Need some info from P-173XL / P7811 Users

I think I have almost made my decision in buying a Gateway laptop, over the XPS M1730 (i hope its not going to be a bad one). I needed some insight from actual gateway users though.

Couple of questions:

How well is your laptop performing? (mainly regarding gaming)
Have you experienced any problems while using it?
Anything you don't like about either the laptops?
How is the sound?
How fast does it boot up?

and also anything else I should know about is welcome.

My main concern right now is that I will be leaving to another country for a couple of months after I purchase my laptop. So I don't want to run into problems when I can't even contact Gateway or send in the laptop for repairs.

Thanks in advance.

 

I have the 7811...

Really good. It has played everything that I have thrown at it with out any problems. Scores over 8.5k in 3Dmark06...and P4000 in Vantage.

None really, no BSOD, nor freezing, nor crashing.

Flexing around the quick launch buttons. My mute button makes a funky clicking noise. Missing DVD drive activity light. GPU fan has a fubar thermal throttling. The FN and ctrl key are swapped.



"d" is missing...

Speakers are poor. No bass. Onboard sound card is just fine. I uses head phones and a creative x-fi notebook and it is excellent.

Very quick when you do a fresh vista install (cd included).

 

Fantastic machine ,great price and very little not to like about it .

 

Thanks a lot for the replies guys. I am def loving this laptop more everyday lol.

Also, do you guys think it is a good decision to buy the gateway over the Dell XPS M1730?

 

Well you have 14 days to answer that yourself If your a gamer take all the games you have and load them on there and give it a whirl and youll be able to decide yourself how happy you are .

I love my machine and what makes me love it more every time i look at it is how much i spent for what i got .

 

Depends.... can you get the Dell XPS M1730 with a better GPU for less than $1500?

I love my 7811. My only minor gripe is having to raise the back of the notebook when I want to game. Other than that, what's not to like?

 

How well is your laptop performing? (mainly regarding gaming)
I have the P7811 and it runs extremely well. With the 4gb DDR3 ram, there is no lag. I haven't test out intense games yet, but it's pretty **** fast. I got 9.4k marks.

Have you experienced any problems while using it?
The first problem was the "display driver has crashed" or whatever. That's because I OC my gpu, and it was a friggin hot day (game didn't crashed, it just display the error message).

Anything you don't like about either the laptops?
The only thing I don't like is that the bottom of the screen (not the screen itself, the black part that surrounds it) scratches easily especially the area where you close it (the hinge part). It's slightly heavy but the benefits extremely outweighs the cons (considering it is a desktop replacement).

How is the sound?
The sound is decent as I mostly use my speakers (5.1) and rarely my headphones. Using the laptop speakers, you'll get mediocre sound but it'll be fine for playing youtube, etc (not music though, I mean who the heck use laptop speakers for music?)

How fast does it boot up?
It boots it pretty fast because I did some configurations (splash screen, startups applications, etc). I defrag my laptop at least twice a week and frequently scan it with CCleaner and AVG so that everything is in tip top shape.

 

Awesome replies everyone.

I am honestly impressed what Gateway has to offer .

I ordered my laptop today, can't wait until I get it.

Thanks for all the information.

 

I've always bought Dell. 3000/7000/8100/8200/XPS Gen 2. This time I bought an 7811. I LOVE IT. To me it feels as well built (or better) than the Dells. I never had a Dell that didn't need at least 1 motherboard replaced so I question their quality anyway. I DO like their warranty, it was great, but I had to use it many times.

The screen on this new Gateway is much better than any Dell I ever owned. Price/Performance: Dell can't touch this. My last Dell (XPS Gen 2) was $2900.

My 7811 was purchased 8/13, and I've had no hard lockups yet. Crysis has hung up 3 times, but it was the game, not the laptop. GPU temps have never maxed out higher than 62 degress celcius. I play Crysis and COD4 quite abit, ususally for 2-4 hours at a time. I use a "Lapinator" lapdesk and put the laptop on my lap to work and game. No problems.

My only complaints:
The shift key on the left side is too big for the actual key underneath, so sometimes I have to center my finger on it to get it to work.
The laptop does show fingerprints.
The DVD drive is noisy.
The fan does cycle ubruptly at times.

So far, so good. I don't regret my purchase at all (and I payed $1459).

 

For the price, you're not gonna beat the 7811. However, that being said, I wouldn't disregard the M1730 just yet. What config were you looking into buying on the 1730?

 

This:

Dell XPS M1730
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
Ram: 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
Hard Disk: 200GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Optical Drive: 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
GPU: NVIDIA®GeForce®8700M GT graphics
Display: 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
Physics Accelerator: AGEIA™ PhysX™ Physics Accelerator
Weight: 10lb+
Bluetooth: Yes
Fingerprint Reader: No
Price: $2039.99 (CAD)


In other words, the most basic version of the M1730 they had lol. Others are a bit high in price.

 

Ok, With that config, I would strongly consider the 7811fx. Just make sure you get one with a 2888 serial number and you should be fine.