Got this from TigerDirect refurb for $700. I changed out the CPU to a T9400 2.53Ghz and added a second Hitachi 320GB 7200 w/16mb cache. I then re-wrote the OS in RAID-0. This thing flies! I am planning on replacing this screen with a non-gloss version. Overall, this is a GREAT piece.

Great! Give us a short description as how to set up the Raid-0 on this comp as well.

cheers ...

Sure....The first thing I did was go to the Gateway Recovery manager and make a Restore Disk. Then you should take off the bottom cover, you will see two 2.5 inch hard drive caddies. One of them is empty. Install your matching 2nd drive into this bay. If you don't have two short hard drive screws you can remove two from the other hard drive caddy. You only really need two screws to hold the hard drive in good. After you install the drive, you must boot the pc into the bios setup screen. Change the option for Hard Drive from AHCI to RAID. If you saw this option previous to installing your second hard drive, you would have noticed that there was no option for RAID. It only appears after you install the second drive. After you save and exit the setup screen, restart and then you will see a pre-os screen that says "press Control and I " to setup enter Intel Raid setup. Enter that setup. You will probably just want to use default drive size and block allocation. """""Warning""""""you will delete everything on both drives by doing this.....After you have setup both drives in "Striping", exit that screen and you will then reboot. Insert your freshly created Restore Media Disk. The same exact OS that it shipped with will be reimaged onto one enormous high performance hard drive! Piece of cake really.

If anyone is interested, I just bought a Q9100 that I am going to install into this guy. I will post results after I do!

I definitively interested in the Q9100 installation! Take pics, please.

Thanks for the input.

cheers ...

thanks for your benchmark submission

Well........tried the Q9100 but it would not post

Oh well......guess I will sell the chip on ebay.....

Too bad .. I was looking forward to see that it would work. Thanks for the feedback.

cheers ...

How did you replace the processor. I thought notebooks couldnt be upgarded like that. Can upgrade the GPU too?

Thank you.

Ypu can upgrade the processor in notebooks. It involves a bit more work than with desktops. GPU upgrade depends on the manufacturer/model, and most likely NO.

cheers ...