It's official: Gateway P-6831 FX on sale for $1199.99 at BB.

G

GoHack

Gawd
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Jul 14, 2002
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In terms of size, this reminds me of my Inspiron. I also just got a ThinkPad in the mail and I cant even describe feeling of holding a ThinkPad vs the Monstor Inspiron 1520.
The ThinkPad is just so much more elegant.


Although in terms of hardware, this is a great deal.:D
 
Wow, this is a fantastic deal.

1.67ghz Core 2 Duo
3gb DDR2 Ram
8800gts Go

This thing is better than my desktop in terms of ram and video... *Depressed*
 
Just recommenced one to a friend who wanted a desktop replacement laptop for him being on the move a lot. Plays games on it and will have a separate monitor at home, so the screen res (which is my major falling point of this laptop) isn't a problem for him.
 
If you put it on a Best Buy card this week, all computer purchases that are $699 and up have 18 months of no interest financing.
 
i think im going to pick one up, any opinions on the extended warranty? seems a little pricey and kinda puts it out of my price range but it may be worth it. i need to figure out what free game to get also...
 
DrewRosenHouse said:
i think im going to pick one up, any opinions on the extended warranty? seems a little pricey and kinda puts it out of my price range but it may be worth it. i need to figure out what free game to get also...
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Get an Extended Warranty from Gateway. I wouldn't trust BB's Extended Warranty.

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GoHack said:
Get an Extended Warranty from Gateway. I wouldn't trust BB's Extended Warranty.

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Get it from Best Buy. Accidental damage coverage for 3 yrs. is available for barely more than Gateway's w/o accidental damage. BB's covers battery replacement, too, if you get the 2 year or 3 year offerings. No way I'd get that laptop without it. I reckon it'll get a little toasty while playing crysis...
 
Thanks, OP for the deal. I was gonna post it, but you beat me to it. $1200 is fan-freaking-tastic for that laptop.
 
Got the last one at my bestbuy 10 minutes after they opened! Its so much better then my 9300! and it cost less than the 9300 did in 2005 (by 30 dollars lol)
 
SirKronan said:
Get it from Best Buy. Accidental damage coverage for 3 yrs. is available for barely more than Gateway's w/o accidental damage. BB's covers battery replacement, too, if you get the 2 year or 3 year offerings. No way I'd get that laptop without it. I reckon it'll get a little toasty while playing crysis...
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Yup, accidental can be great, in a couple of years your laptop can be "accidentally" dropped down the stairs.

Actually... I got my service plan without the accidental just because I'm too damn honest for my own good, I just don't think I could intentionally destroy my computer just to get a new one.
 
This looks like a pretty dang good deal. I wonder how this benchmarks. :)
 
cool laptop. i wish other manufacturers would come out with deals like this :cool:
 
Just bought one of these and am about to open it up. :)

I work for Best Buy and am very familiar with how their service plans work.

Normal service plan covers:
- normal wear and tear
- one battery replacement
- one ac adapter replacement
- power surges
- free Geek Squad diagnostics
- any hardware failures due to normal use

Accidental service plan covers:
- everything in the normal service plans
- one cracked lcd screen
- spills
- accidental droppage

Neither plan covers cosmetic damage (ie, scratches or cracked hinges, but they will occasionally replace a cracked hinge). They will replace a keyboard if a key or two pops off, but if there are like 10 keys missing, it's obvious that didn't happen from normal use (ie, your cat jumping on the keyboard). They also do not cover acts of God or insect infestations (unfortunately this has come up before, it's really gross).

The accidental plan covers pretty much everything from normal usage except complete submersion, so don't use it while in your swimming pool or while on a small boat.

I've seen laptops get replaced with new ones under the accidental plan from someone setting a pallet on top of it with a forklift on accident, and I've seen them decline repairs because a friend got bear vomit all over the laptop (was really nasty).

In my opinion, the accidental plan is worth it. It's expensive, but just make sure you get your free replacement battery and ac adapter before the plan expires and you will get at least something out of it.

I've seen an accidental plan repair $1800 worth of hardware in a $2200 laptop. The plan does work if you treat your laptop correctly.
 
jbailey said:
Just bought one of these and am about to open it up. :)

I work for Best Buy and am very familiar with how their service plans work.

