No review required, just consider the graphics solution supplied for gaming, build a better self build system.

Graphics are 860m not 8600m description is wrong... Just for clue, It's able to run gta v with 60fps.

I'd keep my console (if I had) playing on living room and build a very budget mini/micro itx for indie steam games. If you have no system for gaming, ideally a good machine. It's got mobile processor and graphics to let you know.

8600m was 512 mb there was no 2gb vram on any graphics card at 2007 :smiley:

Wanted one of these, but they don't seem that good at the mo.
You're locked into Steam OS n apparently a lot of new top end games aren't compatible yet (runs on Linux).
Will hold off till base unit gets cheaper and hopefully processor, gpu n ram can be switched out over time.
I assume as it's just a mini pc that switching em out is possible?
Not voting btw, runs a 1000 games right off the bat ain't bad, but £400 starting price is a tad expensive.

Plex needs CPU power for transcoding, a single 1080p transcode with transmission to a location outside the home requires CPU power (they say 2000 passmark per stream). Hence the i7 model I bought, it has been tested doing 4 transcodes remotely and watching a 5th locally.

I don't have to rely on anybody to maintain it or be asking questions about what media is on there as I control it completely locally.

As for power the whole unit will only have a max power draw of 120w and it idles at around 11w (measured). A celeron simply would not transcode many streams. It runs quiet, cool and efficient for my use.

I specified the processor needed with power draw etc and it was a struggle to get it less than £200. It was possible to buy this and warranty for less than the parts building it myself so I decided to go for it.

Whether I wasted my money is based on my needs and if it fulfills them at a price I could justify, and I feel it fits the bill while the added bonus of not looking hideous on the tv stand.

Plex doesn't use as much CPU power as you think, an i7 is massive overkill. I run Plex on a very underpowered Seedbox in the cloud, it probably has about the amount of processing power as your average smartphone. It runs 1080p streams just fine while doing a whole other host of different things. To be honest, if you want a Plex server you're better of paying £5-10 a month to have one in the cloud and not have to faff with networking in your house. (Google is your friend here, either buy one configured or get a cheap VPS). I found a Xeon powered one for about £7 a month, so you'd have to run your machine for over 5 years to save money and that doesn't take into account bandwidth at home or electricity prices at home.

Case and point being there are cheap NAS boxes that support Plex.

Plex cares more about your upload speed then it does about the hardware, since it is very well optimised for weak boxes.


There are a lot of ways of doing this, but okay. Also the CPU in the model you bought is still going to use more power than the i3 I suggested, even then you'd probably be better of with a Pentium or Celeron with even lower power requirements. Perhaps a G4400T would be a good choice.


That's a lot of cash for a box just to use as a Plex server.


Most individual PC parts you buy have a 3 year warranty as standard.


There totally is, you just bought the wrong tool for the job to be honest. You could've done the same thing for less money. Not trying to be a dick here, just trying to show you that you wasted your cash. I don't really care how you throw your money away.

I still understand what you mean but you are missing the point, I run it as a Plex server so I need the CPU to be fairly powerful but at the same time idle at basically zero. The PC will never be off or in sleep mode because it will not wake up from outside the home network so for the £450 i paid (student discount and extra 2 years warranty) there was nothing in this specification range for the same price.

There are still cheaper ways of doing this because for what you bought this for it is massive overkill, you don't even need the weak dedicated laptop GPU. Bear in mind the only laptop part in this machine is the GPU, not the CPU. The CPU is a full desktop part, albeit a T spec'd chip which is a lower wattage model. You can still buy these yourself.

Firstly my HTPC uses nothing at idle because it goes to sleep and has a modern motherboard that can go into a deep sleep mode like a laptop does. It also has an SSD so cold boot to the Windows desktop is under 7 seconds and wake from a deep sleep is near instant. It's also very small (uses a CiT MTX-007B) but slightly larger as it has room for a Bluray/DVD drive. It cost about £250 to build.

You could build something better than this machine for HTPC use for around the same price.

If you want Blu-Ray/DVD playback:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/G8xdnn
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/G8xdnn/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100T 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.10 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110I Pro Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£62.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£10.28 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.57 @ CCL Computers)
Other: CiT MTX-007B (£37.22)
Other: Samsung SN-406AB/BEBE Slim Blu-Ray DVDRW (£26.51)
Total: £265.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-01 11:26 BST+0100

If you're not fussed by an Optical Drive and want it smaller:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pdJD4C
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pdJD4C/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100T 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.10 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110I Pro Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£62.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£10.28 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.57 @ CCL Computers)
Other: CiT M100 Black ITX Case (£43.29)
Total: £245.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-01 11:30 BST+0100

Swap the 1TB HDD for a 500GB and a 120GB SSD:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Y9yrxY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Y9yrxY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100T 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.10 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110I Pro Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£62.79 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£10.28 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£29.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Amazon UK)
Other: CiT M100 Black ITX Case (£43.29)
Total: £267.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-01 11:34 BST+0100

Both of those cases have a PSU. Also that CPU is more powerful than the Alienware one:



Plus the advantage of using DDR4 over DDR3.

