P-7805u FX, and other P-78xx are the BOMB!

Frankly, after buying this in March and using for awhile, I have come the conclusion that this unit rocks! Comparatively, you would spend at least $500-$1000 more to get the same performance from any other manufacturer. Best bang for the $1200 and I can't understand why I don't see this as one of the most viewed laptops at left of this site?
<---------over there.


Also, when they do laptop testing for those reviews, this laptop or series is not even mentioned. Strange.
I don't know why Best Buy isn't sold out of them.

All I am saying is, I did my homework before buying this and it paid off in the end.

Now...........where can I get another one. Just kidding. Looking to add some stuff soon.

 

Welcome to the realization that comes with buying an FX

We have always been about the best purchase in the game. Ever since the original 6831. I dont know how gateway does it, but i'm glad they do.

I still say the Gateway FX is the best gaming rig for the price on the market.

 

I've been encouraging people to buy P-68XX and P-78XX laptops, for the price to performance ratio, but for some reason they feel "Gateway" has a negative stigma attached to its name.

 

It does unfortunatly. There were quite a few years that most in the computer world wouldnt touch a Gateway with a 10ft pole.

THey started truely sucking when they lost the fight with dell to become the "big name" in computers

Luckily that is in the past and they have been making pretty solid releases lately (not counting the high count of 1st gen 7811's that kinda bombed)

 

Yea, every gateway i have used had one problem or another, and their CS sucks

 

The problem with Gateway is that Customer Service sucks....however up to recently (personal experience) Dell was not too far behind.

On the other side they offer an incredible value for th emoney...I got my P-7811 FX new at Best Buy for $1199 and now I dumped $400 for the T9900 upgrade on it (The laptop is one of the easiest to upgrade the CPU and this is a big bonus to be considered when you buy one notebook)

Now with less than a total of $1800 on it (I got an additional 320 GB 7200 rpm drive) I cannot believe the level of power this thing has....few guys that I know they cannot believe I got the T9900 on it...a 3 GHz+ Dual Core lappy...

 

well... most (actually, all i have ever used) are that easy to upgrade the CPU.
I'm actually POed that i can't get to the GPU/GPU fan...

And yea, i'd much rather have a Sager (or something) from Xotic, best CS i ever had!
Then again, a comparable Sager would have been double (i paid $700)...

 

Not only can you throw a T9900 but run it 100% and not melt the system. Overall a fairly well designed computer.............

 

Believe me, I know about the negative stigma regarding Gateway. Back in the 80's and 90's their proprietary hardware made it impossible to work with/upgrade. They were often slow machines anyway. This changed for me about 2 years ago when I was walking though Best Buy and they announced a special price drop on the Gateway MX-6820 Laptops for $599 down from $1000.
At the time I was without a PC at home and thought . Well, it hasn't let me down, and my wife is now running ADOBE CS-3 extended and Autocad 2006 on it without a problem. Yeah, its slower than my 7805 but what did you expect. So with that in mind knowing that I could trust their product, I included it in the search for a new gaming laptop. I bought 7805u, for one, because I COULD upgrade it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not praising Gateway and all that is Gateway, just this product.

 

I had a Gateway Solo 5300 back in 2001 for work. Did OK on Windows 2000 but we put Windows XP on it. God it was slow as hell, I hated it. Never thought I'd actually own a Gateway laptop but I love my P-6860FX and use it almost every day. I take it everywhere with me.

I've been doing tech support and network administration for more than 13 years now. If you had told me a few years ago I would own a Gateway and love it I would have laughed right in your face.

 

hi all, i have my mind set on buying one but is there any other place instead of bestbuy, the only place i could find was ebay and i'm too scared to buy from there but the prices are better (300-400 bucks less than bestbuy).can anyone help me or at least give me some tips on buying from ebay?
i could post a link to the particular p7805 on ebay that i've been talking about

 

till few months ago, gateway p-7805u was the best deal for the bang..
well, at least when it was on sale for $1049 with 1920x1200 screen
on launch date. but now, i see so many laptops that has similar spec
for similar price. especially all those asus or msi offering similar power
with 2mp webcam + free carrying bag. of course, we are talking about
online vs local here.. of course, in local p-7805u is still the king but
not online, not these days. anyway, i've been enjoying my p-7805u as
well with x9100 equipped but sadly, i am going to get rid of it soon
and get something else. i am thinking about either sager NP9280 for
sheer power(11lbs, darn it) or msi 15.4 inch one from newegg for portability(5.9lbs, p8600 + 9800m gs + blueray for $1299). long live gateway..
i might change my mind if gateway release new model other than p-7808u
though.

