Is a Tiny Gaming PC Worth It? #Helpful Post

hey guys Austin is a tiny gaming PC

worth it so this is the Alienware alpha

r2 and if you remember the original

alpha was actually one of the first

steam machines oh wow okay

so first off we actually have an

alienware keyboard I mean this stuff is

fairly basic you'll probably want to

upgrade to something a little bit more

high-end but it's definitely nice as its

included

we've also got the 180 watt external

power supply this is a little bit

unusual in a desktop however considering

how small this is it actually makes

sense

this hang around back you'll find quite

a few ports including both HDMI in and

out so you could theoretically set this

up as part of a home theater setup but

more interestingly is the external PCI

slot so this is what you can use with

the Alienware graphics amplifier which

is essentially an external box you could

put in even more powerful graphics card

apps also if you flip this over what

you'll find beneath this little cover is

a USB port so it might seem weird to

have a hidden USB port

however this actually makes a lot of

sense if you have say like a wireless

mouse or keyboard you want to hide the

dongle it goes underneath here just

slide the cover on

it's totally hidden one of the

advantages of having a computer that's

so small is that you can actually be

portable with it so they sell a specific

bag that is made for the Alpha so now

that you have enough room for the outfit

self but you could also fit a couple

controllers maybe a mouse you can also

fit the power adapter and when you're

ready just zip it up and you've got

yourself a nice portable travel bag this

is really where the Alpha r2 makes sense

well you could always go for a gaming

laptop there quite a bit more expensive

where this is more of a proper desktop

with an hdmi 2.0 port you can hook it up

to a 4k display or TV you can get a PC

that's way more powerful than a console

speaking up you've got a fairly clean

install of Windows 10 but the biggest

Edition is alien where's hive UI

launcher the idea is that this is an

interface that's meant to be used with a

controller to launch games and do some

basic tasks but honestly it feels a bit

half-baked I prefer to use steam big

picture mode and keep a wireless

keyboard around for using Windows the

Alienware command center software can be

useful to handle the HDMI input along

with customizing the LED lighting that

lives around front of the computer the

model I have to test has an i7 and GTX

960 which is powerful enough to handle

basically any game out today

the

model has a core i3 gigabytes of RAM and

AMD r9 470 X but I'd recommend upgrading

to the model with the Core i5 and GTX

960 you're also dealing with the one

terabyte hard drive across the board you

can upgrade this from Dell site but it's

easy to remove the four screws on the

bottom of the Alpha and install your own

SSD for less than $100 why they're

titles like rocket League or absolutely

no problem to run a max at 1080p you

will notice a huge difference in

graphics compared to consoles but rocket

League is hardly the most demanding

title step it up to The Witcher 3 and

the Alpha r2 is able to run at high

settings at 1080p 960 is a solid card

pushing things to 1440p is a bit much

shadow of Mordor is a great example of

this it runs really well at 1080p ultra

and has the added benefit of being able

to control the lights in the alpha two

metrics going on in the game it's also

seriously fun as you might be able to

tell the Alpha R 2 is an interesting PC

it's a bit expensive but the mid spec

model with an i-5 and 960 isn't too bad

you'll want to add an SSD but you're

really paying for portability it will be

really difficult to build a system too

small yourself so what do you guys think

about the Alpha or to devil be sure to

let me know in the comments below and I

will catch you in the next one