Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Has been a perfect machine., August 4, 2009
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.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A best buy for under $500.00, July 10, 2009
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great value for $500, August 31, 2009
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.
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