Alpha R2 (2016) Review????

[nixxon3g]

Alienware Alpha R2 (2016) 

Hello, so in mid 2016 Alienware re-visioned there SFF gaming PC (Alpha) which was originally a Steam-OS Box but due to Valve running on "Valve" Time they added a fresh copy of windows 8 and a Xbox 360 controller to recoup some of the hardware engineering costs until steam-OS announced. 

So now they are here with the revision 2 (R2) and by god am I surprised! With the size of about a Wii (or Wii U Game pad) it has A LOT of hardware under the hood. For the base model (Pricing and availability completely up to Dell and Alienware) it rocks a i3 6100T (the T is meaning a low wattage/TDP) and a GTX 960 A full desktop GPU inside! (4GB GDDR5) and it can go all the way to a 6700T and if you desire more graphics processing you can hook the box up to a Alienware Graphics Amplifier which is limited to alienware laptops (and the alpha). So benchmarks are here, 

 

Battlefield 1 (Ultra) 1080p
75FPS Average 

CS:GO
 1080p (Auto High)

200FPS +

 

Doom (Vulkan)

1080p (Auto Ultra)
67-70FPS Average

 

Battlefront (StarWars) 
1080p Ultra

60FPS 

 

With all this said this is a VERY Competent 1080p Gaming Box and I would love it if Linus or Luke could review it.

Thanks!! <3 

 

-LtGamezz 
 

Edited January 24, 2017 by W-L
Formatting

[PocketNerd]

Wrong subforum...

[Wolther]

plz reduce font size and unbold 

[Droidbot]

8 minutes ago, LtGamez said:

Alienware Alpha R2 (2016) 

Hello, so in mid 2016 Alienware re-visioned there SFF gaming PC (Alpha) which was originally a Steam-OS Box but due to Valve running on "Valve" Time they added a fresh copy of windows 8 and a Xbox 360 controller to recoup some of the hardware engineering costs until steam-OS announced. 

So now they are here with the revision 2 (R2) and by god am I surprised! With the size of about a Wii (or Wii U Game pad) it has A LOT of hardware under the hood. For the base model (Pricing and availability completely up to Dell and Alienware) it rocks a i3 6100T (the T is meaning a low wattage/TDP) and a GTX 960 A full desktop GPU inside! (4GB GDDR5) and it can go all the way to a 6700T and if you desire more graphics processing you can hook the box up to a Alienware Graphics Amplifier which is limited to alienware laptops (and the alpha). So benchmarks are here, 

 

Battlefield 1 (Ultra) 1080p
75FPS Average 

CS:GO
 1080p (Auto High)

200FPS +

 

Doom (Vulkan)

1080p (Auto Ultra)
67-70FPS Average

 

Battlefront (StarWars) 
1080p Ultra

60FPS 

 

With all this said this is a VERY Competent 1080p Gaming Box and I would love it if Linus or Luke could review it.

Thanks!! <3 

 

-LtGamezz 
 

Last gen procs, last gen GPU..

 

 

[Deli]

If they put a GTX1060 6GB in, may stir up some interest. GTX960, feels so outdated.

[DocSwag]

First of all, this belongs in member reviews, not tech news and reviews; second of all could you please lower the font size? It's very hard to read...

[nixxon3g]

34 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

Wrong subforum...

"Tech news and REVIEWS"

[Drak3]

26 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Last gen procs, last gen GPU..

 

 

When it came out, Kaby Lake didn't have any desktop counterparts or mobile chips woth investing in. The machine also released at the same time of the first Pascal chip that wouldn't practically melt the thing.

Asides for the i3 base units, they aren't horrible for console size systems that are actually the size of a console.

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, LtGamez said:

"Tech news and REVIEWS"

For actual professional reviewers and outlets, not for members.

That's what this forum is for.

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/25-member-reviews/

Please look before you post. Granted, it is buried quite far down the list.

 

Welcome to the forum

[dizmo]

35 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Last gen procs, last gen GPU..

 

 

Do you really have to keep quoting huge walls of text

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

When it came out, Kaby Lake didn't have any desktop counterparts or mobile chips woth investing in. The machine also released at the same time of the first Pascal chip that wouldn't practically melt the thing.

Asides for the i3 base units, they aren't horrible for console size systems that are actually the size of a console.

pascal runs cooler than maxwell

they could have left their 960m+i3/i5/i7-T r1 counterpart until the 7xxx-T processor and 1050 came out and then released an actual new revision

[Misanthrope]

Dude, like it's great that you're into tech but maybe visit an optometrist first.

[W-L]

-Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems- 

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

pascal runs cooler than maxwell

they could have left their 960m+i3/i5/i7-T r1 counterpart until the 7xxx-T processor and 1050 came out and then released an actual new revision

Doesn't matter that Pascal runs cooler than Maxwell in their respective tiers, because A) No acceptable version of Pascal was ready for this system, and B) Dell needs to release revised devices every so often so not to leave a void in the niche that the Alpha serves.

 

There would be very little advantage to waiting for Kaby Lake outside of Optane, slight bumps in clockspeeds, and 4K Netflix (all of which are minor concerns to someone considering a system like the Alpha), especially when Dell can charge less for the Skylake T SKU to stay competitive with their closest rivals in the niche.

 

Also, the R1 counterparts run custom 880M's, of which require custom revised drivers by Dell to function correctly. The i3 versions of the R1 were also fairly unacceptable, and they offer less in user upgradeability. At least with the new versions, one can install their own GPU down the road, or use the systems in a similar fashion to the Skull Canyon NUC.

[Pendragon]

5 hours ago, Droidbot said:

pascal runs cooler than maxwell

they could have left their 960m+i3/i5/i7-T r1 counterpart until the 7xxx-T processor and 1050 came out and then released an actual new revision

 

 

 

 

No it doesn't. Maxwell runs cooler than Pascal. Why do you think laptops that could barely cool the 970m are completely broken with a 1060. Not counting the TDP limting that all manufacturers put in to limit temps. Even on desktop look at 1080 vs Titan X (Maxwell). They put the bloody Titan coolers on the 1080 because they needed a vapor chamber to keep it at a similar temp, whereas in the 980 it was just the standard blower. 

 

5 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Doesn't matter that Pascal runs cooler than Maxwell in their respective tiers, because A) No acceptable version of Pascal was ready for this system, and B) Dell needs to release revised devices every so often so not to leave a void in the niche that the Alpha serves.

 

 

 

2

Does it matter though? Alpha R2 supports AW's proprietary eGPU tech. Just hook one of those up. AW's solution doesn't suffer from that much performance loss compared to TB3 and also the 6700T is way better than say a 6700HQ. Either way it's not ment to push benchmarks, more like a media pc.