Entered CNET Catalog: 06/24/2009
SKU: PT.G810X.001
Manufacturer: Gateway Inc.
Manufacturer description
Unleash your creative side with the Gateway SX2800-01 desktop. Packed inside its super compact design, just a third the size of tower PCs is a potent Intel Core 2 Quad processor. You can power through multimedia applications while enjoying easy usability for tasks and entertainment thanks to conveniences like the digital device holder, and the plethora of ports - 9 USB, plus HDMI, eSATA and IEEE 1394a FireWire - and the media card reader mean you have connectivity and expandability to spare.Product summary
The good: Sleek, compact design; best all-around performance among budget retail PCs; up-to-date motherboard outputs offer all kinds of connectivity options.
The bad: Memory slot access takes a few more steps than usual.
The bottom line: Gateway's SX2800-01 offers a strong combination of performance and features all wrapped up in a design that fully embraces the merits of a slim tower PC. We recommend this system to anyone looking for a fast, affordable desktop for the home office, the living room, or anywhere in between.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: Yes
- Reviewed on: 07/10/2009
Editors' note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Back-to-School roundup, covering specific fixed configurations of popular systems that can be found in retail stores.
Thanks to a strong set of features for its $510 price tag, Gateway's SX2800-01 impressed us enough to earn an Editors' Choice award. This PC demonstrated the best all-around performance in its budget PC class, making it a strong system for general productivity. An HDMI video output also lets you take full advantage of Gateway's particularly compact slim tower design if you're looking for a cheap PC to double as a media server. The SX2800-01 strikes such an even balance in its price, performance, and features for its price that we'd recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile, low-cost home computer.
It's clear from the design of the SX2800-01 that Gateway takes the slim tower PC concept seriously. Coming in at 11.5 inches high, 4 inches wide, and 14.25 inches deep, the SX2800-01 is smaller in every dimension than both the HP's Pavilion Slimline systems.
With that smaller size comes fewer expansion ports in the Gateway, and it's also harder to access the internal memory. You could also argue that because it only sells fixed configurations, Gateway doesn't have to cater/upsell to online customers with customization like Dell and HP, and can sacrifice some expansion room for a more compact design, That lets the SX2800-01 appeal to anyone looking to generally save space, and especially those interested in bringing a PC into the living room.
| Gateway SX2800-01 | Dell Inspiron 537s | |
| Price | $510 | $480 |
| CPU | 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 | 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 |
| Memory | 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM | 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 32MB Intel GMA X4500 | 32MB Intel GMA X4500 |
| Hard drives | 640GB, 7,200rpm | 640GB, 7,200rpm |
| Optical drive | dual-layer DVD burner | dual-layer DVD burner |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit | Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit |
For core components, the primary difference between the Gateway SX2800-01 and the similar Dell Inspiron 537s is the CPU. Dell's Pentium Dual Core chip has a slightly faster clock speed, but you can see on our performance results below that the Gateway's Core 2 Quad makes up for its lower clock speed with better workload distribution, and thus better performance than the Dell on almost every test. That performance edge alone might be enough to justify the Gateway's slightly higher price tag.
Beyond the individual specs and its faster performance, the Gateway surpasses the Dell just as convincingly by way of its more up-to-date motherboard connections. On the back panel of the Inspiron 537s you'll see four USB 2.0 ports, a VGA video output, analog audio outputs, and an Ethernet jack. The Gateway has all of those as well as an HDMI output, an extra USB 2.0 port, digital audio out, and also a pair of PS/2 ports for the mouse and keyboard. HP's Pavilion Slimline, also a $510 slim tower, is similarly outclassed by the Gateway's sheer array of inputs.
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As our tests demonstrate, the Gateway also outperforms almost every other system in our budget retail PC roundup. The iTunes test shows that the SX2800-01 loses a few steps when single-core clock speed matters most, but overall its well-rounded performance allows us to recommend this Gateway to anyone shopping for a budget PC for mainstream tasks.
