Overclock.net banner

Alienware Alpha Owners Club!

565K views 2K replies 287 participants last post by  jsims1995 
#1 ·
Hello all!

I just picked up one of these surprisingly rocking little PCs and I thought I'd get a user group going for it on the forums!

I'll be posting photos and benchmarks shortly tonight, but feel free to chime in if you have an Alpha or are curious about them!

Alex



[Photos]

[Internal Photos]

--[Benchmarks on i3]--

Average Framerate; all on Base Alpha, except COD:AW needed 8GB of Ram to operate smoothly.


[Benchmarks on i5]

[Benchmarks on i7]

--[Dis-assembly Instructions]--

Here is a video on Upgrading the Alpha including showing the basically 5 screws for taking it apart.

Remeber; you can change the CPU, RAM, and HDD/SSD yourself in less than a couple of minutes. It is really quick to do.

Skip to 0:45 for the steps

--[Known Working CPU Upgrades]--

This PC ships with a standard 1150 socket, so anything should technically work if you swap it in. Alienware says this does NOT void warranty in their coverage of the unit, so mod away!

- i7 4790K (Current load and wattage limits on PSU normally restrict to ~2.65ghz under 100% load on all 8 threads; I will get a larger laptop style PSU and test again)

- i5 4590
 
See less See more
1 2
#3 ·
Hey Alex,

Just joined the forum as I'm interested in hearing about the Alpha from an owner!

We can't get in the UK till mid December so I should be able to get some good info from users before deciding whether and what version to buy.

I've been pretty happy with the optimistic noises coming from first impressions reports, although there doesn't seem to be that many unfortunately. A guy over at Forbes is doing a good roundup on the base model.

I'm curious to see how the base model compares to the i5 version, and also how the base model with 8GB compares to the i5. Will you be doing those comparisons?

At the moment I'm leaning towards base mode and just add another 4GB stick, but a hundred pounds to upgrade to an i5 and get that RAM upgrade isn't terrible value, it's certainly cheaper than me buying the base and upgrading both myself. Can you confirm the base has one 4GB stick of RAM?

Any plans to try an SSD and see if it has a noticeable affect on gaming performance?

Cheers,

Owen
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuthaBuffer View Post

Hey Alex,

Just joined the forum as I'm interested in hearing about the Alpha from an owner!

We can't get in the UK till mid December so I should be able to get some good info from users before deciding whether and what version to buy.

I've been pretty happy with the optimistic noises coming from first impressions reports, although there doesn't seem to be that many unfortunately. A guy over at Forbes is doing a good roundup on the base model.

I'm curious to see how the base model compares to the i5 version, and also how the base model with 8GB compares to the i5. Will you be doing those comparisons?

At the moment I'm leaning towards base mode and just add another 4GB stick, but a hundred pounds to upgrade to an i5 and get that RAM upgrade isn't terrible value, it's certainly cheaper than me buying the base and upgrading both myself. Can you confirm the base has one 4GB stick of RAM?

Any plans to try an SSD and see if it has a noticeable affect on gaming performance?

Cheers,

Owen
I'll be doing side by side performance benchmarking on the i3-i5-i7 in the next few days

Also, the base does include a single 4GB stick.. Really I think it needs an extra 4GB DIMM.

I will say, from initial testing it seems that there isn't a large gaming performance difference from the i3 to the i7, since really at that point you would also be looking for bigger GPUs... The only reason I really would see in getting the i5 or i7 is if you plan to use it as a desktop PC for other tasks (adobe, etc). Then the i7 really comes into play.

I also am flashing the whole 500gb internal to an SSD to I can post side-by-sides of that difference as well.

Thanks!
Alex
 
#5 ·
Look forward to seeing the results, thanks for getting back to me.

I literally intend to use it to play games and maybe as a streaming box so not for other tasks, so only interested in its gaming performance and upgrades that will cause notable improvement to that.

I'm still heavily leaning towards base model and chucking in another 4GB. Very interested in how the SSD will affect it, especially booting.

Cheers!

Owen
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuthaBuffer View Post

Look forward to seeing the results, thanks for getting back to me.

I literally intend to use it to play games and maybe as a streaming box so not for other tasks, so only interested in its gaming performance and upgrades that will cause notable improvement to that.

I'm still heavily leaning towards base model and chucking in another 4GB. Very interested in how the SSD will affect it, especially booting.

Cheers!

Owen
I'm hoping to have more bencmarks etc tomorrow for posting; honestly I think the best configuration of this system for gaming/streaming is going to be the base model with another 4GB DIMM.... maybe an SSD, but the HDD load times for the OS etc aren't as bad as I thought they would be.
 
#7 ·
alpha uses a T series CPU that is much lower wattage, a K series would just generate too much heat. i dont think upgrading the CPU is a good idea unless you got the basic i3 model and want a quad and even so IMO get nothing more power intensive then the S series

what i be interested in would be a means of attaching an external GPU because however i see it is just bottled necked by the 860m aka 750ti for gaming application

this IMO is a better video on upgrading the alpha

if possible i'd like 4k benchmarks on maximum playable settings say to achieve around 30fps+ by lowering settings to medium settings without AA etc

still IMO the alienware 13 would be a better choice over this, CPU and graphics performance would be similar in stock form but you do get a keyboard and screen for the extra buck but more importantly is it has a external GPU option
 
#9 ·
IMO no, it only has a 130w PSU that needs to also power a 750ti class graphics. no matter how little the 750ti consumes its still a significant amount out of 130w of available power.

IMO go no more then a S suffix if not a T, those are 45w (T) and 65w (S) chips for the i5/i7
 
#10 ·
Well from what Alex is saying, the cpu will be limited in performance due to the PSU W, so it should still work fine, waiting on him to reply.

