Gateway Goes Gaming: FX530XT Review

[bgerber]

Gateway is ready to get back into the performance business. They certainly have the experience, but can they deliver the goods?

 

[MU_Engineer]

Like the article hinted at, I think this should have been named the QX530T instead of the FX530T because of the CPU. Well, maybe Gateway is ready to make an Agena-based FX system later this year...

 

[photographer]

Nice features for an excellent price but if I had the money and for some crazy reason I didn't want to build a system, I'd go with a Dell XPS 710. Much better build quality.

 

[MartenKL]

Comparison should be done against the Dell XPS 710 H2C which still haven't been reviewed by tomshardware. Maybe not possible until Nvidia get their drivers in order for Vista.

 

[photographer]

Agreed. One thing I've always tried to do is keep my system neat. The Gateway images didn't impress me but the XPS 710 reviews show a near-perfectly layed out system.

 

[celewign]

Soo... what? We have another gaming PC. Big deal.
If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Homebuilt is still far superior to any of them.
-cm

 

[photographer]

Agreed. Manufacturers just use to many cheap parts. Their video and sound cards are the dumbed-down versions and often by no-name companies. Of course there are companies like Falcon Northwest but I've been in the computer fields since '80 and haven't known a single person that owns one.

 

[celewign]

I met someone once who knew a person who heard about a friend of a friend who claims that one of his family members owns a Falcon Northwest computer. Apparently, SOME people buy them.
-cm

 

[Crashman]

Agreed. Manufacturers just use to many cheap parts. Their video and sound cards are the dumbed-down versions and often by no-name companies. Of course there are companies like Falcon Northwest but I've been in the computer fields since '80 and haven't known a single person that owns one.

Gateway used a Delta 700W power supply and ATI-branded ATI cards...plus an Intel-supplied motherboard and dual Raptors. I don't think they could have used "better parts" even if they were Falcon Northwest.

 

[Crashman]

Yeh, but you can't have it both ways: You can build a similar system a bit cheaper, or you can build a similarly priced system with slightly higher quality. You certainly can't beat these companies on quality for $400 systems, which is where you're heading when you start discussing "too many cheap parts".

Yeh, what I'm saying is that the "cheap parts" argument only applies when you're comparing similarly-priced home-built systems with even lower quality parts.

 

[DGriffin]

Nice pc, quad core, 10,000 rpm sata drive, to bad they killed it by putting a stupid ati card in it!!!!

 

[Crashman]

The had to use ATI graphics...because X1950XTX Crossfire wins more benchmarks than it loses against a single 8800GTX. nVidia doesn't support SLI on Intel chipsets. Heck, nVidia doesn't even support Vista.

 

[djplanet]

Lemme guess... they couldn't SLI two 8800GTXs because 680i motherboards aren't available for BTX, hogtying them to ATI for the best compatible performance. I still feel sorry for BTX, it's a great idea, just no hardware manufacturers will switch .

 

[photographer]

The had to use ATI graphics...because X1950XTX Crossfire wins more benchmarks than it loses against a single 8800GTX. nVidia doesn't support SLI on Intel chipsets. Heck, nVidia doesn't even support Vista.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if they're retail or OEM parts ? Hmmmm, OEM parts are usually not made as well as retail. I read somewhere that OEM's such as Gateway, Dell, HP etc., besides using companies like Celestica for their video cards, have components specifically de-tuned so that they don't expire in-warranty. Don't know it for a fact myself but I can see the logic.

 

[Crashman]

Usually the same stuff hardware wise, sometimes down-clocked. I checked into those cards, they aren't downclocked, but the warranty is: to one year. You have to pay more to get the 3-year extended warranty.

Having said that, these oversized coolers have longer bearings, which don't wear out as fast. The problem has always been the thin bearings in low-profile graphics coolers, because they allow more "wobble". Wobble is a major contributor to fan wear.

 

[malavena]

Gateway did make a good job two years ago by selling AMD64 laptops with 1gig ram, DVD-DL, ATI 9600 graphics and glossy screens solely for BestBuy at US$1300 or less. By that time you could only get such performance in Acer Ferraris or Alienwares, costing at least US$2000. Brands such as Dell, Compaq or IBM didn't have graphics cards worth mentioning. I don't think these machines were a commercial failure as they were SOLD OUT several times in a month.

I still own one of those. Been able to play Oblivion with some overclocking. It's a shame Gateway went back to selling affordable laptops with decent processors and memory but decided to cut back the costs inserting mediocre graphics cards. I hope they revert the trend.

 

[mdbassman]

Like the article hinted at, I think this should have been named the QX530T instead of the FX530T because of the CPU. Well, maybe Gateway is ready to make an Agena-based FX system later this year...

Gateway maybe back in the production market but they still leave much to be desired in the delivery phase.
I placed an order on Feb 20, 2007 and delievry date has been pushed to April 13 after 3 "Arrival Date" changes. Not good Customer Service at all and very unresponsive to customer needs.

 

[asusman]

Quad Core = waste of money.
No DX10 card, so its allready obsolete.

Full of bloatware from AOL, Napster and stupid toolbars.
Worthless trial software.

Oh its does have a modem though, yeah!

Only DDR2 667 are you f'in kidding me? Surprised they aren't 4 x 512 sticks.

Very plain looking case.

Stock cooler on cpu, can't OC. Very crowded case.

 

[asusman]

Just go back to making uderpowered cheap PC's.

Those are great for my repair business.

Espically the 1 GB RAM with integrated video Vista PC's, just like the 256 MB XP PC's of the past.