Buying a 7811FX..

Can someone please recommend where would be the best place to purchase this bad boy, and if there are any coupons that exist for them?

I tried to find an option to build one on Gateway site but didn't find it.

Thanks.

 

this is a bestbuy exclusive unless you buy it form ebay, bare in mind theres no 14 day return police in ebay. So buy it from best buy check it out make sure the one you got has no defects. finally make sure you dont pay 1400 hundred its been on sale for 12xx twice so just wait for it to go on sale or go to the store and speak with a manager see if he can match the price he had before. Ive heard they do it up to 30 days, you maybe lucky enough. Good luck friend.

 

**** i am trying to get it today
but the discount is not there anymore .....

anyone knows any chance for them to put it on again?

eg: during thanks giving?

 

Dont worry they will put it up again, its selling like hotcakes; and during the sales they often get sold out. Like i said go in speak with a manager try it out. I'm sure it will be up for sale in thanks giving. I would go that day though... unless you want to fight a horde of drunk dumbasses.

 

bestbuy exclusive, on sale for $1249+tax every other week.

 

**** man, decisions. wait a couple of weeks at most or buy now. waiting for updated model(s). could i go to a salesperson or maybe a geek squad guy and tell them i want the 2888 model otherwise no sale.

 

Thanks for the info.

Are they pretty much all the same, or can I preconfigure them?

 

same no config

 

They are all the same, but a bit more upgradable than your average laptop in some respects. Make sure you get one with a serial number that starts 2888 or greater (although I doubt there are many of the 2887s left). Some of the 2887 models have a tendency to overheat and lock up. The 7 in 2887 refers to the manufacturing month. 2887s were manufactured in July, 2888s were manufactured in Aug, 2009s were manufactured in September.

As far as configurable, it comes with 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz memory, so no need to upgrade that. It has a second hard drive bay, so you can upgrade the existing hard drive easily and even add a second one and RAID them. You will find instructions elsewhere in this forum for upgrading the processor (yes, you can put a Socket P Centrino 2 QuadCore in it if you want, but it will invalidate your warranty).

If you dig deep enough on the Gateway site, you can find that they list the Sony BD 5500S as a compatable blueray drive upgrade.

There is also a Mini PCI Express slot. I'm not sure what you can put in it other than turbo memory. Perhaps someone sells a mini PCI Express bluetooth card (It doesn't have bluetooth).

Some folks have complained about all the ports being on the right side. this is no problem if you are a lefty or if you don't intend on plugging a lot of stuff in.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks much, great explanation =)

 

No reason to waste the extra mini PCIe on bluetooth - there's a hookup hidden down near the front of the motherboard for a module.

Other than that, invest in a good (i.e. not cheap) 4 or 7-port USB 2.0 hub depending on how many peripherals you use, since the three this laptop comes with isn't going to be enough. Keyboard, mouse, printer leaves you with no place to hook in anything else. Use one of the ports for a BT 2.0 dongle. Problem solved.

 

That's why I have a deskyop system But seriously, if you are going to plug that much stuff into it on a regular basis, you should be using a USB hub or port replicator so that when you do want to take it with you you only have to unplug one thing from the laptop (this assumes that you are going to leave the keyboard, printer, etc at home). About the only thing that I plug into my USB ports is an external mouse and the occasional USB flashdrive.

However, if you do plan to plug in a bunch of stuff and a mouse, be warned that most of the ports are on the right side and you'll have to wrangle the cables a bit to keep them out of the way of your mouse movement.