Normal service plan covers:
- normal wear and tear
- one battery replacement
- one ac adapter replacement
- power surges
- free Geek Squad diagnostics
- any hardware failures due to normal use

Accidental service plan covers:
- everything in the normal service plans
- one cracked lcd screen
- spills
- accidental droppage

Neither plan covers cosmetic damage (ie, scratches or cracked hinges, but they will occasionally replace a cracked hinge). They will replace a keyboard if a key or two pops off, but if there are like 10 keys missing, it's obvious that didn't happen from normal use (ie, your cat jumping on the keyboard). They also do not cover acts of God or insect infestations (unfortunately this has come up before, it's really gross).

The accidental plan covers pretty much everything from normal usage except complete submersion, so don't use it while in your swimming pool or while on a small boat.

I've seen laptops get replaced with new ones under the accidental plan from someone setting a pallet on top of it with a forklift on accident, and I've seen them decline repairs because a friend got bear vomit all over the laptop (was really nasty).

In my opinion, the accidental plan is worth it. It's expensive, but just make sure you get your free replacement battery and ac adapter before the plan expires and you will get at least something out of it.

I've seen an accidental plan repair $1800 worth of hardware in a $2200 laptop. The plan does work if you treat your laptop correctly.
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What about trusting BB.

I'd be a little nervous leaving my laptop, especially of the P-6831's caliber, when one hears about customer laptop's disappearing, and/or not even getting fixed.

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Because that happens ALL the time, right? And that never happens through the OEM's, right? And a mom and pop shop would never do something like that, right?
 
jbailey said:
Because that happens ALL the time, right? And that never happens through the OEM's, right? And a mom and pop shop would never do something like that, right?
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Mom and pop stores can't afford lawsuits and can't hush anything under the rug as bestbuy can. Most people will typically tell you that BB will quickly settle for simple things.

I've been screwed once too many with the best buy plans, I refuse to buy them as they are not worth the headache that they cause. Really, the accidental plan should be called "Free repair/replacement program depending upon how we feel that day and how much we like you".
 
jbailey said:
Because that happens ALL the time, right? And that never happens through the OEM's, right? And a mom and pop shop would never do something like that, right?
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When it takes a $54 million lawsuit to get BB to do what it was responsible for in the first place, I'm sorry. When stories of situations like this get out, that can't help BB. It makes me not consider an Extended Warranty w/them. They need to respect the customer. Hopefully the woman wins a good settlement, that's made public, and BB gets the message. I'm sure BB has heard many a threat of a lawsuit, w/no action, so builds a no care attitude. "We'll give you $800 for a $1200 laptop, take it or leave it. What are you going to do, sue us? :D"

As for thrusting OEM's, I also own an Alienware laptop, and while I haven't had any issues w/it, I've read more than enough horror stories to make me worry w/them, should I need any repairs.

Also given the choice between a Geek Squad person touching my computer, and some OEM technician, I'll go w/the OEM, sorry.

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GoHack said:
When it takes a $54 million lawsuit to get BB to do what it was responsible for in the first place, I'm sorry. When stories of situations like this get out, that can't help BB. It makes me not consider an Extended Warranty w/them. They need to respect the customer. Hopefully the woman wins a good settlement, that's made public, and BB gets the message. I'm sure BB has heard many a threat of a lawsuit, w/no action, so builds a no care attitude. "We'll give you $800 for a $1200 laptop, take it or leave it. What are you going to do, sue us? :D"

As for thrusting OEM's, I also own an Alienware laptop, and while I haven't had any issues w/it, I've read more than enough horror stories to make me worry w/them, should I need any repairs.

Also given the choice between a Geek Squad person touching my computer, and some OEM technician, I'll go w/the OEM, sorry.

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People please. Want to know something that best buy, mom and pop shops, and OEM's ALL HAVE IN COMMON? They all employ human beings. I have seen Best Buy take fantastic care of people before. I have also personally seen Toshiba, HP, and other OEM's take fantastic care of people. I have had many stellar service experiences with HP. They've gone out of their way in the past to help take care of me as a customer. (I've had few good experiences with mom and pop shops, though, so now I avoid those...) While I have seen many examples of great service, I can also recall specific examples where each of these companies, along with others, have not done right with their customers. Humans are capable of making mistakes, and often do. It depends a lot more on the individual in the specific incidence than the whole entire company. I have called HP and gotten complete idiots that don't know the first thing about computers. Other times I have called and been taken through an issue step by step by someone very qualified until adequate resolution is found and the problem is resolved. Likewise I know Geek Squad agents that really know their stuff. I also know a few I wouldn't even want to be within 50 feet of my computer. When you employ people, there's always the possibility that some of those people make mistakes. Best Buy, like any company, does what they can to minimize confidentiality problems and breaches of security by training, firing people who violate policy, and hiring people whom they think are qualified. This one isolated incident is by no means something to judge a whole company for. Nor is it probably the only time this is ever happened. On the same time, similar incidents have happened to other companies as well. At my local best buy I see many customers served by our service plans who own laptops. They get new batteries, keyboards replaced, cleanings, and various other repairs. I think this laptop is one that would warrant a service plan, and with the one at Best Buy vs. the one from gateway, you get the advantage of local support and a store you can take it and drop it off. Some repairs (like hard drives) can often be done in store - although less on laptops than on desktops unfortunately.
 
