Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good PC for the money !, November 21, 2008
I saw the previous review above....
>We bought a Gateway desktop and Windows got hosed for some reason. We called 1-800-GATEWAY for support. Guess what? If you buy a Gateway anywhere but their website you must call a separate toll number. WTF!?
Don't know about that...
>Then we needed to restore it but the restore partition was bad.
You are suppose to use the Recovery Tools to create you own Recovery Disks BEFORE you HOSE the PC....
>Had to get the recovery disk. They charged me $20 for a $1 CD-R. Then it wouldn't work,
??? Get another one... should be free now....
>and they wanted to charge me to tell me how to use it.
Uh.... put disk in PC... start it.... press ALT-F10 and then follow instructions...
>Again WTF? These people are horrible. Save yourself a lot of trouble and get a Mac. Get HP. Get an abacus. Anything but Gateway.
Ok.. my turn...
No problems at all with the PC. Works great. and.....
with this much disk space, I also dual-booted Vista-32 Ultimate on the PC (I installed an older IDE 500 gig drive and used it for the 32bit Windows). I did this to run the only external USB hardware that did not have a 32-bit driver.
The 64bit Vista SCREAMS!!! And you can't hear a sound from the SATA drive that comes with it!!
I bought a 19 inch Gateway flat panel at the same time, and it looks GREAT with the images on it.
The only negative... the 300W power supply. I will probably replace it down the road with a 500 watt one and upgrade the video for my Videos I produce....
Also, I did not ever see an indicator on the front of the PC blink when accessing the hard drive.... kinda missed that!
But for casual gaming and regular video/work.... what a STEAL!!!
I'd buy another one in a minute....
ps.... make the Recovery Disks FIRST after getting booted up the first time and store them away safely.... a lot cheaper to do than what the other reviewer suffered!!!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good home-office, work, and general serious-stuff machine, December 14, 2008
This is not a gaming machine. Buy it if you are running home-office applications, work stuff, or really anything that doesn't require high-end video performance. Buy it if you think you'll add or change out hardware down the line, or if you want a box where you can run 64-bit Vista - and be supported.
The good: Nice dual-core processor and enough memory and disk space for anything I'll be doing. Comes with fast network interface, which is good if your home or office is wired for 1000 gigabit per second transfers (which many offices, but currently not many homes, are). Machine is spacious internally and easy to work on, if you're inclined to do that sort of thing. So-so video performance and lack of DVI interface won't bother you if you're not doing anything high end. I find I can work from home, edit photos, and watch streaming television just fine. The machine has very quiet fans (something manufacturers often screw up). I appreciate the fact that it came with 64-bit Vista, because it allows me to take advantage of more memory per process than would otherwise be the case (important if you are doing geekly things, like running databases). The setup instructions were easy to follow, although if you know anything about computers you probably won't need them, because the connectors on the machine are well labeled and color coded.
The bad: So-so video performance, lots of extra software installed that most people will find useless. No DVI video interface (just analog and HDMI). The big box is a disadvantage if you don't plan on adding any devices or drives, and you have a cramped workspace. You also have to watch what version of software you download, to make sure you get stuff that can run on 64-bit Vista. Most 32-bit stuff will run just fine on 64-bit Vista. But you will run into some compatibility issues now and then (fewer over time, one would expect).
Bottom line: I really like this machine. Buy it if you're using it for office or programming/developmen work and if you plan on mucking with the insides. 64-bit Vista is great for me. The price is decent. Not a first choice for a total computer neophyte who doesn't read directions or manuals and who lacks a computer-savvy relative.
Caution: I'm fairly computer-savvy and so I haven't had to test out Gateway's support infrastructure. Check other reviews to see about how people fared when they had to call in. I simply don't know how good/bad their support is.
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1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
If it breaks-forget it!, November 15, 2008
We bought a Gateway desktop and Windows got hosed for some reason. We called 1-800-GATEWAY for support. Guess what? If you buy a Gateway anywhere but their website you must call a separate toll number. WTF!? Then we needed to restore it but the restore partition was bad. Had to get the recovery disk. They charged me $20 for a $1 CD-R. Then it wouldn't work, and they wanted to charge me to tell me how to use it. Again WTF? These people are horrible. Save yourself a lot of trouble and get a Mac. Get HP. Get an abacus. Anything but Gateway.
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