Skip to main content

Alienware Steam Machine can be upgraded, but doing so won’t be easy

alienware steam machine can upgraded wont easy pie
Image used with permission by copyright holder

After earlier reports indicated that Alienware’s Steam Machine would not allow for any upgrades whatsoever, the head of Alienware himself has offered some clarity on the issue by indicating that Alienware Steam Machine owners will in fact be able to mod and upgrade their systems. However, they won’t exactly be a walk in the park to pull off.

“The Alienware Steam Machine, announced at CES, is designed to deliver a great gaming experience in the living room and we will enable customers to upgrade components,” Frank Azor, general manager of Dell’s Alienware division, told Eurogamer. “Considering we’ve purposefully designed the Alienware Steam Machine to be smaller than the latest generation consoles, upgrading the internal components will not be as easy as compared to other platforms, such as the Alienware X51, but we will not prevent a customer from upgrading.”

The above comment clashes with Azor’s past statements about upgrading Alienware’s Steam Machines. Prior to making the above statement, Azor said that “there will be no customization options, you can’t really update it.”

While Alienware Steam Machine owners will have the ability to upgrade their rigs, Azor recommends that if modding and upgrading is your thing, you should opt for something more along the lines of a classic desktop, like their X51 PC. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Get $1,100 off this Alienware gaming PC with RTX 4090, 64GB of RAM
Alienware Aurora R15 placed at an angle on a table.

Dell is always a good place to check for awesome gaming PC deals, with one such highlight being able to save a huge $1,100 off the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop, which is packing some of the best hardware around. Usually priced at $3,900, it’s down to $2,800 for a limited time. An ideal investment for gamers who want to enjoy high-end gaming for a long time to come, here’s all you need to know before you commit to the buy button.

Why you should buy the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop
Dell is responsible for some of the best gaming PCs around so you’re in fantastic hands with the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop. It has an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor with a massive 64GB of memory. We’re still pleased to see gaming rigs with 32GB of memory so seeing double that amount is a true delight. It’s the kind of forward thinking which means this is a gaming rig that is built to last for a long time before you have to tweak settings.

Read more
The RTX 4090 is more popular on Steam than any AMD GPU
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

Despite being easily the fastest graphics card you can buy right now, the RTX 4090 is a niche product. At $1,600, it's out of the conversation for the vast majority of gamers. Still, that hasn't stopped the GPU from reaching a high ranking in Steam's hardware survey. According to the latest survey, the RTX 4090 is in 0.96% of gaming PCs running Steam -- more than any individual AMD GPU.

Although it's no surprise that Nvidia tops the charts in the Steam hardware survey -- the most recent report says Nvidia is represented in 76.59% of PCs compared to AMD's 15.79% -- it's shocking to see such an expensive GPU rank so highly. Compared to last month, the RTX 4090 even gained 0.11%, despite only being available above list price.

Read more
This Alienware gaming PC with an RTX 4090, 64GB of RAM is $1,000 off
Alienware Aurora R15 placed at an angle on a table.

Dell is consistently a great place to check for gaming PC deals and that’s certainly the case today. If you want a high-end gaming rig for less, you can currently buy the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop for $2,900 instead of $3,900. The $1,000 saving is particularly sweet when you bear in mind that this is a truly high-end gaming PC packed with all the latest hardware. If you’re keen to know more, check out what we have to say about it below or you can simply hit the button below to go straight to the deal.

Why you should buy the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop
Alienware makes some of the best gaming PCs around and the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming desktop is a perfect representation of that. It’s packed with the latest hardware. That includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X processor, 64GB of memory and 2TB of M.2 SSD storage. It’s great to see so much RAM with many gaming PCs still sticking with 32GB when 64GB really does set you up for the long term. Similarly, the large amount of fast storage is perfect for ensuring you won’t run out of room any time soon even when handling large installs like Call of Duty: Warzone or Hogwarts Legacy.

Read more