Customer Reviews

Gateway SX280001 / SX2800-01 / SX2800-01 Desktop PC (No Monitor Included)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wanted to upgrade from my Dual Core 2 HP Laptop to something with more kick - ie a good desktop which was small yet powerful and within a budget. I also wanted to make a move into 64-Bit Windows.

I was a bit apprehensive on ordering something so complex, online, all the way to (Arabian) Gulf where I reside.

JR dispatched my order to my forwarding address in the US within 24 hours. From there the forwarding couriers took 2 days to get it here so withing 5 days I had the machine on my table which was amazing.

Experience
- The machine arrived in mint condition. No damage to the packaging or inside.
- Setup was really easy, it was literally Plug n Play.
- There are no setup disks for the OS so I advise making a backup of the system using the Gateway software present.
- Make sure to switch the power settings tab from 110-120V to 220-240V if you intend on using the machine outside the US/Japan.

Pros and Software Performance
- It is an amazingly quiet machine along with it's small size. The mouse and keyboard feel good and the speakers are ok.
- Installing most generic 32Bit software was easy. Installing more complex stuff like AutoCad and 3DMax requires patches or 64 Bit releases.
- AutoCad 2008 and 3dMax 2008 run very smooth. Rendering via Vray has been quite good and it will suffice for home renderings etc.
- I have installed a few older games like Doom 3,Cricket 2007 and Tombraider which run smoothly on Medium settings. On High, they sometimes crash.
- Photoshop has been very fast on this machine with so much Memory to play with.
- Multi Tasking between all these and a WinAmp running has not lagged the system.
- If you are attached to some older software which don't work on Vista 64, there's a free Microsoft Download called Virtual PC which allows one to install a separate OS System like XP which runs completely on its own when activated. Unlike the old days, this is not a gimmick. I have tried installing and running a 32 bit Autocad 2008 in it and it runs very fast.
- Movie Encoding - Usually takes my HP Core 2 Duo laptop 6-8 hours to encode 2-3 avi's onto a DVD in highest settings. This machine did that in 60-70 minutes.

Cons
- So far Ive noticed the Eject button on my machine is too hard. You have to press it hard until you hear a faint click to make the CD Drive eject. Its a bit irritating but not a major factor as these days one mostly uses USB Sticks or HDs. It could also be the case only on my machine.
- It's very important to realize that this machine is great for casual mid level gaming but if you are looking towards the high end gaming scene, you will need to change the Video Card. These you will only be able to choose from the "Low Profile" types which will fit the small casing. Normal ones won't.
- It would have been nice to have a wireless card but it's ok, one can exchange that with the existing one.

Overall Experience
- As usual Microsoft introduced an OS 2 years back (Vista) which was laggy, with bugs and slow on most of the new machines those days. Now the Vista experience on this machine has been a breeze and fun.

Enjoy! :)

EDIT (November 10) : The above review was made by me when I had purchased the machine earlier this year for less than 500$. I have been very surprised to find out that it is now twice the price. These specs are not worth 999$!!! :) Regards.

I was searching for a Business/School Desktop under $500.00 with good solid computing power. With its Intell Quad processor and 4 Gigabites memory, it was a standout.

The Intell Video Processor is plain vanila, not the best choice for gamming. Analog connections are no problem, but if you use the Digitial Video output, it is HDMI. HDMI is fine for newer monitors, but requires a HDMI to DVI converter to work with some older monitors.

There is no room to add video boards, but the footprint of the minitower pack a lot of punch for it size. Gateway claims that the computer can handle up to 8 gig of memory, with the 64 bit processor 6 should be max for performance because of the grater capability of the 64 bit processor. If you know what will work best with your applications and if this fits the bill, you won't find more value for your money.

I have three Gateways less than two yers old, they are very reliable and I have found their US BASED help centers to be excellent. I hope this does not change under ACER.

UPDATE: For $500 this was a great value. For $999 it most definitely is not.

My original review:
I was looking for a simple (not for gaming) Windows PC. Since I am no longer a hobbyist when it comes to building computers, I really was looking for something that would work well, have a small footprint on my desk, and give me the most power for my dollar, all under $500. I found exactly what I was looking for with this Gateway. Compared to similar models from Dell and HP, I think this is a great value. Fast Core 2 Quad processor, healthy 4GB RAM, large HDD at 650GB. So all your basic specs are top-grade, and you're not spending a lot of money. OK, so what are the trade-offs you make when choosing this computer?