I didn't build a gaming machine I wanted to run plex and have low power consumption At idle as well as an extra small form factor. Some of those pico psu's by the time you have bought the brick are close to £100.

waking from sleep quickly is great but a little more tricky away from the homev (I do plan on implementing this without wacky dyndns solutions). This is why I chose this machine because it uses low power laptop components, the only thing in the same market is an Intel NUC and they get expensive.

ps. I also got the i7 model (i7-4785t)

You're talking pennies a year difference for a machine that'll play games much better than this machine. Seems like people get their priorities mixed up when building gaming machines nowadays.

The most important part of buying or building any computer is to focus the money you spend on the right area, for a gaming machine that is the GPU, for a video production or photo editing workstation you throw money at the CPU. In the case of this machine (and the other models in the range) is that they've spent the money on a flashy case and a overpowered CPU and put in a really weak, old, laptop spec GPU.

The machine I outlined will go into sleep and come out of it instantly too, it's not unique to this machine either to be honest, any hardware made in the past 5 years will sip power when not being used.

While you are right you can build one faster, it was power that was a concern for me as it was going to be left on all the time the Alienware idles at 11w. I have a gaming PC that'll handle games.

great machine. your first act is to upgrade memory. Linux os kills the console though.

I have this model and it works perfectly fine with everything I've played so far.

The lack of big games on Steam OS is an issue, but there is more than enough to keep you busy.

I built a steam machine a little while back to see if the OS was actually any good (About 2 months ago).
I have to say it's not that bad. A few gripes that led me back to just gaming on a regular desktop though, the main one being that steam OS only displays your games that have controller support, so from the 200+ ones I have on steam it only displayed about 40.
If you already have a desktop PC and just want to stream games compatible with a controller then a Steam Link is much more cost effected:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/gaming-accessories/steam-link-1287642/review

Sounds about right, i checked and mine has that option to go to desktop on it, you have to enable it from the settings first though, on steamos version v2.0 Update 1:270, Then press the power button icon in top right corner and you will see a 'switch to desktop mode' is now available! very useful :smiley:

SteamOS is based on the Debian distribution of Linux for which Kodi is available. When I used an earlier version of SteamOS you could boot into a desktop environment. If this is still the case you could install Kodi and add it to your Steam Library as a non-Steam game.

Pointless trying to convince him, if people aren't fussed about the quality of computer they buy, then Dell/Alienware is perfect for them.

Maybe it does. But an i7-4785T and a GTX860m is a HUGE GPU bottleneck, you're not getting the most out of that CPU at all.

It's like having a massive torso and tiny little legs.

But I use it for gaming and it works fine but maybe I'm not looking to play the same games as you.

That's the thing about building your own, you could change the case for one that suits you more. You build it to fit you, not what Dell tells you is a good computer. This machine is no good for gaming as the GPU is so underpowered.

Will do. By the way the alienware is 5.5cm in height which makes a difference as well as the case in your link wouldn't fit under my tv - very limited space. I might not be the majority but it suited my needs more. Everyone is different though.

Well, if you ever change your mind PM me.

That goes for anyone else on here, PM me and I will help you build a PC. You'll laugh at how easy it is after you've finished.

Really? I looked at mini itx cases at the time and none were as small as this. Plus, as I said, I didn't have the time or inclination to put one together and a lot of people are probably in the same boat.

You can get/build systems just as small as this. It isn't a unique product. The system build I outlined above will murder this for gaming and is just as small.

Also building a PC is no harder than putting an IKEA flatpack together or building a LEGO kit.

Keep an eye out on the Dell Outlet. I picked up the I7 version of this with Windows about 6 months ago for around £400 after student discount. Great little machine. All I would say about building my own system was that I didn't have the time nor inclination to do so and wanted something that fit under my tv that could play the latest games and do some multimedia and these ticked all the boxes. Every gaming PC i looked at was either way over my budget or was a hulking behemoth that in no way would fit in the small space under my TV.

Trying to build a machine faster than this (faster than the crap i3-4170T any way). Granted it doesn't include the Valve Controler (however a lot of people don't like it any way, and Xbox 360 Controllers are cheap!)

