Alienware Alpha ASM100-4980 Console Review

Dell Alienware Alpha ASM100-4980 Console
via Amazon

Alienware Alpha ASM100-4980 is a gaming computer with a small form factor that thinks it is a living room console- the world's first PC gaming console. It is actually a Windows 8 machine- not Steam operating system, that ships with standard wireless Xbox 360 custom interface and you do not need keyboard or mouse to operate it- you control it from the game pad, some games to run on it along with the power efficient NVIDIA Maxwell graphics card that will let you play your games at 1080p FHD resolution.

Alienware Alpha PC Console comes with the quad core Intel i5-4590T Processor (6 MB cache) at 2.0 GHz base speed that goes up to 3.0 Ghz with turbo boost function but without hyper threading, 8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600 Mhz (2 x 4GB) to let you play games comfortably and multitask in gaming and PC modes, 1TB SATA HDD with 5400rpm rotating speed- large storage space to save your Steam library and Windows 8 operating system. The i5-4590T Haswell processor was released in the second quarter of 2014 and has a Passmark benchmark score of 5547, so it is quite a capable processor for both games and any daily tasks.

You can play the latest games at Full HD quality with the power of quad core i5 processor and generous amount of system memory. Custom built NVIDIA Maxwell GTX GPU w/2GB GDDR5 memory is the graphics card to allow you to play the latest games (Intel i5-4590T also has the Intel HD 4600 graphics card that is up to 60% faster than the standard Intel HD 4000) and it comes with the 802.11ac wireless card with wider range and faster connection. When you connect the Alienware Alpha to your HDTV as a gaming console and switch it on, an exclusive user interface that is controlled by the game pad will appear and you do not need a keyboard or a mouse and you can play the PC games at Full HD 1080p resolution. For gaming purposes it is quite a powerful console but runs rather quietly and allows you to conveniently download games from your smart phone remotely or by clicking just a couple of buttons on the game pad.

Alienware ASM100-4980 weighs 4.5 pounds with measurements of 7.80 x 7.80 x 2.10 inches so it is quite a compact and portable unit. There is no optical drive but Wireless-AC 7265 2x2, Bluetooth 4.0, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x USB 3.0 ports for up to 10 times faster transfer of data and an HDMI port. So in a way you are combining PC gaming with the living room gaming console concept and the custom built Maxwell graphics gives you the power to turn up the settings and play all modern games on your large screen HDTV- you’ll have all the performance you need and the graphics quality is quite amazing. This being a PC with a powerful i5 processor and large amounts of memory and hard drive, we recommend that you get a wireless keyboard and a mouse to use it comfortably in PC mode. You will have access to well over 3500 game titles of different sorts including mainstream and hardcore titles and play all of the Steam library or stream Steam games without having to pay online playing fees. You can play all games you can think of at medium to high settings comfortably.

Conclusion: Alienware Alpha ASM100-4980 is a powerful gaming computer with unique features aimed at gamers with a 4th generation Intel i5 processor and 8GB RAM as well as a very generous amount of hard drive to let gamers save their games. So they had game players in mind when Dell engineers designed this Alienware Alpha (is more of an entertainment package) and not so much the daily computer users but it can still function as a powerful desktop PC with the use of keyboard and mouse as it works on Windows 8 OS. One of the customers reported that the setup took a bit of time, with the registration and Windows update plus games to download. The internal components are easily accessible by the users and they can add more hard drive and memory for even better multitasking and gaming performance, without voiding the warranty. Steam is a very large global gaming community with well over 100 million gamers and you will find about seven million of them at any time you connect for gaming. Steam Big Picture allows you to download and play thousands of games and other entertainment. The Alienware comes with a 12 month limited hardware warranty and return for repair policy without the accidental damage. This is quite a unique system, like nothing we have seen or experienced before: Ease of a console and openness of a PC in one.

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