Alienware Shows Off Their Graphics Amplifier – CES 2015 Update

We made a quick stop at the Alienware booth during CES 2015 to take a peak at their Graphics Amplifier, which pairs well with their Alienware 13-inch Laptop. Finally, we checked out the Alpha which in short is a gaming PC smaller than an Xbox One

ALIENWARE 13

The 13 inch notebook starts out at $999 with a Core i5 4210U and up to a i7 5500U, as well as a GTX 860m with a 1366 x 768 display on the base model to a 2560 x 1440 on the top end. It comes with a 500 GB Hybrid drive, and a 256GB M.2 SSD can be added for $150 more.

ALIENWARE GRAPHICS AMPLIFIER  

Somewhat similar to what MSI did with their docking station, Alienware has their own take on using desktop graphics on a laptop. This version is a bit different, instead of being docked into a base it uses a cable, their reason for this is it can be put behind a monitor and forgotten about.

It lacks the ability to add a hard drive but does have a 120mm fan which should allow for better cooling. It retails for $299 and they offer bundles with GPUs. That being said, they expect most people to pull one out of there existing system after they upgrade their GPU.

Unfortunately the bundle deals we saw on the website weren’t cheaper than simply buying the GPU anywhere else. Here you can see some more images of the Graphics Amplifier.

ALIENWARE ALPHA

Finally on to the Alpha, Alienware originally developed this system to be used as a Steambox. After Valve pushed the launch date back again, Alienware simply decided to bundle the system with windows 8.1 instead, and from what we saw the system ran Shadow of Mordor quite well.

The Alpha is a solid example of what can be done in a box smaller than an Xbox One. Starting at $529 It comes with an i3 4130T 2.9GHz, and yes that’s a desktop model. 4GB of RAM and a custom GPU roughly as powerful as a GTX 750.

Stay tuned for more coverage of this years Consumer Electronic Show!