P-16831fx gateway 8800m gts

hey ppl sup i'm new 2 this forum but i joined because i was interested in this particular topic

i read the review posted by bwhxeon and i am now so interested in purchasing this laptop. thing is in the review, it was mentioned that the CPU is completely upgradeable. could someone tell me the particular specifications of the CPU that could fit in there? i know this is a noob question for all of u but understand - i'm new to the whole concept of a laptop with a upgradable CPU and also i have to be very careful cuz where i live (jamaica) its not very easy to come by a laptop CPU so therefore someone let me know SPECIFICALLY what type of CPU i would need to get?

thanks in advance

 

-.-' I really wasn't expecting it to come back repaired, I mean come on they couldn't even send it to the right repair facility lol. Anyways I'm more than happy with the P-6831fx.

 

Don't I feel stupid for buying an NX860XL new from gateway in October for nearly $2,000, and now this far superior laptop comes out for hundreds less.... oh, the joys of buyer's remorse in the computer world!

 

Just about any cpu fitting the PM965 socket design should work, that being said the cpu's that guaranteed to work are any cpu's from the Santa rosa line and any cpu from the Penryn line. I believe the exact models are T7100, 7300,7250,7500,7700 Extreme X7900. Those are the Santa rosa models, the penryn models are T8100, 8300, 9300, 9500, Extreme X9000

 

well - its off 2 newegg i go!! thanks for the advice bwhxeon

 

i almost went through he same situation. for a while i was looking for a good gaming laptop then i was considering purchasing a Toshiba Satellite P100-St9752 with the 7900 GTX for $999 thinking "man this is ma dream laptop!!" but then it went out of stock permanently i changed ma plan towards a Toshiba Satellite X205-9800 with the 8700 GT for $1399

man to think if that friend of mine never told me about the P-1683FX i would be going through the same thing as u

anyway on the bright side- at least your laptop is superior in terms of processor and resolution

 

How do I get to Crysis bench file?

 

Wow... this just ticks me off... I just within the past month bought one of the Dell XPS 1530s with a 2.4 ghz cpu, and the DDR3 8600GT, and it cost about $1500 with tax. Now I find out about this thing... just wow.

So would the performance difference be worth going through the hassle of sending this thing back to Dell and getting a refund to get this Gateway? There has to be some reason this Gateway is so much better and so cheaper, are there any negatives to this thing, it just doesn't make sense.

I would definitely consider returning my Dell for this, but I'd like to get opinions from people.

*sigh*

 

drive/electronic arts/crysis/bin32 ( or wherever you may have it installed ) and there should be 2 batch files named Benchmark_CPU or _GPU, should do all the necessary things after running one.

I was skeptical at first , Atomsmasher, since it was a very good deal for a really good laptop ( for the price ), but it seems everyone is saying it's top quality. Maybe Gateway just decided to really aggressively price it to screw with the other companies, and get their name out there, since they were kind of fading. The 1530 has some advantages, mainly being smaller, but other than that, and the processor ( which you could upgrade later, anyways ) the Gateway is superior.

 

If you look in the "..\Crysis\Bin32\" folder under Program Files (or wherever you have installed Crysis), you'll see a pair of batch files (with the .bat extension). The one named "Benchmark_CPU.bat" runs a special CPU benchmark, and the one named "Benchmark_GPU.bat" runs a graphics benchmark test. The test consists of a fly-by through the game's island level, and while it isn't exactly like a recording of real gameplay, the game angles and graphics load is very similar to a game situation. There aren't enough particles or explosions being thrown around, but other than that, it's a satisfying test. The test runs whatever settings you last set in the game, so if you want to change texture resolution or post-processing effects, for example, simply start up the game as normal, make your changes, and quit.

The built-in GPU test will first pop up a command-line box asking you to press any key to continue. After you do and the test loops four times, the game will quit and show you the same command-line box with the results of each run. You should probably discard the first result, as it will usually be impacted by a fair amount of disk access as graphics are cached.

 

I love mine as much as I have tested it, I haven't had the time ( damn CV boot on my truck took 5 hrs.) and of course i have to come to work now to pay for it lol.

Sorry to hear about your alienware. Prior to seeing this post I had got a quote from Sager for a new laptop but it was $2300.00 with the GTX a 100 gig hd 2 gigs of ram and a Penryn 2.4 but still with the 17" screen. So for 900.00 less I have a slightly slower GPU & CPU but more ram, hd space and a snazzier case. So it really is a good buy.

Now if I can get my wife to not touch it and go back to her laptop..........

 

Does Dell charge restocking if you return a laptop, their site only says "we MAY charge a restocking fee"? Anyone ever gone through this process with dell? Does it usually go smooth?

 

If its not a defective laptop thats returned within 30days from date of shipping, you will be charged a 15% restock fee.

 

wow - such good reviews.. u know honestly i had at least 1 or 2 regrets about this deal but seeing as how everyone who has one is happy i guess i too shall find the joy in using it when i get it

 

Get it- you will love it, only wish it had 1-2 more usb ports,
and the resolution is just great.

