Alienware Alpha Intel-Powered SFF Gaming PC: Consoles Beware
Inside The Alienware Alpha
Accessing the inside of the Alpha's chassis is easy. Pop out the four screws at the bottom of the PC and you can pull the guts out, which gives you plenty of room to work. You can even remove the bottom portion of the chassis so that you have easy access to any component.
Two cooling fans obstruct your view of the motherboard, but each has little plastic clips that makes them easy to remove. The fans have hoods that direct warm air out the back of the system, just above the ports. Once the fans are off, you have access to the heatsinks for the processor and GPU, as well as the memory slots. Both memory slots are full, so upgrading means you'll need to replace the existing DIMMs.
Turn the system over and you can reach the hard drive, which is tucked up against the back of the motherboard. You can replace this too, if you’d like, but there’s no obvious way to add storage to that cramped space. Of course, that’s what you should expect from a pre-built, compact system like the Alpha.
This side houses a hidden USB port. This is the port that sits in a little pocket at the bottom of the Alpha. It’s there so you can put a wireless dongle on the system and have it tucked safely out of the way.
Two cooling fans obstruct your view of the motherboard, but each has little plastic clips that makes them easy to remove. The fans have hoods that direct warm air out the back of the system, just above the ports. Once the fans are off, you have access to the heatsinks for the processor and GPU, as well as the memory slots. Both memory slots are full, so upgrading means you'll need to replace the existing DIMMs.
Turn the system over and you can reach the hard drive, which is tucked up against the back of the motherboard. You can replace this too, if you’d like, but there’s no obvious way to add storage to that cramped space. Of course, that’s what you should expect from a pre-built, compact system like the Alpha.
This side houses a hidden USB port. This is the port that sits in a little pocket at the bottom of the Alpha. It’s there so you can put a wireless dongle on the system and have it tucked safely out of the way.
