Gateway P-6831FX Gaming Laptop @ Best Buy

Just a post left by an "employee" who briefly expressed his hands-on impressions of the laptop and then stated the possible price drop. Nothing official about it.

Which is why I EMPHASIZED "for whatever it's worth".

And of course it isn't true. It hasn't happened- if it will at all.


If it doesn't happen, still a great deal as is.

 

Can't you take it in to Best Buy if they lower the price within 30 days and get the difference refunded? I've gone in before and after the last two ads and asked but they have been pretty closed mouthed about the future. If I knew this was more than a rumor, I'd buy one today. Where was the post?

 

yes Best Buy will price match.

 

The power of google or just going to best buy and checking their policy.
http://www.bestbuy.com/olspage.jsp?...type=page&entryURLID=&contentId=1118843518460

 

I installed a T7700 in this laptop, took about 5 min, and runs so much better! Now if I can only get the XP drivers and wipe that POS Vista, I'd be a happy camper. We need XP Drivers!!

 

Congrats!

I'm sure people would want to know your scores as compared to the stock version's.

 

I'd buy the one at Best Buy now but I want a higher screen resolution.

 

gateway reps keep telling me only preset configs, no customizing at all.. for the p-series..

 

id want a 1440x900 display with 8800 GTX if possible

 

Check this out not much of a diff between the gtx and the gts
http://reviews.cnet.com/graphics-cards/nvidia-geforce-8800-gts/4505-8902_7-32143069.html

 

Thats desktop. The comparison is not the same for mobile chips. The 8800MGTX gets around 9,000 3DM06 and the 8800M GTS seems to get around 7,000.

N

 

The only diff is the amount of Stream Processors 96 vs 64 everything else is the same. GTS is more than good enough for a notebook.

 

THAT is the 8800 gts, not the 8800 m gts. The laptop version is much different and according to nvidias official website, the gts has 32 less stream processors than the gtx, and is considered comparable to the 8700m gt's in sli.

 

Yea I wrote that after it was pointed out see post 62.

 

I hope everyone knows that once you change the cpu you void the warranty. Im going to wait and upgrade to a 2.5ghz penryn at 6mg L2 cache regarless.

 

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/ces-2008-gatewa.html

 

The question was rhetorical. Anyway, my memory was mistaken. It's 14 days for computers. I'm well aware of this thing they call the Internet and google. Thanks...

 

Hows the screen brightness?

 

wow, this laptop looks awesome. great value for the price

 

hmm the brightness, To me im more use to high performance use, the brightness for this lappy is like any lappy u see, kinda dark in balance and save power, higher performance= brright enuf and consider the area u use, Barely sound no heat, and battery life is about 2 hour or so for high performance, 3 hours for save battery and balance.

 

I am just finishing up a full review.

My advice to anyone waiting for the sale - get one now and price match later. At $1350 this is a great deal. At $1200 each store's allotment of 3-4 will be gone fast.

PM me questions and before the review is done and I will try to answer them in the main article.

 

already is a review, guess more are welcome though

 

Whoops, I missed that. So here comes a second review.

 

Have either of you guys tried to replace the processor. If so, how easy was it??? Im planning on buying this+merom proc(2.2)+320gb off of newegg, and I wanted to know how easy it is.

 

Blah this is so *insert profane word of choice here* tempting to buy because a vostro even though it would have 2ghz would still get killed gaming performance by this, have a smaller hdd and less ram for maybe 1200 give or take with 1 year warrenty

Few questions

For some reason I have read that it does have bluetooth from some sources and others no, which is true?

Does 1440x900 feel small on vista desktop with the huge icons, though I guess the status bar will be slightly smaller than my current monitor which is 17" sxga, based on sizes they are same dpi (3 more on gateway) and my current monitor is probably laptop distance away and feels fine?

How long have you managed in battery life for simple non gaming tasks (underclocked and non underclocked) would gaming such as HL2 or CSS or some older games be feasible on a card when it is underclocked so I could get more juice out of it (I know those games are super ram based because I used to be stuck on low with 512mb ram and with 1.25gb I am up to high (recommended settings with the same crappy 9250 graphics card)?

Does it get very hot?

Certainty on best buy deal?

Quality (flex of notebook screen, feel of material, material itself)

 

Has Bluetooth, 9cell battery I played UT3 forgetting to plug in ac and it ran 1.25 hrs at least! This is the highest quality notebook I have ever seen (no Bull) best keyboard for sure. Games look fantastic great screen. Plays UT3 50-60 FPS 1440x900 max setting (Game of the year if it was up to me).

 

Just got it myself. It's a nice laptop and the quality is better than my old dell e1705. It doesn't feel cheap and is quite durable.

 

Wow 1.25 hours with that kind of graphics powerhouse under the hood is great! Sure a Alienware 8800gtx or sli might last almost as long but then it costs twice as much for similar performance (ex identical 17" sli with 8700gt is supposed to theoretically perform the same). I imagine if I set an overclock preset to underclock it to as low as the program lets me go while still running aero well and low brightness plus bluetooth off and only running what is needed do you think 2 - 2.5 hours could be gotten out of it because you are downclocking to almost if not below 8600gt levels?

 

I wonder what the long term reliability is?

 

Yea I agree now that I think about it, that is probably the biggest question, sure it supposedly is very nice high grade feeling and sturdy and possibly the best notebook some people have had but I wonder how it will hold up to every day bumps and abuse over time.

 

It just feels like a well built rig. And for the price you even have enough money to get an extended warranty if you want.

