P-16831fx gateway 8800m gts

Overview

The -16831fx is a budget gaming notebook from Gateway. It features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and is available with Nvidia's
new 8800m GTS



* Intel® Core™ 2 Processor T5450 1.66.GHz 2MB Cache 667MHz FSB
* NVidia® 512MB 8800m GTS GDDR3
* 3GB DDR2-667 RAM (4GB available)
* USB 2.0 Ports x3
* 17" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD
* Windows Vista Premium with media center
* 2.4x DVD+R DL; 2x DVD-R DL; 8x8x8 DVD+RW; 8x6x8 DVD-RW; 4x DVD-RAM; 24x16x24 CD-RW
* Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN WLAN
* Internal Bluetooth
* Serial ATA (5400 rpm) 250GB (Room for Second HDD in Raid 1 or 0 configuration)
* HDMI
* Built-in Speakers High-definition (2-speaker configurable)
System price includes a one-year warranty. Total System price is $1,349.99


Reasons to Buy

This unit could be considered a budget gamers dream. Just about everything can be upgraded except for the graphics card.
Considering it includes a Core 2 duo T5450 that can easily be upgraded to penryn or extreme processor, 250 gb HDD with a
second bay for raid performance, HDMI ect. The reasons to buy this laptop just go on and on and all at the price of $1,349.99.

Build & Design
The laptop is extremely well built and the cooling system alone deserves praise. The body is made of sturdy plastics, the bezzle seems to be reinforced plastic or carbon fiber. The material surrounding the keyboard is stunning. It uses a brushed magnesium with almost a gunmetal color to it, this wraps a orange plastic border surrounding the keyboard. This is the best part of the laptop, a full 4 coll um keypad. Just in case you missed that a full 4 coll um keypad. How many laptops do you know that include that? Of course the laptop includes nice little media keys at the top that have a nice orange glow to them. There is also a nice touch sensitive volume control on the top right.

Screen




The screen on the laptop is a 17" glossy 1440x900 resolution. While its not the best in the world I've certainly had much worse. If you rated it on a scale of 1-10 I'd say its a 7. Only because I for one don't like glossy screens and this one like many others is pretty much a mirror. While this resolution is not the highest for myself its just fine. The other higher end models Gateway will be offering will have the option of higher res.

Speakers

Like just about all speakers on laptops, they are just meant to be their, I don't think these are meant to be a surround sound HD quality, but they sure sound great while playing crysis.

Processor

This is the part of the laptop that I'm not going to spend much time on and the reason for that is well, its the bottom of the barell. Any good comments about it would really be getting your hopes up and any bad scores would probably be making you question a purchase such as this. So to put it plainly it gets the job done. The good thing to note though is the heat sink design on this laptop is beastly, the system is built to support the new penryn models as well as extreme processors.

Synthetic Gaming Performance

Please keep in mind this test is completely bottlenecked by the cpu, I would not be surprised If it increased by another 300-700 points from a processor upgrade alone. Thats part of the beauty of this laptop, its cheap enough you could upgrade the processor.


Real World Gaming Performance


Crysis pics on a 8800m gts 1024x 768 Dx9
Drivers 167.58
Please keep in mind this cards performance is supposed to be on par with sli 8700m's and that this system is using one of the lowest cpu's available.

all settings high




Crysis 1440x900 8800m gts DX10 all medium





Lost planet all settings as high as they go, no anti aliasing 1440x900
To date this is the only game I know of that actually runs better in directX 10

DirectX 9


DirectX 10


Keyboard & Touchpad
See that nice 4 coll um Key pad


Touchpad
Its a very nice touch pad, it does occasionally get in the way when I type to fast, but other than that its great.
Very responsive.



Battery

Using Vistas power mizer and running with the brightness a little below half max, the laptop pulled in at 1 hour 30 min, just surfing the web. I thought this was pretty decent, but I'm sure it could be better. Atleast enough to watch a little more than half of Pirates of the Carabean at Worlds End. The other thing to note is, looks like gateway did have to make a compromise for the cooling system and that is the 9 cell batter does stick out a little bit.
Battery life while gaming topped out at a hour. Doing nothing but online chatting, in power saver mode, computer lasted almost 2 and a half hours.



Operating System & Software



Its vista what else can I say =/. Other software was removed as I did a reinstall to remove the excessive bloat ware, went from 60+ processes to 34.

Heat & Noise





As you can see the cpu heat sink is pretty well built and has a fan to it's self. The gpu also has its own fan, but you cannot get access to it without removing the entire case. Temperatures after 3hours of crysis never went above 64c and that temp was the extreme with a 100 overclock on the core. Cpu temps don't get much higher than 60c. Overall its a impressive thermal design, but then again the laptop was built to handle a extreme processor.
While it's not a silent notebook their are indeed times when the fans are not on at all, there is a low whir as the fans kick on once
in a while, but its not till you start gaming that they really kick up, but what gaming notebook doesn't?

Conclusion
An extremely well priced laptop with room for upgrades where it counts. The cpu is very accessible so when the time comes to upgrade you wont have to rip appart the laptop. The ability to add raid performance is also a nice plus. The down side for this power is it does have a bottleneck and thats the cpu, but the graphics card can hold its own and will play any game to date besides crysis with native res and nice settings.

