P-6860FX or P-172S FX - A Difference?

What's the difference between the P-172S FX Edition listed on the official gateway website

and the new
P-6860FX model that is at BestBuy(coming in the next week or so).

Are they both able to have their processor upgraded manually? I'm thinking of picking up a T9300 and installing it.

Is is neccessary to upgrade the processor given a potential bottleneck?

How is the quality of these laptops? Are they solid and firm or a little flimsy?

Thanks!

 

6860 has the T5550 (1.8) ghz CPU,320 gb 5400rpm HD 4 gb of ram and 64 bit OS(i think).

172SFX has the Tsomething (2.0) ghz cpu 160 gb 7200rpm HD and just 3 gb of ram.

 

P-172s FX: 160gb, 2.0 Ghz, 3gb ram
p-6860fx: 1.83ghz, 320gb, 4gb ram

 

yes you can upgrade the cpu by yourself.
built quality: lot of flex, i tried it at BB. don't expect a ferrari quality with honda price.
bottleneck depends on your tasks. 2.0ghz is fine for me

 

2.0 is enough for gaming. im not sure but i read somewhere that upgrading/swapping CPU will result in voiding your warranty.can some1 confirm that?

OT: hell of collection u got there nirvana.dont see a FX though.planning on grabbing one?

 

thanks. i collect high end models only

 

..there are two levels of warranty, depending on where you buy, Gateway or retail. This needs to be addressed by Gateway, big time, depending on the type user.. and rarely brought up in these discussions.

Of course with the guys helping on these forums, the retail Gateway support can continue practice reading scripts

 

I noticed some differences between the 172s and the 6860. Just for you to notice maybe it will help in your decision , as I am leaning toward the 6860. So you can say maybe this post if for helping me get my thoughts clearer also.

172s
Integrated Realtek 802.11b/g Wireless Networking
160GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 8MB cache4
3072MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1-1024MB & 1-2048 MB module)
2GHz processor
$1400


6860
4965 network connection (802.11a/b/g/n); Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
4GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz
320GB 5400 Harddrive
1.83GHz Processor
$1350

So for less money, I get a nicer wireless card, 1gb more ram, more harddrive space(i dont think it will be that much difference between 5400 and 7200 for performance sake). I get Bluetooth as well. I will mention that yes, the processor is slower, but, I dont' think its that noticeably slower, unless all you do is benchmarking. Oh, and the warranty is not as good, but, that doens't bother me.

So, there are differences, but, both 6860 and 172s can be upgraded. I am going to do the same thing, but, I am looking at the t8300 instead. I know less cache, but, for the price I like the specs.

The 6860 is definatly a better base unit to start with if you are going to upgrade stuff yourself. Becuase then the warranty doesn't matter after that.

Hope that helps. It has helped me getting it down on "paper" and seeing my thoughts.

 

has any1 tried getting the retail 6831 or 6860 then getting extended warranty through. might be a good idea if possible!

 

P-6860 over the lame 172S FX any day of the week.

 

Yes, I paid $189 after retail, Flynnaz said he paid about $140 or so when he bought direct.

 

Thanks for all the replies

How does the stock 1.8 handle games like Crysis, WiC, CoH, STALKER, C&C3, SupCom..etc..? pretty much all the newer titles. I would imagine the GPU intensive games are are ok like Crysis. 20-30 fps on high/medium settings? The artificial benchmarks like 3dmark are almost as promising as Sager and Alienware, some even better depending on CPU and for about 1400 bones, which is excellent.

The 8800GTS, although not as powerful as the GTX, seems to hold it's own and there seems to be less of a performance gap as there is in the desktop models, no?

 

Awesome this notebooks pwns these games: STALKER, C&C3,

OK, the CPU is a bottleneck but 20-30 fps is achievable fully maxed out: WiC, CoH, SupCom

Passable, medium settings: Crysis

I have been very happy with other games too: Sins of a Solar Empire (fully maxed), The Witcher (almost maxed), Oblivion (ultra High).

 

My P-6831 has a 1.66 cpu, and runs everything stated above plus Everquest 2 with no problems. I bought my P-6831 from a fellow NR poster on ebay and called about the retail warranty and it was $189.00 I think, to me not worth it, I have all the tech support right here
I bought my P-171x fx from Gateway and the warranty was $149.00 and the accidental was free.

 

This notebook has a lot of advantages, easy CPU swap 10-15min no kidding couldn't be easier, Excellent cooling system, setup for RAID 0 is there, best keyboard I ever had, great looking, and surprising build quality for the price, comes with Vista disk for easy clean install. 9 cell battery. I use mine with a 40 HD-TV connected with HDMI cable, E-sata port. Quite a bargain.

 

is that 189 from gateway themselves or from BB? i meant buy from BB then get the warranty through gateway since its pretty much a "gateway" computer.

 

Yes, bought from BB with free game open box. I bought the extended warranty from Gateway two weeks later. I only bought it when I found out GPU was soldered in. I have never bought extended on my previous 4 laptops, but due to great price, I feel better running WFO with a gaming GPU and occasional OC

 

Like the hottie as your avatar! haha

 

yeah, so I went ahead and picked up the 6860 this weekend, love it. What's the standard BB warranty though? I forgot to ask the clerk and it doesn't say anything on the receipt. I guess it would be better to get a gateway warrant, at least I would feel more comfortable since they're the manu.

 

I'd like some warranty advice too. I know I can still get the BB replacement plan for a year or go the Gateway route. Just curious what is suggested or preferred. Thanks

 

Well I just bought a P172s fx and I thought the specs were right for the cash. That is before I saw the 6860fx, now I am wondering what to do. Does Best Buy have these ready to be shipped? Because Gateway does not have the P172s fx's ready yet, ship date may 21, 2008. I want my laptop asap.

Also, what does it have as far as expansion bays I thought it had two for something. I know it has two for the hdd. I think I might get a ssd for it as well.

 

give them a call. they should have some stock by now.

 

The 6860 is a better deal, if you go with the P-172S FX your just paying a 130 Mhz faster CPU and your losing 160 GB of HDD and a GB of RAM.

 

Yes

Depends on what you want to do with it

They are a feel solid but flex a lot

 

Im in the same boat debating on the P-172 or the P-6860. I am a Music Video DJ and think this laptop will perform like i need it too. I wasnt planning on spending $1300 but would rather spend that then to try and build a small shuttle for $750 and have to lug around monitor and keyboard and cpu. So both of these pretty easily upgraded if need? If they were both priced at $1250 which would you choose? I was able to talk Gateway down pretty easily to match the best buy price.

 

Its up to you, if Gateway will price match Bestbuy, I would go for the P-172s olny becuase the faster CPU, faster Hard Drive that you can but another to setup raid0 for fast file transfers. It's kinda a wash, the Bestbuy is good too, it has a bigger hard drive to start and more ram, and 64bit vista

 

The only thing you can't upgrade is the GPU. Everything else is a snap. The RAM, CPU, and wireless are under one panel, and the HDDs under the other. They are all a snap to upgrade, and shouldn't void warranty if you keep the original parts. Heck, even a number of people have upgraded their screen, should you want a higher resolution.

 

you probably want above 2.2ghz, as there are a good number of programs that require this on one core as a threshold of performance. Just like 256mb gfx is the limit in relation to minimum passable gaming.