First, you can't really upgrade it all that much. It only has 1 space for an internal HDD, so to add more space you are talking about external (to Gateway's credit though, they do include a nice handy eSATA port in the back so you can do this and not suffer with slow USB speeds). The case's small size means the 2 PCIe slots won't find too many cards you can buy and fit inside (one of the slots is taken up by a modem - really, a modem but no wireless?)

Second, the video card is good enough to run 64-bit Vista, but not good enough for graphics-intensive tasks like gaming, or running dual monitors. I couldn't get both video ports (HDMI and VGA) to run 2 monitors at an acceptable resolution - it could do it, but not at a decent resolution. I might evenutally take out the modem and add a half-height PCIe video card to drive a second monitor but we'll see. For now I'm running it at 1900x1200 on a Samsung 26" monitor and it works great via HDMI.

Some details I found out once I bought it which shouldn't impact your decision too much, but are probably good to know. Even though it looks like it could stand vertical or horizontal, it really is designed to stand vertically only. There are no rubber feet on the side, and if you lay it flat on it's side, the door for the front ports will scrape against your desk and possibly break off. So don't buy it thinking it'll be good to sit a monitor on top of it. It's not good for that. If you want to have the DVD drive print labels on your discs, the DVD drive uses the less popular LabelFlash technology. Discs are more expensive than LightScribe and I guess more difficult to find, but odds are I would never use either one (so I don't really care, but you might). A minor point that I liked, it didn't come pre-loaded with a ton of garbage-ware. Uninstalled Norton (so I could install Kaspersky) created the recovery disks (3 DVDs) and that was about all.

Overall I am extremely happy with this purchase - the small case fits nicely on my desk, the CPU is very fast, lots of RAM, big HDD, and ready for 64-bit Windows 7 (free upgrade when Win7 comes out.) A lot of computer for your money as long as you know what the limitations are and don't want to use it for gaming or hobbyist upgrading. Only reasons it doesn't get 5 stars: the case should have been made to stand vertical or horizontal, and the modem should have been a wireless LAN card.

I bought this computer from J&R Music and Computer World. The service from them is very good, I had no reason to call them after I ordered it. I live in Mexico and the computer arrived in perfect condition. After burning the restore DVDs I installed Windows 7 RC 64-bit (clean install) and is working very good (no trouble at all with the drivers). This computer qualifies for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it becomes available. I already pre-ordered it on Gateway website.
I noticed that the eject button is a little hard to push. No big deal for me. I've been using it for a week and that's the only flaw I've found so far.
I am very pleased with this purchase. It has an excellent relation price/performance.

I've had the SX2800 for about two months and it's performance has been fast and quiet and reliable, with no crashes.
A few things don't work yet with Vista 64 like the scanner on my HP all-in-one, but otherwise no problems.
No wireless came with this machine, and the only slot (besides the PCI express video slot) is a PCI Express 1x occupied by a telephone modem.
USB Wireless I tried wasn't truly compatible with Vista 64 (no driver available yet) and only worked intermittently and finally not at all.
I switched the phone modem out for a D-Link DWA-556 Xtreme N PCI Express Wireless Adaptor and now e-mail and Internet are rocket fast.
The DWA-556 doesn't mention the short bracket on the box, but it was inside, and installation was a breeze.

A couple of these machines showed up at work this summer, and I was so impressed I just ordered one for myself. I have been using it to do some pretty memory and cpu intensive calculations (FEM stuff with Comsole Multiphysics) and it eats it up like a champ. I'm planning to use my personal machine for editing our AVCHD home movies. I also ordered a Radeon HD4650 half-height video card from newegg for about $50. I'll update this post after it all arrives.

Many people mention the button for the optical drive is hard to push. This is true. But there is an EJECT button on the KEYBOARD, so it really couldn't be simpler to access the drive.

Also, Amazon currently lists this computer at $999, which is insane. It can easily be found at other retailers for $450 or less.

UPDATE:
Computer arrived in good condition and is working great. First thing out of the box I burned backup disks using the preloaded utility (3 DVD's and 2 CD's). However, Windows 7 is on its way and I'll do a clean install once I get it. Note: dvd drive can be pretty loud when it is spinning at full speed, at least as compared to how quiet the computer normally is. Not really an issue for DVD playback.

The video card installation was only mildly problematic. Everyone who says you can't put a video card in this machine is just wrong. There are cards out there that will work great in it. My only problem was with the Catalyst Control Center software conflicting with some of the preloaded software. I'll tackle that issue once I get W7. The video card bumped the graphics performance scores from 4.0 to 5.0 Aero and 5.3 gaming. All other scores for the computer are 5.9.

