gateway m-6862 review

I bought the gateway m-6862 a few days ago and i decided to post a review today. ill put up more pics later.

the reason i got this is i wanted a good mid range gaming laptop. i had been on and off chosing the dv5t for a few weeks, but then i found this on sale at best buy for 600 bucks and i had to get it. i have to say, i have not been disappointed.

Pictures of the exterior



Inside


Ports


It has all the ports i needed, 3 usb, expresscard, ethernet, and 3 in 1 card reader, as well as an hdmi port and a modem port (i think thats what it is. lol i dont use it so i dont care. the site says its a modem port i think lol) and of course it has a headphone and mic jack. it could use another 1 or 2 usb ports in my opinion, but i only need 3, 1 for mouse, 1 for keyboard (if i chose to use one) or flash drive, and one for my ipod.

it has a vga out port. yay? and a dvd drive.

now for the specs. also i should explain why i might think the way i do about this. im coming from a desktop with 768mb ram, 2 ghz athlon single core processor, and a hd 2400 pro gpu. stepping up to 4gb ram, 2 ghz core 2 duo, and a 2600 ddr3, its not even comparable how much faster it is. start up times is about 50ish seconds.

Screenshots
bioshock

call of duty 4

gaming ability was great for me. first game i tried was oblivion, and i maxed out all settings at the max resolution of the laptop (1200x800) minus shadows which were on low, i got a steady 60ish fps, dropping down at lowest to about 28. then i downloaded the crysis demo to see just how powerful this was. i ran crysis all medium minus shadows and water at low, and it ran at a very steady 30 fps, in big firefights dropping down to about 25 (which was fine by me, i didnt notice lag).

3dmark scores no overclocking is: 3645. i cant tell you much on this i really odnt know exactly what it means. this is the first computer ive ever used it on.

temperatures are pretty cool while just using internet web processing and stuff, running at about 50-55 celcius. not uncomfortable at all. while gaming, (i ran the full crysis demo in one sitting to check this l
ol) i got a max temp of 85 celcius, which still wasnt too bad for on the lap use.



Screen






the screen is excellent, very bright, and viewing angles are ok. looking from the top the angle is horrible, you cant see anything well, and what you can see the color is inverted. however, from the bottom the viewing angle is excellent, and you can see perfectly until you put the laptop pretty much flat. however. the side angles are perfect i think. i can have the laptop almost directly sideways and the colors are still perfect and you can still read the text.

Keyboard and Touchpad


keyboard is good, minus the fn key. its in the place of the ctrl key which still annoys me in games. the touchpad is good, easy to slide your finger accross it and the buttons are nice and...clicky? i dont use the touchpad much though, they annoy me. and it has a touch volume slider! i dont need to pause my game to raise or lower the volume!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAA ITS SO AMAZING YAY! (lol)

well... thats all i can think of. if you have any questions about it ill try to answer them. ill put up the pros/cons now.

pros:
decent gaming performance
price (comon, beat 600 bucks for these specs)
nothing has exploded
nice screen
big 250 gb hdd.
touch volume slider
ddr3 gpu

cons.
**** fn key
not superduper gaming performance.
resolution isnt amazing (not really a con to me though)
processor is a little weak (t5750)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> HWMonitor <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
This has been asked alot. if you wanna see your gpu temps using this program, use the 32 bit version, the 64 bit version wont show the gpu

 

Can you pop off the harddrive cover and check if there are 2 or 3 antenna leads going to the wifi card?

 

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10 chars

 

I just bought the M-6862 a couple days ago. The only issue I have is that the fan on the left speeds up and gets kind of noisy for a bit and then goes back to quiet, and it happens even when only browsing the web. Can you ever hear the fan spinning while just doing internet stuff?

 

no i dont. it always seems pretty quiet to me, even while im gaming (though it is noticably louder gaming, but still quiet). the fan is always spinning for me, but unless i really focus i cnat hear it easily

 

just depends how many web pages you have open, what background tasks you have going on, if you have the computer set to "balanced" or "power" profile, how much internet videos are playing, etc. Even if it's all only web-related, the fan may kick on for a bit, before cooling the comp down, and then will go back to being quiet. This is normal.

 

I also got an M-6862 and it seems a few of these machines get REALLY hot GPU in a stress test. Would you be able to perform a stress test on it to see how HOT the GPU gets in your stock config?

"
Anyone doing this test run FUR at 640x480 windowed mode in stress test mode and keep the temperature utility side by side. Before starting fur start the 'Orthos CPU Stress test' to really load up for your computer's cpu. Because fur alone will only use up one core and your GPU. So orthos will heat up the other core. And this about the worst possible thermal scenario you can get. Both cores at 100% and GPU at 100% and give it 5-8min.

