The Multia had a compact case that left little room for expansion cards and restricted air flow, which can cause premature hardware failure due to overheating if not properly cared for.

Because the 21066 was a budget version of the Alpha 21064 processor, it had a narrower (64-bit versus 128-bit) and slower bus and thus performance was roughly equivalent to a Pentium running at 100 MHz for integer operations, but superior in floating-point; furthermore, the standard RAM capacity was a severe restriction on the performance of these workstations.

Standard peripherals on both Alpha and Intel models included a SCSI host adapter, DEC 21040 Ethernet controller, two PCMCIA slots, two RS-232 ports, a bi-directional parallel port, a 2.5 in or 3.5 in SCSI or ATA hard disk (340 MB to 1.6 GB), PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, and a PCI slot (on models with 2.5-inch hard disks).

Prices were quite low, such that for the first time many enthusiasts and hobbyists could afford an Alpha AXP-based computer.

The Alpha-based Multia came configured with the ARC firmware console for running Windows NT, although SRM was also available.