Gateway MX3410 Review
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The Review
So, just played around with a Gateway MX3410 (don’t bother looking it up on thier site, not a word about it for some reason). It’s available at Futureshop in Canada with the following specs;
Turion 64 X2 TL-50 Dual Core 1.6GHZ
512 DDR
80GB 4200
DVD +/-RW Dual Layer
Nvidia Go 6100 (128 shared)
14.1 Ultrabright XGA
6-cell Li-Ion
$849 CDN
Found the new Turion to be VERY fast. Benchmarks apparently exist that rank it below the Intel variant but, from a basic computer user viewpoint, I couldn’t tell.
Screen is lovely. For a $850 laptop, it’s quite bright, has great uniformity and good colour quality. Looks very, very similar to the Macbook 13 inch screens.
The Nvidia 6100 is a nice touch. Obviously not a gaming card (outside of Solitaire) but it performed much better than the ATI 200M. I love installing my trinity (GTA:SA, BF2, and Oblivion) on these low end systems to see what happens. GTASA was very playable at 800×600, BF2 did well online at the same res. with all options set to low (with max draw)..thinking about 20FPS, and Oblivion ran at low settings, 800×600, with some chop but, surprisingly, did better than one would think.
Build quality on mine was mediocre. My laptop had a pronounced warp on the bottom right hand side and, as a result, sat about 2-5mm off the table at that corner. Other than that, it’s very light and has a pleasing design and colour scheme. Looks much more expensive than $850.
Came boxed with reinstall of XP Home and an AOL coaster.
All in all, I really love this little guy. Pretty good muscle, nice video card (had HD playback features), and looks great. If I return this and get one without a warp, it’s a 9/10…easy.
Gateway M505XL Review
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The Review
I went to my local Gateway Country store yesterday and spent some time examining and playing with the M505XL laptop that they have on display. What follows are my impressions and conclusions with a focus on information that is not stated in the M505XL information at Gateway’s website. The M505XL was connected to the internet but had only basic Windows and Gateway software installed. During my visit, I did not attempt to load and run any benchmarks.
The M505XL is smaller and lighter than I expected. The M675 next to it looked like a monster by comparison. The M505XL is made of silver-grey plastic with a nubby texture that is easy to grip. The laptop seems very sturdy with no detectable flexing of the case or creaking of hinges when hefted, twisted, opened or closed.
To the left of the keyboard are CD/DVD control keys, a small LCD display like on a portable CD player, and volume control keys. To the right of the keyboard is the power button and five hot keys, including two user-programmable hot keys. The keys on the keyboard are made of a dark blue, transparent plastic like the cases of some Game Boys and calculators. The feel of the keyboard was about average, neither exceptionally good nor bad. I did notice some flexing of the keyboard when the central keys were pushed down hard, but no more than other laptops the same size. After I cranked up the sensitivity in the Control Panel, the trackpad was quite responsive. The mouse buttons on the trackpad were somewhat stiff, but not nearly as stiff as the button on an Apple Powerbook (for example). According to the Device Manager, the trackpad is made by Synaptics. I could not determine the manufacturer of the keyboard.
The main LCD display was very clear and bright with vivid colors. The viewing angle was also quite good, with at least +/- 45 degrees of viewing possible in the horizontal direction. I did not find the 1280 x 800 resolution of the display to be either coarse or grainy. During DVD playback, I did notice slight ghosting during rapid scene changes which makes me wonder about the response time of the LCD display. I was not able to determine the make and model of the display from the Device Manager.
The M505XL seemed to be virtually silent. I held my ear right against it and could only hear the fans whirring in the M675 next door. The sound produced by the two speakers on either side of the palm rest and by the subwoofer was better than I expected. The sound was clear and full with something of a “surround sound” effect. The speakers were able to be played at room filling (though not floor shaking) volume.
The slot loading DVD-RW drive in the front of the M505XL is quite slick. I learned from the Device Manager that it is a Mat****a UJ-815A. By coincidence, it is the same 2X Panasonic DVD drive that Apple uses in their high end G4 Powerbooks. Apple calls it their “Superdrive”. DVD playback produced good quality images.
No specifications on the hard drive used in the M505XL are available on the Gateway website or from Gateway sales reps. According to the Device Manager, the hard drive is an “IC25N060ATMR04-0″. I have determined that this is a 60GB model of the Hitachi Travelstar 80GN series. It offers 12 ms average seek time, 4200 rpm and an 8MB cache. It is a good quality drive, just not a terribly fast one.
