Gateway P-6831FX Review

Browsing the Best Buy website the other day, the 17" Gateway P-6831FX, or FX for short, caught my eye, w/its Nvidia 8800M GTS video, and for $1349.99.

I had been just checking out everyone's 17" laptops for under $2000, just to see what's out there. Most had the Nvidia Go 8600M, and just one, w/the Go 8700M.

Anyway, when I saw the Gateway, I immediately did some research on it, and it looked very good, so I went and ordered it on their website, for a pickup at a local store on Friday. Saturday evening, pending rumors of a sale of the FX, when Best Buy posted their new sale prices, it was posted on sale for $1249.99, w/a free game, your choice, $49.99 or less. Sunday morning I called Best Buy and got the $100 credited back to my account. I picked the game Crysis.

Looking at the laptop, the cpu is real easy to upgrade. The Intel 1.67 GHz T5450 Core 2 Duo that comes w/it, is really not that bad, and will do for now.

It has two hard drive bays built in, but w/only one is installed. With two hard drives, the laptop will support RAID 0. UPDATE: I have since upgraded to two (2) 60 gb Hitachi 7200 RPM HD's, setup as RAID 0.

The display is a 17.0" WXGA+ Ultrabright TFT Active Matrix (1440 x 900 max. resolution). It's the only thing that I'm a little disapointed with. It's too glossy, where an external light will effect the view, and as you move away from the screen, you start loosing the screen detail. Other than that, it's OK, and still shows very good detail, and considering the price, one can't really complain. The video out is a standard VGA connector, there's also a HDMI connector, but there is no DVI connector. On a good external monitor, the picture looks excellent.

The Intel chipset is the latest PM965, which supports Intel's latest laptop cpu's, including Intel's Extreme series.

The FX also supports Intel's new Turbo Memory card, but none is installed. I've read that there is no measureable benefit for having it.

Then of course there is the graphics card, the Nvidia Go 8800M GTS. In Vista, it is shown as an 8800 GT, but Gateway fixed that w/a newer driver, available as a download on their web site. It comes w/512 mb of built in DDR3 memory. The card appears not to be MXM, but appears to be soldered to the mother board, next to the cpu.

Anyway here are some benchnark numbers for the laptop:

Windows Vista Benchmarks w/the original Nvidia Driver 167.46

Vista Windows Experience Index Base Score - 4.5
Processor - 4.7
Memory - 4.5
Graphics - 5.9
Gaming Graphics - 5.8
Primary HD - 5.2


3DMark2001 - 20,049

3DMark03 - 23,269

3DMark05 - 10,060

3DMark06 - 7027

AquaMark3 - 86,673


Sandra Lite Benchmark (2008.1.13.12)

Processor: Dhry 14,187 Mips; Whet 10,488 Whet

Memory: Int 3670 mb/sec; Flt 3658 mb/sec


HD TUNE: 2x 60 gb Hitachi 7200 RPM, w/8 mb Cache HD's, setup as RAID 0.

Minimum - 37.8 mb/s
Maximum - 66.7 mb/s
Average - 51.4 mb/s
Access time - 15.0 ms
Burst Rate - 48.3 mb/s
CPU Usage - 4.9 %


Windows XP Pro Benchmarks w/the Nvidia Driver 169.32


3DMark2001 - 27,468

3DMark03 - 24,125

3DMark05 - 10,365

3DMark06 - 7155

AquaMark03 - 95,850


Sandra Lite Benchmark (2008.1.13.12)

Processor: Dhry 14,020 Mips; Whet 10,664 Whet

Memory: Int 3695 mb/sec; Flt 3696 mb/sec


HD TUNE: 2x 60 gb Hitachi 7200 RPM, w/8 mb Cache HD's, setup as RAID 0.

Transfer Rate
Minimum 9.7 MB/s
Maximum 63.0 MB/s
Average 49.8 MB/s

Access Time: 14.9 ms
Burst Transfer: 47.6 MB/s
CPU Usage 3.3 %

HD Tune in Safe Mode. It's a little bit better, but not much.

Transfer Rate
Minimum 9.4 MB/s
Maximum 69.7 MB/s
Average 54.4 MB/s

Access Time: 14.8 ms
Burst Transfer: 56.3 MB/s
CPU Usage 1.9 %


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Best Buy has it for $100 off right now, $1249. I believe you can get a price-match guarantee...

Nice review, some pictures might have helped.