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XGvCm8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XGvCm8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£58.63 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock A68M-ITX Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard (£44.91 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (£162.95 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case (£39.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.94 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £398.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-31 10:04 BST+0100

No OS included as you can install Linux/SteamOS and have the same experience.

As for building it yourself I will happily help ANYONE on this site build a PC just PM me, seriously I always have time to help people willing to learn. I do not charge and I will give impartial advice.

CPU Performance delta:



GPU Performance delta




Other advantages include a better PSU, more RAM and the ability to upgrade without throwing the whole system away. It's also just as small and will fit under a TV.

Sources:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2362&cmp[]=2624
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2866&cmp[]=3114
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-960-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M

Is it possible to install Kodi on steam OS?

I run one as a plex server with occasional gaming. It's a nice machine you couldn't build one with the same specs for less, I got the i7 model for about £450 with a 3 year warranty.

do they still sell this rubbish around??

Not a hot deal

Not worth 399

hmm, I posted a link for the I7 one for 50 pounds more... pretty sure that website has this for 300 too check it out

I have owned a couple of the alienware alphas which is the windows version, they are pretty capable machines the graphics card is similar to the gtx750ti (its just slightly lower clocked-but you can overclock it). It can be upgraded with lga1150 cpus and the RAM is DDR3L laptop. If you want a Steam machine this is a good choice but I prefer Windows for gaming.

I'm pretty sure it said 8600m originally and was edited to 860m.

The fact this has any heat at all really shows how tech minded HUKD actually is...

970 is the recommended for VR. Go higher if you can. The more grunt you give it, the better it looks.

(And it's awesome out of ten if your setup is up to it ....)

Graphics are 860m not 8600m description is wrong... Just for clue, It's able to run gta v with 60fps.

I'd keep my console (if I had) playing on living room and build a very budget mini/micro itx for indie steam games. If you have no system for gaming, ideally a good machine. It's got mobile processor and graphics to let you know.

8600m was 512 mb there was no 2gb vram on any graphics card at 2007 :smiley:

9 year old GPU....my word.

On onboard Intel Iris GPU will destroy this.

No, any graphics with an m (860m) at the end is a mobile version. So this is a mid/high end laptop gaming spec. In order to take full advantage of VR you would need a high end non mobile GPU to power it without giving you instant nausea currently.

it is a Nvidia gtx 860m not a 8600 that was a mistake, this is a good gpu for this size of pc case its in, which is tiny, here is a youtube video if anyones interested in seeing what this mobile gaming laptop gpu is capable of, it is more than good enough for me! >>>Gtx 860 Crysis 3, Battlefield 4 benchmarks 1080p

their is a version for VR gaming

more info HERE IT LOOKS AMAZING!

it must play the games on steam ok though or else why would they make it! and they cant exactly fit a massive graphics card in to it, its only a small case to fit nicely under the tv in your living room like a games console, only with lots more functionality and possiibility to upgrade it a bit too cant do that with a xbox can you,

also those complaining about the gpu theirs people paying more than the price of this for a graphics card alone, so i dont see the issue, this i think is a great bit of kit and something a bit different, stop thinking of it as a pc, and comparing it to one, its not a pc though it contains pc bits (so does an xbox one but people dont moan about what gpu its got) its a home console with its own operating system and large enjoyable games library, many of which are far cheaper to buy than they are for the playstations and xbox's especially when they often have steam sales. and the indy games are great many unique experiences that just wouldnt see the light of day on any other platform!

Please, this should be expired before someone actually buys this crap!

Even that one is below the minimum spec for VR.

Put a couple more £'s and build a better one

Alienware alpha is way better

Yes.

Why would you want to?

Thought it wouldn't, ah well. Thanks for the replies

this ones a lot higher spec syber steam macjine

8600m, what is this 2007? :confused:

Definitely not, way to low spec wise

Not by a long stretch, you'd need 10 of these to power the Rift but also it doesn't run/come with Windows so you're limited in the number of games that run on Linux. I'm trying to think what it's good for but can't think of anything, maybe you want a quiet PC in your living room?

Can these things run the Rift? I couldn't build my own as I'm, as the kids say, a noob! I'd love to try VR though

Wanted one of these, but they don't seem that good at the mo.
You're locked into Steam OS n apparently a lot of new top end games aren't compatible yet (runs on Linux).
Will hold off till base unit gets cheaper and hopefully processor, gpu n ram can be switched out over time.
I assume as it's just a mini pc that switching em out is possible?
Not voting btw, runs a 1000 games right off the bat ain't bad, but £400 starting price is a tad expensive.

With a Geforce 8600m, riiight... :smirk:

other deal for the customer returns is better

No review required, just consider the graphics solution supplied for gaming, build a better self build system.

Any reviews ???