The Device Manager reports that the computer is a “Wistron DG8LXLG”. From this, I conclude that Gateway does not buy the M505 from Gigabyte as I originally thought. Instead, both Gateway and Gigabyte buy the DG8LXLG from Wistron. Gateway calls it the M505 and Gigabyte calls it the N601. It should still be possible, however, to get drivers and FAQs from Gigabyte’s website if need be. Wistron is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of ODM PCs that was spun off from Acer. According to this article HP has selected Wistron to manufacture the bulk of its consumer desktops.
The M505 is the current bargain among laptops that offer both a Pentium M CPU and ATI 9600 graphics. My chief complaint with the current model is the relatively slow hard drive. Nonetheless, I could live with this laptop if nothing better comes along before I make my purchase (probably 1Q2004).
Gateway M680XL Review
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The Review
Recieved my m680XL (2.13 P-M, 1GB DDR2, 6800 go, 60GB 7200RPM HD) earlier this week, and decided I’d just throw some initial observations out, both good and bad. I always like to hear good news before bad news, so that’s the order i’ll put this in.
Good Things
- The ultrabrite 1680×1050 screen is incredible. Beautiful colors, wide viewing angle, very little motion blur, even in gaming. Yes the reflective nature takes getting used to, but after a few days I don’t even notice it.
- Gaming performance is above and beyond what I expected. The 6800 Go came clocked at 350/700, i have it at 426/807 and it has lots left, but I like the compromise between heat level and performance. I’m running Far Cry at 1680×1050 with 8xAF and getting totally fluid gameplay. Dungeon Siege 2 at 1680×1050 with 4xAA and 8xAF, no hiccups whatsoever.
- Overall system performance is likewise amazing. General Windows use seems almost as fast as my desktop (AMD FX-55). The 7200RPM hard drive makes a big difference here certainly, as does the 1GB of ram.
- The keyboard is very nice, I love the layout and the number pad. The arrow keys take getting used to, but in general, this is a part I have no complaints with.
- Overall, the fit and finish seems very good, there is very little flex anywhere, and nothing seems flimsy or cheap.
- The computer, as a whole, is gorgeous. It looks like a sports car next to my friends Dell 9200. Its thin, but not so thin that it feels flimsy, and the blue lighting on the power button and status lights looks very nice.
Now the Problems
- The fan is on, all the time, it stays on low speed as long as I’m not doing anything intensive, but it isn’t particularly quiet. I know I probably should have expected this with the processor and graphics system this computer has, but it is still somewhat dissapointing.
- As a whole, it runs very hot compared to my buddy’s Dell 9200. Sitting here right now, his is at 29 degrees Celsius, mine is at 46. Using the same program (CHC) for monitoring, both at max battery power settings. My processor is undervolted pretty significantly(.764V for lowest multiplier) and his is at stock voltage. (I know there can be some variance between temp readings, and he has a 1.6 P-M and a mobile radeon 9700, which obviously has a lot less heat output) But his fan isn’t even running, whereas both of mine are chugging away. I’ve heard applying AS5 to my various heatsinks might help, but I haven’t read any good instructions and i’m hesitant to start randomly poking around in a computer that cost this much.
- Battery life is pretty underwhelming. The extended battery (12 cell) gives me a little over 4 hours of Windows usage. Again, I know my choice of video card plays alot into this, but its still somewhat dissapointing. Speaking of which, the auto underclocking doesn’t seem to work right. When i set max power savings, and monitor the clocks with RivaTuner, they are all over the place, at once point it said it was running 800/12, which obviously can’t be right, so I hope that’s a problem with rivatuner, not with the card or the drivers.
- There was a lot of crap preinstalled all over the place. 2 Antivirus suites?? I mean I know pre-built computers come with a lot of junk these days, but this was pretty ridiculous. Then again, I just set up a new Dell 6000 for my girlfriends dad, and it was about the same, so i guess its just the norm.
Overall
- I feel like i made a good choice. On AC power, it is an incredible performer, and the price was decent for what I got. The only thing comparable would be the new XPS Gen II, which is even hotter and has even shorter battery life.
- It is a beatiful, fast computer, and I would recommend it to anyone looking in this class. Be aware that it is large and somewhat heavy, but very reasonable for a 17″ widescreen with the equipment that it has.
On another note, if anyone has any suggestions on the issues I mentioned, please post here. Thanks for reading.
