Alienware now shipping the Alpha 'console'

[HEXUS]

Starting at £450. Is it a worthy Steam Machine?

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[shaithis]

The £699 one doesn't seem too bad considering the spec, at least if you wanted a good system without self-building.

EDIT: Just re-read, I thought it was implying they have replaced the parts with 970m and 980m.....but they haven't....so pretty poor.

[jackt246]

The £699 one doesn't seem too bad considering the spec, at least if you wanted a good system without self-building.

The issue is that graphics card comes in below a 560ti, it's not enough to rival consoles the steam machines have to beat them if they are to achieve the purpose of combating the console market.

[darkghost]

So on a device aimed at gaming the CPU is upgradeable, but the GPU isn't? Genius! I would question the point of an i7 chip in a machine with a single 860M GPU anyway, it will make little or no difference to the gaming experience.

[Hicks12]

£700 sounds pretty bad to be honest because its got similar specs to a reasonably mid/high end laptop... a quick look at pc specialist pre-builts and you can see this one for £789 http://www.ebuyer.com/642077-pc-spec...op-pcs-l672510 (seen it below 700 frequently), the cpu has 2MB less cache but is 500mHz faster at stock with a beefier onboard GPU, the GPU is the same (gt 860m is a typo its a GTX). Why would you buy one of these alienware 'consoles' when you could simply pay £80 more (currently) for something that is potentially faster AND has a 1080p screen and a battery, I would rather just setup the cables and plug it all into one of those laptops that way I can take it away with me whenever.

Have I missed something ? I like what Valve are trying to do with steam boxes but the OEMs have it all wrong, high prices and lack of upgrade ability seem silly and short minded.

[UseItNow]

Might have missed it altogether but would quite like the UI, well something similar, in fact, I'll have a look at the SteamOS, would fit well with my HTPC, also a gaming machine.

The Alienware machine does look the part, TBH, prices aren't too bad when you factor in OS/Customisation considering the £500 price point, shame the GPU isn't upgradeable.

[Jowsey]

Meh, all the steam boxes with mobile GPU parts don't make sense. I appreciate it's for the simplicity of the cooling. Can't quite remember but there was one with a low power i5 and an R9-270X coming in fairly cheap which I thought was the best of the bunch. But i'm sure at the time SteamOS didn't support AMD xD

Edit: I stand corrected, it was actually this Clicky, but it has a quad core AMD processor (I would assume not jaguar cores!) and an R9-270, which is just a lower clocked 270x. And according to that article it could fit a Titan or 290x, however, you have to be careful that it doesn't take off if you put a 290x in it...

Not bad for $600. Hopefully it will translate well if it ever gets sold here?

[Tunnah]

I just don't see the point in steamOS. Buying a machine for gaming that doesn't support Windows titles is insane. I know the odd triple-A title makes it, but they're few and far between, most the steamOS titles are old or just plain crappy

[krazy_olie]

Well Gigabyte tried to jam a 760 in to a small box and it didn't really work.

The maxwell GPUs scale much better, we have one here but it's the slowest one. Chuck a 970m in to this system and it'd be pretty powerful.