Gateway P-6831FX
Intel® Core™ 2 Processor T7700 2.44GHz 4MB Cache 800MHz FSB
NVidia® 512MB 8800m GTS GDDR3
17" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD
4gig Geil Dual Channel 667MHz Ram
wish it was XP Pro

 

It sounds like this thing's GPU may not be overclockable. Can any owners confirm this? I know one hasn't been able to, along with the fact that Gateway has locked their GPUs in the past; at least up until the NX860. I was hoping that Acer taking over the laptop line would change this...

Can anyone confirm whether or not they've locked down the GPU and disallowed overclocking?

 

I have been unseccessful in overclocking myself, tried ntune and riva tuner, no bios options either

 

There has got to be some reason for the price. I will be anxious to hear peoples findings in the upcoming months. I have always had a bad time with Gateways, (one Core2Duo laptop, one P4 Dekstop) and they always seemed very cheaply manufactured. Now, this one may be different, but a few days of gaming isn't really enough to tell. Glad you guys are having a good time with it!

 

Bought this for my wife after a 4 year old dell inspiron crapped out. It's a little manish in looks, for her, but she loves this thing. I've tooled with it a little bit and the build quility is excellant and I really can't complain. Screen resolution is good, keyboard is awesome and I can play games if I want to or if she lets me. It could use a few more USB ports. I figured 4 would be a minimun but 2 is just fine. Can always get a USB hub if we need more ports. I think the upper class FX's are overclockable ? but this one is not. Very limited BIOS. I wonder when they release the other FX's that are overcloackble if gateway will have there BIOS's available for download and if someone would try to flash to a new BIOS version with overclock options ? All I can say is this is an excellant laptop for the price and price isn't always a tell, tell sign of product quality and equipment.

 

Yes gateway sometimes does surprise everyone from time to time and release and outstanding product

 

I'm glad I have mines I brought on friday but was not to sure if I wanted to open it up with BB 15% restocking fee. Bwhxeon answer my questions and now I am a happy camper with my new laptop.

 

I'm assuming the P-16831FX supports a 800MHz fsb since it support Santa Rosa and Penryn cpus, but I'm wondering whether the 3GB ram (2GB and 1GB sticks) can run in dual channel... otherwise... wouldnt the DDR2-667 ram ended up as something of a bottleneck?

 

Hey nofearzz or anyone else, can you tell me a place where I can find a tutorial or something on how to install the processor?
I just bought the laptop today and its flippen awsome, even the guy at BB said it was a BEAST! Well if anyone could give me a link to some sort of tutorial I would really appreciate it!

Thank You!

 

anyone wanna see how long the battery can last while playing crysis? turn the screen brightness to its lowest settings and play until it dies

this would help me sooooo much in deciding if i want this or not cuz i'm kind of borderline between this and the xps 1530m (good battery life/performance ratio)

 

An hour at most

 

nice to know that you think its awsome cuz i'm getting mine today i would also like that tutorial on changing processors so that i don't end up frying the motherboard like a friend of mine did to his laptop

i'd also like to know how its going for the guys who are trying to install winXP on their lappy's.. i appreciate the level of investigation u guys doing cuz "jah kno" i dislike vista with a passion

 

A tutorial would be great .. also ,, Can someone direct me to the best place to buy a new processor ( T7700 ) ? Thanks ..

Thanks to everyone here for all the GREAT info . I have been looking for a new laptop for months and will get the 16831fx after work today ...

bwhxeon - all your info has been very helpfull,, Thanks ...

 

best place to get it is from newegg.com - i think someone had posted a link to one so you can either backtrack through the thread or you can simply search for it at http://www.newegg.com

*EDIT*

i found a link to a site that 'supposed' to show 1 how to upgrade a CPU however its for a thinkpad T41p
http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/open_archives/sl_20070205.php
not sure if this works because its a completely different brand laptop we're talking about but i guess in theory its all the same....










is it???

 

It's fairly straight forward, remove the back cover, you will see the fan/heatsink in the upper left corner, you can see all the screws you have to remove, (a few small ones, need very small phillips, and 4 bigger ones around CPU w/springs), carefully lift unit out, and expose cpu, there's a retention screw holding the cpu in it's socket, turn that and very carefully lift cpu out, being sure not to bend any pins, insert new cpu, put some thermal paste on it, and reverse assemble - very easy. test b4 putting on back cover. no BIOS fiddling needed. I buy my mobile cpus at NewEgg, the 2.4 is running at $329, the sweet spot is the T7500 2.2 @ $254. I hope they come down in price when penryns are for sale, or you could just go for a penryn, not much difference, hardly any speed gain, just run cooler, better battery life. Find the pictures that were posted here that show the back cover off so you get a idea what's what, Zip Zoom Fly also sells them. As far as replacing a CPU in a laptop, this is the easiest I've seen. Warranty needed? slap the old one in and send it off for repair. (save the sticker across cpu, and replace B4) Good Luck People!! I'd also score a 4 gig DDR dual channel kit to put in here, seeing as it's so cheap now.
Yes, it's a 32 bit OS that can only "see" 3.72gig, but the hardware loads in the upper 1 gig so it all gets used. Any questions and I'll be happy to help. Now go find me some XP drivers.

