Gateway M-6851 $799 at Costco

Costco dropped the price $100 on the Gateway M-6851.

Linkage

Price is $799.97, and I think when most places change a price to NOT be .99 at the end, means they are closing it out - YMMV...

Specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83gHz 2MB Cache 667mHz FSB
4Gb RAM DDR2-667
320GB 5400 RPM Hard Disk
8X Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW with DVD-RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 with 512MB GDDR3 RAM
10/100 Ethernet LAN
802.11n Wireless LAN
15.4-inch Ultrabright™ WXGA TFT display (1280 × 800)
ExpressCard/54 slot
5-in-1 Media Slot: Memory Stick®,Memory Stick Pro®,Multimedia Card™,Secure Digital™,XD
Ports: Three - USB 2.0 ports,VGA port,HDMI version 1.2,RJ-11,RJ-45 port,Headphone jack,Microphone jack,One - Lock slot
6.29 lbs

I might just jump on this...

HD2600 with 512Mb GDDR3 should be decent enough - Gateways aren;t usually too hard to upgrade the CPU on, and Costco has the 2yr warranty, 90-days no-questions-asked return policy...


T

 

Aw, if only we didn't switch from costco to sam's club, I would buy that in a heart beat ;_;

 

Can't make up my mind between this, or spending a few hundred more on the XPS M1530 special EPP deal they have.... A bit slower (GW) or nearly-guaranteed failure later (Nvidia on the Dell)...

If you buy a Dell new, and never open the box, do they charge a restocking fee?


T

 

LOL...I switched from costco to BJ's Wholesale club because it's closer and now I might have to renew my costco ID card.

 

No, they don't. Don't forget the Dell is covered by a 3 year complete warranty which will cover your graphic card as well.

 

Yeah...I know....but impending doom, and knowing all they will do is keep swapping out the mainboard...

T

 

Apparently the M-6851 is available on costco.com only.
I've been to 3 local clubs, and none have it, and all said it was online-only.
Only Gateway they had in-stock was I think the M6337.

T

 

I went to my local Costco & they didn't have it either. I ordered mine online on Friday & when I checked a little while ago it was still "processing". I used their webform to contact customer support because I paid extra for express shipping but they still haven't shipped it yet.
By the way it is no longer on the website. I wonder if it's sold out?

 

You know, it figures...

I've been mulling it over, thinking, wavering, finally 20 minutes ago I decide to pull the trigger, go to costco.com, create an account, go to add the M-6851 to my cart and....

It's already gone from the site.

Sheesh...

Oh well - there MUST be a reason - not meant to be, I suppose.

T

 

Hopefully I put my order in on time. They did bill my account....
If not I guess I'll pay $100 more & grab it from www.newegg.com
I was actually going to grab it from there but then I started looking online for reviews and found this thread. Figured I'd save $100 and grab it from Costco instead.
PS when I've ordered from Newegg before they did not charge me taxes, but Costco did ($51).

 

'grats on the order...

Do post up a nice review and benchmarks when you get it - I am still mOST curious, and am hoping one more will pop up there

T

 

Cool I'll post if & when I do get it. Even if Costco dont get it to me, I guess I'll grab it from Newegg for $50 more once Costco refunds my money.
I havent seen anything else at that pricepoint with similar specs (Vista 64, large hard drive, 512 video & 4 GB's of Ram).

Im going to school for IT so Im sure I will be putting it through its paces.

 

If you got your order in, and were charged, you'll probably get it.

T

 

Update, I am getting it. Finally got a tracking # and confirmation email. It should be here tomorrow.

 

Still kicking myself.
I emailed them to see if they had like one more in a corner.

Since you got an order in, do me a favor, and ask a question regarding your order, and see if they have another? Mebbe I can do a manual order or something with them .

I'm hoping there's more in the warehouse that are maybe being sent back to gw or something.

Never know...

