Gateway M-6864FX

It looks just like the back of the 68xx, 78xxs. While it may not be everyones cup of tea, I wouldn't say it has "burnt orange/grey/black everywhere". It's actually pretty subtle compared to some.

 

I dunno what their deal is.
I see that SOME machines are specific to certain vendors, ie, the M-6867 is just like the M-6862, but adds BlueTooth, and will be the replacement for the M-6851, which was a Newegg/Costco model.

T

 

To the owners: What games can this laptop run at native resolution that you've tried out?

Thanks in advance.

 

I can run Crysis and Call of Duty 4 on the native resolution of 1280x800, Crysis on LOW to MEDIUM settings and Call of Duty 4 on almost MAX settings.

 

The HD 2600 GDDR3 version holds its own against the 8600 and often beats it in real world performance. It only looses in synthetics and AA/AF.

 

On the M-6851, using RMclock to undervolt, I've been able to get about 3 hours surfing, and using WiFi.

I updated the BIOS, and it had no real effect on the HD2600 clockings...
highest STABLE speed I can do is about 621/794 core/mem. Stock is 500/600, so not bad.

Looks like the price online went back to $849, so it was a good deal while it lasted. I think it's still a capable machine for $849.

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It is still a hell of a deal at $850, the next cheapest gaming laptop from Best Buy is the ASUS but that just went from $1,000 back up to $1,200.

 

Is this laptop better or worse than the gateway: http://www.directdial.com/LX.E860X.001.html

 

Worse. I think. I believe Centrino is better than Turion

 

I have a Turion 1.6 and GO7600 and it does fine. 3DMark06= 5415 and WIC plays quite well for example. Turions are OK and if that ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT - 512 MB is equal or better than NV 8600 as stated above, it will do well. Sure there are better but for $632 it sounds like a buy.

 

Yeah, I'd tend to agree with Syngensmyth - that's another $120 less.
I think if ya pop a TL-66 or TL-68 in there, it would smoke!

But, ya gotta remember, AMD's are nowhere near as power efficient, so you'll lose battery life compared to Intel components, and the Turions put out ALOT more heat.

I dunno - tossup, I suppose.

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that directdial laptop though only has a 4200rpm HDD. That's awfully slow isnt it?

 

Good catch, I didn't notice the HD speed. But I'm not sure it is such a big draw back. Here is a comparison for example.
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=240
I have never used a 4200 RPM so have no experience.

The Gateway is better. I'm simply saying the Acer should be quite good, all things considered and baring an quirks that most models seem to present for irritation purposes.

If it were close to $500 I would buy the darn thing myself, seriously.

 

Acers in my, and everybody else's ( that i know ) opinions ain't good laptops... but XT should be faster than the normal HD2600... as it is said at notebookcheck.com

 

Only going by specs. I've never owned an Acer.

I think Acer leads laptop sales world wide. What is their weakness generally (short version)?

Of course Acer owns Gateway but that may not be significant.

 

LOL@everyone bogartin' my avatar ideas. Funny tho, for sure.

 

Guys, just went to Acer's site to look up THAT model, and that one does NOT have an HD2600 - it has a Radeon X1250 IGP.

Chaos: You can do MUCH better - with the integrated graphics, it's nowhere near worth it.

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2 Syngen -> meant by how its built, not by specs. The design is mostly terrible, and the material quality is too.

Well thats just what my friends say. Just saying that I wouldnt buy an Acer...

Otherwise the specs always seemed good for the price as opposed to Sony or Dell, which on the other hand ( in my opinion ) are better built...

 

@Cloudek, I believe you. I've always shied away from them but for no particular reason. With the drop in video card speck it makes it a whole different ball game.

 

Hey quick question about this laptop (and the M-6862 which is nearly the same thing, just not FX branded and a HDD difference).

Does the HDMI output on this laptop pass audio as well as video? Or does it only pass video? Could someone verify and let me know please? Thanks!

 

I have read elsewhere that it passes both. That was one reason I bought.


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I know its kind of late in the game to ask this question, but I am really considering buying one of these. I just haven't heard good things about gateway. My last laptop was a dell and I never had a problem out of it for the three years that I had it. My problem is that I can't build a dell system with these kind of specs for the price thats offered on this one. Do I have anything to be concerned about?

