Alienware’s take on the a home entertainment console, the Alienware Alpha, is slated to launch in November. For those looking to buy one as soon as it hits shelves, the company has announced that the Alpha will be available for pre-purchase at Alienware.com, Dell.com, Amazon, and Walmart starting today, August 12, at 9:00 AM CST.
The basic Alpha, which packs an i3 Haswell processor, 4 GB of RAM, a custom Maxwell GPU, and a 500 GB hard drive, will go for $549 (and includes a Xbox 360 controller), but users will have the option to up their Alpha to a Core i7 Haswell processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage.
Alienware is pulling out all the stops to entice gamers. The company’s revealed a little more about the Alpha’s UI design. Though it can run in either desktop or console mode, it’s obvious from the Alpha’s large, flat, minimalist design that it was made with a controller in mind. The Alpha allows the user to easily customize its look to their liking.
The Alpha was Alienware’s take on the Steam Machine, which is quite obvious considering that it’s built around running games off of Steam’s Big Picture Mode. Even though Valve stated that the Steam Machine program will be delayed until 2015, the Alpha has gotten over those hurdles.
Alienware has also announced that the Alpha will be coming bundled with software. Currently, the company has named Payday 2, Magicka, Magicka: Dungeons and Daemons DLC, and Gauntlet Helm with more to come. Considering the Alpha’s specs and its bundled controller and software, $549 isn’t a steep price to pay to game, especially when you’re comparing it to the PS4 and the Xbox One.