We mentioned that the Gateway has relatively limited expansion room inside, and if you're determined to upgrade the SX2800-01 post-purchase, you'll find you have only a few options once you crack the case. You get a single 16x PCI Express graphics card slot, as well as a 1X PCI Express slot occupied by a modem, both of which can only accept half-height expansion cards because of the narrow case. While we don't really advocate upgrading lower-end PCs (better to spend more money up front), the two slots you do get are sufficient to add a lower-end 3D card for basic gaming and/or HD video playback, as well as wireless networking (once you toss the modem), if you're serious about using this system in your living room.
You can add more memory as well, and the SX2800-01 comes with two free slots, but accessing the RAM requires you to jump through a few hoops. You need to first remove the front panel and then unscrew and remove the combined optical drive/hard-drive carriage. It's an easy enough process, although it takes a few extra steps than with most desktops.
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We use a lengthened version of our multimedia multitasking benchmark to judge a PC's power consumption under load, and while it's not designed to overwhelm a quad-core CPU like the one in the Gateway, the Gateway's efficiency is no less impressive. Consider that the Gateway outperformed every other system in this category on the MMT benchmark by a large margin, but that it also used the second lowest amount of power on that same test. If you were to consistently run programs on this Gateway that ran on all four processing cores, its annual power consumption cost would likely increase, but for mainstream tasks, the more common work scenario for a PC in this price range, the Gateway demonstrates commendable efficiency.
Like every other major vendor, Gateway offers a one-year parts and labor warranty, alongside 24-7 toll-free phone support for this system. Gateway also offers useful support resources on its Web site, like FAQs, driver downloads, and support chat, and you get a diagnostic utility on the system itself to help you maintain and troubleshoot on your own.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Gateway SX2800-01
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640GB 7,200rpm hard drive
Asus Essentio CM5570-AP002
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300; 6GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640MB 7,200rpm hard drive
Dell Inspiron 537s-002B
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 640GB 7,200rpm hard drive
HP Pavilion p6110y
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300; 6GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA 3100 integrated graphics chip; 640MB 7,200rpm hard drive
HP Pavilion Slimline s5120y
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.7GHz AMD Athlon X2 7750 ; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50out of 50 user reviews
gateway computer broke down 4 times in 6 months.
Pros: its fast, if it didnt break down so much!
Cons: paid to get it fixed 4 times! ($500 spend total)
1st: very bad cheap parts it broke down
2nd: very bad cheap parts it broke down
3rd: wasnt able to turn on.....
4th: power supply is broken after 6 months. what a piece of crap!
5th its now unable to read
out of 50 user reviews
Horrible Experience
Pros: FAST, like lightning speed fast, quiet, inexpensive
Cons: Terrible customer service, CD/DVD drive stopped working AND wouldn't show up in My Computer
out of 50 user reviews
Power supply Failed after 10 months.
Pros: Speed, Compact, Economic,
Cons: The disc drive does not function properly, Power supply fail after 10 months.
out of 50 user reviews
Misled by gateway
Pros: Right now, nothing.
Cons: doesn't perform as promised. Poor customer support, Very noisy!
A year ago I purchased a top of the line gateway. I ordered it directly from gateway so I could customize it and get exactly what I need. As I work with large photo files I wanted the 64 bit system so I was ready when the software came out. I ordered upgraded video cards and memory. They shipped it with 32 bit vista when they told me I was getting the 64 bit. Now I want to upgrade to 64 bit windows 7 and they tell me it?s not possible to upgrade and that I will have driver problems. They say having the upgrade done will affect the extended warranty I paid for. I was misled by them and paid for a quad processor that I can?t use. I?ve called and emailed with their online help and they tell me to bad but they would be happy to transfer me to their pay for help service. I will never purchase another gateway product.
out of 50 user reviews
OUTSTANDING for What it Is
Pros: Screaming fast processor; 4GB DDR3 RAM included; tiny footprint; very quiet, great price.
Cons: Case too small for card/ps upgrades; CD/DVD drawer button very difficult to depress; weak 220W power supply; flimsy access port covers; disc drive is configured vertically.