Pros:

* Fast gaming performance
* Sleek shiny case design
* Extremely well built
* Keyboard has a great feel
* Excellent cooling system – system stays cool
* 4 coll um number pad
* Easy access for future upgrades
* Great-looking display

Cons:

* Cpu is the bottleneck
* battery life
* Vertical viewing angles could be better

Update: Still working on xp drivers can now detect HD audio, but still no driver. T9300 should be arriving next week
"crosses fingers"

 

Awesome man, can't wait to see some screens or benchmarks!

 

Nice, im thinking of getting this once a BB near me carries it. Cant wait to see review and benchmarks on it.

 

Strikah don't be fooled by the Backorder info on the BB site, I was told just about all bestbuy have these models in stock now. I was relly suprised the one out here in Montana had this brand new model, when back a few months ago they only carried 3 x205 toshiba laptops and to this day still don't have a single asus model in their inventory.

ps: this laptop must really be great, it seems it even controlls the weather and has cause my truck to be incapable of even getting out of my garage due to being snowed in

 

i checked a few of the stores in my area and they do not carry them yet, i am sure they will in a week or so. Does it have a glossy screen?

 

Of course it's not available in Canada yet.

Ugh.

 

How far way do you live from montana Infexion? Couldn't you just drive over and buy one if you where close enough?

 

I'm right near Toronto.

Probably going to give Gateway a call and ask when it's dropping here. Hopefully soon.

 

OP can I have your "old" laptop then? I could go for a 7950 GTX SLI any day.

 

thats a badass laptop .

 

If you can pry it from alienwares retarded repair center sure. "jokeing btw"

another update I was reading through the manual and it I saw it talking about it setting up RAID 0 AND RAID 1. I'll have to look into this further as I don't recall their being two hard drives installed.

Update: hahaha as I continued reading the manual it has a specific section about overclocking my extreme processor. Just so you guys know this model does not have extreme overclockable processor. Seems they shipped the BB models with the wrong manuals.

 

Since the socket of this model is "P", and the chipset is the 965, I think that means that will also be compatible with the new Penryn processor, so it makes this notebook future proof...

 

I believe it is indeed, that will be the first upgrade I make in next few weeks if the current processor really limits my gaming. Haven't had a chance to test anything so far, after trying to remove all the bloatware I gave up and am now doing a clean install of vista. Hopefully once I can track down the drivers for xp I'll setup a dual boot.

 

is the laptop any good or should i stick with getting a Sager NP5792 with 8700GTX?

 

When you have the results, please post them, would be nice to have some performance and real gaming results to compare to other products.

By the way, I heard around that the Gateway notebooks run kind of hot, is this true in this new notebooks?

 

not running hot at all right now.

God of death, its really up to you you can pay a lower price and have something with twice the performance now or you can pay a little more and get a 5792 with a 8700m gt and upgrade later. The 5792 you will be able to upgrade the graphics card, but the gateway model will never have that option. You might wanna wait till I can get some benchmarking done. Just did a reinstall of vista to wipe all the bloat ware. I have a few more drivers to gatherd and then I'll be ready to start testing.
There are indeed several benefits to using this laptop when compared to the 5792. As I said earlier it has a full numberpad and the regular keyboard is extemely comfortable. Another thing it does have is a HDMI port. For myself this has been a big interest for use with my TV at home. The only downside so far that I can think of is that I have to keep looking at the Gateway symbol. They need to update the logo its just so tacky looking on a black and orange color sceem.

 

The price is $1350?

God that's ****ing cheap!

This laptop could have lived with a 1680x1050 though but hell, $1350!

 

It would have been better with a newer processor, but it is quite easy to swap it with a new one in the future.

Its good to hear that it runs cool, that means that there is space to tweak the gpu and shrink some more power out of it, at least to match the performance of the GTX.

 

The higher end model will have 1680x1050, I'll be using external monitors for work and at home though, so even though its not built in it will work for me. I'm just looking at as I'll be able to play at native res for much longer .

As for the heat, I had pretty much assumed it was a sturdy build if it was going to support a Extreme processor. For now the T5450 will suffice and once new egg has some penrynn models for sale I'll snatch one.

 

Yeah I live in Toronto as well, and finally I've found this notebook to be within my interest. If you get any info on a release date for this model in Canada can you please post it here or in a separate thread?

So bwhxeon any gaming benchmarks yet?

 

3dmark06 is 75% downloaded. I'll get crysis installed shortly after. Only taking so long since I tried messing around with the bloatware instead of doing a clean install from the start "-.- which I ended up doing anyways.

 

if it supports penryn i would seriously consider this

 

unless sager did something special with their recent motherboard revision it should indeed be available in penryn. At the very least I can install a exteme processor.

EDIT: Pictures of laptop uploaded. Updated Orginal post

 

WOW awesome laptop, looks quality with a great design. Ok it's final I aint waiting for the 9 series I'm buying this notebook.

PS. Thanks for the pictures.

