So I bought a 7811 tonight

I'm pretty impressed so far, it's my first laptop. On boot up, I got a few annoying messages asking me to take Norton Antivirus for a whirl and join Norton Community watch, I cancelled out of all that and I'm fixing to uninstall that.

I installed The Witcher (bought it along with my laptop) and watched the opening cinematic and played a little bit of the first level (didn't complete, just turned it off so I could install WoW and get updated before bed.)

I'm pretty impressed by the package so far, you really do get what you pay for. It's my first laptop.

I plan on installing my usual stuff on it, Everest, VLC, mplayerclassic, and a few other things, and some games, a C++ compiler for school.

It's a good package, I don't think anyone will be unsatisfied unless they get a lemon. You can get a lemon with most things you buy, but that's just the nature of a product being manufactered, sometimes computers are on par with cars in that way.

So far, so good, I'm going to scour the sticky up at the top and see what I need to do.

First order of business once WoW updates is to uninstall all the bloatware.

Then I do know I need to run some sort of torture test.

It seemed to run Witcher fine, although I did touch the bottom left of my laptop and the heat level was approaching face melting proportions. But of course it stands to reason that once I shut off the game, the machine became a lot cooler to the touch, as the graphics card was no longer being stressed.

Anyway, any advice you'd give to a first time laptop buyer?

I bought this based on the value it represented as well as the recommendations from the fine people on this forum.

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for your recommendation NBR members.

 

Benchmark it up fuu!

NOWS!

lol, Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT DROP IT!
No greasy fingers on it, trust me my bro has a gateway and they're gloss is smudge-friendly.

Other than that said when you wakie, post some screenies!

 

what kind of benchmarking software should I use?

3D mark? I've never used it, point me in the right direction.

 

It's sold by futuremark. You can google it up. I also downloaded and used the Real Time HDR IBL program. (Abbreviated as RTHDRIBL.) Good graphics tester that you can leave on overnight.

If I were you, I would do as much testing as you can bear before installing everything and getting attached to your new baby. These things are much easier to take back without getting all pissed off and weepy if you haven't already put on all your favorite programs and gotten attached.

 

Test Programms I have put together for my brother:
Furmark: http://downloads.guru3d.com/FurMark-v1.4.0-download-1965.html
3dmark06: http://www.download.com/3DMark06-Basic-Edition/3000-2121_4-10492454.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10492453
Intel Thermal Analysis Tool: http://www.teccentral.de/forum/dl-intel-thermal-analysis-tool-59-file.html
Video Test: http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/
Colour/dead pixel test: http://www.laptopshowcase.co.uk/downloads.php?id=1
and a game test.

Have fun, mine just passed

 

greasy fingers or not, gateways love fingerprints, i wash my hands before i use my laptop, and still fingerprints and smudges show up, screen wipes and alcohol pads will now be your best friend

 

Grats man! The only game I play is World of Warcraft and it looks soooo nice on this laptop. Make sure you use the macro to crank up the graphics settings higher than you can using the game menu. I have my processor undervolted to 0.925v and I'm using the Targus X-Stand to prop the laptop up for cooling. CPU is normally in the 40's and GPU is close to 60c after an hour of playing.

Uninstall all the crap software with http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Here is the macro

Code:

/console farclip 783
/console horizonfarclip 6226
/console groundeffectdist 140
/console smallcull 0
/console groundEffectDensity 256
/console detailDoodadAlpha 100
/console maxLOD 3
/console SkyCloudLOD 3
/console characterAmbient 

 

Taken from another thread:

 

Yep this is it.
HWMonitor is only thing I'd add/change. Should do the trick.

 

I ran 3D Mark 06 and I got 8733 3D marks, the CPU tests showed the frame rate as being 0 to 1, is that normal?

other than that, it seemed to run the video tests pretty much just fine.

i haven't tried the other tests yet, but i will tonight.

 

Yes, it's normal for you to get only 0 to 1 FPS in the CPU test

 

That CPU portion is indeed painful. Not sure what mine was but miserable on every run I've done on any system. 8733 is about right for stock settings.

 

ty sir, now i feel better

I was a little worried when i saw that

I wasn't entirely sure if Eurasianman was joking or not, I've never used 3DMark before untill late last night. The little demos are pretty cool, i was just surprised to see the CPU portion just bog down like that.

I wasn't expecting that, even though I do know that the dual core processor in this laptop isn't the greatest, but it's pretty serviceable.

 

Sorry GP25, even my QX barely gets 2-3 FPS in that benchmark.

 

so what should my 3D Mark score be if I tweak my laptop a little?

I haven't changed anything, on it except removing bloatware.

I haven't updated any drivers yet or anything. I've been reading and some people are mentioning lockup problems with new drivers and stuff.

Sounds like hell.

 

I haven't had any lock ups and I have used the stock drivers and the updated drives on Gateway's website as well as 177.92 (used modified .inf file). I'm guess you should be able to get around 9K in 3D06. I've never tried. Didn't really care. I figured, if I can play CS:S, HL2, Mass Effect, R6: Vegas 2, CoD4, Crysis, and Crysis Warhead without issues, than I was good to go

 

well for stress testing, I'm going to use it exclusively to play games and let my desktop stay shut down for the rest of this week.