A great budget system would be one huge measure greater if it were uppgradable on all of the standard gadgets, especially video and power. Small footprint was actually something I sought in making my buy, but I would happily have accepted a larger case size sufficient to accommodate a horizontal disc drive and all standard video/audio card upgrades - and whatever dimensional expansion would be required for a heftier power supply. Maintaining a low price point was an obvious goal in the 2800's design, but a simple enlargement of the physical dimensions would seem to be a simple way of killing multiple birds with one stone: You'd have an inexpensive system with great out-of-box features, but with which you could upgrade at will to higher-end graphics and the power needed to run it all. The disc drive orientation is not a major concern, but horizontal is always better than vertical, at least if you care about your discs.
Having said that, the SX2800-01 does not pretend to be anything other than an excellent budget workhorse, and in that respect it performs outstandingly. At a $500 price point it can serve as prime cannon fodder and garbage-buffer for Internet access, allowing for money saved in the process to be applied toward the purchase of a higher-end gaming/graphics/home office system that never has to dip into that slop. (If you're an online gamer all bets are off, of course.)
There are two mechanical design shortcomings, both annoying but neither one a deal-killer:
- Something I'm really surprised neither the CNET video nor print review mentioned is that the open/close pushbutton for the DVD/CD drive tray is incredibly difficult to push. I'm thinking that Acer/Gateway overlooked a simple functionality inspection before they chose their vendor for that mechanical switch. It works normally, but you have to grind your thumb into it with an unbelievable amount of pressure to get it to engage - required pressure is sufficient to physically push the entire computer backwards, so it's a mandatory two-handed effort. That is just a boneheaded design gaffe.
- The flip-down cover for the front-panel ports is one of those instances of a sheet of cheap-grade plastic mating to the chassis via an incredibly delicate center hinge. The whole affair is virtually begging to be sheared off by any force beyond a strong breeze. From an engineering standpoint even a dual hinge would have made that low-rent plastic far more robust at minimal cost; a higher grade of plastic and a commitment to building the thing to last would have justified any small bump in system price. I know with certainty that in one or two years' time there will simply be no more door to cover those ports. The most important question in any language: "Why?"
In sum, despite a couple of minor flaws this system doesn't pretend to be anything other that what it is, and it does a fantastic job in that role. If you want a low-cost system that performs far beyond what its price would suggest, this is a can't-go-wrong purchase.
out of 50 user reviews
Fast Machine for Gaming
Pros: True Quad core processor, inexpensive, fastest performer in its category. PCIe 16x slot allows you to make it best bang for buck gaming machine known to man.
Cons: With the small form factor and the obligatory low-rise video card upgrade, it can get hot.
The only thing that concerned me was that the video card upgrade is only 1/4 inch from the top of the case and the card's fan blows against the inside of the top of the case making for a spicy hot scenario when playing high end games.
No overheating problems so far and since I'm paranoid, to assuage my fears of reducing the machine's life, whenever I play high end video games I use a small desktop fan to circulate more air through the case.
out of 50 user reviews
Good try Gateway..but its a piece of garbage !!!
Pros: Great specs, good hardware selection , extremely fast...but its small form factor fails to impress. This system runs extremely HOT !!! Insufficent cooling....
DVD eject button worked twice...have to open with OS. cheap, cheap , cheap drive.
Cons: Nivida Vid card crapped out in less than a month,its in the shop being fixed under warrenty as I speak.
I am extremely dissapointed in this system. The specs looked great but failed to deliver.
I want my money back....!!!!!
As the old saying goes....you only get what you pay for....
If something seems to good to be true it usually is !!!
out of 50 user reviews
Fantastic PC for the price!
Pros: Excellent multi-tasking ability. Never feels bogged down. Small form factor. Value.
Cons: No standard wireless connectivity. Video card needs to be upgraded for serious gamers.
out of 50 user reviews
Dead-on-Arrival
Pros: Very sleek. Great form factor. Solid specs. Boots very quickly and performs very solidly, compared even to my 4-core powerhouse video editing machine from Dell.
Cons: Of the 60 days I've owned this machine, it has worked for only 5. After extensive back and forth with Gateway Support, performing their tests and "fixes" and having tried some trouble-shooting of my own, I'm pretty certain the motherboard is bunk.
out of 50 user reviews
Great Computer!
Pros: fast for average programs
Cons: does not work well with high end software such as adobe software
out of 50 user reviews
Bang for Buck
Pros: Passmark= 3253/7285 or 80th of 218 top CPUs dated 2/2010. Compact box = good HTPC. HDMI to HDTV makes huge monitor, boot TV b 4 PC or output goes VGA. USB, firewire, and eSATA makes expansion E Z as external, leave slot for faster video.
