Gateway 8510GZ

ANyone have opinions about the 8510GZ?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7267806&type=product&id=1117177722001

Seems like an awfully good deal for under $13K. What's the catch? I like the graphics card.

 

That's a fantastic deal. The video memory is a little low, and it's going to be large and heavy, but other than that, snatch it up if you need a DTR notebook now.

 

I was wondering why Gateway notebooks seem to be so inexpensive in the stores. Compared to other notebooks with similar specs, it appears that the Gateways have a street price several hundred dollars less than others.

Any explanation for this?

 

Has anyone purchased one of these yet? I am really interested in getting. I would like to get the pros and cons, and other feedback from anyone that has purchased though.

 

interested here aswell.

TIA

 

Well It would be amazing if it was a Intel M... :'(

I'm so close to crossing over to the Intel side... Marines 05 benchmark is way better than the 7510gx benchmarks i've seen...

 

Is this different from the M680? I didn't take a super close look at specs or anything, but at first glance it looks like the same thing?

 

i just got a 8510gz yesterday at best buy for 1299 - Very nice screen - using it right now. I have install hl2 and have played css with it and get 40 - 100 fps on most maps while in widescreen display mode and most options turned on med. You will need to upgrade ram to 1 gig tho. it comes with 2 x 256 , so get 1 gig stick ddr2 3200 on newegg for 104$ get the best buy warranty as well because they will give you a new battery every year without giving you a hard time. that costs 250 extra.

 

This is in fact a very nice laptop... Lowely Marine is on the money about the video ram and biglou is offering the best solution of kicking the system ram up to help make up some difference... The video ram is so low, ATI's hypermemory might actually have to kick into play to help make up the difference... Anybody have a 3DMark05 on this...

 

Biglou - do you happen to use the 8510GZ as your only computer? If so, does it get hot in the keyboard or palm area after being on for hours? Sorry to ask so many questions, I've just never had a Gateway nor have I seen a review for this machine. Thanks for your time!

 

I have been using this laptop while in bed for the last 3 hours and the keyboard is very cool, I can feel very little heat on the palm rest area. The bottom of the laptop gets warm if you suffocate the fan on the bottom of the machine. I owned a compaq 2100us with a 1.6 celeron before this and that machine got so hot I had to lift it off my lap sometimes. This is much cooler. I have a custom built desktop, 2.8 oc'd ~3ghz 1 gig 3200 nvidia 6800GT - I think I will use this laptop more often because it seems a little faster in the windows environment and is just plain cool. The desktop is of course my main gaming platform for fps games tho. I think I will use my 8510gz for other games like silent hunter III, strategy games, etc. and for school/work.

 

I dont think the 8510gz uses hyper memory does it? Thought it was dedicated 64meg

 

I just checked the list and it doesn't... That's a shame too, the one time there innovation could of worked... Worked good or poorly is still the question however...

 

Thanks Biglou! Best Buy here I come!!! In my case, I am not a gamer so having this 17" puppy with 64mb dedicated is going to be a delight from using this 13" screen

 

Hi all

New to this forum. University student from Canada, just got a nice deal in Bestbuy.ca yesterday with the 8510GZ fro 1599.99 + tax. Purchased as an solution to my 2 yr old Emachine M5310 suffering from overheat problems.

The 8510 is a very nice notebook. nicely built and very accessable for the DIYers. The low price of the notebook mainly justifly by the lack of features like subwoffer, remote control, or delicate particition for watching DVD without OS. Frankly I can care less for these features since for 1599 you get X700 and 17" screen.

To people who are interested in Performance
3Dmark05 = 14xx marks
3Dmark03 = 5195 marks
I can run the F.E.A.R demo with full wide screen and medium details with playable framrate (20-40fps).

I have a question for you guys. I'm still deciding on if I should keep this notebook to replace my 'working' M5310? My main issue is due to money. If I deicde to keep I'll be shelling out most of my savings. I know my current laptop can hopefully last me another year before it really dieds down on me. I have until Aug 22 to make my final decision. Or if someone in Canada missed the bestbuy deal they are contact me if they want the laptop.