 

And I heard Dells explode into a firey ball of molten laptop. Don't believe everything you hear. Most laptops nowadays are built to similar standards. Whether it be HP, Dell or Gateway. They all have their quorums and one of those quorums is bad customer service. All across the board. Gateway has bad CS and so does Dell and so on. If you're asking about machine reliability, Gateways are no less reliable than an HP, Dell, Toshiba, etc. If you want an overly sturdy machine that will help you sleep better at night, look into the Sagers, Clevos, Lenovos, etc. But also look at spending hundreds to thousands more than an equally equipped Gateway, that when properly cared for, will last just as long. I don't particularly favor any one brand, but I also don't like misconceptions. Hopefully this helped.

 

Trust me it is very good, trust Gateway with the FX series.

 

I have read different reviews on this laptop, and it seems that everyone has a problem with the heat. I know that it was mentioned earlier in this thread, but there wasn't much elaboration. Does the heat compare to a macbook? Another thing, is the drive loud when its running a cd?

 

Greetings all. I purchased this notebook after selling my Macbook Pro due to a bad experience with Apple's customer service. Overall, I find the M-6864FX to be a decent laptop, and a particularly excellent purchase for $750 at Best Buy. Although there are some cons about this notebook (No Bluetooth, average processor, low resolution screen), it certainly isn't so bad that it would drive away those who wants one.

Anyhow, I had nothing to do this afternoon, so I took a look inside:



Hard drive, RAM, and CPU is readily accessible within 2-3 minutes. Coming from a MBP that takes 10-20 minutes to just upgrade the hard drive, I thought this was quite nice. The red dots in the picture are the screws that needs to be removed to take off the CPU/GPU/NB heatsink.



Heatsink is off. They could've done a better job with the GPU area (Lower left corner), that's really poor for something that runs so hot. With nothing better to do, I went ahead and "lapped" the heatsink to enhance contact between the heatsink and the CPU/GPU/NB.



CPU can be easily taken out once the heatsink is off (Top one). The PM965 Northbridge sits right below it, and like the Radeon GPU, it has some rubber-like thermal compound on it that probably isn't so great for heat conductivity. To the right of the northbridge, sits the Mobility Radeon HD2600 GPU. For those that were wondering if the GPU can be upgraded in this laptop, the answer is a resounding "No". VRAM modules are Qimonda 1.1ns, which should reach 1800 MHz DDR effective, unless they're severely undervolted. I'll look more into this later on.



Below the goodies aforementioned, is the Intel 4965ABGN wireless module, occupying one of the two mini-PCIe slots. That's right guys, you can have Bluetooth if you can get one that uses the mini-PCIe interface. Solves one of my complaints about this notebook.

For those who were wondering how lapping the heatsink helps, here is something I wanted to show:



I ran the benchmark for a little over 20 minutes, in a room with the temperature of 75 degrees farenheit. As you can see, the laptop will idle in the low 30's, and it peaked at low 70's (CPU is stressed at 100%). Unfortunately I forgot to run this test before lapping the heatsink, so if someone can copy my test and post up their result, I'd like to see if lapping and using Artic Silver 5 compound improved the machine's thermal performance or not. The Fur benchmark is running in a 600x600 window, with 2x AA.

 

TRF, I just downloaded and ran Furmark and wow. That thing gives the graphics card(along with everything else) quite a workout. Looks to be much harder on it than rthdribl. Not sure why I haven't found this up until now, but thanks for the post!

 

TRF-Inferno, thanks for putting up the detailed pics and info, should come in handy someday.

 

Dang nice work, TRF, dang nice work. Are you running an older version of HWMon, that doesn't work with the HD2600?

I ran it, and get 71c/72c for core0/core1, and 73c for the HD2600...stock clocks/voltages all around...

Now, undervolted to .9875v, max (11x multiplier) performance, I got:
68c/66c for cpu, 72c for GPU

Man - THAT thing works the computer over! You move the mouse, and it skips!



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i got these numbers after running Orthos for about 30 mins at stock settings, high performance, laptop cooler (75F room temp), etc. does everything look right with some room for oc'ing/undervolting cpu?

 

Are you saying these temps were "while" Orthos was running or "after"?

 

Orthos will owrk over the CPU, but not the GPU.
I think you might need a newer version of HWMonitor - mine shows the TZ, both cores, the GPU, and then the HD. Yours looks to be missing the GPU.