Cons: Slow shared memory video card lowers performance. AOL, Norton, Netzero, etc., trialware takes time to remove. Shipped as SP1, Vista updates and SP2 took > 1 hr via Windows Update and multiple boots
out of 50 user reviews
A Fantastic Computer
Pros: Quality Quad-Core Processor, Plenty of Memory, Plenty of external ports, great performance, and included a 7 Upgrade
Cons: Machine looks cheap, button to pop-out DVD drive difficult to operate
The computer's quad core keeps up with most anything you want to do, the memory is very seldom completely used, and the computer's overall performance is great, getting a baseline score of 4.5 in Windows 7 due to the graphics card's Aero performance, but the processor and memory score an amazing 7.1. Compared to my laptop's 3.5 due to graphics, 4.7 at processor, it was a great improvement.
I use the PC to watch and record cable television using a WinTV HVE 950Q and it performs perfectly, as well as playing back music from the Zune software and streaming Netflix through Windows Media Center. As well, I am running it on a 23" HP monitor it supports fine, in addition to 5.1 speakers and a Logitech S510 Keyboard-Mouse set. So, in that respect, I replaced the keyboard-mouse-speakers that came in the box.
Overall, the computer itself is great, and the addition of quality peripherals makes it a perfect computer for both power and general users.
out of 50 user reviews
Bought refurb unit form PC Connection for $299!
Pros: Fast processor, small form factor, 4GB of fast DDR3 RAM with slots for expansion, lots of USB ports, a reasonably large 640GB hard drive and a free upgrade to Windows 7 (expired Jan 31st).
Cons: A big bummer is that the Intel Q8200 processor does not support hardware-assisted virtualization. Therefore, you cannot use Windows Virtual PC 2007 to run Windows XP Mode - a cool feature that allows older programs to run in an XP environment.
out of 50 user reviews
Great comp if you dont want to upgrade parts
Pros: Affordable and extremely slim
Cons: No extra full size PCI slot, graphic card is horrible, no room for upgrading graphic card and even so the PSU is only 220 Watts and cant find a replacement one cheap, no room for internal PCI wireless card
out of 50 user reviews
Good machine but Tech Support stinks.
Pros: Great performance
Small size
Quiet operation
Cons: Trouble with Realtek sound driver
Gateway Tech Support stinks.
I had a problem with the Realtek sound driver and Gateway Tech Support was helpless. They kept telling me to do a system restore point & they seemed clueless about how to diagnose the problem. I think they have a script that they read from and if the problem isn't in the script then they are unable to think outside the box. I finally went directly to the Realtek support site and dowloaded/installed their latest driver. Problem solved -- without any help from Gateway support.
I would give this computer 5 stars if Gateway's tech support was better.
out of 50 user reviews
ZERA STARZ
Pros: Small Form Factor, Large Hard Drive, 6 G Ram.
Cons: DVD Drive NON-FUNCTIONAL on arrival from TigerDirect.com, Key Board did not connect with computer, Headphones revealed weird and very annoying humming noise when cursor over Minimize, Close or Expand. To my complaints, I was told, "TRY ANOTHER DVD!"
out of 50 user reviews
Garbage Workmanship
Pros: Quad performance at low price and small package.
Cons: The DVD/CD drive button doesn't work properly. It has to pressed very hard to operate and after a few uses just doesn't operate. You have to open it using the OS.
out of 50 user reviews
Fast and stable with Windows 7. Nice layout
Pros: Quiet, fast, inexpensive, expandable (for a microPC, 8GB of RAM in 4 slots is good). Acer/Gateway has a free upgrade to windows 7 (or did for mine) which made it a great deal. Good HDD size and fast DVD drive.
