Customer Reviews

Gateway FX6831-03 Desktop PC (Black)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like many, I wanted to avoid the whole Vista fiasco, so the Gateway FX6831-03 is my first new computer in seven years.

You only have to look at the specs: a powerful I7-860 processor coupled with a ATI5850 video card and an insane 16 gig of DDR3 memory to know this is a blazing fast machine at a modest price, so I'm going to talk about the out of the box stuff. I ordered the Gateway FX6831-03 desktop PC from Amazon via standard shipping and it arrived in good shape from J&R Music and Electronics in less than a week.

First, I opened it up to look inside. The case is crummy sheet-metal with screws, but the layout looks solid with no glaring problems and a big power supply (I've uploaded some photos into the "customer image" section). It has front-loading bays to add two more hard drives to its internal 1.5 TB drive. So far I've added a 1 TB Hitachi SATA drive to handle just HD video files. Setup was a bit tricky--I was expecting a simple plug and play, but I had to go into the device manager and format the new drive before it would show up. It's all good now.

The interior is tight because of the "cooling tower" on the CPU and the massive video card. Wedging in additional PC cards would be tough, though I would be hard pressed to think of what else to add! It has two disk drives--one CD/DVD burner and one CD/DVD/Blu-ray player; I replaced the CD/DVD burner with a Pioneer 205 Blu-ray/CD/DVD burner. I also supplemented its single case fan with two additional fans out of an excess of caution in this powerful machine.

The exterior is really sweet with red glowing racing stripes, an extremely fast multi-card reader and LOTS of USB ports (10!), FireWire, HDMI and more. You can nestle your iPod or MP3 player on a little indented platform on top, right next to two USB ports.

Turning on the Gateway FX6831-03 was a pleasant surprise. First there was a pretty good "whir" sound, then it settled down to dead quiet. I had to double-check that the fans were going! It is also quite energy efficient: my computer, modem/router/WiFi and 24" LCD monitor only use 108 watts while performing most tasks.

The setup was a snap. I don't know which was better: the new machine or the 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium. In any case, unlike my previous Windows machines, I was able to get on line in seconds instead of wasting half a day fiddling with settings.

Unfortunately, the computer has no setup disks, and the setup instructions were of the pathetic "don't use this machine in the shower" sort. After removing some bloatware and downloading about 50 updates (true!) I loaded and tweaked dozens of personal programs. Note: Windows 7 doesn't use Outlook Express--it uses Windows Live Mail. Also, Windows has a nice (free!) anti-virus Microsoft Security Essentials program that won't bog down the system. Simple stuff, sure, but it was new to me and much appreciated. Rebooting only takes about 60 seconds.

You can also use Windows Easy Transfer between your new and old machine, but it I couldn't make it work via USB cable. I had to use an external hard drive. It took several hours and is a bit buggy. Also, start planning on moving all your e-mails and e-mail addresses to your new machine.

Most of my old (some very old) programs work on the Gateway FX6831-03. High end products like Photoshop CS5, Photomechanic, Pinnacle Studio HD and games like Supreme Commander 2, Dragon Age and Age of Empires III are amazingly fast even at highest resolution! For instance, Photoshop CS5 loads in six seconds! I've only had it a few months, but this machine is everything I could possibly want. Note of warning: Gateway is reported to have HORRIBLE customer support, but I figured it would be worth the risk. If I ever have a problem, I'll update this review.

The 6831-03 Gateway has the most bang for the buck by far when shopping for a new desktop.

16GB of DDR3 RAM - The most RAM you will find in a desktop of this price.
Intel's new i7 860 processor - Not quite the best, but pretty close.
ATI's new 5850 video card with 1GB of on-board memory - Again, not quite the best, but pretty close.
1.5TB Sata HDD - Plenty of fast storage.
Blu-Ray optical drive - Generic, but gets the job done.
7.1 HD Audio - Also generic, but gets the job done.
Win 7 64 Bit Home Premium - Sure wish it was the Professional edition.

NO DOCUMENTATION OR SOFTWARE BACKUP DISKS !!!!! Not even a quick setup sheet to show a newbie how to connect everything.

The computer came from JR Music and Computer world. The first one they shipped never made it to POST. I called JR and their support center couldn't help me so they referred me to Gateway's support center.

What a JOKE Gateway's support is. I ended up having to call Gateway 3 times. Twice I spoke with offshore agents that had accents so thick that I could barely understand what they said and were completely clueless; they recommended boxing up the BRAND NEW computer and sending it back to them to be repaired. YEAH RIGHT. Finally the 3rd person I spoke with I could at least understand and he recommended sending the computer back to JR. He also explained that the computer doesn't come with documentation because it is all online. The user's guides that Gateway provides are VERY basic and intended for someone that has very little computer knowledge; no content whatsoever on things like the video card or HDD or optical drives... As far as the backup software goes - hopefully the HDD never crashes. There is a hidden 16GB partition that contains all of the software shipped with the system that can be accessed during the boot sequence to perform a system restore. Anyway, back to JR's.

The support I received at JR's made me a lifelong customer. They were very helpful and professional. To expedite the shipping of a replacement computer I paid for a new one, and as soon as they received the defective computer they posted the credit to my card.

Unless you need the ultimate, top-of-the-line video card from ATI more than the 16gb of RAM, this rig is a sweet deal. The computer is fast and whisper quiet, which is an advantage for me because I also make sound recordings. Blue-ray HD movies look crisp and smooth, and the massive hard drive reads and writes impressively fast. I partially migrated from an XP computer using LapLink's PCmover Professional (sixty bucks well spent), and installing all those peripherals clustering aroung my desk took all but a day of finding the appropriate Windows 7 drivers on the manufacturers' web sites. I use this machine at home for both research/productivity and hobby. If you comparison shop for a computer to use for sound recording, photography and video editing, and everyday workhorse productivity, this one surely gets you the most bang for the buck at the moment. It is fast enough that your 32-bit software will run at least as fast as it did on your old computer, likely faster, but it shines with 64-bit applications. Very highly recommended.