Make sure to run it for at least 500sec as the last 10-15C climb after 300 seconds. Fur shows you the seconds it's running for so pay attention to it. You really need those 5-8min to reach the final temperatures.
"
[ http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/ ]

Here is the thread were this is happening...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=297056

 

ok, i tried to stress test it, but unfortunately, for some reason it wouldnt run i could install it, but when i told it to run, it just closed. are you using 64bit vista?

 

Yep, but the problem is most like the User Access Control that doesn't allow the CPU Monitoring utility to run. It's the annoying thing that asks "Are You Shure?" all the time. I suggest you disable it.

To disable it go to control panel and paste this into the address bar "Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\User Accounts"

The last option in the white part of the panel will be to disable User Access Control. Once you disable it vista will allow you to run all of these utilities.

 

na its not UAC, i disabled that peice of crap the first day i got it. it pissed me off lol. ill try a few things today and see if i can get it to run

 

What is failing to run? AMD GPU Clock Tool or FUR?

 

Just bought my 6862 at BB for only $524.95! But it's still in the box... I'm reading more feedback on the web before I open it up in case I want to take it back. But so far it seems like a sweet deal!

 

Did you use that $100 cable signup coupon or have they dropped the price even more?

 

yea nothing quality-wise that's bad. The laptop basically has last-generation parts (non-montevia cpu and last years ATI chips instead of the 3650)

That's prolly why it's as affordable as it is. But the thing is those components from last year are still incredibly well performing for $599

 

Wow I just checked the store where I bought mine, dropped to $527.99 --- will be going back to get my price difference tomorrow!

 

lol my 14 day window is up so I'll hafta settle for the $599 i got it for which I'm fine with lol.

 

how much total with tax? and is there a recycle fee or something? my freind told me they do that

also question for other 6862 owners hows the battery on this? atleast 3hrs?

 

Anyone try running COD4 on these? How does the ATi HD2600 handle cod4?

 

i think if could if its able to run devil may cry 4 and crysis

 

Very well - that card is identical in performance to the 8600GT despite what 3dmark06 says.

 

according to the information that there are here in gateway site:
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/TempestFX/4006270R/4006270Rsp2.shtml

M-6862 model have One - IEEE 1394 (4-pin)
well.... where?... internal?... anibody open your laptop and checked?

in the link also say (in the asic frame):
1394a: Not required


I assume that there is a error in the gateway website

YaG!

 

HWMonitor doesnt show the GPU core on my 6862...hows it showing it on yours??

 

Glad to hear just got mine from BB for $529.

 

I'm on my third day with the 6862 so here are my thoughts so far:

1. Was surprised that I could not watch YouTube videos with IE. I downloaded Firefox and the Flash plugin and that worked.

2. I charged the 6862 overnight on day 1 (before using) and the next morning powered it up and the battery indicator said I only had 20 minutes left! I thought I got a bad battery so I tried charging it again and now get about 2.5 hours on the "Balanced" setting. I just switched to "Power Saver" mode so I'll see how that goes.

3. Best Buy did not have a 6862 on display so I bought this sight unseen. The box made it look like the keyboard was black, but its actually silver. All in all I like the look very much... very slick and professional looking and I think after a few years it will still look modern.

4. Have to get use to the Delete key being in the upper right corner instead of by the space bar.

5. I hate laptop mouse pads... why can't they put a scroll wheel on these? So I went out and got a Logitech mouse at Office Depot (the V150). It's a wired laser mouse for $29.95 and the silver color goes nice with the 6862.

6. In answer to a previous question, there is no 1394 port. Kind of wish there was.

7. I have the 6862 on a lap desk right now and I can still feel the heat coming through. Guess its back to OD for a cooling pad.

That's it for now. As I said, so far I'm very happy with the 6862 and still can't believe I got it for $524.95!

 

Thats because 64 bit IE has problems with Flash.

 

you using 32 bit version or 64? im using 32 and it shows it, 64 doesnt this is concerning hw monitor btw.

 

oh...ya im running 64 bit. did you change your gateway from 64 to 32 bit vista? or did you just use the 32 bit version of hwmonitor?

 

no i didnt, i just ran 32 bit hw monitor, i had the same problem as you so i tried 32 bit and it worked, so i havent worried about it. i still run 64 bit vista as i have had no problems with it, minus pxp, but that doesnt even support vista yet i dont think.

