Dell has handed out a lot of concepts of late. On Monday, it revealed Concept Nyx, which is basically a library to organise your games and allow you to pick up where you left off on any device.
Concept Nyx seems rad, but it’s just a concept. As is this new thing, Concept Polaris. But Concept Polaris does seem like Alienware could just build this thing and ship it out right now, if it wanted to.
Polaris (aside from being one of Australia’s best metal bands – fight me), is Dell’s most recent take on how it could reimagine delivering more performance options to gamers. And, how Dell can potentially expand the gaming ecosystem.
“It’s a device that brings you the inspiring design of Legend 2.0 in a small form factor – considerate of your limited desktop real estate,” Dell says in a blog post.
In that blog post, penned by Alienware ‘product experience planner’ Umar Khan, the company says Concept Polaris explores the evolution of eGPUs. For the uninitiated, an eGPU is an external piece of hardware, typically a large box, that connects to a portable laptop to boost graphical performance.
“As the needs of the gaming community evolve and change, we constantly look at how to bring unique experiences and take performance to the next level. This can lead to net new innovations and the exploration of different product categories, or it can even rewrite the definition of an existing solution,” it reads.
Well, Concept Polaris is the latter.
“Concepts like this are just one of the many ways we develop, test and refine features and solutions. It’s how we push the boundaries for the performance-driven enthusiast as we think about the future,” it adds.
Dell reckons Concept Polaris takes everything it learned about the Alienware Graphics Amplifier and says the new thing is built solely for the Alienware customer. “A performance-driven enthusiast” they label you as.
Visually, Concept Polaris has the Alienware Legend 2.0 ID with its soft rounded edges, cable routing and Alien FX loop lighting. It goes both vertically and horizontally, too. Built-in power supply is gone and instead powered through dual an AC adapter. (One iteration of Concept Polaris delivers power through two 330w AC adapters and, in another variant, two 425w AC adapters). This might not help you transport the eGPU any easier, but it keeps the size of the box down and saves you desk space.
“This allows us to deliver the dedicated power needed for desktop gaming graphics, while reducing the occupied internal space,” the blog explains.
Concept Polaris allows for off-the-shelf full-size 16-inch desktop gaming graphics cards. The thing is liquid cooled with the company’s 240mm Cryo-Tech cooling solution, which includes its Element 31 thermal interface material.
Unlike the earlier Alienware Graphics Amplifier, which was designed for Alienware products (read: it was huge, expensive and used a proprietary PCIe/USB cable instead of the ubiquitous Thunderbolt 3), Concept Polaris could (yes, let’s not forget this thing doesn’t exactly exist just yet) provide connectivity through Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4 and USB-4, as well as USBA, USB-C and 2.5Gb ethernet ports.
Yes, it promises a lot.
“Of course, it is a concept and many of these features and ambitions will evolve and change and, perhaps, even the purpose of the device will be redefined,” the blog says.
“We’re not just looking to innovate for innovation’s sake though – let us know what you think! We want to hear your thoughts as we continue to explore concepts like this for the near future!”
We’ll let you know if anything gets off the ground.