Just recieved my 6831

I ordered it on 4/11/08 and it did ship with a t5450 cpu

I did notice there is a scratch on the orange plastic surrounding my keyboard. It isnt a big scratch but it bothers me.

 

If it really bothers you I'm sure you could call Best Buy and tell them about it. I'm sure if you wanted it replaced it shouldn't be a problem. You could probably even bring it to a store and exchange it, if you wanted to wait if they didn't have any in stock that is. Or you could even have to ship it back, which either way depending on in-stock status or not you're looking at a little wait. It's up to you. Or return it and buy the 6860 now that's it's here/almost here.

 

I myself take great care with my notebooks, so knowing that there was a scratch on it prior to me receiving it would absolutely bug me. I would focus on it too much, so if it were me, I'd send it back and hold out.

If you send it back, you may luck out and get a 6831fx with a T5550 instead of the T5450. Or you could just wait a bit longer and get a 6860.

 

I am the same way.

I'm considering a few options. Unfortunatly all of them require waiting but I guess it will be worth it when it is all said and done

1.) get the P-6860 FX - pretty much the same price and it will be a little faster cpu,320gb hdd and 4gb ram

2.) P-172S FX Edition - a little more money 2.0ghz processor and a faster but less capacity hdd

3.) P-172X FX Edition - a decent jump in price but a much faster cpu, 2 320gb hdd's and the 1920x1200 sexyscreen. this one would basically be good as is without any need for upgrades save maybe some different quicker ram.

so I guess my question to you FX series vets is this.

Lets set money aside and just look at performance between the 3. I only care about cod4 so how much of a boost in frames per second would I be looking at gaining between these 3?

That would help me decide if the difference in price is justified. If it will be pretty much the same then I dont see a reason to upgrade

 

Minimal boost since they all use the same graphic card.

Note, what do you mean by quicker RAM for the 172X?

 

i ment the only upgrade i would do would be to add some cas 4 ram

 

I am in the same boat right now as you. I had my heart set on the P 171 S FX, that seemed to be perfect but they've discontinued it unfortunately before I could arrange my finances.

Now I'm torn between the P-6860, and the 172X FX.

I like to play RPGs mostly, and generally my list looks like Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect for the PC, Fallout 3 etc, as they become available.

I think the P172S FX is a pretty stupid flop of a replacement for the 171S. It doesn't make sense to have two systems, the P172S and the P6860, nearly exactly alike except one with less ram, a worse wireless card and half the HDD, for the same price as the other.
The CPUs are 1.86/2.0 which is less than 10% of a performance jump, which is hardly noticeable.

So, I would go with the retail version rather than sacrifice half the HDD, the Draft N, the RAM and the 64 bit OS, for a 9% CPU boast.

As for the P172X FX, that is a sweet buy, but a bit more than my budget is willing to allow. I could squeeze out enough for it if I starved, but my question is: is the 1920 X 1200 screen and the 2.4 Ghz processor worth $600?

 

Also in a similar position. My 6831 arrived today, but sits here unopened. I think I'm going to return it and go for the 6860fx. Any ideas if it would be quicker to order online or wait for the local stores to get in stock? Tried calling a couple of Best Buys todays to see if they could give any clue on an eta for 6860 stock, but they seemed clueless. One told me to try back in a couple of weeks. Another said that is was an online product only.

 

To answer that question, the T8300 is worth around $250-$270 as an upgrade. The screen is worth another $200-300, depending on what you buy. You'd be saving maybe a $100+ including tax if you did the upgrading of screen and processor yourself.

Admittedly, the P172S FX seems like a rather odd system for Gateway to have come up with.