Cons: There are only two slots and if they'd only revered them you could fit a video card with a large heat sink (silent). No built-in wireless an an excessive number of USB ports on the front when they could have put them on the back.
out of 50 user reviews
A very well executed HTPC design
Pros: Beautiful and ergonomically well executed case, very fast, quiet, small, very affordable, very easy to set up with home theater, low power consumption
Cons: Included peripherals are practically throwaways, multi-card reader is difficult to use with smaller (and more common SD and MS cards), integrated graphics is not a plus, no Blu-ray, customer service is terrible.
out of 50 user reviews
CNET's Review Helpful, Product Excellent...Sometimes
Pros: Sleek, small, quiet, lightning-fast, incredible value.
Cons: Flimsy CD/DVD drive, questionable customer support.
Updated on Dec 5, 2009Wow. Only a month after I posted my comment and I wish I could take my generous 3.5 rating back. I'm all about outweighing the good with the bad, but I'm only seeing bad now. In the hopes of possibly (perhaps irrationally) fixing the nutty noise my computer makes for a minute or so each day, I tried to upgrade to Windows 7 (using the Gateway upgrade disc the company sent me) and now the DVD drive is mysteriously unrecognized by my computer, and the button that opens the DVD drive (rightfully declared flimsy by everyone whose ever come close to this machine is now more or less stuck. Shipping (at my cost this thing to Texas means I'll be without my work computer at the busiest time of my work year. Life is grand.
out of 50 user reviews
Good computer if you don't need tech support
Pros: Fast, quiet and runs multiple applications with no issues
Cons: Gateway has far and away the WORST customer service I have ever experienced. I spent 3 hours on the phone simply trying to turn off the internal speakers and hook up my 5.1. I was ready to go to Mumbai and shake someone.
out of 50 user reviews
Best deal on the market!
Pros: Great little powerhouse! small quiet and fast!
Cons: Keyboard takes some geting used too, attracts dust and the eject button for the dvd drive has to be pushed hard to work.
out of 50 user reviews
Very fast and reliable!!Great computer for the price!
Pros: Speed, reliability, functions, and look
Cons: Speed is very slow on adobe programs and other memory intensive programs.
out of 50 user reviews
This is a absolutely a piece of junk.
Pros: Cheap and small.
Cons: Bad everything! System is made with cheap modules shipped from China!
out of 50 user reviews
Definitely nothing to whine about
Pros: Small, Ultra-Fast, Quiet, so much packed into a package so small and inexpensive.
Cons: Vista, but that's redeemed with the free upgrade to Windows 7.
My Typical Usage: In addition to web browser with a dozen tabs open on average, I often have CuteFTP Pro, Word, Excel, and most of the Adobe CS4 Suite applications open at once - that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Version Cue, Adobe Bridge, and sometimes even more. This system handles ALL of it without breaking a sweat. Each app takes about 12 seconds to initialize (over a minute on my last system), and about two seconds to reinitialize if I shut it down and reopen it. That's thanks to the magnificent CPU cache.
The video is smooth, smooth, smooth and the audio is no slouch either. I'm with the reviewer who said he wished he'd gotten two. I can enthusiastically recommend this system to all but the most ignorant and/ore difficult to please. What a value. Can't wait to see it with Windows 7 loaded.
out of 50 user reviews
Great bargain for Intel Core Quad
Pros: Small size, aesthetic, capability
Cons: Absolutely worst eject button on dvd drive, must push so hard it gets stuck. Better to use eject button on the keybd but keybd broke so plan on buying a new keyboard. DVD player can get loud + generate lots of vib under certain circumstances.
out of 50 user reviews
Audio Died second day
Pros: Thought it was a great computer, quiet / fast. Small and compact and overall seemed to fit my needs.
Cons: Hard to push button to open drive, flimsy front cover then the audio jacks stopped working the second day. Returned it and bought an HP
out of 50 user reviews
This computer is awsome
Pros: everything
Cons: nothing everything is awsome!!
out of 50 user reviews
the price you can't beat for $415.99
Pros: pretty fast and snappy a big different then my 5 yr old computer
Cons: ********** likes to up the price and some times drop the price and added shipping cost at all kinds of prices i ended up buying it from buy.com cheaper!!
out of 50 user reviews
Fast Speed, limited upgrades...
Pros: Cheapest Core 2 Quad PC out there, 4 gb DDR3 ram, HDMI & eSATA ports, free Win 7 upgrade.