 

ah - thanks a bunch!!
I was wondering what type of CPU socket does this laptop use? because i saw a good priced T7250 processor with a P-socket and I'm wondering if it will fit in the laptop

 

Socket P, T7250 will work plenty of power but I'd get the T7300 it has twice the L2 cache.

 

It is indeed a socket "P"

 

If you pick one of these (Lightsmark,etc.) I'll do the same mine is still stock. http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=6 I have 3 USB ports why are others saying 2?

 

Ok, I'll check it out and post later, I also got the heads up on how to bench crysis, so I'll post that as well

 

I dont know if u guys got this but if u use nvidia's latest mobile drivers and ntune the sliders for overclocking are movable.

I dont overclock unfortunately so I dont know if it works but heres a screenshot:
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6291/overclocking8800mgtsbf8.jpg


Hopefully that will help

 

Hey when i clean installed vista on this beast, i forgot to backup the fx desktop background. can someone host the file for us idiots that were so excited that we forgot to do this? thanks in advance. also who has the highest 3dmark06 so far with this beast? we should start a thread. oh btw mine is a little low at 6986 with 169.25. i think that my memory is the bottleneck so far and then hd. seems stock score is 7k plus, anyone know why i can't hit that?

 

Thank You! Now I just have to save up some money and get that bad boy. Two questions:
1. Do you think the laptop can run Counter Strike 1.6 with high fps?
2. Where do you get thermal paste? =\

 

newegg also
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100008

 

lol, CS 1.6? are you serious?

 

Drivers have been overclockable for some time now, you clearly had done something wrong before.

 

somebody had asked if u can overclock it because they didnt think you could. So I posted a picture show that u should be able to

 

dude, wat the hell? if my old compaq laptop with a Athlon 64 790Mhz Processor, GeForce go 4400 G and 512 MB of ram can run CS 1.6 at full res with maxed settings and get a framerate of 40+ the OBVIOUSLY this computer could run three instances of CS 1.6!!

*as a matter of fact - when i get my lappy i will test my theory*

now if you asked if it could run UT3 with maxed settings and a high FPS now that is a more feasible question.

 

I tried to use Ntune to overclock the GPU and in any event the sliders are indeed moveable but when you try to apply the settings the clock speed goes back to original. This isn't my first rodeo and I have used this and other apps such as this in the past. But from my experience with this laptop so far it has not allowed those settings to actually be changed. If some one else has had better luck then I have please let me know.

 

then you are still doing something wrong because several people are stating you can overclock and I even underclock the gpu while on battery.

 

Hey… bhwxeon and fellow forumites. Thank you for your review and the follow-up responses regarding the FX. I decided against the Dell 1530 and bought the FX a couple nights ago. I believe this delivers the price to performance ratio that I was looking for in a laptop. There is not too much downside to the FX as it matches my needs nicely. My only qualms are the battery extending beyond the computer and it’s short life span; I also don’t really care for the multimedia controls, while aesthetically pleasing, they require too much pressure to activate. All in all, I am very happy with my purchase. In this technological game of leap frog, Gateway appears to have shaken things up or at least got out of the gate first with the FX. It will be interesting to see the competitions response to this product at its price point. Since my fiancée will be inheriting this computer is 6-8 months, I have no buyers remorse. It is inevitable that something better will come along in the following months. Thanks, again.

dcmpres

 

I will have to look at it tonight, it must be a driver issue as I don't know what else could cause it not to work. I was going to bring it to work and play with it but as it so happens it does not fit into my laptop bag, and since I go through a security check point every morning I am not fond of carrying it without. Thanks for the info though

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Processor T7700 2.4.GHz 4MB Cache
800MHz FSB
NVidia® 512MB 8800m GTS GDDR3
17" WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD
4gig Geil dual channel Ram

Well, I tested with Lightsmark 2007:
Test
#1- 145.6
#2 - 179.0
#3- 176.6
#4- 176.9
In crysis, I ran the cpu/bench but couldn't figure out how to capture the info, or how to even stop it without hitting tskmgr and killing the process. Any help there? on the gpu it said average fps 22.55 I think.

 

Would you mind running 3dmark06? I'm interested in the diff between the stock 1.6ghz and the 2.4ghz!

N

 

I'm sorry but I'm a nub when it comes to this technology stuff. Can someone explain to me how to "overclock" on this laptop, the programs to use, and what else I should do to maximize its performance (besides buying the new processor, I'll do that later). It would really help me out, and later on I can help out other people with this stuff to.

-Thank You!

 

What resolution did you run the test? Getting ready to run it on my stock unit.