Alienware Alpha Intel-Powered SFF Gaming PC: Consoles Beware

Name: Alienware Alpha Intel-Powered SFF Gaming PC: Consoles Beware
Brand: Alienware

by Marco Chiappetta, Joshua Gulick — Monday, January 26, 2015, 01:05 PM EDT

Power consumption isn't always a major consideration for PC gamers. Even so, it’s worth taking a look at the kind of power draw you can expect from your prospective PC: some systems are bigger power hogs than you might realize. The power measurement chart is one of the few graphs in which smaller numbers are better.

Power Test

Real World Performance

The Alienware Alpha really shines when it comes to power consumption. The system used only 24.3 Watts at idle in our test, which is the lowest we've seen from a gaming PC in recent memory. It fared well under load, too, pulling a mere 106 Watts.

As for noise, the Alpha is a quiet little PC. It's nearly silent during ordinary use. Get a game going, and the Alpha purrs a bit, but even that is too quiet to bother anyone. I barely noticed the noise when it sat on my desk and I couldn't hear it at all when the system sat on my TV stand. Noise isn't going to be an issue with the Alpha.

Tags: Dell, SFF, Gaming, PC, Alpha, Alienware

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com