T

 

Okay got it today. So far ran Windows Update (found 20 of them) which took forever to download since I'm using my phone as a modem at school.
Removed Norton & installed Mcafee (get it free through my AOL subscription), got rid of the 'Ebay' shortcut & program folder.
Haven't much time to play with it yet since I've been at school/work all day. So far I did notice that the vent (there is only 1 vent on the left hand side) warms up pretty quickly.
Customer support did email me this morning to tell me it was on it's way, so I did email the guy back asking if it was possible to order another one because I wanted to "order one for my wife" lol...
When I get some time I'll install my usual programs (Tune Up Utilities, Mixmeister, Creative stuff for my MP3 player, Rhapsody, Nero etc.).
I don't really consider myself a gamer since I don't really have the time, but do you have any idea of how to run benchmarks on it? Is there a free app anywhere I can run that does that?

 

Here's where 3DMark 06 is:

http://www.futuremark.com/download/3dmark06/

Although it IS a synth benchmark, it'll give us SOME idea...

'grats on the lappie - enjoy!

I was at my desk I think Monday, had my C/C out, and was ready to place the order, while they still had them, and I was like Meh! I'll do it when I get home.

The rest is history...


T

 

Ooh! Ooh! Back in stock!

Ordering like RIGHT now!

EDIT: WHAM! Got the bad boy! Well, got the ORDER in...
Just got confirmation, too. Hopefully a tracking number tomorrow!


T

 

Wow - OOS again. Either they're not getting very many at a time, found a couple more and listed them, or they're selling a TON.

Hmm - here's to hoping that mine is for real - order still shows 'processing'


T

 

Cool congrats. I should hopefully have some time this weekend to do the benchmark thing.
My order was in "processing" mode for 3 days before it finally went through so I guess it does require some patience.

The reviews I found on Newegg were pretty much on point, the cover over the CD/DVD drive is very flimsy. As a matter of fact mine CAME OFF today! It easily snaps on & off, so it's a quick fix, but its really something we shouldnt have to worry about.
During the past couple of days I copied over my music files (about 150 GB's), installed Office Ultimate 2007 (need word & excel for class & outlook to sync my PDA data), MediaMonkey (organizes my Music files & I use to rip my CD'S), Mixmeister (edit/remix songs & creat medley's), PowerISO, Nero 8, AnyDVD, CloneDVD, Dreamscapes (animated desktop, without having to have Vista Ultimate) Adobe Audition 3 (audio editing, mastering & tracking app) & changed a few of the settings around like turning off those annoying security prompts.

Do you have any good PC games you'd recommend? I'm not much of gamer but I'd like to have something on there for long flights & breaks between school. Something that doesnt require a joystick or something else I have to carry...
Thanks.

 

PS I'm new to Vista & I can see why there are so many complaints about it, but with enough ram, some tweaking, alot of reading online about the different functions & changes from XP, & getting used to the many changes, I'm actually digging it.

 

GOt a tracking number a few hours ago - delivery scheduled for Thursday, just in time for next weekend

Games...man, that is REALLY an open question.
Can you at least give a hint? Say. what genre interests you?
Is it shooters/FPS like Quake/UT style, or strategy, squad shooters like a Rainbow 6 style.

Man - I bet the other members on here probably have their jaws wide open.
Yep - it's been THAT long for me. Last time I bought a game, I think it was FS2000

Not much time for gaming!


