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This product is awesome! Let me tell you a little bit about this product. First off, let me tell you I am not one of those PC geeks so I know very little about gaming PC's. I am and will always be a console gamer since the 80's with old school Mario and Sonic on Sega Genesis. Strictly from a console consumer point of view, this is not exactly what I would call a console. In fact, I'm typing this review right now in Desktop Mode in my living room. Let me explain what this product is. It is a full fledged Windows 10 PC. Meaning, anything that you can do on a regular desktop pc, you can do with this device. It plays PC games. When you power up the device, you get Alienware's custom user interface that allows you to choose to launch your games or go into desktop mode. I desktop mode, you can then do whatever you would do on a regular computer. It's pretty sweet. For about 16 bucks you can buy a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo that works just fine.
I found myself wanting something more from my gaming experience. I converted to the PC platform for two specific reasons. Number 1: They're are way more games to choose from. Like I said earlier, I have always been a console guy. However with this past chooses of gaming rigs from the likes of Sony and Microsoft, I found myself bitterly disappointed. I feel like its the same old games done over and over again. You know what I'm talking about. Halo, Uncharted, the exact same stuff that was made years ago. I just felt like the selection is the exact same experience that I had 10 plus years ago. I'm sure many would agree with me that graphics, though important, aren't everything. At the end of the day, you got to ask yourself: "Is this game fun?" That's the most important thing.. I knew nothing at all about PC gaming and when I did research, I found that the Steam library is actually really sweet. In my opinion, it is a much more polished user interface than even my Xbox One experience. There are way more games to choose from. The games are like a buszillion times cheaper and you can play early access titles. I'm currently playing Ark Survival Evolved which is amazing! Steam had the game for sale the other day for 17 bucks. That's right, 17 dollars. This game is scheduled to come to the Xbox One and Playstation 4 in a few months. Now you know goodness well that it will cost at least 50 bucks, probably more like 60.
This leads to my second reason why I converted over to the PC gaming platform. The games are just simply cheaper and there is way more options to customize. Who says you can't use a keyboard and mouse in your living room? I'm doing just that very thing right now with a 55 in monitor, called my HD TV. Oh, and its sweet! The system ships with a Xbox 360 controller but you can buy a Xbox One PC adapter for like 25 bucks if you just have to use the Xbox One controller.
Why did I give it 4 stars and not 5? I loves this product but I recognize that its not for everyone. When you call it a console, in my opinion it should be super duper simple to use like a console. This is not the case. It's a PC and as such you have to go through all the headaches that you get from using one. However, I don't think this is a problem for most people, since most people generally know how to use a PC now a days. Also, to really get the performance that you want out of it for some of these graphically intense titles, I highly suggest that you buy the extra 4 gig ram card that you see is commonly purchased with this item! I can't over stress this very point. You need the extra RAM for it to run smoothly. I noticed a huge difference once I pot it in. It is really simple to do though. There are 4 screws on the bottom of the machine that you take off and then the thing opens up. You pop the two fans off and then pop in the memory. It is super easy to do. I was kinda worried because I'm not like I said a PC geek but it was really easy to do once I watched a YouTube video. Just search, upgrade ram alienware alpha and it should pop up. This being said, this is why I give it a 4 out of 5. There is a bit of work in the beginning but once you got it set up, you will be enjoying some really sweet games. If you haven't already, go get yourself a free Steam Account. Browse their library and you will see what I'm talking about. This machine is the magical Next Gen console gaming experience that I was looking for but didn't find with the Xbox One!
| Processor | 2.9 GHz core_i3 |
|---|---|
| RAM | 4 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 1600 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 500 GB HDD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Nvidia Maxwell GTX GPU |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11bgn |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 2 |