Cons: small case, no room for high quality graphics card, or second hard drive. only 2 sata ports on motherboard
Updated on Sep 24, 2009Just wanted to add one more pro to my review, aside from the ps/2 port on the board, there is a complete lack of legacy connections. No IDE or PCI connections on the mobo to muck things up.
out of 50 user reviews
Not as good
Pros: Simple and affordable
Cons: Black plastic creates statics which attracts so much dust.
Too much heat and noise.
Slow processor.
out of 50 user reviews
Worst support I experienced since my first 286 PC
Pros: reasonable price with the configuration (the primary reason I choice it)
Cons: bad support
out of 50 user reviews
Nice computer -- HDMI not adequate
Pros: Quiet, fast.
Cons: Also had to use VGA on first bootup. HDMI didn't work until configured with VGA. HDMI still doesn't work properly -- Image is not centered in monitor. Don't know how to correct. Also, cable to optical drive was disconnected -- had to reconnect.
out of 50 user reviews
Good PC for the price; Wait til Windows 7
Pros: I've had the PC for a week and the hardware has worked fine. It's fast with plenty of RAM and disk space. I used the graphic card from my old PC, which has DVI. Hoping Gateway's free upgrade to Windows 7 is better than Vista!
Cons: What I dislike: Vista, Vista, Vista. My Dell was five years old with XP Pro and worked just fine, albeit a bit slow. I can't wait to upgrade to Windows 7. Most annoyingly, the Internet times out and I have to reboot.
I haven't had to call tech support yet and based on other comments, I hope that I don't.
Please be aware that this PC uses 64-bit Windows. It would be a good idea to research online if your software might have driver compatibility issues with 64-bit Windows. Fortunately, I was able to find compatible drivers, but it took several attempts to get them to work. I sometimes encounter SW glitches, but I hope Win 7 will rectify them.
Also, this PC lacks a DVI port. I was able to plug and play the graphics card, which has a DVI-port, from my old PC with no problems so I could use my Dell UltraSharp monitor.
Bottom line: Affordable PC (sans monitor) with competitive specs. Wait til Windows 7 becomes available (Gateway offers a free upgrade).
out of 50 user reviews
The best SFF PC I have ever seen. AMAZING!!
Pros: Tiny. Expandible to 8 GB without tossing old RAM. All the features you could ask for in a SSF PC. Quiet and runs very cool. Very powerful Core 2 Quad CPU, expandible as well. The value is the best in the business hands down!
Cons: No media (there is no excuse for this) and only drivers for 64 bit Vista. I am running Windows 7 however (32 and 64 bit) and it does have all the drivers for this machine. Ubuntu Linux runs perfect as well.
I ran this configuration for 8 days 24/7 with 100% CPU and GPU utilization (4 SETI WUs in CPU and 1 on the GPU running CUDA) and it ran perfect with no errors. The 220 watt PSU is perfectly fine since it is extremely efficient and the 3.5 HD was replaced with the Vertex SSD. This system is a rocket!!!
out of 50 user reviews
DEAD ON ARRIVAL
Pros: low price, good spec
Cons: Does not work. Tech support is excruciating
out of 50 user reviews
A Streamlined Powerhouse!
Pros: Top of the line Core Duo 2 Quad Processor
Plenty of USB ports, front and back
Firewire and HDMI ports, front and rear, respectively
HD audio
4 GB DDR3 RAM makes it quite fast and multitasking is a breeze
A pretty big hard drive
Free windows 7 upgrade
Cons: The small size and limited wattage limit its upgradable components.
I didnt realize just how powerful this thing was until i got it home. Its literally almost everything you need to make it a media powerhouse. The only thing it lacks is a decent graphics card.
I was told that i couldnt upgrade the graphics card because i didnt have the necessary power supply, however Galaxy makes a NVidia Geforce 9600GT that will not only fit, but doesnt draw too much wattage. You can get away without upgrading the power supply to be honest. Ive had mine setup this way and havent had any problems so far.
With this setup, the computer will play CRYSIS on high settings. Please find me another off the shelf computer that is capable of that for this price? There isnt one. This is one of the best bang for your bucks out there, and quite honestly is good on its own, but the addition of the 9600GT just completes it. Gateway should slap the card in from the factory and up the power supply a bit, and they could charge another 200 bucks for the machine.
