Need feedback on possible purchase.

[Mike Rountree]

Considering buying a Gateway DX4300-01u which has AMD Phenom 11X4 Quad Core 810 Processor (2.6ghz) and 8GB DDR2 memory and 1TB Sata HDD. Can anyone give me feed back as to quality and is it a good buy? Price: $ 649.99.

 

[o1die]

That system will be fast enough for most anything. But beware that ddr2 is being phased out. And don't expect to upgrade the cpu. When you're not happy with it, you should sell it intact instead of wasting money on upgrades. Lots of folks think it's easy to upgrade their dell, gateway, etc, but these boards aren't designed for upgrading the cpu easily. And the windows operating system may not work on a non-gateway board.

 

[Mike Rountree]

That system will be fast enough for most anything. But beware that ddr2 is being phased out. And don't expect to upgrade the cpu. When you're not happy with it, you should sell it intact instead of wasting money on upgrades. Lots of folks think it's easy to upgrade their dell, gateway, etc, but these boards aren't designed for upgrading the cpu easily. And the windows operating system may not work on a non-gateway board.

I play high end games like Civ IV Beyond The Sword and EA Sports Tiger Woods Golf. On my current system I have 2. 6 ghz processor AMD and 4 gig memory. I am running an ATI Radeon 1 Gig graphics display and Window Vista Premium 32 bit. All my games are crashing while in play and getting Physical Memory Crash Dump. Is it my computer and this is why I am looking to buy a new one. Also have 500 gig hard drive.

 

[Mike Rountree]

Please advise. Thank You

 

[donpacific2k]

I've always had good luck with Gateway. Not sure about that 300w ps though if you ever upgrade the video card. At least from the picture on tigerdirect it looks like it should be replaceable in the future. Have to be careful with brand computers... I recently had to break out the power drill to make correctly positioned screw holes on a Dell for a new ATX power supply.

 

[welshmousepk]

waht video card does it have?

if it running on integrated, you won't be playing any of the games you mentioned.

 

[Mike Rountree]

I've always had good luck with Gateway. Not sure about that 300w ps though if you ever upgrade the video card. At least from the picture on tigerdirect it looks like it should be replaceable in the future. Have to be careful with brand computers... I recently had to break out the power drill to make correctly positioned screw holes on a Dell for a new ATX power supply.

It's a ATI Radeon 1 gig graphic card. Should have to upgrade based on software recommendation.

 

[Mike Rountree]

Its a ATI Radeon 1 gig graphics card. I think it's a 4650. Should handle any software that I have.

 

[welshmousepk]

a 4650 isn't too bad. not a powerhouse though.

 

[o1die]

I would try a better power supply. Get one with a large single 12v rail, around 50-60 amps. Corsair and pc power and cooling are the best brands, followed by seasonic, enermax, ocz, and antec. You can also download the newest driver off amd's website for your current video card. Then uninstall your old drivers in the "add/remove" section of the control panel, reboot, and install the new drivers. If this doesn't give your gaming more stability, you can go with a faster video card or new system, and use the power supply in your next system. Oem systems don't come with good power supplies for gaming.

 

[Mike Rountree]

All my drivers are up to date and have 500 watt power supply. Why would it do a kernnal physical memory dump?

 

[o1die]

Bluescreens? Try each ram stick individually running memtest, a free download. Many ram sticks come with a lifetime warranty, but oem ram usually has to go through the vender: gateway, dell etc. And cheap branded 500w ps can still give you problems.
What brand is your ps?