Alienware is officially shipping its revolutionary Alpha gaming console, which combines the ease of a console with the freedom of a Windows 8.1 PC. At the heart of the Alienware Alpha’s performance is the GPU from NVIDIA, which maximizes gaming performance while carefully balancing the thermal envelope and power utilization.
Leveraging the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, based off NVIDIA’s newest Maxwell architecture, Alienware was able to increase the standard performance even further – customizing the GPU to run at speeds found in no other device. Ensuring gamers will never miss a single frame, Alienware and NVIDIA paired 2GB of GDDR5 memory to the Alpha’s custom NVIDIA GTX GPU.
Out of the box, the Alienware Alpha boots directly into the exclusive Alpha UI that provides a full console-based experience – no mouse or keyboard needed. From there you can choose to launch Steam Big Picture for instant access to thousands of amazing titles, adjust system and AlienFX settings and access your music library. Gamers can decide how they want to experience games on their Alpha; they can set the console to boot directly into Steam Big Picture for instant gaming gratification, or access the full Windows 8.1 desktop for a more traditional PC gaming experience.
The Alienware Alpha ships with a Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, and is compatible with nearly any other controller or peripheral that you can use on a PC, whether that be a steering wheel, your favorite H.O.T.A.S. or a trusty keyboard and mouse. Your friends can even bring their own controllers for some local multiplayer havoc.
Don’t want to use a controller? No problem. The Alienware Alpha comes with a full version of Windows 8.1 which allows gamers to choose how they want to use the console. Want to place the Alpha on a desk, go for it. Want to get some work done between matches? Install your favorite office suite. Need to catch up on your movie queue? Install apps from the Windows Store, stream from your favorite browser, play your local media collection or even connect to your home media server. The power of choice is in every customers’ hands.
Price and Availability
The Alienware Alpha is available now from $549 to $899. The Alienware Alpha can be configured with Intel’s 4th generation core i3, i5 and i7 processors, up to 8GBs of DDR3 memory, hard drive options up to 2TBs and the latest Intel Wireless 802.11ac adapters. All of this hardware, combined with the custom NVIDIA GTX Maxwell GPU, is engineered into a form factor that is less than 2.5 inches tall and less than 8 inches in width.