jbailey said:
In my opinion, the accidental plan is worth it. It's expensive, but just make sure you get your free replacement battery and ac adapter before the plan expires and you will get at least something out of it.

I've seen an accidental plan repair $1800 worth of hardware in a $2200 laptop. The plan does work if you treat your laptop correctly.
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The plan does work if you treat your laptop correctly? The plan would be a complete waste of money if you treat the laptop correctly and never gets damaged/broken.

Best Buy would not offer these warranties if they were not going to make money on them. Chances are that your laptop will not fry and best buy will pocket the money. I plan to be careful with my laptop and I never bring drinks around my computer away. I skipped the plan and will make due with the standard 1 year warranty. If something goes wrong, hopefully it will happen by then.

jbailey said:
It plays TF2 with everything on max like a dream. :)
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I don't see how you are doing that. I had to lower down my settings, turn of AA and AF, and it was still chugging in the 30fps range and would every now and then hit high 20s. This was after I formatted and installed video drivers from laptop video 2 go.
 
Ihaveworms said:
I don't see how you are doing that. I had to lower down my settings, turn of AA and AF, and it was still chugging in the 30fps range and would every now and then hit high 20s. This was after I formatted and installed video drivers from laptop video 2 go.
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An 8800GTS, even though it's a Mobile version, I would think could handle TF2 with mostly maxxed out settings at a paltry 1440x900. It seems rather strange if it can't, in my opinion.
 
Citizen86 said:
An 8800GTS, even though it's a Mobile version, I would think could handle TF2 with mostly maxxed out settings at a paltry 1440x900. It seems rather strange if it can't, in my opinion.
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I thought the same thing too when I started up the game and set everything to maxxed settings (except AA/AF). However, I think the source engine uses the CPU quite a bit and with a 5450, I am not sure if is being limited there.
 
Ihaveworms said:
The plan does work if you treat your laptop correctly? The plan would be a complete waste of money if you treat the laptop correctly and never gets damaged/broken.
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So you buy the accidental one in case you drop it or are accident prone. And we all know that computer components never ever go bad on their own due to overheating, dust, or power surges. (sorry for the sass!)

I replace about 10 bad power supplies (that's just me, not counting the other techs) and countless harddrives and sticks of ram every month due to those issues, both under warranty and under no warranty.

Ihaveworms said:
Best Buy would not offer these warranties if they were not going to make money on them. Chances are that your laptop will not fry and best buy will pocket the money. I plan to be careful with my laptop and I never bring drinks around my computer away. I skipped the plan and will make due with the standard 1 year warranty. If something goes wrong, hopefully it will happen by then.
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It's always a chance you take. Nobody would ever offer anything if they couldn't make money off of it. It's business. Chances are that nothing will happen, but I prefer to have some type of insurance just in case. You never know. I haven't bought a warranty yet, but I'm thinking I will probably pick up the 2 year accidental, just in case.

Ihaveworms said:
I don't see how you are doing that. I had to lower down my settings, turn of AA and AF, and it was still chugging in the 30fps range and would every now and then hit high 20s. This was after I formatted and installed video drivers from laptop video 2 go.
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Sorry, I thought I turned everything up but I didn't. :) AA at 4x and aniso at 8x, all detail settings on the highest. Maps with large water areas seem to bring a bit of choppiness if you have water reflections on max when there are lots of people on the scene. I'm probably going to drop the hdr and max water settings, but leave the rest. 1440x900 or whatever the max widescreen res is.

I'm still sporting Vista on it to give it a shot. I don't know if this is just me, or what, but when I try to connect to games with the laptop running Vista, it will always say server cannot be contacted even though it pings in the game list, but if I let it sit there for about 5-10 seconds, it eventually does connect. This has never happens on my XP machine.