 

Would you be able to extend it through gateway or would it be through bestbuys coverage?

 

Yes you can get an extended warranty through both gateway and bestbuy....Fellow Greenbay fan!!!

 

anyone happen to know how it compares to the NP 5792 both in performance and in build quality?

 

Well I bought the laptop for running around, I'm a real estate agent, and it works just fine carrying it around. If your worried about it looking good if it gets banged up, the answer is no then. First reason is, it's black, I had a black mustang once and I'll never buy a black car again, it just shows everything. Second reason is its shiny, the more glossy it looks, the more it shows everything, think of it like your bathroom mirror.

Performance wise, its gonna have 2/3 the power, because the 8800m gtx is just a killer card. Gaming bench marks do show this. Now if you want to compare build design, the P-6831FX is the obvious winner. Good reason so far is, its already built to handle a extreme processor and this model doesn't even have one. So it runs very cool. Compared to the 5792 which is already being upgraded to a 5793, just to handle the same processor. Another reason it wins in build design, is the 579X designs have had a dreaded flaw that many reported its fans sound like a hair dryer. No such problem with the P-6831FX. I guess thats 2 points for the P-6831FX and 0 for the 579x. I guess the knock out blow comes down to price and again its obvious who wins. So you can decide if you want a little less performance with a solid laptop, or more performance and give up a little bit of the quality. Fyi I'm sure someones gonna chime in and say but the 579X can be upgraded, the thing is those upgrades cost almost as much as this laptop.

 

Do you think it'll be possible at all to upgrade this notebook besides the CPU, RAM, and HD? Your review makes the notebook look extremely appealing, especially because of the price and although I'm still debating between this and the NP5793, the Gateway looks like it only loses in performance and customer service, but wins in basically everything else. Not to mention, it wins in price by a long shot.

 

You cannot upgrade the graphics card if thats what your asking, as a matter of fact you can't even do that in the 5793.

 

I was going to buy the NP5793 and reviewing the two I'm going with the Gateway. I don't have to have the gtx heck the 793 can't even play Crysis at native rez with all eye candy turned on.

 

I have always been a big fan of the Clevo units...especially the 579X series.....however now that i got the P-6831FX ...my feeling is this is a much better machine overall.....(even though the 579X will outperform the gateway in the graphics department).

What i like better about the gateway laptop than the clevo are the following:

1. Hardly ANY fan noise at all even under large CPU/GPU loads on the gateway.
The Clevo can be much noisier and seems to run hotter.

2. The gateway (even the cheaper bestbuy model) has TWO internal hard drive bays AND you can set two hard drives with RAID via the bios (when a 2nd hard drive is installed this option comes up on the bios).
The 579X series from clevo does not have 2 built-in hard drive bays...it only has a optical bay option for a 2nd hard drive and you cannot do raid. Only the clevo D90X series supports that (3 hard drives in fact).

3. Although i like the build quality of all the clevo's, the gateway just seams a notch higher. Plus this gateway model has some cool gaming flare to it's appearance.

4. The price is just incredible....of course you get a gimped CPU with the bestbuy model, but the CPU is SOOOOO easy to upgrade yourself, AND it will take the new intel moble CPU's like the T8300, etc...
The clevo can be bought in barebones fairly cheap and is more customizable during the purchasing process, but in the end it seams like you just get more bang for you buck with the gateway deal.

Bottom line, this is the best "deal" for a Store bought gaming notebook i have seen in a while (since the X205 from toshiba showed up several months ago)

-Scotty

 

Can I ask where you guys are getting drivers for this laptop, I cant seem to find drivers for the card reader or touch pad.

 

The laptop doesnt come with a driver CD/dvd...instead there is a gateway recovery program that allows you to burn a Driver DVD....you need to do that before you install your own copy of windows, etc....
As of right now gateway does not have drivers for the unit on their website (at least i cant find them).

-scotty

 

I see... and in the event that I have already formatted the C partition (recovery partition still available)?

 

Yes as long as you didnt remove the recovery partition you should be able to boot to it (you will have to check with gateway on what function key to press during the system startup) and then restore the C drive to factory default...then make your driver CD, and then re-wipe.

 

its suppose to be f11, however I dont see any option to press it and when i do it simply continues to boot into windows.

 

There are three versions of this coming out, with only the low end one avaible now, when are the next two coming out and is there a spec sheet any where for all three of these models?

 

The provided disk has a nice option to do a clean install of Vista on it, it will save a file called windows.old that has your drivers and everything else that is provided in the original setup so you can transfer anything you want to keep from the box stock setup. The clean install option couldn't be any simpler and I give Gateway big credit for providing it!! I ended up with 39 processes, memory usage went from 854 to 583 and had just the recycle bin desktop icon left.

 

http://www.gateway.com/programs/pseries/index.php

that is the only info i can find on them at this time

 

I spoke with a Gateway Rep and he said the 31st. I'm not sure how hard that date is because originally it was suppose to be the 17th. I guess it's all these Intel delays.

 

Hi again,

For those of us stupid enough to try getting at the restore partition via altering the partition table, then accidentally hosing the install but restoring on top of the restore partition (forgot to change the table back after i got onto the restore partition). Could some kind soul post the drivers for the card reader, touchpad (I think theres some other proprietary drivers for the keyboard as some functions dont work) for me please. Or the part numbers so I can look them up.

Thanks

 

Not sure why everyone is having a hard time with drivers, all I had to do is right click on the yellow question marks in system devices and update the driver. I've done 3 complete reinstalls and the only OS thats given me any trouble is xp.