Bought a gateway fx 6860

Hi there, i just bought a gateway fx6860.

Throught id share :

640gb hard drive
4gb ddr 667mhz memory
1.83ghz core 2 duo
8800gts 512mb
17 inch

i was quite impressed with it, i was going to buy a dell m1710, but after searching i randomly found a gateway fx 6860 and it was from the usa, £700
but with import tax it would have been about £800, then i dount this one, 3 year warrenty brand new 850 in the uk, so i thought, screw it.

And i am awaiting arival of it shortly.

SOOOOOOO looking forward to it

 

wow for that price, i wouldve expected the new models like the p7805 if u spent a little more (75usd)

srsly, seems like a ripoff for such an old model, with old video card, very sucky proccessor and not even montevina (centrino 2)??? but then agian i dont know how the ordereing would go and the pricing would be if i were to live in the UK.

850pounds is nearly 1300usd!!

watever... hope u like it... i heard good things from the FX series gateway laptops

 

I've seen the p7805 for sale on ebay for around 900+ pounds, and that came with 9800 GTX and T9600, can't remember the rest of the specs.

The T5500 in the 6860 is getting a bit on the slow side. But I'm sure it can be upgraded to something with a bit more punch.

The US has much better options for laptops (most electronics too) and they are quite a bit cheaper over there. Most custom laptops seem to be imported from the US (from where they have been imported from China) and we have to pay the US tax first then import tax + VAT + customs tax + random-special-tax to get in into the UK, sucks.

 

yeah i have seen the other models on ebay for a little more, but all are form the usa, so import tax would bump it past a grand.

And yeah the dollars weird, it would have cost me allot more than an extra like 50 quid (75 dollars) to get the 7805.

And the processor dosent bother me, ill be upgrading it, plus the 8800gts and the 9800gts aren't much different in the gaming sence, a few frames, better heat consumption, but i can live without, 8800 is a great card 2.

And the core 2 duo is coming out and a higher speced one is going in anyway.

Im real happy with my purchase, its the highest speced in my price range

 

the 7805 has a 9800gts not GTX

 

Yeah, sorry for the typo, 9800GTS not 9800GTX.

Upgrade that T5500 CPU to something like a P8400 or T9600 and you've got a great machine.

Whats the max res of your screen?

 

He can't he doesn't have a centrino 2 notebook. the lack of FSB would make those processors terribly slow for there price point

 

it would make it slow ?

well its only really for using my 3d studio max, dark basic pro, possibly some call of duty 4, have a little look at crysis.

it was the T9600 i was thinking of putting in it

 

no idea about the resolution, advert only said 17" Widescreen Ultrabright™ WXGA+

 

You may wish to look at the T9300 CPU.
WXGA+ is the standard resolution for this lappy (1440x900). Replacement LCD panels in other resolutions are available (new or eBay).
Blu-Ray drives are available on eBay for around $100(US). Only usable if you upgrade the LCD or use an external monitor/TV.

Too lazy to do the currency conversion...

 

why would i want to change the lcd pannel, i was quite happy with my £300 laptop, well the screen on that, it was only 1024x768 resolution, so i think the one on it would suit me fine.

The bluray is an option for me, well for the future anyways.

Ill post some pics up tomorow when it comes

 

I got mine for about 800 USD. I love this thing.

 

I was just saying something around that speed/power as I couldn't remember the exact CPUs that would work. Decent CPU upgrades to do include the P8300, T9300, X7800 and X9000 if I remember correctly.

Well, most people won't need to upgrade their LCD but if you do a lot of CAD work or PS then you can greatly benefit from a higher resolution.

 

I love mine. Haven't felt the need to upgrade the processor yet, but it is nice knowing I can if I choose.

 

T8100, T8300, T9300, T9500, X7800, X7900, and X9000 cpu's will work in the 6831/6860 laptops.

 

ah well a nice choice of processors there, which would you recomend to be the best one ?

 

I put the x7800 in mine, ilike being able to overclock it. It does run pretty hot though, and it's a power hog. The T cpu's will run a lot cooler and longer.

 

it doesnt make it slow what so ever.

The T5450 is a fast processor, but there are faster ones.

The only reason to upgrade that CPU is to get a more efficient one, the T8300 would be a perfect choice, about the same power consumption, but more efficient, and probably a bit cooler.

The X7800 can be OCed to 3.0GHz and is plenty fast, but can get very hot if not installed properly(ie taking that go forsaken thermal pad off)

I would say either of those two are good choices, the X7800 would be faster, and the T8300 would be cooler and consume alot less power(25watts TDP vs 44)

Or if you feel the T5450 is fine, keep it, there is nothing wrong with it. I would recommend upgrading before the spring though, if your playing games, more recent ones at that, that T5450 could possibly be holding back the system from its true potential.

 

Throw a T8300 or T9300 in it and it will rock

I have a T8300 in my 6860FX - and it makes a HUGE difference.

 

thanks for the advice, well it would be summer before i upgrade again anyways, well upgrade the machine.

Put 2 500gb hard drives in, up the cpu, mabe later on up the screen, and i dunno can it take more than 4gbs of ram ?

 

more then 4GB of ram is useless for normal use and gaming

 

i put a T9300 in mine as i found it to be the best bang for the buck at the time i bought it, which was around april of last year for ~300 with shipping.

i did it mainly because i was trying to avoid the higher TDP processors and the older 65nm architecture.

im kind of obsessive when it comes to a cool running laptop. which is why i undervolted the processor and run a laptop cooler. my idle temps are around low to mid 20's C and under load has never gone above 50C.

 

great purchase. most say the 6860 is still the best fx made

 

i got a 6831 for $669 from eBay. when i got it, the first thing i put in it was a t8300 and not any games or bench mark programs. i love this thing, i don't think i can build a desktop system with this level of performance for the amount of money i sent on this ($669 total).

 

What exactly is the difference between an ES x7800 and x7800 Retail one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ksid=p3907.m29&_trkparms=algo=LVI&its=I&otn=1

 

well it came today, straight off the button i loved it, already there are a few small quarels that i can live with.

The charger gives like a wierd buzzing, sometimes quite loud, also in dark or a slight angle i cant see the numbers on the keys because they are orange.

But it love it check it out

 

The Engineering Samples were the first revision of the CPUs, and could have bugs or overheating issues.

They are usually fine though, I have one, it was the final revision, and looks like a retail CPU, but it is not, is technically an ES though.

Yea that happens sometimes, its because it gets hot and buzzes or there is too much power for that to handle.

 

oh, em any fix to that ?

 

If you are talking about the power supply, a lot of people send their's back as it's not really supposed to do that. It provides just enough power to the laptop for gaming use; in fact some people have gone to bigger aftermarket power supply's. My stock supply has a very faint buz to it under load that I have to put ear closed to to hear, but it has been fine going on about a year and a half now.

Regarding the keys, there was some talk earlier in this forum about aftermarket glow in the dark stickers for them...

 

mmm the keys dont bother me 2 much, tilt the screen to c em, but the charger does, and what good will sending it back do, surely they would replace it with the same underpowered one.

Which aftermarket ones could u recoment, i just bought a nice carry case and a usb mouse for this thing.

Got crysis on it, runs on high quite nicely, charger buzzes like crazy, its rather loud, and i have noticed thats the speakers on this thing have a slight cracksle to them

 

Power supply review:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=342619&highlight=Kensington

Targus 180W...

 

180watt Targrus FTW.

Its really a great power brick. Runs cool and makes no noise.

A great upgrade fr the FX line up i've found. Plus its freaking HUGE. You can intimidate friends with "lesser" power bricks