Will that be enough? This weekend will probably include marathon WoW sessions. If it can stand 8+ hours of gameplay in a day, is that enough stress on it? This is with all settings in WoW jacked up, and while also playing The Witcher.

 

God I hate the CPU portion of 3DMark. I'd rather watch paint dry.

 

I thought it was paint drying ... it isn't?

Here is a good thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295830

 

I ran Orthos last night for an hour and a half and it didn't lock up or anything and it passed all the tests, I ran the blended test where it stresses both the CPU and the memory.

Should I run it again only longer? What other stress tests should I run?

 

I honestly don't think you'll get any lock ups due to the CPU or memory. Majority of the lock ups seem to be in correspondence to the GPU and the heat it outputs. Just for sh*ts and giggles, I played R6: Vegas 2 for about 35 minutes (yes, I timed it lol) and I left HWMonitor running. After gaming for 35 minutes on my desk, having the laptop sit flat, the GPU got up to 98C But it didn't lock up!

 

I don't mean to threadjack or be an alarmist, but the other temperature I would keep an eye on is the hard drive. It surprises me how little attention the hard drive gets considering it's where all of your data is stored! According to Seagate (who makes the 7811's stock hard drive) the operating temps should be 0C - 60C. According to a lot of posts on this board, people are seeing 50C - 55C idle, and as high as 65C or higher under heavy load.

You might try defragging or running a virus scan and keeping an eye on your HWmonitor HD temps. I still haven't found a great solution for cooling the HD. Seems the case design isn't great for HD cooling. Couple of things I'm considering is swapping out the stock hard drive for a WD Scorpio 320gb\5400rpm drive (if I can find proof they run cooler than the Seagate), or perhaps the Zalman NC2000 (based on the design, it looks like it has some cooler vents near where the hard drive is located.

 

You may want to disable superfetch and windows search in the services.msc cause these things thrash your drive pretty hardcore all the time.

 

My stock drive runs/surfs about 38C. I have SF enabled but Quadzilla has a good suggestion for those having issues. I do turn indexing off, maybe that helps.

 

I have noticed that while "nothing" is running temps run high due to fetch and indexing. Honestly I hate having to disable OS features due to poor laptop design (although there are some performance benefits). As I've posted in other threads, I have a Lapinator Plus which lifts the laptop a bit, but doesn't provide any kind of additional fans for cooling. I'm considering purchasing a Zalman NC2000 or NZXT Cryo LX to place ON the Lapinator (Lapinator provides a good base and comfort in my lap, the cooler provides more active cooling for the laptop). I'm hoping this might enhance the overall cooling of the laptop, but the hard drive in particular.

Sorry, I'm done threadjacking and you can have your thread back now!

 

Let me know how your 7811 handles WoW. Mine randomly errors out with a Error #132. It will look like the game locked up but if you do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and bring up the task manager you will see the error message. This happens randomly....it may work fine for hours or it may give the error after only playing a few seconds. Again, this is ONLY in WoW. Let me know your experience.

 

It handled WoW and WAR just fine, I had it running both for a few minutes, and I noticed no slowdown or anything.

My 7811 seems pretty solid so far.

I left it running overnight while I slept, I woke up, it was still on and working fine.

Someone in another thread said their Gateway shut down overnight, but I think he might have not set his power options to shut down = never.

well I'm glad to see my Gateway works fine.

You might want to reinstall WoW

sometimes even if a game works fine, over time the installed game might have a small spot of corruption. It's been known to happen, which is why when people get unexplained errors, they reinstall programs.

Everything looks good on this Gateway

So far I have played on it

TF2
The Witcher
Bioshock (first time playing it on any PC, pretty **** spooky game)
WoW
Warhammer Online

everything runs just fine.

I need to install Oblivion and play that once I find my disc.

 

I run Prime95 for 24hrs to ensure stability on my overclocked desktops and I fully expect a stock notebook to complete the same.

 

what fps u got from playing wow, range 70-120 , max 150?

 

what kind of FPS are u getting on wow?raids etc---

 

IIRC, it's the GPU that gives people hard lock ups and reboots. The CPU is a joke if it's stressed and running at stock. I don't think I've ever seen my CPU hit 60C.

 

What settings should my graphics card be on and in game settings to run WoW at high fps?

 

With a 7811, you should be able to max everything out and play at native res without a hit on FPS. Besides, I thought WoW had a cap lock at 60 FPS.

 

wow you got only 8733 in 3dmark06? I have the same system and got 9452 on stock drivers dunno what happened there

 

This is very strange indeed. I've never seen over 87xx stock. Would you be willing to submit to a lie detector examination?

Hey congratulations anyway.

 

sure gimme location and date lol yea but either way i love the p-7811fx great notebook if you ask me lol

 

I have Gateway P7811-FX and this notebook works just fine.

I notice there is some "heating" when i play WOW on max resolution but that not affecting on FPS. World of Warcraft looks soooooooo great on this notebook and work so fine and never RESTART, freeze or something else

This is my best notebook until now.

 

congrats radovic most people agree, it is a great system.

 

I did not care for my P-7811 @ first but after using it for a few weeks now I must say it is the best $869.00 I spent in a long time.