 

I really hate to ask this but Im not familiar with notebooks a all. I just got one of these. What are drivers? what do they do and what do i need?

 

drivers can make your notebook perform better or worst, they enhance ur experience gaming and such, you need to go to the ATI website and use mobility modder to convert it from a desktop driver to laptop

 

If you just got this notebook, you dont have to do anything except boot it up and follow on screen instructions. Once you hit your desktop you are good to go.

If you are not comfortable with messing with your notebook DO NOT use the mobility modder. Granted it is very straight forward but for someone who doesn't know much, its not worth it. It doesnt even give a significant improvement. I am not even using them, im just using stock gateway.

 

I have been eyeballing this laptop everywhere and can't find it for under $640... The Best Buy site is selling it for $699. If anyone knows of a link to a place I can but it for under $600, pleeease send it to me. Thanks!

 

Hi tvgeek,

RE 1: What version of IE were you running? I am still on Version 6.0 XP SP2 ... and I can watch YouTube.

RE 6: What would you use the 1394 port for?

RE 7: Does it really get hot? How Hot? And which area(s) more so than the other?

Thanks,

G!

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys and THANKS to "TVGeek" posting the special $524.99 deal because the darn thing shows up as $749.99.

I had to drive 118 miles one way to get one at $524.99 ... heck I figured $30 in gas round trip is well worthed the saving.

G!

 

Hi sigseg,

1) You mentioned some of the GPUs have been running HOT ... I thought only NVIDIA GPUs were plagued with HEAT problem ... I thought ATIs were bullet-proof on heat deal!?!?

2) I understand that you can NOT use HWMonitor to read GPU temps on ATI cards. Also, only ATI "XT" cards have Temp sensors!?!? Is this correct!?!?

3) I noticed in your Sig that you changed out your T5750 with T7500.
Q1: Any heat problem with T7500?
Q2: How much did you get it for?
Q3: Where did you buy it from?

4) Does anyone know who is the "ODM" for this Gateway laptop? Who is the maker of the laptop?

Thanks,

G!

 

Dunno, mine gets to 92-95C under maxium stress test I can devise. Other people seem to be running somewhat cooler. Around 88C.

AMD GPU Clock Tool seems to read my GPU temp successfully under vista64.

Not really... system works fine. When fully stressed out with the GPU and CPU it can get to about 85C. If the GPU isn't stressed to produce heat it runs up to 75C or so. The T7500 came from a dead laptop.

 

Hi sigseg,

THANKS for your reply.

Learned something new ... that could use an AMD GPU Tool with Intel Chipset! +rep.

G!

 

will this computer run countersrike source with decent fps?

 

also you CAN use hwmonitor for your gpu temps, but you have to use the 32bit version of the program for some reason. and from what ive seen everyone else posting, the gpu does get hot, i think it is a computer issue, not the graphics card, i havent seen anyone with this particular notebook running alot cooler. its just a warm computer.

 

it should easily run it

*edit* i might wanna say i can tell you that cause it pwns all the system requirements, its a game from 2004, and this system runs even crysis medium at 30ish fps. i personally dont have the game but it should easily run it.

 

nice.... how does this notbook compare to the m-6850 fx?

I can get them both at the same price.

 

I don't know if it's from poor optimizations or not but CS Source can be quite a system hog with everything turned on. It stutters a bit on my desktop system, whose specs aren't too far off from the 6862. I won't be able to test it out until this weekend.

 

Hi Josh,

THANKS ... I like using HWM much better it is non-intrusive and I like to run it in the background and see all my Temps at the same time ... btw there is version 1.11 out.

And it is great news that GPU is not running hot ... that is why I was staying away from NVIDIAs ... it was either ATI or Intel onboard for me.

G!

 

However the ATI MR HD2600 in laptop can hit almost to 90C so it runs as hot as any nvidia 15 incher.

 

Hi sigseg,

As long as the darn thing does not run at 80C in IDLE ... I am a Happy Camper. What I mean IDLE is when you have the laptop on and just sitting there with no Application but the HWMonitor running.

G!

 

No idling at 80C would be insane . My HD2600 idles between 50-65C in Vista ON AC in Performance on Demand. (So not full idling as Vista does make use of the GPU)

 

That is GREAT ... I had a laptop with "NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT" that would climb up to 85C in 15 minutes time after I turned my laptop on in IDLE Mode.

G!

 

added alot of pics.

 

90C? Doing what? Are you talking your your FUR/Orthos experiment again? Because that is not normal use. I dont recall my HD 2600 EVER hitting 90C, even during benchmarking.

 

That just means you haven't done competent benchmarking .