Customer Reviews

Gateway SX2800-07 Desktop PC (Black)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this computer to act as my second webserver. I've got a Verizon FiOS business account with 35Mbps down/35Mbps up and 13 static IPs. I was going to build a computer myself, and the cost for similar specs to this one came to $650. That's over $100 MORE than what I paid.

The essentials to anyone who is considering buying this computer:
- It has HDMI and VGA ports. Yes, I'm serious. HDMI port on a $500 computer. Amazing.
- It has a quad core Q8300 processor that comes in SLIGHTLY slower than a quad Core i5 750. You could pay the premium to get a Core i5 750, but you would never see the difference.
- On that note, check out the speed of the FSB & memory. 4GB DDR3 @ 1333MHz ... that's simply amazing for this $500 price point.
- 620GB SATA hard drive. If you need more space, you can always get an external firewire, eSATA or usb hard drive and plug it in. Seeing as how I'm using this as a webserver, the space is far more than I would ever need.
- Gigabit ethernet port
- Super tiny, fits basically anywhere. The design was very well thought out, I love it.

Honestly I didn't even boot into Windows 7. I've got Windows 7 on my computer, and I use linux on my webservers. So as soon as I got this computer hooked up, I went straight into the BIOS and tweaked a few settings, then installed linux and completely removed the partition(s) that came on the drive.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a low cost PC that outperforms high cost competitors. It's got EVERYTHING you could want at a price you can afford. And no, I don't work for Gateway.

I did some thorough research and couldn't find an off-the-shelf system with this value and fit for a Home Theater PC. I love the HDMI interface and it seems to play DVD movies well. I put in a Hauppauge PCIe 1/x QAM tuner (had a bit of a configuration struggle, but that's not Gateway's issue) and with the system's large hard drive, I now have a decent DVR that receives and schedule records all of Comcasts QAM stations (nearly 100) without a cable box. Nice to have an eSATA port for storage expansion in the future.

The HDMI interface carries the audio with it (some PCs only have video so you have to use a separate spdif cable), which plays nicely on my HDTV. I have the HDTV's digital audio connected to my 5.1 sound system so I can rock a good sound out of a dvd played on the system with the audio routed through the TV. The medium size (it is not a mini though), attractive, case fits well as a component in my home theater system and is pretty quiet.

Pro's Quiet, HDMI w/audio, powerful, attractive.
Con's They should have supplied a factory restore disk set and a bit more documentation on the system. Also the DVD eject button is a bit hard to press. Contains the usual trial versions of already installed (Microsoft, Virus, Nero), so I had to uninstall all that, but all companies seem to be doing that.

Gateway support is lousy; the product is lovely. I asked Gateway how to find or where to get keycode to activate trial 60 day version of MS Office suite. Never got a response.
The CD/DVD burner works but when I tried to copy a DVD, not copy protected, it claimed that my blank DVD was the wrong type... Why? I then copied it to a flash drive, then successfully to the same, rejected DVD. Good buy, I am pleased.-ga

I've been wanting a Quad-Core for some time to replace my aging P4/2.8 and the price was definitely right for this model. It has a good size Hard drive, good onboard video/audio. When I have some spare time I like to play The Sims 2 and this machine handles that game very well -- even with all the expansions installed. I would have given this model 5 stars if it weren't for a few shortcomings that it has. Some have mentioned the DVD Drive button. I never could get it to work no matter how hard I pushed so I just created a shortcut on the desktop for the drive and can easy eject or open the tray by doing a simple right-click on the icon. The second shortcoming (and a major one) is you can forget about doing any kind of video upgrade. If you're a hardcore gamer, I'd look for another PC. This PC comes with a 220w PSU and almost all good video cards demand no less than 300w. Sadly, you'd have more luck locating the Fabled Holy Grail than a larger PSU to fit in this case. I may end up getting an Antec 300 case and doing a swap later on down the road if I need to upgrade. Otherwise, if you just need a small, fast, and quiet machine that can handle most tasks... this would be a good one to buy.

Bought this for my wife when her's crashed. Easy to set up and has worked perfectly since we received it. Highly recommend it.

I bought this computer a month ago, and I love it...well mostly. It's lightning fast, and beautifully sleek. It will most certainly take some time for me to get used to the windows 7 though. The machine itself arrived in a much smaller box than I anticipated, and I wondered if it would come in different parts. Ok, I knew it would come assembled, but the box was confusingly small. I opened it and was pleased to see not only the computer, but a keyboard and mouse. One thing I suggest strongly though. It comes woth no discs or paperwork. Be sure, VERY sure... to make a back-up disc the moment you plug it in. The restore feature doesn't seem to be as simple as the restoreit in my last computer. Nonetheless, It has more memory than I will need for quite some time, streams video flawlessly, has enough ports front and back to satisfy the multifuntionist in any family. It has no problem running my giant external drive, my camera, ipod, memory card etc...all at the same time. When it goes into snooze or rest mode, the power button blinks, so if you're in a pitch dark room, it looks a bit like an old blinking hotel sign. I put a sock on it if it's bugging me. It's definitely gonna take some getting used to, but it's a world of difference from my previous HP. Beware, I've moved into the present century!

I bought the $500 SX2802 at Costco around Christmas. I'm not nearly as technical as the rest of these reviewers, however I use the DVD/CD drive almost daily with iTunes for music and was hesitant about the vertical tray. After about 2 1/2 months, the drive started jerking open abruptly one day, after listening to 2 CD's I clicked iTunes to open the drive & behold-no CD!!!! It was stuck in behind the tray! After 20 minutes with Costco Concierge Services, I was transfered to Gateway cust. svc. (in India?). After another hour on the phone, I was told to mail (at my expense) the tower to Texas! Am now trying to figure out if I should just buy an external DVD/CD drive in order to avoid the hassle & cost of that. Any advice?

Have been using this computer for a short time now and use it for a home based business. I am quite pleased with this and would highly recommend it. It was a quick plug and play for almost all programs, easy set-up, and no problems whatsoever. Speed is remarkable as well as the very convenient size and the well thought out placement of USB and other portals.

I've been using this computer for half a year without any real problems, putting it to heavy use, rarely shut off, taken care off with the right software.

Sometimes it won't start up correctly, or shut down correctly. This happened shortly after I got it. Whether this is my computer specifically or this model generally is beyond my level of knowledge.

One thing I don't like about it (slight criticism indeed) is the CD drive placed vertically instead of horizontally. It makes the computer look different, even makes it more portable. But it leads to impracticalities and slight problems.

Pretty good desktop PC here, as far as I am concerned.

This is a great product, I bought it and am currently using it everyday as a media center console. HD internet content playback is no problem at all (but run the windows updates first, otherwise there will be slight glitches in the playback). Overall, this is a small, good, yet powerful system.