Considering buying a P-6831FX, but I have some questions.

Okay, I actually have quite a few questions. I've searched through the threads and got some answers, but I would appreciate it if I could get some 100% fact so I can be sure about my decision. My last major computer purchase was years ago, so I want to be sure about this decision.

BTW, the reason I am buying, if it matters, is because I am going to college. I know that laptops aren't ideal gaming systems, and that the P-6831FX is not the ideal machine for portability, but I don't think I will be taking it to class or anything. As long as it is easy to travel with between college and home, and occasionally to take down the hall to a floormate's room, that should due. One more thing; gaming is a major part of my decision. I have a good amount of games and I would like to be able to play them. Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes, and maybe even Crysis somewhere down the line. Now, for my questions

1. This one actually is regarding the P-6831FX and the P-171S. I know that the processors are different, and that the P-171S has a fingerprint reader and a slot loading DVD drive. Besides that, is there a difference, such as in the screen quality(which, on the 6831, I have heard is not the best)? Also, is the small processor upgrade worth the price if I didn't want to upgrade the processor?

2. Upgrading the processor. I have looked at the guides and it looks fairly simple. However, what about the warranty? Will upgrading the processor void my warranty, or is there a way to avoid that? Or would it simply void the warranty of the processor?

3. Is it really worth it to upgrade the processor? I was thinking of upgrading to the T9300, which would bring the total price to a little over that of the 171S. Is that a good purchase, or would I be better off a)not upgrading at all, b)upgrading to a different processor, or c)getting a 171S.

4. I read rumors on this board that the 6831 was discontinued at Best Buy. Is that true? I checked on the site, and the nearest city to me that has a Best Buy does have the 6831 in stock. But should I try and make this decision quickly so that I can go pick it up, or is there no rush? The Best Buy is 60 miles away, or else I would go ask myself >_>

5. Finally, I heard another rumor in the same thread about the discontinuation of the 6831. I think a few people mentioned that there would be an upgraded version in mid-April. Is this true, and if so, is it worth it to wait? Even if it isn't true, I don't need this laptop until around July/August, so would I be better off waiting anyway for new laptops?

I know it's a lot of questions, but as I said this is a pretty big purchase for me. I'd really appreciate any help you guys could provide, and I apologize if some of this stuff has already been answered. Thanks.

 

IIRC, the P-6831FX has been discontinued for some time. At the time it was an insane deal.

However, and especially since you don't need the laptop until the end of summer, I would wait. There's going to be a lot of good stuff coming out around May-June.

 

The P-6831FX is still available at Bestbuy and onsale for $1249.99

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8651167&type=product&id=1195599780039

 

Processor will help your synthetic Benchmarks... As far as FPS, you will see some improvements since the CPU will not bottleneck the GPU when you OC the GPU. If you are not planning on OCing the GPU the stock CPU will fit the bill.

The T9300 is a nice chip and runs cool and consumes less power. I went with a T7500 CPU upgrade since it is close to the same speed as the T9300 with a little less cache. But there is a feeling in the CPU circles that you really dont get much performance benefits for added L2 cache above 2MB. I tend to agree with that assesment. So I found that the better bang for the buck for me was the T7500. I purchased it for under 170.00 USD. (almost 50percent less then the T9300.

Upgrading the CPU will void your warranty, but if you keep the old processor and dont destroy the little sticker that is on the CPU when you swap the CPU, you will be OK since you can just put the old CPU back in if you need warantee service.

There will be a processor upgrade on the FX for bestbuy in the near future. So the exact modle number may change. But there should always be an FX modle of some kind at Best Buy for some time to come.

As far as waiting. If you dont need... Hang tight. There will be an FX of some kind come the summer. Plus you might get another vendor trying to get into the same market sphere that the FX is now the sole inhabitant. A true mid-range priced gaming laptop. I dont consider rigs with a 8600GT to be a true gamming laptop since the life of the card might be 1.5 more years. If you want to game through your 4 yrs at college, an 8800 GPU might survive that time span.

 

Photoshop and a few other programs will benefit from the lager cache of the T9300 and video encoding is improved by the extra horsepower as well as all around computing. With newer Penryns on the horizon, it's a sure bet that more programs will take advantage of multi cores and larger cache.

I saw 8 frames avg. from stock to the T9300 with Crysis.

I would suggest that you try out the stock CPU before you spend the bucks. The T7500 is a great starting point but nice to be able to boom up to the Penryn "Extreme" X9000 CPU if you so desire.

..and still in stock at some BB's!

 

Oh **** does this mean that i should get a 6831fx asap if there temporarily discontinuing it.. I read on the other thread where a dude who works at BB said they would start to sell the refreshed version in mid april.. Should i wait or buy now.. I dont wanna miss out on this lappy!?

 

i would hold tight for 2 more weeks if i were you because the refresh version is supposed to have a 320 gig HD and 4gigs of ram and possibly a 64 bit OS , so if you dont need to have it asap i would wait and see whats up.

 

Unless you have to have it now and the new configuration is confirmed at the old price, then wait. Of course the Montevina will be here shortly, and yes if you can wait one more year, the Calpella platform

 

Whoa hydra, you saw 8 fps performance increase in crysis after upgrading your cpu? What settings were you on? Never imagined cpu would make that much of a difference.

 

Read my post in "Gateway® P-171X FX Edition Gone?"

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=236013

 

Thanks, everyone, for the replies.

The general consensus seems to be that I should wait until the new version is out. I'm just a little worried about the price. The P-6831 is the best price erformance ratio I've seen anywhere. I know that there are definitely faster laptops available, but most of the ones I have seen have been quite expensive. So I'm just wondering, if they do upgrade the P-6831 to a new version, will it still retain the $1250 price tag? Actually, you guys probably don't know that or else I might be able to find it >_> But when will that information be available, any ideas?

If the price is going to go up a few hundred dollars, then I may as well buy a 6831 or a 171S now, and I can always upgrade it later on, right?

Again, thanks for the help.

 

My old post from Feb;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=218971&highlight=Crisis+t9300

 

Gateway is a company and therefore needs to make profits. If they put in that T7500 into the current 6831 model, they'll probably bump the price up by 200 dollars. You may as well just get the current 6831 model and throw in a T9300. It'll last you quite a while unless you demand to be cutting edge, which then you should be looking at desktops instead.

 

Well, first of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the advice. You've made this decision a lot easier.

Unless something new comes up relatively soon, I think I am going to end up buying the P-6831. It has everything I want and need for a great price. I know that it isn't perfect but I really don't need it to be - believe it or not, I've been running on an ancient machine and playing the latest games for a while now. Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, ATI Radeon 9600, 768MB RAM. Now imagine playing Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes, Half-Life 2, etc on that. It's not easy . Basically, my computer right now is horrible, so almost anything will be an upgrade. Even if this laptop isn't playing games on high in 4 years, as long as it plays them, I will be happy.

Again, I'm still going to wait a little while and research a little bit more, and maybe wait to see if any new announcements come up. But as it stands now I think I will buy the P-6831FX.

Thanks again for all the help. I think I'll stick around these forums and try and "pay it forward" as best I can to other new people like me

 

im one hte same page as you dconn...theres nothing out there that can take the p-6831fx for the same price and specs. it really is the best bang for the buck for mid-range gaming enthusiasts. i myself is kinda debating between the 6831 or the 171 sfx. will wait if something comes up.

 

I say get the 6831 while it's there for 1250. The 171s ain't worth it.