 

ebay buy is very risky. not that seller would scam you or anything but
it's typical gateway p-78xx series screen problem. many p-7805u has
either backlight problem or stuck(dead pixel) problem. you can pretty much
say most refurbished unit on ebay has either one of those problem.
and even on new ones. stuck pixel might be toleratable if they are not red
one stuck on center of the screen but not backlight problem. seriously,
i had exchange twice to get perfect screen from best buy. this backlight
problem is ridiculous on this model. it looks like big white breach covering
1/3 of your screen.
if you buy in local at least you can take it back and exchange for new one
but if you buy it from ebay and get one of bad ones, you are out of luck.
of course, this doesn't imply if you are not bothered by few stuck pixels or
white breach that's only visible from angles.

 

this might sound naive but the guy says that he tested it for dead pixels
here is the link,can you check it out if its not too much trouble? http://cgi.ebay.com/Gateway-P-7805u...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

 

btw what are the specific msi and asus models were you talking about??

 

CS is horrendous. Full stop. Horrendous.

Luckily, the P7811 I sent (twice!) for repair has been lost in transit by FEDEX and hopefully I will be able to upgrade to the 7805!

 

does it break down that often

 

Tigerdirect with have more P-7805u FX's on May 16th wait til then and you can buy one for 699.00. Thats as cheap as it gets..

 

OMG!!! i would kiss you right now dude, can you confirm that, or do you have a link to page or press release by tiger direct

 

$699?? Wow!
Wait, are these the 1920x1200 screens?

 

if i want to add an intel turbo memory and bluetooth on my own, does it have enough expansion slots, cause it says only one. does that mean that i have to choose??

 

Oh yea...
I forgot...
My dad's MT6828...

Gateway says there are no Ethernet drivers in existance for it.
Funny, there were ones before it broken and we sent it in (they are not on the website either).

 

MSI GT627-218us w/P8600/1680x1050/320gb/Blu-ray/9800m GS/ 15.4"

Asus G50VT-X6 w/P8700/1680x1050/320gb/9800m GS/15.6"

Both are currently at Newegg for $1299.99

 

Not knocking these, but I bought mine from a store where I could physically take it back and demand satisfaction if there was a problem(Best Buy). Internet sales, well I trust it as far as I can throw it.
I also checked feedback on those Asus and MSI models and it wasn't good as far as build quality goes. There seemed to be alot of negative feedback on those but could have changed by now.

 

TigerDirect sale: legitimate or not? $699 seems too good to be true.

 

Yeah, and if I'm looking for a spare, this would be the ticket. I'd jump on it.

 

Very legit. I bought 2. One of them even had the 1920x1200 resolution lcd.

 

How could you buy 2 when the sale starts at may 16th. Can't wait, its only days.

 

I can't agree more to your statement.

 

The initial lot of refurbs was made available around April 28th. I actually had a chance to buy a lot more but I usually get into trouble when I get greedy.

 

I purchased one as well for $678 and it also came with the 1920 screen. It works very well. I just put 7RC1 on it too.

 

Since you have experiance with refurbs, how many of them are scratched or dented and how many have dead pixels or faulty display and in that case can i return it to tigerdirect

 

My 2 were near perfect. The only thing on both was that the hard drive cover was not put back on correctly. 20 seconds and I had it fixed. Otherwise, physically they were top notch.

 

so no screen issue cause if the sale is on may 16th i might not be able to return it since i'll be traveling on june 5th and from what i've read on the net tigerdirect don't have the friendliest CS

 

Ok, so these are refurbs?
Still not a bad deal.

 

Mine too! What's up with that? Pretty obivous and simple fix. Overall, very happy with the purchase.

 

im happy with my 7811... the case does feel a bit cheap... okay REALLY cheap but you know they gotta cut corners somewhere to get it at that price point.

also the screen doesn't display colors as well as i'd like even after calibration... but seeing as how this is aimed at gamers as opposed to artists and photographer (though with the specs and the screen... i don't see how other artists wouldn't gravitate towards this laptop) that's forgivable.

could use more usb ports though... my mother's 14'' asus has 5 of them! i'm sure they could have fit 2 more if they wanted to.

 

if i wanna play crisis at high detail do i have to get a better cpu or is the P8400 enough? Did any of you guys try it?

 

since i bought my 7811 FX i have had nothing but problems, i will never buy another gaming laptop and especaily never another gateway. Custom Built all the way. i should have just built a computer would have saved $500.