Anyhow, I'm very satisfied with this laptop. It's comfortable to use and has all the features I actually want. The free game under $50 was kind of cool, too, but I already had all the games I really wanted, so I picked up UT3. I still haven't opened it, so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it, sell it, or return it and get another one. I wasn't too impressed with the demo... just more of the same.

Battery life kind of sucks, as expected. Make sure you go to the Gateway Recovery Center and burn your "applications and driver" recovery disc. :)
 
Ihaveworms said:
I don't see how you are doing that. I had to lower down my settings, turn of AA and AF, and it was still chugging in the 30fps range and would every now and then hit high 20s. This was after I formatted and installed video drivers from laptop video 2 go.
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It's because you didn't buy the SERVICE PLAN!! :p


In all seriousness, just go back to economics class. What advice would they give you there about an extended warranty/service plan (which by no means are even close to the same thing) ??

I've been told that if it's a big purchase, not something you can just easily replace if it breaks at the drop of the hat, then it's probably worth protecting your expensive investment with some form of insurance.

If it's just pocket change to you, if you can just easily throw down $1200 to get a new one if you drop and break your current laptop, or it just overheats and fries, then take the risk, because statistics are in your favor. Save the money and brave the odds.

$1200 is not pocket change for everyone, like myself. I bought a $1600 Sony Vaio laptop two years+ ago. I also purchased the 3 yr service plan to go along with it. Haven't used it a single time yet! We are due for the replacement battery, which will save us about $170, and a professional cleaning, as I'm sure it's quite the dustmunster ... I paid over 250 for the service plan. Do I feel cheated? No. Did Best Buy make some money of of me? Yeah, at least $50-70. But that's assuming nothing goes wrong before the last year is up. I got a guaranteed battery out of it, and regular cleaning maintenance. On the other hand, my macbook, which I baby the crap out of, has been repaired THREE TIMES!! That was all under the manufacturers warranty. I went to buy the extended apple care when the year was up, but I was late by a week, and they wouldn't let me buy it. They offered to fix whatever was wrong for free, but nothing was wrong, I just wanted to buy the apple care to protect my laptop, and they wouldn't let me. A superdrive update later killed my superdrive, but because it was their fault, they fixed it for free. Took a long time, though. Point is, now I have no coverage on my laptop whatsoever. The next dead superdrive replacement is on me, and it's already starting to hate DVD-R's. Still uses +R's just fine. I'm crossing my fingers on my macbook hoping nothing breaks, while on the Sony, I don't worry because it's got another year of coverage. That kind of peace of mind is worth a few extra bucks in my book.

Plus, you've got to consider that laptops do indeed have a higher failure rate than desktops. You're taking powerful computer components and putting them in a shell about an inch thick. Even if those components are neutered so as to be cooler and more efficient, heat is still a big issue. Plus, when you buy a desktop, it usually just sits in one spot, whereas a laptop is exhibited to being carried around hither and thither with all the bumps along the way. With a high end graphics card in this Gateway, your chances of problems go up even higher. I say it's worth the risk for the performance and current value pricing, but I also say that especially on this high end of a model, it's worth a little extra protection. It's normally worth 1350, not just 1200 because of the sale. That's not pocket change to me. I would protect it with a service plan. Consider as well, that it has considerably more horsepower than most, and thus has a longer usable lifespan than your cheapo laptop. After the 1yr warranty is up, there will still be plenty of firepower left in it for games and other uses, but it will no longer have any kind of guarantee. Any problem, and your out the personal cash to fix it, or out to find a replacement model bought by your own dollar if it's something prohibitively expensive to fix, like the screen.

Decision's yours, but this is a valuable enough laptop that I would protect it, unless, like i said, it's just pocket change for you.
 
Ihaveworms said:
I hope you are joking.
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Dude, of course... hence the :p
How would a service plan make it faster?

Actually they have a new thing called an optimization for $29 that might make it faster. Our local geek squad took two of the same laptop and left one stock with no changes out of the box, and ran the optomization on the other. Other than the optimization, there is no difference between the two. Both laptops are on display side by side in the local Best Buy.

The difference it makes is very noticeable:

Stock:
Boot time: 63 sec
Word startup: 7-12 sec
IE startup: 5-8 sec
Shutdown delay: 26 sec

Optimized:
Boot time: 37 sec
Word startup: 3-5 sec
IE startup: 2-5 sec
Shutdown delay: 9-12 sec

I've seen the demo with my own eyes. I've also seen someone's laptop (someone who doesn't work at BBY) before and after, too. They were amazed at the difference because they used their laptop for a few days, and then decided to come back in and have it done.

