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I need your guys opinion on this computer

S

SolarCanoe

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
146
6
i am interested in the Alienware Alpha as a living room media/gaming computer. I like the horizontal design which will sit nicely on my tv stand. I do have a couple questions about it though

- does anyone here have any experience with these rigs? Are they worth the money? Will it last me a while with upgrades?

- is there any alternatives out there that might be better bang for my buck? I feel like when you buy an Alienware machine you are paying for the name..

- anyone who has used this, can you mod it so it boots up straight into windows rather than the steam bloat ware?

Thanks guys!

http://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/productdetails/alienware-alpha-r2-desktop/dacorr2_f_b1f
 
nigelly said:
i am interested in the Alienware Alpha as a living room media/gaming computer. I like the horizontal design which will sit nicely on my tv stand. I do have a couple questions about it though

- does anyone here have any experience with these rigs? Are they worth the money? Will it last me a while with upgrades?

- is there any alternatives out there that might be better bang for my buck? I feel like when you buy an Alienware machine you are paying for the name..

- anyone who has used this, can you mod it so it boots up straight into windows rather than the steam bloat ware?

Thanks guys!

http://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/productdetails/alienware-alpha-r2-desktop/dacorr2_f_b1f
Click to expand...

Interesting. For $200 more you can have a tradional gaming PC, checkout the lineup at Digital Storm.
http://www.digitalstorm.com
 
I used the Zotac equivalent of these for a bit, and while it was a nice enough system, it wasn't powerful enough to be a long-term solution. $800 for that Alienware is way overpriced considering that it has a fairly weak CPU and GPU. The former could be upgraded, but you'd be throwing good money after bad. The GPU is soldered on, so you wouldn't be able to change it.

You could build yourself a mini-ITX computer that has a full-on PCI-Express slot, allowing for future GPU upgrades. A quad-core i5 CPU and a GeForce GTX 1060 GPU will blow away that Alienware in terms of performance while costing less and allowing you to install your own Windows license. The downside is that the form factor will be slightly larger, but you'd be getting a far superior machine.
 
This guy did a bunch of vids on reviewing the Alienware Console PC and comparing it to PS4 and XBox One.


The new R2's you can get that external box for a GPU card - which makes upgrading a bit better.

Note, of course, you will be paying extra for the product design and compact form factor.

I really, really, wanted one, but on a budget and wanting to future-proof, I built my own Console PC.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/console-pcs.1976952/
 
gkarris said:
The new R2's you can get that external box for a GPU card - which makes upgrading a bit better.
Click to expand...

With the cost of the enclosure + GPU, you'd be spending almost the entire cost of the main computer itself, not to mention having another bulky piece of hardware sitting around, which kind of defeats the purpose of the "console PC" in the first place.
 
What do you guys think of this company? Their computers seem pretty cheap and I imagine they are easily upgradable. I just don't have the knowledge yet to build one myself. This seems like a good place to start. Does anyone else have something else they would recommend? http://www.fxwarepcs.com
 
nigelly said:
What do you guys think of this company? Their computers seem pretty cheap and I imagine they are easily upgradable. I just don't have the knowledge yet to build one myself. This seems like a good place to start. Does anyone else have something else they would recommend? http://www.fxwarepcs.com
Click to expand...

Never heard of them. I'd consider this before that other place. Pretty solid specs for the money.

But I thought you were looking for a living room/small form factor computer?
 
saturnotaku said:
Never heard of them. I'd consider this before that other place. Pretty solid specs for the money.

But I thought you were looking for a living room/small form factor computer?
Click to expand...
Yea but I'm having a hard time finding a case that will work for that. It doesn't even have to be small form factor, just a horizontal case to sit on my tv stand nicely
 
nigelly said:
What do you guys think of this company? Their computers seem pretty cheap and I imagine they are easily upgradable. I just don't have the knowledge yet to build one myself. This seems like a good place to start. Does anyone else have something else they would recommend? http://www.fxwarepcs.com
Click to expand...

I heard from somewheres they were good.

You can also search "ITX custom PC" and get something more along the form-factor you are looking for:

https://www.maingear.com/custom/computers/custom-desktops/index.php

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/category/gaming-pcs/

(some Best Buys sell the Cyber Power PC's and they seem good - just choose "Small Form Factor" for the above page).
 
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