Thank you all for your help

 

wow, you paid 1599 for your 8510gz? I got mine a week ago and paid 1299! Question though - I just bought an extra gig of ddr2 pc3200 400mhz mem for it because that is the official type of memory for this notebook. Popped it in, runs better, etc, but noticed that the 256 meg stick I pulled out is pc4200! why is this? Should I have bought 4200? Seems to run fine, actually 3 less fps in source stress test, but seems to hitch and lag less in actual gameplay. Another question, the intel wireless that comes with this thing, does it have some kind of feature where it powers down. Because it seems to have to be warmed up a bit before it gets the 54 mbps connection - sometimes I have to hit the refresh button in I.E. a few times to get it going. Did not have to do that with my linksys with speedbooster card on my old laptop.

 

Well.... First you need to know I paid 1599CAD not US. The 8510GZ takes either 400Mhz or 533Mhz ram. if you are buying new ram for the notebook then definetly get 533Mhz. Speaking of the Intel card. I have a problem with my wireless card that it would not connect to my netgear M814v2 802.11b router. I know my router and wireless card works becuase I have another laptop connected to the router just fine and I can connect the 8510gz to a Dlink router in my apartment. Can someone tell me how I can patch the wireless card to get it to connect? I tried updating my wireless router already with no luck.

 

dang, I already bought a gig of ddr2 3200 (400mhz) crap, crap, what should I do? does it make enough of a different to be worth returning? Try resetting your router (hold down reset button, pull power plug) I did that with my linksys and it was able to connect - dont ask me why.

 

I posted a review of my unit in the forum. Basically, it's rather killer and I am VERY glad I bought this computer.

 

Go buy one and you will not regret it. If you are looking for the latest technology (Pentium M + DDR2 4200 + 2MB L2 Cache), very high performance, a killer 17' screen, this is your best choice.

I was no Gateway fan, but when I looked at this laptop for the first time, I just stopped searching.

Fan is so quite, you do not even notice that it has a fan.
It gets warm, but not hot and you do not feel any heat.
The battery life is over 4 hrs.

Need I say more?

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that both memory slots were used. The guy at the store told me that it is using a 512MB stick or RAM, it turned out it has 2x256MB.

I am sending u this from my new laptop

Albo

 

It probably comes in the array of 2x256MB to support the notebook's dual channel functionality. I am probably going to get this notebook, and will maybe put 2x512MB or 2x1GB, so that it will be running with dual channel.

 

I would like to ask a question regarding to aiwapro's comment on RAM. Does the 8510GZ notebook using DDR2 ram must be used in pairs? I'm planning to get 1 X 1GB ram soon for a total of 1236MB of ram. Is this possible?

 

It'll support it most likely, but your performance will be crippled since the RAM has to run single-channel. I'd buy two 512MB sticks before I bought a 1GB stick. Or, alternatively, buy two 1GB sticks. But keep them in matched pairs.

 

OK. I bought the Kingmax 1024 DDR2 533Mhz ram today for 149.99CAD today. Ram works perfectly. Now I have a total of 1280MB of ram on my computer. The reason I purchase this is for World of Warcraft. The upgrade is indeed worthwhile. I can now go to the IronForge or Stormwind with my griffen and get smooth framerates and very little harddrive access. Upgrading ram is recommanded for those who play ram consuming games.

 

How does the 8510GZ stack up against the M680? I know M680 is about $2000.

How is the sound quality?

I heard M680 has very weak speakers and the casing of the computer is very flexible as well.

Do they both use the same kind of DVD burner?

 

The 8510GZ is just another configureation of the M680. So your question about flexibility, speakers will will the the same.

The specs of the 8510GZ includes 512MB DDR533 ram, x700 64MB, 100GB 5400rpm harddrive, 1400x900 truebright 17" screen. The rest is fairly similer to the M640.

