Gateway P-6860FX is on the way. Any quirks to know about?

I just ordered a P-6860FX for my GF's son as he sold his desktop and wanted a gaming notebook instead.

Are there any common/semi common issues or quirks I should be aware of with this unit?

The unit I have coming came from eBay for $699 shipped and supposedly has a few months left on the orig warranty, this is not a refurb unit apparantly.

 

Not really, its a very solid notebook. The 68xx series is probably the most reliable one gateway has put out (least amount of problems per owner anyway)

THe only real problems is the mic is pretty much useless (just poor preformance) and thats about it

I've been using mine since they were first released (not counting the one i intentionally destroyed) and i've never had a problem. I've upgraded it to with in an inch of its life and the cooling system handles like a dream still and the computer gives me no problems.

I've ran Windows, i've ran RAID 1 and RAID 0, and currently dual boot with vista and Ubuntu and everything works perfectly.

All in all a great machine. Though i would have loved to gotten ahold of mine for 699 instead of the about 2200 i've put into it between buying it new when first releasesd, plus warrenty, plus upgrades.

 

Not really, it's a pretty nice machine. There is I think an issue some people (including me) have had with sound popping occasionally -- nothing too bad. Also, the ESATA port is deep so you might need to trim some plastic off your cable plug to make a solid connection if you use the port.

Make sure you run the apps and driver backup program to burn a DVD with the original apps and drivers on it. The Gateway OS DVD is nice in that you don't need a key to install, but it only has Windows Vista on it. Not all of the drivers on Gateway's web page work, and you'll need that apps and driver DVD later if you reformat your HDD.

 

I love my 6860. The 7811 was faster, but this thing is quiet and fast out of the box, and upgrades - muahahahaha!

So far I've upgraded my 6860 to a 7200 rpm hard drive, put XP Pro on it, replaced the CPU with a T9300 (2.5ghz), and I'm now working on putting an OCZ Vertex SSD into it with a clean install of XP

 

I got the exact same deal you just bought wardozer. Really love it out of the box, just upgraded the hardrive for a faster speed. Windows 7 runs smooth and my tempatures are amazing for the build of this brand, the only thing id advise is carrying it around as the hinges feel 'cheap' thats the only thing I have against it. But for $699 pfff who cares.
Hope he enjoys his new toy man!

 

Its not the hinges really (they are actually pretty strong springs) its the screen. Gateway doesn't reinforce their screens (or at least didn't on the 68xx series) so there is a good bit of "flex" to it. Just remember to always open the laptop from the middle and not just throw it open or open it from the side/

 

Thats good to know, I'll let the boy know when it comes. He's pretty good at remembering stuff like that as if he breaks it I told him he's SOL cause I ain't gonna fix it unless he pays me