Does the gateway P6831x make all of us that just bought our 3,000 and 4,000 Sagers Alienwares and dell xps 1730 look silly ?

With the Gateway p-6831-fx being sold in best buy for 1,200 sporting 8800 gts for under 1,200 .Anybody else out there feeling a little buyers remorse .Now I love my xps 1730 and plan to upgrade to the 8800 when possible .But 1200 for a machine with an 8800gts . I did not see that one coming so fast. So anybody else with a Sager Alienware or dell 1730 xps feel a littles silly .

p.s wife needed a laptop so bought her the p-6831fx now she has the fastest laptopp inthe family

Gateway P-6831-FX
NVIDIA GeForce Go 8800 GTS graphics
Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 1.6GHz FSB 667MHz (soon changed)
17" WXGA+ TFT-LCD widescreen display with Ultrabright technology and 1440 x 900 resolution
250GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
3GB DDR2 667 MHz Ram

 

I am not sure you can upgrade your XPS to a 8800 GTX

 

Not yet but their is def going to be an upgrade program .The million dollor question is how much

 

Dell is going to offer the option to upgrade, but you will have to send it into them.

 

well thats a really good price, but u wont be able to pay all the top titles on full graphics with that, i dunno how much slower but it is slower than the 8800M GTX tho
how many MB is the card on that
and the processor is really weak for that set up

those specs barley compare with my sager np9262
Q6600 Quad Core 2.4Ghz 800mhz FSB
100 GB 7200RPM ard Drive
4 Gigs of 800mhz Ram DDR2
8800M GTX 512Mb

$3000

i dont feel any buyers remorse, im happy that my notebook is one of the fastest out there, for 3K, thats cheaper than what dell would sell the same lappy for

 

Well Masterbasist you have the 8800 gtx .Talking more to peolpe who bought the big sli rigs with the 7950 of 8700 in sli a couple of months ago

 

oh i see gotcha

haha sorry for the misunderstanding

if thats the case then yes, it can put it to shame
well thats the way the tehnology cookie crumbles

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by sszero
I am not sure you can upgrade your XPS to a 8800 GTX

Dell is going to offer the option to upgrade, but you will have to send it into them.
__________________
M571RU-U
Intel® Core™ 2 Processor T9300 2.5GHz 6MB Cache 800MHz FSB
nVidia 8800M GTX GTX 512MB
Intel 4965N
Windows XP pro
Ordered 02/11/2008 shipped 12/14/2008 expected
delivery date 02/19/2008

BHWXEON
Please tell me what you know about the upgrade program I have called dell about a hundred times and gotten a hundred difference answers.Worried they will put me on the do not speak to list

 

Yes. It does make you look silly. It's the 8800GTS 512MB with DDR3, for master's quetion.

 

When its available it will be on the dell website. Sager hasn't even started their sli upgrade program yet and they are a lot faster than dell. So your going to have to wait a while longer.

 

There is always better (or the same) hardware for the same, or less, money on the horizon. Such is the way of technology. Anybody remember the iPhone...??

 

Thats probably one of the best comparisons. The upgrade model was cheaper and better and it came out like what 30 days later?

 

i called dell and they said the xps will be upgradeable and you'll need to send it to them. also said pricing will be same as on website.

the 1200 gateway does make you silly though...i guess i shouldn't be talking....my $5k+ machine gets completely thrashed by the gateway in gaming performance....calling me silly in this case would be an understatement...more like completely retarded.

 

Soooo...does anyone have hard evidence of exactly how much better is the GTX compared to the GTS?

I heard the the GTX isn't that much better.

 

the 8800GTS=2x 8700mGT (assuming good SLi support, if no sli support then GTS is quite a lot better. same goes for GTX)......8800GTX=2.5x(ish) 8700mGT. the only games you could tone settings a wee bit higher (on 8800GTX) might be Crysis, since the only thing different about gtx is more stream processors, everything else is exactly the same.

 

the only compelling reason i'd buy the gateway p6831x is the price. hence why some people choose not to. sometimes horsepower itself isn't enough. hence why i'd never buy a mustang or a corvette

 

yeap...killer price for the specs. i wouldn't say no to a Z06 or a Shelby GT500 though.....of course in that case i'd add a few grand and go for the suicidal viper.

