Gateway P-7811 FX: We've Got Upgrades
by Jarred Walton on August 15, 2008 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Mobility Marathon
Cranking out the fastest performance in applications or games is one measure of a good notebook, but honestly it's not the standard by which many users select their laptops. For many, size and weight as well as battery life are going to be the more important areas when purchasing a laptop. Hopefully it's already obvious that the Gateway P-series FX laptops are not going to be great candidates when it comes to size, and battery life is also generally disappointing. Some of the lower-end models ship with integrated graphics and can offer reasonably good battery life, but they're still a very large chassis to lug around. What's more, the battery protrudes about an inch and a half out the rear of the chassis, making the laptop seem even larger. You will definitely want to pay attention to your choice of carrying case if you want to use it with the P-series; we have a couple 17" notebook bags that can't hold these notebooks (even with the battery removed).
Returning to the question we want to answer, does the switch to DDR3 and a P8400 - both of which lower power requirements - have a noticeable impact on battery life and power requirements? Of course, the lower power CPU and memory may be offset by a more power hungry GPU in some cases, but as long as you're not running a 3D application we expect the P-7811 to surpass the previously tested FX notebooks.
Power Requirements
Power draw (measured at the outlet) does indeed drop with the P-7811 relative to the P-6831. The P-171XL really wasn't in the running, given the second hard drive and X7900 CPU. Particularly in the 100% CPU load test, we see a massive benefit from the P8400 and DDR3; the P-7811 uses 13W less than the P-6831 (a 23% difference). In the maximum load test, where we tax both the CPU and GPU, the 7811 does use 9W more than the 6831; that's somewhat expected, however, as you can't generate a maximal GPU load without a faster CPU. In gaming power draw (not shown) the two systems are pretty much tied.
Battery Life
Of course, power requirements when a laptop is plugged in don't necessarily reflect power requirements when a laptop is on battery power. Hardware can provide better performance when plugged in and better battery life when in power saving mode, and the 9800M and P8400 should both provide such an advantage. For our battery life testing, we have now switched to running all laptops at around 100 nits brightness. Differences between displays and brightness adjustments mean we are not always at exactly 100 nits, but the range is 90-110 nits in all cases. If you choose to run your LCD at maximum brightness, you may lose anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes depending on the laptop - the latter is mostly for ultra-mobile options while the former is for gaming notebooks.
In terms of battery life, the P-7811 shows some significant improvements over the 6831 and 171XL. Clearly, the DDR3 and 25W TDP processor are doing their job, with P-7811 battery life improving by up to 58% over the lower performing P-6831. Our three test scenarios test DVD playback, web surfing (using the wireless adapter), and a best-case idle benchmark where we simply unplug the laptop and let it sit. Keep in mind that even light use of the laptop should reduce the battery life from our idle scenario, so it is purely a high water mark.
With the P8400 (and Centrino 2) offering improved deep sleep states over the previous Santa Rosa refresh, the largest improvements are found in the idle test. DVD playback improves by an equally impressive 50%, and Internet surfing improves by 34%. Two and a half hours of battery life for movies or surfing is certainly nothing exceptional compared to some laptops, but for a gaming laptop it's actually one of the best results we've seen.
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ezinner - Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - link
I've been searching for days on this. Gateway has a Broadcom driver and an empty slot next to the Intel wi-fi card. Plus, many reviews have a preproduction model with Bluetooth. Anyone have the part number, cost and where you can buy this so I can hook up a wireless mouse and/or keyboard without needing a dongle?Urbanos - Friday, September 26, 2008 - link
i've noticed elsewhere on the net that the P-7811 supports 2 harddrives, and some have even had the luxury of enabling raid 0/1. can anyone confirm that? reviewers?jfdmit - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - link
I took my malfunctioning 7811 back to Best Buy today and exchanged it for another. The difference couldn't be starker. Whereas the old one was a crash-happy piece of junk, the replacement machine looks like it was made by a completely different company...a competent one. The performance, stability, and overall quality are first rate. I'm glad I managed to get my hands on one of the good ones at last.jfdmit - Thursday, September 11, 2008 - link
The statements in the article about the 7811's poor stability are accurate. I bought the machine yesterday, and must say I'm pretty disappointed.The first problem I noticed was that the Webcam only works sporadically. It'll activate the first time you click on it after boot, but thereafter it just craps out with a "Graph Render Failure" error message. This is apparently a fairly common problem with the Chicony webcam used by this machine and a number of others (including Toshiba and Acer laptops). I've tried the various solutions proposed on various web forums, but the problem remains unsolved.
The next (and from my perspective more important problem) is graphics performance. As long as the 7811 isn't taxed too hard, it will work fine with the standard driver. Run games like Spore, Crysis, or Sins of a Solar Empire, however, and you'll suffer through total lockups, bluescreens, and assorted other nastiness. Using the LaptopVideo2Go.com 177.92 with the patched .INF doesn't make any difference. Nor does the 177.98 driver. The lockups can happen as infrequently as every four or five hours or as frequently as every fifteen minutes. Even shutting down every service not essential to running the game makes no difference.
While, on paper, this looks like a good machine and excellent value for money, it's just too unreliable to be of any use. I'm a keen MMORPG fan, and I have no intention of spending three hours trying to find a pickup group, only to have my PC die the second I get into a dungeon.
Sorry Gateway, nice try but no cigar.
atlmann10 - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
Bloatware removal http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/">http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/then run the next after download
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Syste...">http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Util...pair_Uti...
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atlmann10 - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
Gateway just released a BIOS update for the 7811 FX here's a linkhttp://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile...">http://support.gateway.com/support/driv...te%20Ver...
wakasenshi - Thursday, August 21, 2008 - link
I am looking at purchasing a Gateway P-7811 FX from Best Buy and I was wondering if the 3 year warranty they offer is worth $379? (They have a few cheaper/different warranty plans available in-store, but the $379 one is all they offer online.)In addition, Geek Squad offers an optimization service which essentially wipes out all the trial software (something I am sure I can do myself) but they also go into the registry and clean out some of the hidden resource hogs (something I could learn but presently have little experience in). Geek Squad charges $129 for this service coupled with some antispyware and antivirus programs. They said they spent something like $1.5 million in R&D for this optimization process, but that was from someone trying to up-sell me. How hard would it be for me to learn to do this myself?
JarredWalton - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
I did it before testing. I think AV and Firewalls are for people that don't know how to surf safe... you know, use Firefox, don't visit porn sites, and don't download all sorts of silly executables. It's amazing how sluggish even a fast system can feel with AV software running... at least in my experience.Anyway, if you want a "clean" boot, run msconfig, go to the services and hide all Microsoft services, and then hit "Disable all". You can probably go to the startup tab and disable all of those as well. Then watch how fast your PC starts up! Just be careful of malicious websites....
As for the warranty, $379 for an additional three years is a lot, but I often feel consumer laptops aren't really designed to run for more than two years reliably. Considering it's pretty much impossible to find reasonably priced Gateway laptop parts online ($80 for a keyboard, $70 for a cooling fan, etc.), if you don't just want to toss it should something go wrong, I'd grab the warranty. FYI, having Gateway repair a laptop out of warranty is usually a $400 charge I think, plus parts.
wakasenshi - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Thank you, I appreciate it.okron1k - Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - link
i'm curious if can configure when purchasing these? for example a different gpu or processor?