Oh, upgrade that T5450 to a T9300 and you're good to go.

someone told me gateway laptops have ac charger unsheilded so the laptop mobo will either break or stop charging after a year or 2 of use. is this true? it is definitely a good laptop for the price, and all products have some problems.

yeah i still wonder why the processor in the laptop.

Originally Posted by SolidBladez

Best Buy has it for $100 off right now, $1249. I believe you can get a price-match guarantee...

Nice review, some pictures might have helped.

Oh, upgrade that T5450 to a T9300 and you're good to go.

BB is the only place selling the FX.

I haven't seen any T9000 series cpu's on sale yet. I've been looking.

The T5450 isn't that bad, at least for now.

I've got pictures. I just have to get around to posting them. Hopefully w/in the next day or two.

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Originally Posted by Jedikid

yeah i still wonder why the processor in the laptop.

In order to keep the price under $1500, together w/providing a near top of the line GPU, the Nvidia 8800M GTS, Gateway had to cut something back. Besides, the CPU is real easy to upgrade.

If you can find a simular product, w/the same GPU, w/a much better CPU, for under $1500, please passed the word on. I doubt you will, because I haven't found any, much less for under $2000 for that matter. I've only seen notebooks mostly w/the Nvidia 8600M GPU, and just one w/the 8700M, for under $2000.

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I posted this in the Hot Deals thread:

"I just got finished setting mine up. This is a SWEET laptop, especially for the price. I'm actually very surprised with the quality, considering it's a Gateway. I'm going to install a T9300 in a month or two, possibly an X9000 if the price is right. I got it with Gears of War for free. I had been meaning to pick that up for awhile. Can't go wrong with a free game."

I believe it's actually a Clevo. The casing appears identical to one that Sager uses. May explain the high quality. This laptop is an incredible deal.

Pictures are posted.

Enjoy.

its not a clevo.

Originally Posted by GoHack

BB is the only place selling the FX.

What I ment was that they'll match what you previously bought it for. So if you paid $1350, you can get the $100 reinbursed to your account and maybe with some persuasion.. get the free game...

can this do RAID?

Originally Posted by [H]unter

can this do RAID?

Yes.

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I just ordered a pair of 60 gb Hitachi 7200 RPM hard drives, which I'll install in place of the single 250 gb Seagate that came w/the FX.

The Hitachi's are both faster, as well as cheaper, than installing a second 250 gb Seagate. I'll have 120 gb w/the Hitachi's set up as RAID 0 vs. 500 gb w/the Seagates. Besides, 120 gb is plenty for me.

I'll get some benchmarks posted on both the single 250 gb Seagate and then on the dual Hitachi's, set up as RAID 0, hopefully by this weekend.

I may install XP Pro in place of Vista, if I can get a good price on an OEM CD.

With the cpu, I'll wait for the T9xxx series to become available.

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Can you upgrade to QuadCore

Originally Posted by annaconda

Can you upgrade to QuadCore

I don't know. It's suppose to support upto the T9xxx series, as well as the Extreme Series, but no word on the Quad. It may just need a a BIOS upgrade.

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I wish my current 17" HP had some sort of decent resale value, id jump on this gateway in a heartbeat.

Originally Posted by annaconda

Can you upgrade to QuadCore

The last word from Intel was that the Mobile Penryn Quads would be using Socket P'. And yes the ' is intentional. Any Socket P processor "should" work in this laptop, but Socket P' is a different story.

EDIT: I'm trying to find my source for this now...

Here's an article that mentions it:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09..._quad_mobiles/

Just wondering, I have a 50" 1080p Samsung tv with HDMI ports and this laptop has an HDMI out. Has anyone tried using it on a flat panel TV ? With the included video card and amount of RAM, playing COD4 and World of Warcraft on a 50" screen sounds..... too good to be true. Just wondering if anyone has used it and how easy it is to use..

Originally Posted by medic349

Just wondering, I have a 50" 1080p Samsung tv with HDMI ports and this laptop has an HDMI out. Has anyone tried using it on a flat panel TV ? With the included video card and amount of RAM, playing COD4 and World of Warcraft on a 50" screen sounds..... too good to be true. Just wondering if anyone has used it and how easy it is to use..

I'm using both the HDMI out and the VGA for dual external monitors. The HDMI out is connected to a 28" @ 1920x1200. I am able to run CoD4 at full settings and have a decent experience.