 

I assume you mean people who bought the M1730 with the 8700m GT? Still that CPU of that Gateway is no good at all. A 1.66 Core2Duo along with a high end GPU. Talk about bottlenecking. It´s good for it´s price, but my XPS M1730 with 8800m GTX is not that more expensive but way way faster and that´s how it should be.

 

how is almost 3 times the price not that much more....do you even know what your talking about? Have you even read a single thread about the P-6831fx?

 

it looks simple to swap the cpu out in the fx ...$300 or so bumps you to the T9300 cheap fix and still puts you way under the rest ... the only thing I dont like personally is the case...

 

depending on the build quality, it is a great buy. swap the CPU out for a T7500 or a T9300 and its an all around great performer.

 

yea since its $1000 to go with the 8800's for the XPS and its 2300 allready, i think my laptop wins with a simple cpu upgrade.

and that processor is more then enough, i can max every game I have even crysis(800x600 )

 

So you'd rather pay double the price for something with the same performance, but looks slightly nicer? Someone's in denial...

 

yes obviously the difference between me and you !!

jesus is there something saying im not allowed to like the look of a notebook ?? hence the reason for 50 million brands and this website?? If you want a great price on the gateway by all means jump on it !!

 

Alienware Area-51 M15X is the way to simply because it looks sexy

 

Hold on there. Some people value more than just..looks? I like my 6831 but have gone on the record that the build quality, in no way, matches my other notebooks. I have not seen as much flex and top deck mushiness in a laptop.

But I knew that before I bought

 

A 1.66 Core2Duo just don´t cut it. Try to run any CPU intensive tasks on that CPU, not to speak about of some CPU intensive games. Yes my XPS M1730 wasn´t too expensive, you know there is something called rebates and stuff Also a 8800m GTX single one is more future proof, one can argue that 32 shaders doesn´t do much but it does, as games are becoming more and more shader intensive. Would have been better if there were a 8800m GTX for that price.

 

Curious, after rebates and all, what did your dell run?

The whole point of the 6831 is bang for the buck but not perfection for the buck

The little T5450 hurt my old T2400(1.8Mhz) in video encoding with slower clocks. So it is, in a sense, a step up for some.

 

Even with a CPU upgrade, the 6831 is still a better value than any Dell or Alienware. I mean, take a T7500 for $250: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819111317
and a 2GB stick of RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172



And you can get a PC with:
T7500 (2.2 GHz w/ 4MB cache)
4GB RAM
8800GTS 512MB
WD 250GB HDD
17" WXGA (1440x900) (the new weak spot)
For just under $1500.

Now, if you can find another machine with 8800M specs for the same price, I applaud you. The only other good deal I know of, is another Gateway FX, with P171 series....

Now, it is not wrong to put SOME value on looks (then again, I think the 6831 looks very nice), but in some cases, is it worth paying an additional $1000 JUST for looks? I mean, that is silly..

 

not all plastics are made equal. i think this about sums it up.

 

That is no way sums it up. No plastic is worth $1000 (unless you are made of money)...

No to mention, I must disagree with some who say the 6831 is not built well. I guess I haven't been bending my laptop enough, but I don't notice any flex in use. The KB is solid, as is the laptop.

 

I saved $773 on the rebate. Yes of course it´s still more expensive than this laptop, but it has also much better specs. 2.4 Core2Duo and 8800m GTX SLI, 4GB Ram, 320 Raid 0 and WUXGA 1920x1200. I think I got a pretty good deal, but if you look at it this way, my XPS M1730 will last me longer than if I would have bought this one, so the total sum sums it up. I would have to buy a new one when this one doesn´t hang in there so in the end it is not much more cheaper since I have to buy a new one earlier than what I have to do with my M1730.

 

If you pay $3000+ for a gaming laptop that will be obsolete in 6 months all i have to say is SUCKER! What kind of special plastic did they put in your $5000+ laptop null? I don't get guys like hydra this gateway is very well made and looks excellent. How do you know what the lifespan of the Gateway is magnus, that just silly, you guys are really reaching far into the poop barrel.

 

Wow , if there was ever a thread that deserved to be closed this "look how much better my laptop is than your laptop thread" takes the cake.

 

Ditto! Close this b4 it gets too out of hand LOL

 

Calm down guys. It's natural to think what you got is best, no?

I look at things on the nuts and bolts end, it's what I do for a living. If I offended anyone with my opinions, sorry. I made my choices and I'm happy with them. If you don't agree, LOL, good!

