Alienware is thinking small these days. Not only did the company recently launch a portable gaming laptop, but now the company is taking pre-orders for a small form-factor gaming PC that you can use in the home office or living room.

The Alienware Alpha isn’t much larger than a game controller, but it’s a full-blown Windows PC with an Intel Haswell processor and NVIDIA graphics. Prices start at $549.

alienware alpha

Dell originally unveiled the Alienware Alpha last year, suggesting that it would launch alongside Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS operating system. But now that Valve has delayed the launch of SteamOS until 2015 some of the companies that had been planning to launch Steam Machines are just going ahead and launching them anyway… with Windows 8.1 software.

The Maingear Spark is another tiny gaming PC that launched recently with Windows rather than SteamOS. It sells for $699 and up, making the Alienware Alpha look affordable by comparison.

An entry-level Alpha features a Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. You can pay more to get up to 8GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage, and up to a Core i7 processor.

All models feature NVIDIA Maxwell graphics with 2GB of dedicated memory, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI input and output, and optical audio output.

Game controllers, HDMI cables, keyboards, and other accessories are sold separately. If you opt for a game controller you can use the Alien Alpha’s big-screen user interface to navigate your game collection using Steam Big Picture and Alienware’s settings menus without using a keyboard and mouse.

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2 replies on “Alienware Alpha is a tiny gaming desktop for $549 and up”

  1. Wow, they expect ppl to buy a gaming system with zero info on the GPU other than it being custom built?

    1. Indeed.
      That price is also the base unit which seems pricier than others I’ve seen of its type

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