The system is advertised as coming with "800Mhz DDR3 RAM", which I would presume means DDR3-800. In actuality my system shipped with DDR3-1333 units installed, but it seems the motherboard clocks it at the DDR3-1066 speed. Unfortunately, the bios does not give you the ability to adjust the RAM clock speed or voltage.

Haven't tested out full AVCHD editing yet, but it plays the files beautifully using the software that came with my camera. I'm really looking forward to W7 in this regard as AVCHD will be supported natively.

So far, I'm quite happy with it.

This computer gives you more then just bang for the buck. I use Photoshop CS4 and After Effects CS4 for generating different projects I work on and this computer just smokes through the processes like nothing, the processor is powerful and this is a steal for the money. The best product I bought for the money in a long time.

I have been using laptop exclusively (both home and work) for 5 years until this one. I love the small form, fast start-up and connection galore. The small form and light weight allow me to use this as both regular PC in my office upstairs and as Media Center PC in the living room downstairs. It does not look intrusive or out of place next to me 52" Sony LCD at all. HDMI carries both video and audio signal so it's great.

The front panel door for connections is a bit flimsy but so far holding up. No built-in wireless is a tad drawback. It does have room to add a wireless card but I don't want to void the warranty by opening up the case so I bought a $20 wireless (USB) adapter and it works just fine.

I still have 2 laptops at home and 1 at work but this is now, without a doubt, my favorite PC.

Hi, does anyone know how to put XP on this great machine, XP is more compatible with my older hardware, and VISTA isn't. Need XP drivers for the hard drive controller? The DVD eject has to be pressed a lot harder than a regular desktop, there are NO PCI slots only a PCI-E and PCI x1 slot, that's it. I have had the unit for two weeks, the recovery CDs didn't work and IE 7 will freeze every now and then, one of the reasons I would like to try XP. The unit is at least double the speed of my Duo Core Dell computer, great computer for the money.

I have a generic XP system that is 3-1/2 years old. The 80 GB hard disk hovers around 27 GB free. Adobe Elements would give a memory error (the lack of it with only 2 GBs) every once in a great while when processing large RAW files. I cured that with 2 more GBs of cheap memory (although apparently 3 GB is the max readable by XP). It works fine, except a couple times in the last few weeks it shut down ("dink") after, I'm guessing, the CPU got too hot (in our heatwave weather) right in the middle of resizing a batch of images. So, besides investigating the possible purchase of a new or better fan, I decided I might just get a more-powerful computer mainly to speed up processing RAW files.

I looked on-line and was thinking of getting a Dell that has a Q8200 quad core processor, 8 GB of DDR2 RAM, a budget 3450 graphics adaptor, and 1 TB hard drive in a large tower for $750 (with 19" monitor and 3-n-1 printer would put it at $800). I then went to the electronics store BB, and looked around a bit. I saw this Gateway, and other systems, that have what I call a small case - its like 4 inches wide and about 16 inches square. I'd never seem them this small before ... Anyway, you can read the specs of this machine above. A bit less RAM perhaps, but the better (?) DDR3 variety. A bit smaller HD, but 8 times what I have (keeping it in perspective), integrated graphics that probably is no worse than the 3450 in the Dell, and in a case I could set on top of my other system - for $459. A 20" LCD option was $20 more, and a 23" LCD put it at $579. I waffled between the Dell and the Gateway, and after not getting any sales attention after about 10 minutes, I went home. I looked up this system, and went back and got it with the 20" monitor (I'm already using a Samsung 216bw, and I have a decent 15" CRT and semi-functional Viewsonic 24" CRT in the closet for emergencies :-)

A few observations in the little time I have had it...the monitor power cord goes in your power strip (not into the case), you get a dial-up modem occupying a slot, and no DVI. For those that think the eject button is too stiff, there is a very soft eject button as well as volume controls on the keyboard. You have to make your own backups disks as none are supplied, though you are prompted to do so with the included burner (need 3 DVDs for applications, 1 for drivers) which takes about 1 hour or less.

It looks like the power supply is only 220W, so that rules out adding just about any separate video card (I do not see a need for one). Also you will probably need to remove the DVD unit, at least, to add any memory (I also do not see a need at the moment).

I'm not much of a Vista fan (too much permission stuff, and weird directory tree) but I have signed up for the free Windows 7 upgrade. Hopefully it will be an improvement.(Turns out not much, if any, interface-wise for me, especially if your like the "classic Windows theme", which turns off most or all Aero features).

Oh, about 16 years ago, or more, I bought a Gateway 486-66 in a huge tower with the "big" 15" monitor. It cost $3,500.