T

 

Okay not sure what this stuff means, but here's the 3D mark results.
Benchmark
Version 1.1.0
Width 1280
Height 800
Anti-Aliasing None
Anti-Aliasing Quality 0
Texture Filtering Optimal
Anisotropic Level 1
VS Profile 3_0
PS Profile 3_0
Force full precision No
Disable HW shadow mapping No
Disable post-processing No
Force software vertex shader No
Color mipmaps No
Force software FP filtering No
Repeat tests Off
Fixed framerate Off
Comment
3DMark Score 3559 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 1223
HDR/SM3.0 Score 1584
CPU Score 1549
Game Score N/A N/A
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 9.100 FPS SM2.0 Graphics Tests
GT2 - Firefly Forest 11.291 FPS SM2.0 Graphics Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.491 FPS CPU Tests
CPU2 - Red Valley 0.782 FPS CPU Tests
HDR1 - Canyon Flight 13.499 FPS HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 18.174 FPS HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests
Fill Rate - Single-Texturing 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Fill Rate - Multi-Texturing 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Pixel Shader 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Vertex Shader - Simple 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Vertex Shader - Complex 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Shader Particles (SM3.0) 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
Perlin Noise (SM3.0) 0.000 N/A N/A Feature Tests
8 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
32 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
128 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
512 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
2048 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
32768 Triangles 0.000 N/A N/A Batch Size Tests
System Info
Version 3.12
CPU Info
Physical Processors 1
Logical Processors 2
Central Processing Units
Central Processing Unit
Manufacturer Intel
Family Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83GHz
Architecture 64-bit
Internal Clock 1800 MHz
Internal Clock Maximum 1829 MHz
External Clock 0 Hz
Socket Designation U2E1
Type
Upgrade ZIF Socket
MultiCore 2 Processor Cores
HyperThreadingTechnology N/A
Capabilities MMX, CMov, RDTSC, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, PAE, NX
Version Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83GHz

 

The gaming performance for this machine stock cant be any better then the M-152XL, review here

 

EDIT: Never mind - I thought you just mebbe read the wrong line, or saw some number showing the 6851 as better...
My bad...wasn't meant as a smart@ss comment.

That's the problem with internet/text - no inflection in msgs!

As many questions as YOU'VE answered for me, no way I'd be a d!ck to you!

T

 

You know, I just thought people could compare the PCMark scores since they both have similar cpus /sarcasm

You posted to tell me that my statement is correct? Ya thx...because I really needed to know.

the gaming performance for this machine stock cant be any better then the M-152XL

 

My bad - I misunderstood your post. I thought you had seen something above showing the 6851 as faster...

T

 

Geez....what a nightmare....

I bought the '6851 from Costco, but so far, my account is down near $2800, because they feel the need to pre-authorize multiple times!
FYI: I bought the $49.99 membership, as the 5% non-member fee was $40 - I figured, what the heck - if I'm gonna toss $40 anyways...

So far to my bank account:

$49.99 charge (membership)
$873 charge (laptop+shipping+tax)
$922.99 hold (laptop+membership+shipping+tax)
$873 hold (laptop+shipping+tax)
$49.99 hold (membership)


This is freaking RIDICULOUS! - total is like $2800, for a $922 purchase.
If it were a C/C, that's fine and all, but I used my debit card, and it's bill-pay time, and they sucked my account down by nearly $3K!!! When it's a debit, the amount on preauth/hold is unavailable, and your balance goes down by that much....so you can imagine, it's like $1800-1900 more than I expected, and I'm waiting for them to sort this out, so I can pay me freaking BILLS!

Note to Costco: You do *NOT* freaking need to pre-authorize/hold more than ONCE!


T

 

LOL. Sorry but just the way you posted that made me laugh.

Anyway, on the serious note, wth? I didnt except a company/store like costco to do that. Maybe a smaller online company, but not costco =O

Hows the wife taking the news? =P

 

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Wow thats crazy!

 

My wife is absolutely, positively going bonkers! She's the one that handles the bill-paying, so you can understand what I am hearing...

"You and your toys..."
"Why is it that your great ideas suck..."
"Another GREAT DEAL, huh?"

Heh...unbelievable...


EDIT: WOW! The holds are gone! Gee - thanks for giving me my $1900 back, costco!


