Gateway gaming laptop?

Aloha! I'm a Marine currently station in Hawaii. Its hard life in the Corps

All kidding aside, my current laptop took a dive. But, I'm pretty good with money, and haven't really bought anything substanital. On top of that, I'm going on deployment soon, which means I'm gonna have a ton of cash by this time next year

We don't know where exactly we're going. Anyway you cut it, I'm probably gonna be bored out of my mind for a long time. And I like to game.

I just overheard on another message board that Gateway has some 8800M cards. The problem is, I'm a bit confused.

I see the P 172 series, and the 6860 series, and the FX series. Whats the difference?

 

all the laptops with fx in it have the 8800 cards in them, i think. i don't know about the P172 but the 6860 is a fx. it should say in the model # or whatever P-xxxxFX.ie: P-6860FX(which what i am typing on right now, it is a great laptop)

 

Yea, I've been reading around a bit and gotten that.

My concern is that the processor seems a bit outdated to me. How hard/easy would it be to upgrade it later? Like maybe in 6 months?

 

Its one of the easiest laptops to upgrade the cpu. I'm deciding on whether to upgrade to a t8300 or a x9000

 

Take a look at this page and you will see how easy is it to upgrade almost everything in this laptop.
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread212385.html

 

Awesome. Is this the one that has dual HD bays? Cus I would love to plug in the HD on my old laptop and not lose anything. Seriously . . . that would sell it. Especially if the BB in Aeia has it in stock.

The only thing that bothers me about the 6860 FX is that its only got 1440 x 900 resolution.

 

I don't know what kind of the hard drive you have on your old laptop so you will need to make sure it's compatible with the FX series.
I don't see that the screen is that bad as you think although you still can upgrade it as mentioned in the the link I just gave you.

 

Upgrade the screen? How?

And its an 80GB SATA drive from my Inspiron E1705. I'm asking, does the 6860 have the second bay for another HD?

 

ya it has 2 HD bays.

 

Your hard disk should work fine. All Fx series have 2 bays for hard drives.
You can get another screen with higher resulotion and the link I gave you will show you how you can take off the old one and how to put the new one.

 

Sweet. Now all I need is someone to take me to Best Buy

 

yep, once you upgrade it..it becomes a pretty much high end laptop. and let me clarify that...high end meaning one of the highest you can get on a santa rosa platform. (chip/hd's/screen) and you already have a very nice 8800m gts video card..... so jump in at entry level and upgrade to fairly high end. (high end to each person means something...)

 

Greetings from a Future Marine who is shipping out to Parris Island in 7 days!


This laptop is a great performer for the price, the keyboard feels great and got good build quality (you can push on the back of the lid and the screen doesn't distort and the keyboard is reasonably stiff) The internals are well laid out and run cool although I would recommend a notebook cooler.


Even with 0 upgrades and no overclocking I can get a 7188 @1280x800 on 3Dmark06 and run Crysis at 25-30 FPS on Medium/High at 1440x900. I would recommend this laptop since it's very upgradeable, inexpensive and performs well.

 

yeah, what he said!

 

BA HA HA HA HA!!!! You gonna die boy!!!! IMMA TAKE YOUR SOUL!!!!!

Ahhh . . . boot camp . . . the good old days . . . when life was easy. Good luck. Just tell yourself that its like a spa . . . but not . . .

 

Hey there Hawaii. Are you in 2/3, or perhaps 3rd Rad?

 

3/3. 2/3 is gone 1/3 is leaving soon. Gonna be kind of lonely on this base. I know more guys in those units than my own.

If we could just get rid of the cannon ****ers, we could have everybody here for a Reg. run that ends on the beach with a huge cookout. That would be awesome.

cyclist14 - My advice is this: Don't go to boot camp with debt. Probably too late now. Pay off as much as you can on boot leave.

And no matter what, they will ship your car to your permanent duty station. Period. Anyone who says different is full of it.

Lastly, at MOS school (or SOI if you're a grunt), ask for 3rd Marine Regiment (or 1/12 if you're arty). If you have to be a boot, there's no better place to be one.

 

I don't have any debt to worry about so thats not a problem, my MOS is in the 06xx field ( more specifically I am hoping for Data Network Specialist 0656).


My PFT score is 260 with the only weak spot being pull-ups so I think the hardest part of boot camp for me will be the physiological shock (mind **** )

I now have 6 days till I ship but I think I made a grave mistake by already cutting off all of my hair

Wish me luck

 

Yea. Don't get NJP'd at MOS school either. Not worth it.

 

It's the most upgradeable laptop I've ever seen and very easy to do most of the upgrades. The others covered all of the upgrade links that Ive seen but also Gateway lets you download the actual user manuals of all of the FX models. See for yourself. The higher price Models on the Gateway website generally have better processors and lcd monitors. But the P-6860 is the best value overall has a lesser monitor but $1349 for a good gaming laptop was unheard of until Gateway got into the market.
Seanno

 

Boot camp was a blast! Enjoy it.

2nd Bn, 3rd Marines was great to me as a fresh boot.

Good luck, and remember to ask for 3rd Rad in MOS.

 

So, should I order a 6860 FX direct from Gateway or from Best Buy's website? Neither BB's in Ohau have it in stock

 

You can probably get one of the stores to have one ordered. You can't get it from Gateway, only BB's website. See if you can get them to arrange a pickup for you at the local BB.

 

you wouldn't be disappointed...

 

I think I'd rather just have it sent to my friend's house and have her bring it on base. Can I still get that 3 years maintance plan if I order online?

 

Yes Sir, you can add the plan into your cart and then, assuming there was an issue, you would probably just need to present your online receipt and order number to the Geek Squad.