A word about Gateway: I always read product reviews and do my homework before I buy anything, and this turned out to be the third Gateway computer in a row for me (my first PC was a Northgate - remember those?). Each has worked flawlessly. I tinker and tweak, and Gateway computers (as do Apple machines, truth be told) always impress me with their quality engineering. So two thumbs up here, too.

I was looking for a high-end box for dev/test which would double up as a game PC. Read glowing reviews by CNET experts and complaints from consumers for Gateway FX6831-01 and 03. Talked to repair guys at Frys and Bestbuy, they didnt see any issues. I really liked its sleek looks and you cant beat this price. So I bought the 03 model but spent $240 for a 2 yr extended warranty (which is free at Costco) just in case. Turned it on but got blank screen. Then read instructions which asked to hook monitor to graphics card. Pilot error resolved. Spent two days loading software/games and only to have it die on me on the third day. Despite that I bought extended warranty which promises local repairs, Frys wanted to ship it to OEM for repairs which could take 3-6 weeks. I talked them into testing power supply and for sure it was dead. Since I couldn't wait 6 weeks and didnt want reload on a replacement unit which was likely to die on me anyway, I spent another $140 to buy a good quality Antec 750W power supply and talked Frys into replacing the dead one.

It's working great so far. Nice and quiet with excellent performance and grpahics resolution. But I'm only a week into it. Will update later.....

This system rocks!! I am a professional photographer and handle large files, and use programs that really eat the resources up! This system allows me to do whatever I want! Photoshop CS5 with Bridge is no problem on this machine. Everything is running at once very smoothly. I can bounce back and forth between programs, access several external hard drives and never miss a beat. I have never been able to do that before on any machine!!
I recommend this system to my fellow photographers!!

I've had this computer for over 5 months without any problems. I added a second hard drive in the internal bay which worked properly. I installed two Noctua 80mm fans to the front intake grill to add circulation and to cool the hard drives. I tried a hard drive in the front removable bay but found it got quite hot with no air circulation.

I've researched the computer components extensively but cannot determine who made the motherboard but my best guess is Foxconn.

Having owned two prior 710G Gateway computers with excellent customer support I was quite surprised to learn just how poor Gateway's current support is. My e-mail inquiry was, "who made the motherboard?", and was advised of the model number but was told they did not know who made the board. As others have commented, there is basically no Gateway customer service.

I highly recommend the computer only if you are capable of doing your own repairs.

Fastest computer for the money that I've seen...and fast enough for me and my game play. Very easy and fast setup time. You will have to tweak the video card to get you best color depth and hue. Basic settings are dull and too bright. Data transfer from my backup hard drive to this computer was very fast for a 7200 RPM drive. One word of caution when installing any software, especially games, everyone knows to disable your virus scan but also turnoff your automatic updates too. This can also mess with your installation especially if updates download and install automatically. I did have an error code32 on both DVD and BD drives, which means both of the devices were disabled in the registry when it burped. Re-installing the drivers did not cure the problem. This happened after installing an old software program, it just didn't like it. I cured the problem by restoring the computer back one day just prior to this software installation and everything is working fine now. Too bad for that one guy that had a bad computer from the start, because this computer is pretty nice. One thing I did worry about is, it runs so quiet I didn't hear any fans. I check the bios setup and the setting is on smart fan and the temp seems to be ok at that setting. That's pretty cool. I'd buy this computer if your looking for a affordable semi-high end machine with gobs of RAM memory. It's not only good for games but also for video and picture editing. I think it's a must to have a 24", 2ms response time, HD monitor. Mine looks great with thisvideo card. You can also speed things up with a 10,000 rpm 2nd drive to put your games and video on. I'm going to if they have one in that removable bay drive section, if not I'll go with a regular in case unit.. That's my next buy. Have fun with your new machine....

great computer for the price. just wished the blu-ray drive was writeable.
Gateway FX6831-01 Desktop PC (Black)

I've had this machine for a few months now. I bought it because it's a great value. I found it to be equivalent to a system I'd put together myself for the same money (though the power supply is cheap, and it needs a bigger fan in the rear). I'd had issues with it after making some adjustments. I put in a second internal hard disk with a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate. Since then it has booting issues, in that it will hang before Windows without keyboard assistance. The graphics drivers are unstable with my monitor configuration: 2 Acer's through the Radeon card, and 2 USB monitors, but the latest ATI update seems good so far with only a couple of days behind it.

Getting help from Gateway is more trouble than it's worth. I think they're possibly the very worst in customer service. If you make any sort of change to the system they'll also bill you by the minute for help. To be honest I did not try paying them; maybe their experts really are worth something... I still felt the best option was getting into forums for help and suffering through it (it's still not fixed).

All in all though, I still feel the machine is a good value provided you will run it AS IS out of the box. Don't count on support.

PC works well and has many great features... (ie slides for two drives in the front of machine)

PRAY that you don't need help though, since GATEWAY (Now ACER) support is WORSE THAN TERRIBLE... Goooood luck if you need help...

PC is fast, and other than is NO MODEL SPECIFIC information on the website, (ONLY FX GENERAL INFO) you will have to figure it out on your own, because Customer Support is CLUELESS.... THERE IS NO DETAILED INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THIS PC...

If you want to have fun... Try to find out the part number, manufacturer, correct name to order EXTRA SLIDE TRAYS FOR THE SWAPABLE DRIVES...