 

take some chill pills people i was only kidding. if we all thought logically as you then we'd have absolute BARE MINIMUM of everything except functionality. we'd all be wearing clothes from old navy, purchasing furnitures from ikea and driving honda civics because they serve our purpose and meet our basic needs. why go clubbing and spend all that money when you can get same effect from drinking store-bought alcohol. i guess you wouldn't want to make a lot of money cuz there's no way you'll be able to burn it all with that sort of perspective in life.

when you make bad investment in your girl i don't come around pointing fingers so hey

 

Some of us are on a tight budget. like myself.

 

Wow, I was thinking Sager for my college laptop in September, but why? after seeing this? The Price of the 8800M GTS will be great come summer time, plus faster processors and maybe in a smaller screen?

The spec's are comparable to my budget desktop (Tower was $800, I didn't pay for it, I simply bought the X1950 GT + 3 GB's of RAM for $170 CAD):

Intel Dual Core - 1.7 * 2 (vs. the Intel Core 2 Duo 1.67)
3 GB RAM
ATI X1950 GT (vs. 8800M GTS)
XP (vs. Vista, or XP...)

1280 * 1024 in any game besides Crysis, Ultra High Textures, no AA, no AF ... it looks fantastic.

Crysis - 1024 * 800 (All the settings on High, the Intensive ones on medium) looks beautiful.

It's too bad the school I want to go to wants to regulate the laptops we can buy or lease...

 

which school? that is a crime unless it's coming out of your school issued stipend.

 

maybe he means his post secondary program will only allow a few laptop selections, cause they need proper hardware, etc.

 

Thats exactly what they do. Laptops are 'sort' of mandatory, but last year, the students could only choose from Thinkpads...

Yep, the usual suspects, Dell, Toshiba, Overpriced, Underpowered. I bet if I told em' I bought a brand new laptop before I heard of this they may let me (and others) use 'that one I purchased' then simply get the software & campus programs and install them. (Something with an 8700M+, Dual Core, 17" to be exact )

If I'm not mistaken, I think they have a contract with these companies and say they will have X amount of students using Y amount of laptops in Z year. 'So give us a ridiculous discount, we'll standardize them, collect the money from student loans, and we'll both profit'. They smile, and I pay for some basic computing grade Dell that can't run Source engine games with medium textures ...

 

currently gateways have the best deals around bought my primary laptop (specs at the bottom) for only 599$ bestbuy.com but that was a few months ago. best deal i have gotten ever!

 

Of course the Gateway is good for it´s price, but I am correct when I say that dual 8800m GTX will last longer than the single 8800m GTS. Even a single 8800m GTX will last longer. There is a whole 32 stream processor difference.

 

Out of curiosity, I was wondering if you had gotten your XPS 1730 yet, Magnus, as your sig puts it as "soon".

 

I was so close to selling my XPS and buying the gateway, but a recent trip to Best Buy changed my mind. I don't know if it was just the display model, but the build quality was horrid. I close the screen and picked it up and it was creaking and cracking like crazy. There was a little too much flex on the top lid for me to feel comfortable sticking this laptop in a bag with a few textbooks.

The screen looked pretty bad also. The colors looked very washed out and the contrast made the blacks look like a dull gray. I also coudn't type well on such a mushy feeling keyboard. I guess the only real positive is that I actually really enjoyed the way it looked .

Bottom line, after owning a "premium" laptop for about 1.5 years, I don't know if I could sell my less powerful laptop for what felt like a toy. Nothing against the gateway, but I want a laptop that will last a little more than a year even if it means paying top dollar for my next one (which will be soon)

 

Display models in stores are always very abused, although things like a poor keyboard are immediate turn-offs for me. If it's not comfortable to type on, I won't get it.

 

do all best buys carry it? i went to one today and they didnt evn have a display model. im thinking about getting one since it would be a nice upgrade for me and be in my price range.

 

I have reordered it, that´s why I am waiting, still in pre production. I had it for a week with the 8700m GT SLI when I sent it back and ordered a new one with the 8800m GTX SLI instead. Should be here in approx 2 weeks.

 

You get what you pay for, the focus for gateway on that particular model is the card and the gaming prowess it brings, everything else seems pretty heavily scaled back to meet the desired price point. I dont like anything above 14.1 personally, if I have to have anything bigger its gonna be a desktop.