 

just out of curiosity, is there a fingerprint reader, and if you could post one picture of it closed and the 3dmark06 scores minus 500-600 points (screen resolution not at 06 default) thanks so much, i think that i am getting one!!!

 

There is no fingerprint reader. I need to do some more tweaking because the score was incredibly low only in the 6000 range. I read on the sager forum for some reason the card downlocks when updateing the drivers.

Edit: it does seem the card is downclocking.

 

thanks for keeping us informed. congrats on the new machine, it looks like a beast! when you get a chance more pics would be awesome!!!

 

I agree, this laptop is very nice...will greatly appreciate the benchmarks when you get them, this is tempting :O

 

something doesn't seem right i'm only getting 6k 3dmarks no matter what I do. There must be a reason why all the 8800m cards are only comeing with the 163.75 driver.

 

Try Forceware 169.xx driver .

 

I am useing 169.28, gateway doesn't have the model even on their site yet let alone drivers.

 

that does not sound right should be in the 7k to 7.5k range...

 

It does seem indeed that 167.43 is specifically meant for the new graphics cards. It took a bit of digging around but I found the info under one of the forums in laptopvideo2go. I'm downloading a version directly from sagers website and also the version from laptop laptopvideo2go. The score definatly should be atleast in the 7k range.

 

bwhzeon check your core clock it should be 500mhz and your memory clock should be like 799mhz i believe. surely gateway would not downclock these because of heat issues!!! also the gtx has 1/3 more stream processors--these are clocked higher in a gtx from what i have read.

 

yah i looked at them again ntune reports the clocks but its the driver holding things back, another 15 min before the sager driver downloads, theirs is 102mb while laptopvideo2go's is only 30mb. Rivatuner will only detect the card, but all the other features wont work at all.

 

If I remember correctly you need the signed Vista drivers for Rivatuner before it can work correctly.

This should be the signed Riviatuner driver for Vista 64:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/724/RivaTuner_x64_signed_Drivers.html

 

Ok sorry it took so long. It seems it is indeed true the 167.43 drivers are meant for the 8800m models. As for rivatuner only using signed drivers, I never had any problems with my alienware useing drivers from laptopvideo2go.

 

bwhxeon -- thank you for your diligence in keeping us informed. The notebook I'm considering has the same 8800M GTS and information like this is very helpful in making an informed decision.

I hope you're happy with your new notebook. Even with the flat 7k score it seems like a great value for your money.

 

yes thanks a 1000 times over, but i must say it still seems low if the screen resolution was higher the score would go down 500 to 600 i would say. how thick is this laptop? i still think that i am going to get it! once again thanks for your time!!!

 

Wow 7002, $1350 you scored so are you in Bozeman great town! I used to go to Bigsky alot. I'am going to BB tomorrow wish we didn't have sales tax. get your Vista updates and then hotfixes off of Nzone should help. Throw in a T9300 and should be all you'll need. My SLi gets the same score, but $850 more with tax. Hows the screen look?

 

notebookcheck.net list the 06 score for a 8800 gts at 8385. i know that is high, but i still think that you should be getting in the 7500 range with the screen resolution.

check it out here

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

Its a good screen, only wish it was a matte screen because these shiny models are like mirrors sometimes.

 

If I recall those are the scores that nvidia reported and I believe they used a much better processor than what I have. A t5450 is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Core duo's. Back when the x205 8700m gt was released with a similar processor scores jumped considerably when people put in a t7500/t7700. The scores nvidia gives always seem to be off in my opinion. So far crysis runs stutter free at 1280x768, something even my m9750 couldn't do for some reason. I'll get some in game pictures with fraps tomarrow to late now to do any more testing.

 

Nice! and you don't have to worry about games not being SLi compatible. Here is a rep point for your fast review.

 

My m9750 was losing 6-8% from using vista alone and when I moved over to XP it got much better, into the 8k score range. So considering this computers lower end processor + vista I think the scores really hurting. I need to figure out how to get xp to install, my sp2 cd wont work on this laptop.

Edit: I grabbed these scores off of naticus's thread and he has a 8800m gtx
1st test was 9106 @ 12800x800
2nd test was 8430 @12800x800

 

Thanks for keeping us updated on everything. I'm starting to consider this one.

**Rep point for the updates.**

 

Where is this availble in the US ??? , went to the Gateway site and its not on there , went to best buy site , not there either . The second only laptop Ive seen with the GTS version. The other was the HP HDX 20inch revamp which has an 8800GTS plus maybe a penryn processor shortly

 

Here is the link to the bestbuy site. It still isn't up on the gateway site yet.
add it to your cart and when you checkout select store pickup to see if your local bestbuy has one.

Also refering back to justin from xoticpc's thread he also did not get scores in the 9k range for the 8800m gtx. You can see that here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=199998#Link2

Update: As usual vista was giving me to many problems so I am in the process of getting xp setup on the system. Should have some benchmarks up tomorrow for xp performance.

 

How well is this machine running games?

 

it was running crysis just fine, xp provided hardly any benefit to vista. As a matter of fact I had to give up on installing some of the devices and go back to vista. Also it does seem the system is running dual hard drives. Every time I do a OS install it downloads raid drivers.