- #YOU REMOVE THE ALIENWARE OS FROM ALPHA UPGRADE#
- #YOU REMOVE THE ALIENWARE OS FROM ALPHA WINDOWS 8.1#
#YOU REMOVE THE ALIENWARE OS FROM ALPHA UPGRADE#
The laptop hard drive can also be easily replaced, but the most important part-the graphics board-is unfortunately soldered to the motherboard, so there ain’t no upgrade there. You can upgrade RAM, but you’ll have to toss the old memory as the unit only has two SO-DIMM slots. You can indeed upgrade the CPU on the Alpha, but I suspect you’ll need to stick to 35-watt “T” series chips. Let me just say that a great combo for the Alpha would be a Logitech K400, which lists for $40 but should be easy to find for cheaper. I’m not opposed to a keyboard and mouse in a living room PC and honestly don’t know why console gamers can’t adapt, but let’s face it, most won’t.
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You can do those chores on the Alpha-and more than any console could dream of-but you’ll be in desktop mode, and you’ll likely need a keyboard and mouse for that. There’s no video or music, or the snap-in Netflix or Youtube apps of, say, the Xbox One. It’s essentially a very polished launcher for Steam’s Big Picture mode and is simply not as complete as the console experience. The Alienware UI lets you change the colors of the Alienware head and switch as well as turn the brightness down or off.Īnother minus to console jockeys is the limited utility of the Alienware UI. After that, more likely than not you’ll just boot into the Alienware UI and click “Launch Steam.” The good news is you’ll really only have to do this dance the first time you set up the Alpha with the controller.
#YOU REMOVE THE ALIENWARE OS FROM ALPHA WINDOWS 8.1#
This isn’t Alienware’s fault-it can’t override Windows 8.1 functionality, nor Valve’s. And then once in Steam, you’ll be using Valve’s command-rose-style input. Once you’re into the Alienware UI, it switches to a more traditional D-pad keyboard. The Windows startup uses the joystick to navigate on a virtual keyboard, which is horrible. It spent months creating its own custom 10-foot interface that will actually let you unbox your Alpha, hook it to your HDTV, and get all the way through the OS setup and Steam login using just the included wireless Xbox 360 controller.įor a Windows box that’s pretty good, but just enough UI issues remain to fall short of a “true console experience.” There’s an odd mix of ways to enter text in the Alpha, for example. That’s not to say Alienware doesn’t deserve a lot of credit. The Alienware Alpha’s UI is threadbare in features but actually works to get an Alpha up and running without the need for a keyboard or mouse.Īlienware is pushing the Alpha hard as a console killer, but that’s overreaching. After putting the Alpha through its paces last week, I have to say that despite the resistance it faces, this micro PC has a hell of a lot going for it as both a general-use PC and as a console complement.