for heatpipes you also need tight fit/welding for proper heat transfer.
 
QinX said:
The Alienware Alpha was part of my inspiration to build H2O-Micro, mostly as a high-end option to it, besides the ease of changing out parts what do you like about the Alpha?
How is the noise, the performance and maybe even more importantly the size?

I look at the Alpha as more of a budget gamers NUC while staying affordable, at least with the lower end SKU. Haven't found much sense in paring an i7 with a GTX860M.
Click to expand...

The CPU is actually replaceable and if I stumble across an i5 for trade or pretty cheap I might upgrade it but like you said, the real limitation is the GPU so it's not worth dropping an i7 into.

The noise is not an issue for me. The Alpha is on a shelf about 5ft high next to the TV that is wall mounted. When I'm not using a headset the sound comes in via a 7.1 Sony surround sound system I have setup in the cave. Either way I can't hear the alpha at all. I bet even with everything muted I still couldn't hear it from the couch (~8ft away), I'll have to check.
 
I own an Alpha as well and I sold my Lone Industries build in favor of the Alpha. The Alpha is smaller, provides HDMI passthrough, has a more powerful GPU then any 2 slot low profile that is readily available. The GPU is not a standard 860m. It is modified version of the 860m and is more powerful than a desktop 750ti.

Now lets get to the software. It runs a skinned verision of Kodi with built-in plugins for launching games directly from Steam. It uses a modified 360 Controller driver to add an additional mouse mode when needed. The next patch out later this month will allow direct launching of Games from Origin.

If you can get this for under $400 I would recommend it, the next version coming out does not improve the GPU (I believe someone had a source on overclockers forums). The only changes is that it includes a 7200rpm drive and hasSteam OS preinstalled. It will also include a Steam controller instead of a 360 controller. I would not wait if I was considering to buy one at this time.
 
I feel that it should be possible for the alpha to get the 970m inside for the next revision because Zotac is putting the 970m in their upcoming en970 machine. An undervolted 35w cpu should be fine temperature wise. Maybe Alienware will wait for Zotac's machine and see if there's much throttling gaming wise for the 970m.
 
It's a pretty fun device to tweak. I installed the latest Intel microcode, updated the OROMs, and flashed the vBIOS to allow a higher GPU overclock. The best I could do was 1440/1503. It was stable enough in 3DMark Extreme (2013) but wasn't able to run BF4 multiplayer for more than a few minutes. I then tried 1360/1503 and it didn't crash. Temps got toasty though, ~84-87ºC.
 
I really wanted to get one of these when they were having a bunch of deals on them a few months back. I really can't justify having a 3rd PC that is meant for gaming
 
CknSalad said:
I feel that it should be possible for the alpha to get the 970m inside for the next revision because Zotac is putting the 970m in their upcoming en970 machine. An undervolted 35w cpu should be fine temperature wise. Maybe Alienware will wait for Zotac's machine and see if there's much throttling gaming wise for the 970m.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that would probably also jack up the price a whole lot too. Zotac's machine is $999 last time I checked, and that's the steam machine version without windows (which I assume is a little cheaper).

One of the Alpha's major selling points is its low price, as the base config - $499 - tends to make the most sense in most cases. I doubt Dell would pair a 970m with an i3, which leads me to believe that an Alpha with a 970m would be around the same price as Zotac's equivalent, if Dell can even sort out the cooling and power.

That said, I'm interested in the power brick that the Zotac machine running.
 
I was looking at getting one as well for $310 after mail in rebate, but i just can't pass up all the other cool SFF cases being released ex: Dan A4 and the NOVA. I know there's quite a difference in size however, i like the idea of being able to upgrade anything in those cases. I3 seems a little weak as well for me.
 
Update: Updated to Windows 10 with zero issues but I am NOT using the hivemind skin, I'm running plain Jane Windows 10. My only loss of functionality is I can't use the HDMI pass-thru.
 
Update #2: Windows 10 flies on the Alpha (well with the upgrades I've done at least). I also discovered a secret to updating the video card driver. Go to nVidia's site and download the Windows 10 notebook driver, the video card is technically an 860M. It installed with no compatibility blockage.

Nother fun fact, Oculus Rift will NOT work on the Alpha. The Rift takes two video outs, one for the Rift and one for a monitor to configure the Rift. I thought about purchasing a USB video card but that's a lot of money down the drain for no reason if it fails.

Playing Skyrim at 1080p with the high-res pack on med-med high.
Playing Euro Truck Sim 2 at 1080p with everything on max.

Not really doing much gaming, I'm considering selling it actually. Seems silly to have a $600 system to play Netfix and Amazon Prime. We will see.
 
Just received mine yesterday, i3 model on sale now at big river.

Plopped in an 8gb ram I had already to up to 12gb total. And, just ordered a Samsung evo 250gb ssd.

1leg, thanks for the tips. I've been trying to figure out how to get ride of the hive ui. Looks like that will be taken care of after I update to win10 which now I plan to do after I swap in the new drive. I read the Samsung cloning software doesn't work with win10.

Is this the driver you downloaded?
 
I love my alpha - got it on that fire sale they had right after they came out. Totally worth it and it became my day to day box.
 
Okay so a 6 month update...

I'm still in love with it. If you use it for what it was made, gaming on a living room 1080P TV, this little computer rocks! I now have the Xbox One TV tuner card plugged into it and it's my DVR as well as my gaming computer. I use an amplified flat antenna and pull over 41 channels in my basement! Dragon Age Inquisition is now on the $5 vault program so I installed it and it runs smooth as butter at 1080P with details on high.

The only downside to this thing is using a gaming kb/mouse from the couch is annoying so I primarily only play games that have native Xbox controller support. I have a wireless kb & trackball for surfing the web, netflix, etc. I have the scale bumped up a bit to make it easier to read Facebook and such from the couch which is about 10 ft from the TV. Works out great!

If you are on the fence, DO IT! Just remember to get more memory, a SSD, and immediately put a clean install of W10 on it.
 
Just a little heads up, the Alpha R2 was announced yesterday and while some details are sketchy, we know it'll allow up to an i7 6700t, supports DDR4 (apparently only one memory slot, but I've yet to verify), m.2 SSDs, Alienware Graphics Amplifier, and comes with two GPU options, a Radeon m470x with 2GB of GDDR5 or a GTX960 with 4GB GDDR5 (which I'll bet is actually a 970m). Availability is apparently slated for right now, so it shouldn't take long to learn more.
 
And I have now verified - the new units allow only a single DDR4 SO-DIMM. The m.2 SSD occupies the area previously reserved for the second SO-DIMM.
 
Final update: I've run across a single GPU-Z image from an R2 review that would indicate the GPU in question is (much to my surprise) factually not a 970m, but a 4GB variant of a GTX960 desktop model. Curious...
 
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The Alienware Alpha will be really interesting once it uses an Nvidia Pascal gpu variant. I wonder if they will bother to implement better cooling fans. That is the only thing I didn't like about the $450 alienware i5 860m I bought for my mom.

Once Hahutzy releases his case, perhaps companies will follow suit with their own case variant designs of it
 
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