T

 

I can definitly relate! My wife would be the same way.
I had to hand her in her hands a check from one of my gigs that covered the price of the laptop before I could buy it! LOL...
By the way I've been playing Age Of Empires 3 the last couple of days.
I was thinking about buying Crysis but on their website there was a lil' widget that does a system test to see if you have the specs to run it properly, My Tiny Tim failed the CPU test (Tim was the lawyer I was DJ'aying for that pretty much payed for the laptop so I named it after him lol).

Also with WiFi off I'm getting about 90 minutes to a couple of hours of battery life (playing AOE3, using MS Word or listening to music).

 

You can prolly stretch the time by lowering the backlighting, undervolting, etc..

Also, like shoes, batteries need break-in.

Make sure to fully charge, and discharge the batteries to cycles them.
And make sure to USE the batteries at least once or twice a week so they don't get ruined.

T

 

And, of course, now the package is like nowhere to be found.
No scan since ARRIVAL in Jax,FL yesterday. Delivery date is still today, but UPS has come and gone a long time ago...

No departure scan from Jax 36 hours later....
I expect an updated delivery date any moment.
Wish I would've found the option to change shipping method. I looked, but didn't want to waste too much time in actually PLACING the order, lest I be left without one again. They went OOS, and have not yet been relisted.

And the saga continues!

What a MISSION! I can't even SPEND my money without aggravation

T

 

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Dam dude that sucks! I got mine in half the time, although I did op for the extra $25 for "express" shipping.
By the way I got a Bluetooth USB Dongle from Staples yestarday for $23 (Targus). It works great & it's really small so I just leave it in while I carry my Tiny Tim in my bookbag. I use it to sync my phone (ATT Tilt) & to use my phone as a modem, even though its slow, slow is better than nothing.

 

After midnight, the UPS tracking simply removed the "Scheduled Delivery Date" because it was 8/7/2008, and change the "In Transit - On Time" to simply "In Transit."

Last scan is still Jacksonville, at 7:07am EST - nearly 48 hours. Jax to Mia is about 6-8 hours by truck, I think. I emailed Costco at end of business day, and they said they initiated a tracer, and that if no result I would received a refund in 14-21 days. I replied that if it's LOST, they need to issue a refund as soon as they can kinda' confirm lost (Friday or Monday), because they're not sitting on MY cash for a month. They're more than welcome to pay interest to sit on it, but nothing's free. If I owed them money, you'd be DANG SKIPPY they'd be charging ME interest and fees!

Oh, and they said I could reorder after being refunded

You kidding?
I mean, lest I also desire to perform a root canal on myself, followed by a self-administered triple BYPASS, and I SOMEHOW decide to order again, "um, hon, did you actually LOOK at the item? It's, um, not in stock, and, um, HAS NOT BEEN for, oh, I dunno, a freaking WEEK!"

I called my bank to start chargeback procedures if they don't refund my EOBD Monday.

Man - what a NIGHTMARE!

Moral of the story: Um, I dunno - really - I dunno


T

 

Heh - Costco Customer Service emailed me last night, that they had contacted UPS and started a tracer.

Of course, when I contacted UPS this afternoon, 12 hours after the Costco email, they said no contact had been received from Costco.com, and no tracer had been started. And, of course, one CANNOT be started until the shipper requests it.

What a bunch of BS - blatantly lying to a customer like that.
Don't they know that UPS has a freaking 800 number???

/SoapBox


T

 

Sorry for another message from me, but I feel it's only right.

I emailed a few people at Costco, and a very pleasant woman called me, and offered to refund ASAP, and start the tracer. I will not mention her name, even though it is a POSITIVE, because I don't know if she would like that, even though it IS a positive spin.

Basically:
She got approval to refund ASAP
She is getting a tracer started
She is checking to see if any more can be acquired

She asked if I wanted to cancel the membership and have it refunded, and considering the lengths she is going to, I said no - let's leave the membership for now.

Good show - I feel better already.

But - I still gotta find a laptop!

T