Gateway P-6831 FX: Best Midrange Gaming Notebook Ever
by Jarred Walton on March 28, 2008 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Gateway P-6831 FX Overview
Okay, so Gateway cut down the graphics card a bit and they went with one of the cheapest Core 2 Duo processors available. What else did they trim in order to that price point? As amazing as it may seem, there really weren't any other serious compromises:
| Gateway P-6831 FX Specifications | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.67GHz 2MB 667FSB) Note: New versions are shipping with the T5550 (1.83GHz 2MB 667FSB) |
| Chipset | Intel GM965 + ICH8-M |
| Memory | 1x1024MB + 1x2048MB DDR2-667 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS 512MB |
| Display | 17" WXGA+ (1440x900) UltraBright |
| Hard Drive | 250GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache |
| Optical Drive | 8X SuperMulti DVD+/-RW |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Intel 4965AGN WiFi Bluetooth v2.0 |
| Audio | Intel 2-Channel HD Audio |
| Battery | 9-Cell 86WHr |
| Front Side | Front LCD Latch WiFi On/Off switch |
| Left Side | 2 x USB 2.0 Optical Drive (DVDRW) Kensington Lock GPU Cooling Exhaust |
| Right Side | VGA HDMI eSATA Gigabit Ethernet 1 x USB 2.0 Mini FireWire Headphone/Mic Jacks ExpressCard/54 5-in-1 Flash Reader (MS, MS Pro, MMC, SD, xD) |
| Back Side | Power Connector 56K Modem CPU Cooling Exhaust |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| Dimensions | 15.75" x 11.75" x 1.3"-1.70" (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 9.2 lbs (single HDD) |
| Extras | Fingerprint scanner 1.3MP webcam 1 x 2.5" HDD bay available |
| Warranty | 1-year standard |
You get everything that you would
expect to find in a reasonably high-end notebook. First, Gateway equips the
notebook with a whopping 3GB of memory. Why use 3GB rather than 2GB or 4GB? Since
the system is running Windows Vista 32-bit, going beyond 3GB won't really help.
We would have been content with 2GB, but we see no reason to complain about the
extra 1GB. Should you choose, you can of course remove the 1GB SO-DIMM and try
upgrading the laptop to 4GB of memory — and a 64-bit OS if you're willing to install it on your own. The specs say the laptop only supports up to 3GB of RAM, but we can't think of any reason why that should be the case.
For communications, you get Gigabit and 802.11N networking, plus Bluetooth support; heck, you even get a modem. On the storage side, you get a DVD burner plus 250GB of hard drive storage. There's even a second empty hard drive slot (populated on higher-end FX notebooks). USB ports, HDMI and VGA video connections, a flash memory reader, and ExpressCard/54 slot are all par for the course. All of this is put into a 17" chassis.
 |
There are a few other compromises made, of course. First, the hard drive is a slower 5400RPM model, but considering the capacity even that isn't much of a compromise. The only larger 2.5" notebook drive currently available is a 320GB model, which also runs at 5400RPM but costs quite a bit more. Still, a 200GB 7200RPM Drive would be slightly faster. The only remaining compromise we can see is their use of a 1440x900 LCD panel. The higher-end FX notebooks include 1920x1200 LCDs, but their prices start at $2000.
Perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks to Gateway notebooks is that there are no customization options in terms of components. On the Gateway website, there are currently five versions of the Gateway FX P-series available, and each one comes with a specific memory, storage, graphics, and CPU configuration. Perhaps you don't need high performance graphics but would like a faster processor? Too bad — that's not an option unless you want to do the upgrade on your own. More shocking is that the P-6831 isn't even for sale directly from Gateway — it's only available at retail outlets. So in total, there are six notebook configurations that use the same chassis, but unlike Dell and other competing OEMs, you can't custom build a laptop to your specifications. If that's the price we have to pay, we're okay with making the sacrifice. The P-6831 is undoubtedly the most interesting of the six models anyway... though we really would have liked the option to get a 1920x1200 LCD for a few hundred dollars more.
