Alienware is officially shipping the Alienware Alpha, a PC gaming console powered by the latest technologies from Intel and NVIDIA, in a small form factor. The device is less than 2.5 inches tall and less than 8 inches in width. It is actually a fully-featured Windows 8.1 PV packed with powerful components in order to support gaming at 1080p resolutions.

At the heart of the Alienware Alpha’s performance is the GPU designed to maximize gaming performance while balancing the thermal envelope and power utilization. Leveraging the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, based off NVIDIA’s newest Maxwell architecture, Alienware was able to increase the standard performance even further- customizing the GPU to run at speeds found in no other device and pair it with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

Out of the box, the Alienware Alpha boots directly into the Alpha UI that needs no mouse or keyboard in order to navigate. From there you can choose to launch Steam Big Picture for access to titles, adjust system and AlienFX settings and access your music library. Gamers can set the console to boot directly into Steam Big Picture for instant gaming gratification, or access the full Windows 8.1 desktop for a more traditional PC gaming experience.

For a limited time, Dell is offering anyone who order the Alienware Alpha free bonus content including the complete versions of Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Awesomenauts, Magicka, Metro: Last Light, PAYDAY 2 and Strike Suit Zero. Alienware Alpha will also include an exclusive Gauntlet in-game item, the Magicka: Dungeons and Daemons DLC, as well as Alienware exclusive demos of Defense Grid 2 and Super Splatters.

The Alienware Alpha ships with a Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, and is compatible with nearly any other controller or peripheral that you can use on a PC; whether that be a steering wheel, H.O.T.A.S. or a keyboard and mouse.

Starting at $549 (US), the Alienware Alpha can be configured with Intel’s 4th generation core i3, i5 and i7 processors, up to 8GBs of DDR3 memory, hard drive options up to 2TBs and the latest Intel Wireless 802.11ac adapters.