Dell Starts Shipping Alienware Alpha PC Game Console

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Steam Machine turned Alpha Console starts at $549

Dell originally intended for its Alienware Alpha console to be an official Steam Machine, though Valve threw a wrench in those plans when it delayed the platform in order tweak its Steam Controller to satisfaction. Instead of tossing aside all that R&D into building a console-sized game box for the PC, Dell re-marketed the device as the Alienware Alpha, and it's now begun shipping out to customers.
"We’ve been working hard this past year to break the mold and develop a system that finally brings hundreds of Steam games, including some really fun indie titles, to TVs," said Frank Azor, General Manager of Alienware. "The team and I are excited to finally deliver our vision for big screen gaming and give our fans a console that delivers true next-gen performance with the flexibility to choose how, what and where they want to play."
The Alienware Alpha starts at $549 and includes an Intel Core i3 4130T dual-core processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU customized to "run at speeds found in no other device," and 500GB hard drive.
If you need more power, there are other configurations available, with the top-end model costing $899. It includes an Intel Core i7 4765T quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 2TB hard drive.
All models come with an Xbox 360 wireless controller with USB adapter and several pre-loaded games including Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Awesomenauts, Magicka, Metro: Last Light, Payday 2 and Strike Suit Zero.
The obvious buzz kill here is the custom GTX 860M GPU. It's based on Nvidia's newer Maxwell archicture, but isn't upgradeable and somewhat out of date with Nvidia having released its 970M and 980M mobile GPUs last month. It's also only rocking 2GB of GDDR5 memory instead of 4GB as found on some other systems.
As configured, the Alienware Alpha boots into Dell's Alpha UI, a console-based menu that's friendly for controllers. After the first boot, gamers can opt to have the system boot directly into Steam Big Picture or the regular Windows 8.1 desktop if they prefer.
You can find out more on the Alienware Alpha product page.
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