FYI - mine is version 1.09.00

I would look at undervolting, as mine undervolting stays around 60-61c on Orthos at about .9875v


BTW - here's mine at .9850v undervolted....shows only 3+min, but I ran it 15, did the INCORRECT PrintScrn combination, and had to start over again, but it only takes about 60-90 seconds to heat up the CPU, especially after it was already going for 15+min!




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it was a couple of minutes after.. i posted to reference the "Max" numbers.

 

Interesting. I downloaded HWMonitor from CPUID, and it's the latest one. I think the temperature sensor is not showing up for me because I'm not using the OEM drivers, but rather a Mobility Mod' Catalyst 8.7. I may switch back to the OEM drivers since 8.7 doesn't seem to offer better performance.

Stock


8.7


Stock


8.7


As of now, I'm very satisfied with this notebook. I will keep an eye on eBay for a Core 2 Duo T9300, and I would like to find out if there are any alternative LCD screens that will work on this laptop. If anyone knows that manufacturer of this notebook's screen, please let me know!

 

I'm using the same drivers. Check your version of HWMonitor under Help->About
Some places have multiple versions...

I dunno how to find LCD manufacturer - I'll defer to someone else...

As to the 64FX, yeah, it's GREAT for the price - I can't think of anything close to the price/performance ratio of this beast!


T

 

those temps are about right. mine were very similar, except i think my CPU was a bit less hot, but i didnt run it for 30 mins.

 

Hmmm....I have 1.09 and it works. Also using MobilityModder modded Vista 32-bit Catalyst 8.7 drivers...
And the latest BIOS from the Gateway site - can;t be that this is an M-6851, as they are the same mainboard+GPU. Only the CPU is different - T5550 here, T5750 on the 64FX

Strange....

(sigh) I HATE tropical storms/hurricanes....
Freaking Fay has blinked my power 8-10 times in the past 3 hours....had to move the UPS to the firewall+WAP to keep the 'net up...

Sheesh - HURRY UP will ya?

(/sigh)



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Of course you were, I forgot to look at the max numbers.
Nutin' get by me.

Undervolting suggestion is wise. Takes some tinkering but worth it.

 

I currently have RMclock installed and have tried to adjust the vcore but it seems when I have the power setting to High Performance it still uses x12 multi and 1.25vcore...what am I overlooking??

I was able to get AMD GPU clock to work on setting the gpu/mem, but my CPU is throttling while in High Performace mode when stress testing.

 

Have you seen the Undervolting Guide?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

Did you follow the write-up?
Blackbird did a REALLY nice write-up on RMClock. I KNOW you'll find it useful, as I have been doing it his way, first on the M-6851 (almost same as 6864FX), and now on the P-6860FX.

Link to Blackbird's write-up is here. Make sure to rep Blackbird for the work done.

When it's correct, you can even see the voltage/freq in the tray icon(s).
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How is the undervolting working out for you guys? Unfortunately mine isn't so good -- it can't stay stable when it has less than 1.15v at load.

 

UVing is working great for me. I can overclock and undervolt and am 100% stable. This is due more to luck in getting a good cpu, than anything else.

 

sounds like the voltages werent detected correctly. try it again and see if you get different results with the voltage detection.

as for undervolting, it works out for me pretty darn well. i have my max multiplier to 1.0125V and idle is around low to mid 20's. under load i havent seen 50C except for one time. even with many hours of constant gaming/stressing the cpu.

 

Same here, on both the M-6851 and the P-6860FX.

Right now, running T5550 @ .9875 at 11x on P-6860FX


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I'm using CPU-z, HWMonitor and OCCT to monitor CPU voltage, and they're all showing 1.15v at full load. If I try setting it to 1.14v, the system will lock up within 2-3 minutes of stressing.

Oh well, I'll keep an eye for a T8300 or T9500 on FleaBay.

 

interesting. what were your default voltages?

T9500= not worth the $$$ over the T9300. 100 mhz more, and same amount of cache for like twice the price.

 

best i can do is 1.0375V at full load

 

Sorry, I meant T9300.

I went ahead and did the same for my little brother's T7200 in his A8JP and got it to do Orthos for two hours now @ 1.03v. I'm pretty sure I got a dud (It defaults to 1.25v).