On the i7 4790K he tested the power supply limited the CPU on heavy load. Just need confirmation that this is the case.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by berva View Post

Well from what Alex is saying, the cpu will be limited in performance due to the PSU W, so it should still work fine, waiting on him to reply.

On the i7 4790K he tested the power supply limited the CPU on heavy load. Just need confirmation that this is the case.
My experience has been that the CPU is limited in cases where it requires 100% load on high wattage parts. The CPU/Mobo automatically adjusts clocks to account for the lack of wattage it seems. On the 4790K it only dropped to about 2.6ghz and was perfectly stable. I don't remember the exact ghz that the 4690 ran at under load....

Remember: that was the clockspeed only really dropped when under 100% load; in this case Prime95.

Thanks!
Alex
 
#13 ·
Can someone with the alpha post some specs and part numbers on the psu? I want to see if its possible to swap up to the 240 watt (alienware 17) or the 330 watt (alienware x51 and 18)

Im thinking that its using the same psu as the alienware 14/13 inch models... so I think it should be pretty straight forward switch over to get alot more power.... the 240watt should be plenty for any cpu you could fit in there.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ejohnson View Post

Can someone with the alpha post some specs and part numbers on the psu? I want to see if its possible to swap up to the 240 watt (alienware 17) or the 330 watt (alienware x51 and 18)

Im thinking that its using the same psu as the alienware 14/13 inch models... so I think it should be pretty straight forward switch over to get alot more power.... the 240watt should be plenty for any cpu you could fit in there.
I don't think that the brick is the only limiting factor... like in the X51 there will be some kind of DC-DC power distribution system, which also has a limit to how many watts it can distribute.

My guess is that the Alpha's power board is a bit more limited than the X51's.
 
#19 ·
If your interested here are the newest GPU drivers for the Alpha posted by the alienware Community Mangier should give some extra performance and optimization.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l4jiapvvcpr1o5/Win8.1Win8Win7_x64_HDA(344.75).exe?dl=0

was posted 7 days ago on reditt just that link was expired.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/2mx01l/alienware_alpha/

I also encourage people to install an SSD drive and 8Gb of ram you can download windows 8.1 64 bit and all the Alpha drivers needed from that Reddit page linking you to dell support page for bios and etc windows 8.1 will activate by its self once bios is installed again.

the reason i say 8gb is needed is due to the system and os taking much of the 4gb making some games lag and have extreme slow downs after quitting exe.

Old optimized game Scarcraft 2 ran like ass with 4gb on this system switched to 8gb 60fps same goes with the stock 5400rpm hdd its slow and it gets overloaded alot.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ACIDTITAN View Post

If your interested here are the newest GPU drivers for the Alpha posted by the alienware Community Mangier should give some extra performance and optimization.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l4jiapvvcpr1o5/Win8.1Win8Win7_x64_HDA(344.75).exe?dl=0

was posted 7 days ago on reditt just that link was expired.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/2mx01l/alienware_alpha/

I also encourage people to install an SSD drive and 8Gb of ram you can download windows 8.1 64 bit and all the Alpha drivers needed from that Reddit page linking you to dell support page for bios and etc windows 8.1 will activate by its self once bios is installed again.

the reason i say 8gb is needed is due to the system and os taking much of the 4gb making some games lag and have extreme slow downs after quitting exe.

Old optimized game Scarcraft 2 ran like ass with 4gb on this system switched to 8gb 60fps same goes with the stock 5400rpm hdd its slow and it gets overloaded alot.
^ agreed. Use the 500gb drive as external storage or sell it. Both the ram and hdd are easy upgrades.
 
#21 ·
Just an update on my impressions

i3 i5 i7 dont make much of a difference in games or general desktop performance.

HDD is very slow sometimes stalling on basic tasks not made for multitasking overloading and crashing is possible

4gb ram is not recommended for General Desktop use for long periods of time *Slow Downs"

Gtx 860m or modified is more suited for 720-900p for todays AAA Games its pretty impossible to stay at 60 even on lowest settings 1080p

It is defiantly more efficient than any laptop with 860m the overall system is very quite even at full load for hours and doesn't get very hot

It is possible to get WIFI interference of you have multiple devices connected example mouse or keyboard dongle can effect signal.

Im happy with it in such a small form factor still wishing it had an option for better GPU.
 
#24 ·
I picked up the base model. I like the unit, was almost going to return it due to low performance. Then, after reading an article that mentioned the new driver; I tried that. I'm much happier. I think I'm going to keep it now and swap out the HDD for an SSD and pick up another 4GB Ram stick to put in the unit. I doubt I will do a processor upgrade anytime soon. I bought it more for a SFF desktop for school work and web surfing, with capabilities to play games. Most of my gaming will be in my man cave on my PS4. If I eventually decide to do more PC gaming, I'll build me a full gaming system and make this into my Media Streamer / XBMC box.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by WayTooCrazy View Post

I picked up the base model. I like the unit, was almost going to return it due to low performance. Then, after reading an article that mentioned the new driver; I tried that. I'm much happier. I think I'm going to keep it now and swap out the HDD for an SSD and pick up another 4GB Ram stick to put in the unit. I doubt I will do a processor upgrade anytime soon. I bought it more for a SFF desktop for school work and web surfing, with capabilities to play games. Most of my gaming will be in my man cave on my PS4. If I eventually decide to do more PC gaming, I'll build me a full gaming system and make this into my Media Streamer / XBMC box.
I have noticed quite a bit of a jump in performance since I updated the CPU from the base i3 model to an i5 4690 to be honest. 8GB RAM is definitely also required but the jump to the 4 core CPU has definitely made a big impact.

I also purchased the base model and have put in an additional 4GB (came with a single 4GB memory card) and updated the CPU to the i5.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top