Great computer, great deal. Must have for someone looking for a cheap next gen desktop.
out of 50 user reviews
a chiguagua on the outside a pitbull in the inside
Pros: the quad processor and small size cpu thats great for games, no need for a big refrigerator looking cpu in your room.
Cons: 220 watt power
out of 50 user reviews
Great Small Form Factor Machine
Pros: Very fast, extremely quiet, great value for this price. Especially being on sale at Best Buy for 479.99 including the Gateway HX2000 20'" LCD monitor.
Cons: Not much room for expansion.
out of 50 user reviews
unable to synch tv sound with tv and moniter
Pros: size and speed of unit
Cons: support or lack there of
out of 50 user reviews
So far so good. Good performance, quiet and cool
Pros: Strong performance - all streamed content like Netflix to my PS3 works great. OS speed is good even w/o Win 7
4 DIMM slots are nice to have
Cons: Room for a small SSD drive would be nice... I might pull out the optical drive to put that in but I'd rather not re-install everything
out of 50 user reviews
no monitor display when pwere-up
Pros: I don't know - never saw the display
Cons: Cannot boot due to seemingly monitor incompatibility - but my monitor is set at 60hz refresh rate and works with ALL my other systems!
Customer support is unaccessible unless you have the S/N with you.
out of 50 user reviews
The Worst Customer Support Ever
Pros: It's not possible to think of a good thing to say
Cons: The customer support is bad beyond belief. Just try to get something resolved with them!
out of 50 user reviews
Very good computer, but...
Pros: Fast, quiet, a large variety and number of external ports, ample hard drive space, cheap
Cons: The audio output is very low. Really bad tech support.
I wanted to use this computer as a small media center, but the audio output was too low to be useful. I returned the second computer after 2 days. "Technical support" was terrible: if it isn't on their checklist list, forget it.
However, I took the computer to a friends house and connected it to his TV using HDMI, and the audio levels were perfectly fine. If your TV supports HDMI connections, this computer will work great. I didn't try S/PDIF.
out of 50 user reviews
Looking to Buy a Second One Just Like It!
Pros: Can't build a Quad Core computer for less. Small, quiet, fast!
Cons: I have it for two months and having found anything I don't like about it yet. Only Con is that I didn't pick up two.
out of 50 user reviews
Good Deal, Reasonable Performance, small annoyances.
Pros: Zippy CPU, 2x open RAM slots, low power, good price (costco model -03), WD blue drive, Gateway crapware removed easily. Lots of ports. HDMI drives my 1900x1200 monitor fine.
Cons: No media, power supply to small for a video card (likely), buttons while fine looking have to be pressed hard and feel cheap, crap stickers, modem instead of wireless card, 5 usb ports on front and only 4 on back, no dvi,
But for $600, with wireless usb, it is a good like work station for everything but 3d. Will probably upgrade the ram and disk. May try and find a next gen hptc video card but will need to figure out how to vent the top of the case.
I would think at $600 they could have fixed most of my gripes.....
out of 50 user reviews
Works great as a Media Center DVR, with one caveat.
Pros: This thing is very fast, and very quiet - great for the living room. Added a wireless keyboard and Media Center remote. Has an HDMI port built in, which is great! (But see the warning below.)
Cons: Tech Support is quite poor. One VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: if you plan to use the HDMI port, as I did, you MUST first hook up a VGA monitor to the VGA port, when setting up the computer for the first time. Will NOT work off the HDMI alone.
out of 50 user reviews
All around greast computer! but hard to upgrade
Pros: Big hard drive, nice 4GB DDR3 RAM, fast qaud-core processor, quite small size. cant go wrong with it!
Cons: small size leaves gamers out of luck with only a 220W power supply and a mini-size 3 inch form factor PCI-e slot.
out of 50 user reviews
4 days in and so far very happy. CNET's review helped.
Pros: value for price, quiet, fast for general home use, slim line size in this preice range with these features seems hard to find
Cons: covers over the DVD drive & USB ports are a bit flimsy when the open
out of 50 user reviews
It's impressive
Pros: fast,especially multi tasking, good features, fits anywhere
Cons: none so far