Note: Several readers have written and mentioned that Gateway is now shipping some P-6831 laptops with T5550 CPUs. Over time, we expect this transition to extend to all new laptops, so performance will be up to 10% faster than the system we tested. The T5450 works well for gaming already, so a faster CPU for free is merely icing on the cake.
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ap90033 - Sunday, March 30, 2008 - link
Yes it comes with a Vista Home Premium DVD....win32asmguy - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
I bought one of these yesterday at Best Buy after they put it on sale for $1249 again.It does indeed have a real Vista re-install cd. The CD also includes none of the extra bundled applications or such. However, you can also make a "restore" DVD from an included program that will recreate its 10GB recovery partition and return it to a factory fresh installation. Its nice to see Gateway let people go either way with this.
The P-6831fx is also actually due for an update soon. Its supposed to be called the P-6860fx and will have a T5550 (1.83ghz, 667fsb, 2mb) and a 320GB hdd instead of the 250GB. My P-6831fx actually already has a T5550 in it, as gateway's ODM has appeared to already run out of the T5450's as of the last shipment. The slower processor is definitely a setback, but I will eventually upgrade to a T9300 to close the gap in performance even closer to the laptops with the GTX.
Oh, and CPU-Z does report that it runs in dual channel mode, however it also takes a small performance hit due to not being both 2GB sticks. Other users report their Vista memory experience index from jumping from 4.6 to 4.8 when upgrading to 4GB.
iclicku - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
The laptop comes with a Vista DVD. However, you'll have to burn a back-up DVD for drivers and applications. It should be the first thing you do before performing a format.The laptop should be fine for Folding @ Home. If not, a simple CPU upgrade should do wonders.
As for the 3GB of ram, it is in fact running in dual channel mode so no worries there. It's definately useful since Vista needs as much memory it can get it's grubby little hands on.
strikeback03 - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
[quote] Imagine being able to buy a very nice sports car that could compete with the Dodge Viper at one third the cost, and that's what Gateway has released on the market. [/quote]In other words it is the Evo/STI of the gaming laptop world. Maybe one of the ones with the bigger screens qualifies as a base Corvette.
Corland - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
It would be nice to see things like the MacBook Pro with LED backlight (or a regular MacBook) in the color comparison and LCD tests for comparison sake- comparing gaming laptop LCD's to each other is fine, but having some other common laptop screens that some of us will have worked with would also be useful....iclicku - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
As the review states, you can't beat the value of this laptop. I purchased this laptop at Best Buy during the President's Day sale for $1199 and it came with a $50 game (COD4). Out of the box, it's a great machine. However, the review doesn't mention the amount of bloatware that is on the machine (which is commonplace).I managed to place a few upgrades in my machine. I placed a T7500 C2D, 4GB total ram, 200GB 7200RPM HD, and wiped my machine and installed a dual boot with Vista Business 64-bit and XP Pro 32-bit. I got great deals on the upgrades and the OSes I had from previous machines. Total cost of machine came to $1500.
3dMark06 scores are as follows: (drivers I used are 169.09 from laptopvideo2go.com)
Vista 64 - 8900
XP Pro 32 - 9150
tomek1984 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Give me few hints how you got video driver to work with XP. I downloaded 169.09 and tried installing it with base file and 2nd time with an updated one by INF file. Nether1 recognized Nvidia hardware. I am using 6860 FX with factory specs+ 2nd harddrive(XP is instaled on 2nd HD)Starcub - Saturday, May 17, 2008 - link
I got a newer driver from laptopvideo2go.com to work by replacing the inf file with nvwi.inf which I extracted from the included originalinfs.zip.ap90033 - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
Nice, I have one and wondered what the difference would be if I upgraded the CPU...Great review by the way.
ToeJuice - Friday, March 28, 2008 - link
I own an Asus G2 and it's one of the better (if not the best) midrange gaming laptops I've ever owned or seen. But I guess Asus lappies don't even deserve a mention here?