I upgraded from a emachine M5310 so anything is an improvement I would say the speakers sounds muffled at best. Anyways I use a 2.1 external speakers so I won't really care. One positive about the interenal speakers is that the left/right channels are clearly distingisable beucase they are so far apart. This is a nice touch for FPS gaming on the go.

The DVD is not made my the dreaded QSI (or whatever the dreaded one is called). From EVEREST program the DVD states its made by Toshiba (TS-L532A).

Hope everything helps!

EDIT: I purchased the 8510GZ for a deal at bestbuy for $1599CAD + tax. The normal value of the notebook was $1899CAD + tax.

 

I got this notebook about 2 weeks ago, and Im using it right now as a matter of fact

I'm very happy with it so far, runs counterstrike and other fps's at decently playable rates. It also runs DAoC Catacombs, with all options turned on very well, even for RvR. At first I was concerned with the 64 mb video memory, but frankly, it does not seem to matter that much... I would rather have a x700 with 64mb memory than an x600 with 128.

I will say that if you play graphics intense games (DAoC, HL2) etc that the notebook gets quite warm, especially on the left side of the palm rest. I might get one of those coolerpads to put it on, maybe that will help.

My only gripe is that there is only one set of banks for the dual channel memory and it comes with 2 256 sticks. So, you basically have to throw them away if you want to upgrade, personally I'm going to get 2 1gb sticks from newegg, so I can not worry about the memory anymore, even though 2gb is kinda a bit much

 

Tha's weird wufai, Nero shows QSI as the DVD drive maker

 

My 8510GZ has a QSI drive in it aswell. This is my second 8510GZ, because my first one had the QSI drive, and it would write audio to cd, so I exchanged it for another 8510GZ (this one), and even though it has a QSI drive in it, it does write audio to cd.

 

I have this notebook, I love it, but after 3 weeks of owning it the hard drive failed. It's made by Hitachi, and I have had bad luck with Hitachi products in the past.. Gateway's technical support is excellent. My new HD is on my way to me.

 

I noticed on this new laptop, that the fan on the left side runs less I think. This seems to cause the laptop to be more hot on the left bottom of the laptop, then my previous 8510GZ.

I thought the fan might not be working at all, so I sat the laptop on a blanket, and after about 5 minutes, it finally came on, but by the time I lifted up the laptop to see if the fan was really spinning, it cut off a few seconds later, just as I saw the fan turning.

For all that have the 8510GZ, do the fan on the bottom left of the laptop run alot.

This seems to get very warm, as when I sit it on my lap, it is almost uncomfortable.

 

I just got the 8510GZ yesterday, it does get warm on the bottom left but the fan does not kick in often as far as I can see.

 

The large fan right next to the heatsink runs only when 3D games or under heavy CPU loads. The reason why the left palm rests is warm is due to the wireless setting turned on. turn it off and it will become much cooler.

 

Ok, as long as your 8510GZ's are doing the same thing, then that's fine.

Overall, I am very happy with the laptop now.

 

Also to add to this, my 8510gz came with the TS-L532A DVD burner and not the QSI. So far I am very happy with the laptop. No dead pixels. Only gripe is with the reduce key size for Shift & arrow. I did reload the laptop with Win XP pro. Did the system restore disks and wipe all partitions afterwards. Also, loaded the Omega drivers for X700. Battery life is very impressive, I got well over 4 hrs doing surfing and accessing some office apps.

 

Great machine, runs amazingly cool to some other laptops I tried today. Fan is very quiet. I personally think the left pad is a tad bit warm, nothing major. Nowhere near as hot as the Compaq V2000 w/ Turion.

Battery Mark said I ad 4:27hrs with a full charge with screen at next to last brightness, wi-fi, and just surfing/chatting. Excellent for a DTR.

 

Did you have any trouble getting the USB to function after upgrading to XP Pro. I also upgraded to Pro and I got all drivers installed and everything is working except the USB. How did you perform your upgrade?

Thanks.