You might think that anyone with Google can figure out how to do it. Maybe there are a few of you smart enough to do most of what their optimization does on your own, but they spent over $1.5 million developing the program and process they use to streamline your laptop's operating environment. Not only do they quickly get rid of all the trial and advertising oem crap prepackaged on the laptop, but they also greatly trim windows' performance and processes by cutting out a lot of unnecessary fat, startup and registry wise. $29 will go a long way to improving performance, and will do a lot for some.
 
SirKronan said:
You might think that anyone with Google can figure out how to do it. Maybe there are a few of you smart enough to do most of what their optimization does on your own, but they spent over $1.5 million developing the program and process they use to streamline your laptop's operating environment. Not only do they quickly get rid of all the trial and advertising oem crap prepackaged on the laptop, but they also greatly trim windows' performance and processes by cutting out a lot of unnecessary fat, startup and registry wise. $29 will go a long way to improving performance, and will do a lot for some.
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msconfig dude, msconfig
 
SirKronan said:
You might think that anyone with Google can figure out how to do it. Maybe there are a few of you smart enough to do most of what their optimization does on your own, but they spent over $1.5 million developing the program and process they use to streamline your laptop's operating environment. Not only do they quickly get rid of all the trial and advertising oem crap prepackaged on the laptop, but they also greatly trim windows' performance and processes by cutting out a lot of unnecessary fat, startup and registry wise. $29 will go a long way to improving performance, and will do a lot for some.
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Actually, I've seen and toyed with their tool discs. Here's why they've spent so much: They were using the same freeware applications that we all use and have access to, except they didn't pay a lot of attention to the fact that you can't use them commercially with the free licences, or charge for their use. They got into a bit of a tangle, so they had to spend a lot of money right away to write their own versions of all of these applications immediately. Really, when it comes down to how much they make off of their tool disc, 1.5 million is cheap as hell.

Best Buy's Geek Squad is doing nothing to your computer that you can't do yourself. What, do you think they have some top secret Windows "hax" that nobody else knows? Come on..
 
used to work for the gsquad a while back. With these accidental warranties make sure when it is checked in the damage follows under the guidelines. A prime example is this... if you spill a glass of water on the laptop its covered. However if it rains on the laptop "act of god" its not covered. The first time I sent out a laptop that was rained on it was not covered so I learned my lesson to just note it had water spilled on it. I did take care of that customer when I was there just used the store warranty to get him a new laptop.
 
EbolaBunny said:
Actually, I've seen and toyed with their tool discs. Here's why they've spent so much: They were using the same freeware applications that we all use and have access to, except they didn't pay a lot of attention to the fact that you can't use them commercially with the free licences, or charge for their use. They got into a bit of a tangle, so they had to spend a lot of money right away to write their own versions of all of these applications immediately. Really, when it comes down to how much they make off of their tool disc, 1.5 million is cheap as hell.

Best Buy's Geek Squad is doing nothing to your computer that you can't do yourself. What, do you think they have some top secret Windows "hax" that nobody else knows? Come on..
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I'm not talking about secret "hax". It's just a very thorough and complete setup. The clean of the OEM prepackaged crap, clean your registry, and do all that fancy stuff that you would manually do in MSconfig. They do it quickly, and they do it well, and they don't shut off anything important that you'll need later. For most users, 29 bucks is worth it and is going to save them the hassle. For people like you and me, and many other hard forum users, we might be able to just go in and do it ourselves just fine, but like I said, this will be a big time saver for many people, and they do a good job. I've seen them.
 
SirKronan said:
I'm not talking about secret "hax". It's just a very thorough and complete setup.
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Not to be nitpicky, but you kind of were talking about secret "hax".. right here:
SirKronan said:
You might think that anyone with Google can figure out how to do it. Maybe there are a few of you smart enough to do most of what their optimization does on your own, but they spent over $1.5 million developing the program and process they use to streamline your laptop's operating environment.
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Really though, it's not any big deal. I just don't like it when people are mislead into thinking that GeekSquad is amazing. They're not. Most of their "technicians" aren't really all that tech savvy at all. They're salespeople in a GeekSquad uniform. I think people would be in better shape if they learned how to do these things on their own, and why they should do them.

Knowledge is everything.
 
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