Just joined, message for UKers...

I've just joined and wanted to post an initial hello (waves), explain what Gateway laptop I have and ask a question.....

I initially had a budget laptop, a Toshiba Sat Pro A60, it is really good for what it is and I would definitely have a Tosh again, however I went into a local Staples store and saw this Gateway and my jaw must have been dragging along the floor with slobber dripping all over the place, it's the wide screen and ultra bright display

The applications that I use will really benefit from the extra width of being able to run at 1440x900, I was previously constrained to 1024x768...

I must confess that the model numbers referred to in here are not what is available in the UK, mine for example is an MX8554b, although Gateway do seem to make a number of models that seem virtually identical, so are the model numbers referred to generally from the US market?

Initial impressions of the laptop are very positive, the keyboard is good and the number pad a real plus, I would prefer a larger set of direction keys but I'm sure I'll get use to it. The screen is fantastic with vivid colours, I wasn't completely sold on the ultra bright screens but I am NOW...

Battery life seems to be good although I haven't given it a full run yet, I've gone over 3 hours with some to spare so I'd expect to get over 4 hours maybe even 5, not bad considering I only got 1.5 out of my A60...

Performance is good, with a 1.86 Pentium M and 1024MB of DDR2 it should be, I used to have to cram my old 40GB hard drive with about 30GB of applications now they are swallowed by the 100GB hard drive in this thing

Gaming performance is OK, although with only 64MB on the X700 gfx card I am trying not to push it, Tombraider AOD and Half life 2 are reasonably playable at 1440x900, I'm trying to play them in the native resolution of the screen, I've pushed HL2 to 2xAA and 8xAF and it is stuttering a little, not much but I think I might get away with it...

Anyway stuff the games, I bought this for working on and in .NET and graphics packages it is brilliant

Quick ? to anyone who had this on theirs, there is an ATI Radeon sticker thingy to the left of the pad and I want to tear it off, will it come off cleanly? I don't want to peck up the edge only to find it's stuck on with liquid nails!!! Also what about pulling off the Graphics by ATI, Centrino and Windows XP stickers to the right of the pad?

So, if you're in the UK and in the market for a 17" higher performance laptop than the run of the mill 15.4 inch, 256-512MB, take a look at the Gateway MX8554b at Staples, £899...

great place you have here,
take care,
J.

 

Sometimes they come off cleanly, othertimes they do not. If there is glue residue, rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs do a good job of getting it off. Congrats on your new machine.

 

Your model sounds like an update of the 8510GZ in the U.S. Yours comes with a slightly faster processer(1.86 vs 1.73) and 1GB of ram, instead of 512MB. There's a newer U.S model which is comparable, too...but I don't remember the name right now. So threads addressing those units would be of consequence to you probably.

And as zazonz stated for the stickers, it's just glue. If you have a product like Goo Gone, that'll get the remnants off. The trick is to apply lightly(and if you use rubbing alcohol...perhaps dilute it) and do multiple applications over a lengthy period, rather than trying to get it all off at once, if it's troublesome. I used Goo Gone in small doses and got it all off over a two day period, applying it about 4 or 5 times total. No glue left behind.

 

I'll pick some Goo Gone up the next time I am out shopping

thank you,
J