 

Hi, all the USB ports function fine after my upgrade. I upgraded by wiping all partitions and rebuilding from scratch. That's strange your USB is not working as it uses default XP drivers and don't require additional drivers. Was it working prior to upgrade? In hardware device manager, any exclaimation marks on the usb hub?

 

I have had my 8510 for a little over 3 weeks now, and I have to say that I think it is great. However, I am having a slight issue that I was wondering if others have.

I rarely connect my laptop to the Net via cable. I am almost always on via WIFI. I have noticed that after about 20 minutes (sometimes less) of using my laptop with WIFI the signal strenght slowly dips first to 48 mbps, then to 32, then to 24 and sometimes gets as low as 2 mbps. What is the deal here? Does this have something to do with the heat that is generated from the WIFI card, or could this have something to do with the Power saving settings of a laptop using centrino technology?

Anyone having similar problems? Any cures or fixes?

 

Actually I did notice that once, in my case I lost complete wireless connection. However I thought it was related to my dlink wireless router as it gets flaky sometimes. I have been connecting via cable so I will use the wireless again today and see if the same symptoms arise again.

Off topic, does anyone notice dim spots on the lcd screen at the bottom right and left corner?

 

Ok, I take back about what I said about Gateway's excellent customer service..

3 weeks and waiting for my new harddrive and recovery cd's.

Not only did they screw up the order 3 times, but every time I call, I hear a different story. Out of stock, warehouse moving, warehouse closed due to the hurricane, accidently ordered the wrong cd's, BLAH BLAH BLAH. Every time I call, all I get is check back in 2-3 days! I don't think I am ever going to deal with Gateway again. !!!!

 

Okay so I used my wifi for about an hr, no issues. I think my problem was related to my dlink di-524. It's notorious for dropping connections until I found out there's a new firmware for it that is suppose to fix the drop connections. I loaded it and so far so good.

Are you using Windows wireless connection or the Intel ones. I am using the Intel software.

 

This harddrive and CD.. I AM STILL WAITING FOR. This has got to be the most unprofessional company I have every dealt with. I called in for these over a freaking month and a half ago. OMG!

 

I bought my 8510GZ a few weeks ago, does the 1.7 ghz cpu seem a tad small to anyone else? I know I have to upgrade the ram but I think the cpu is upgradable as well and wonder if its worth it.

It plays dungeon siege 2 and serious sam 2 with no problems except for DS2 which slows on occasion due to the low ram (I havent upgraded yet)

I guess I am worried that one day soon they will come out with a game that my laptop is too slow to play.

the guy at best buy said it runs comparable to a 2.8ghz desktop cause of better cashe and front side bus memory, but I bet they say that to every customer to get them to buy their stuff.

 

Does anyone have an optical drive other than QSI? As I'm told by Gateway, 8510GZ notebook is shipped with one of 4 different brands (eg., HLDS, Lite-on, QSI or TSST). For those who does have non-QSI DVD-rom, can you provide the exact model number including the firmware version?

 

I have the TSST TS-L532A, firmware ver QG52.

 

Just overclocked my cpu to 2Ghz and GPU to 385/385 3dmark05 score of 2111.
Decent for such a bargain laptop if you ask me. Not heat problems either!

 

Hi just got an 8510GZ. $1500 CAN future shop.
The sound is so quite reg or with headphone unless you amp it. It's almost to quiet to watch DVD or listen to CD. Anyone else not satisfied with sound?

Wondering if I sould have considered an ACER AS9502WSMi, very similar but with:
512 in one slot - Not sure if matched pairing
ATI X700 256MB
SUB Woofer
5 in 1 card reader
DVI-D port
Parallel port
2 - PC Card Slots

Would have cost an extra $320 Canadian
Hmmm....

 

The sound is what you expect from a laptop, I am happy with it after coming from an IBM A22m. For me it was more than loud enough watching DVD via PowerDVD in my room.

 

If you are having problems with volume, get WinDVD7. Having my master volume set at 12% is more than enough if I am watching DVDs with my computer on my lap. I don't think its free though. Even if $40.00 (I don't think it is though), it's worth it if you like movies. Highly recommended by me.