Gateway M675 review and banchmarks - Page 6

Mark,
I'll have drop into B&N or Borders to check out that issue since it's not on cgw.com yet. Just like some of the other reviews I've seen, the reviewer doesn't sound accurate mentioning the 75gb 7200rpm drive. I don't even think one exists!

Also, Re: 3DMark03 results: I just did a quick initial benchmark using the stock M675XL configuration, no tweaking, and got 2625.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=1918775

I didn't do too much haggling other than getting a free T-23 Camera ($129 value) out of the deal. I ordered online after visiting a brick&mortar (to avoid FL sales tax), and basically claimed my 10% AAA discount and with NO Tax & Free shipping, got an M675XL delivered for $2599 - 10% = $2340.

The best approach from what I've heard, is to bring price comps from other vendor's systems such as the ZD7000, for them to match. For example, configuring a ZD7000 on hpshopping.com with 3.2GHz HT, 256x2(512)ram, 80gB 5400 HD, WinXP Pro, WirelessG, DVD+RW comes to about $2297 after their rebates. So that's a good reference point to use in negotiating your final price after any discounts for the M675XL.

All I simply did was tell them if they knocked $300, I would by right then. They did (after talking with a manager) so I stuck to my end of the bargain. I negotiated all of this via their "web-chat" feature. AS Romo stated, I did use the ZD system as a bargaining tool, as the ZD is several hundred less expensive, but it is nowhere near as nice a system. It's kind of like comparing apples to oranges.

As far as negotiating for a better deal...it never hurts to ask. The worst anyone can ever say is "No". Good Luck!

I'm just getting familiar with 3DMark2003 myself, so just as a quick & dirty test, I ran 3DMark2003 with stock settings, 2x for AA & 2x for ANISO (set to Application Preference in the ATI control panel) to get my score. CGW's test may be more realistic of how the card would be configured for detail as opposed to pure frame-rate optimization. I'm not much of a gamer so I'm learning the significance of these benchmarks as I go along. Tonight I'll run with their settings to compare..

More relevent for my needs is pure rendering/processing power for 3D modeling and Image processing apps, and for this I benchmarked with CineBench2003 (cinebench.com) my results can be found at:

http://216.253.162.66/temp/m675xl/CineBench011704.gif

This is also my first experience with HT and CineBench showed that the difference between a render in single CPU mode (no HT) vs. HT on to activate the virtual 2nd processor was significant; it shaved an already fast 94sec render down to 70secs! Considering a 10sec animation at 30fps, that's about a 2hr savings in render time!!!

My CineBench results can be compared with the results from the TechEdge G4/675 shootout:

http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezin...s_apple-pb.htm

-romo
M675XL | 3.2HT | 512MB PC2700 | ATI 9600 128MB | WirelessG | DVD-RW

I have a couple of questions. I purchased 1 stick of 512MB of Golden Dragon memory and my computer will not boot either.My first question to MBarrette is, will your computer boot with 1 of the geil sticks installed and can you please verify with us what chipset is installed in the M675XL? My second question is the same as sp0rk, I too can't get any newer CAT drivers to install. I did, however, notice that ATI doesn't even support drivers for the mobility on there web page, it says to get them from your manufacturer. I hope gateway is good at keeping up on the drivers!

Thanks ahead of time

irascible

great, thanks alot for all the info.

I have a couple of questions. I purchased 1 stick of 512MB of Golden Dragon memory and my computer will not boot either.


if you look deeply into this thread you will notice that the geil memory has been problem ridden with the 675's you are better off sending it back and getting the apacer pc3200

I was looking over the benchmarks and it doesn't look like running Dual Channel DDR makes much of a difference.

So should I spend the extra money and get two 512MB 400MHz sticks so I can have Dual Channel or just get one 512MB 400MHz stick?

I don't want to spend the extra money if it's not going to make much of a difference.

Thanks,

Thanks Mark... I ended up calling Gateway and telling them that I should be able to get the M675CS configured exactly like the M675X but with the 128MB Radeon for only $50 more since that's really the only real price difference (a custom CS model with the specs I wanted came out to almost $350 more than the X!). Lucky for me the sales guy was nice and ended up giving me the $300 difference off PLUS the 10% AAA discount AND free shipping! I ended up paying only 25 cents more for my CS than I did for the X. Nice huh!? Can't wait to get it and try it out!

You have a name of your rep. so I could get a deal like yours jay? Super deal!

I just got my M675X, I went with the 64MB VC but I don't play many games so it probably not a big deal. I got the whole thing for around $2000 with the AAA discount free shiping and Targus bag with tax.

I negotiated with the saleman (Will) for 1 512MB 400mhz ddr sodimm. It ship with the standard 2 chips but they will exchange them for the 1 chip with the get in stock for no cost. I am planing on add another chip for the dual channel 800mhz FSB. For anyone who has done this is there any thing I need to pay attention when ordering this chip? I already know that Apacer works and Geil doesn't. From my understanding Apacer is 2.5cas and Geil is 3. What about ECC vs Non ECC does that matter or is there anything to do with chip configuration? its 200pin Sodimm right? Who might have this memory in stock and who is the cheapest?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

Yeah, I talked to a guy named Arnold..he was very nice and easy to deal with. PM me if you want his ext....probably not a great idea giving it out here. ;-)

My machine is expected to arrive tommorrow...and I hope it's what I ordered. I only say that because when I called today they had told me something about my most recent order (done over the phone with Arnold) being cancelled and my original order (M675X placed at the Gateway store) being replaced with my new config (which *should* be a M675CS w/ 128MB)...but when I asked the lady on the phone to tell me exactly what machine I was going to receive she could not pull up the detailed config info and couldn't even tell me if the model was the m675CS or m675X. I asked to speak with someone that might be able to tell me what I wanted to know, but the people she forwarded me to (including Arnold) were not there (for some odd reason most of the sales reps and managers only work from Fri - Mon). After trying to contact someone with a brain for about an hour I gave up. Anyway, hopefully I get what I am expecting....b/c I really really don't want to wait another 2 weeks to get my machine. I have faith in Arnold...so I'm probably worrying about nothing. I'll keep you posted. :-)

Also...did anyone else notice that the built-in wireless option is no longer available on the gateway website when configuring the m675cs model!? Weird...b/c I swear I ordered a CS w/ wireless g.

i'm stuck with a m675x...

well, i got my notebook today! but it was a stock m675x model. they could not put the 128mb video card into the m675x for some reason...and could not make me a custom m675cs with the specs i wanted because that model did not come with a wireless g card. soooo...i'm gonna try talk to arnold tommorrow and see what my options are now. i think i'm gonna be stuck with this machine...but i can't complain...it's awesome! my hp zd7000 was/is nice, but i think i'm gonna send it back to hp.

Hey jay,
I talked to a gateway rep. today and he said you could put in a wireless g card into it. I sill think I can get a better deal....I need arnolds ext. I will tell em you sent me! Maybe he will give you something free!!

Why no Gateway section?

So - given so many of us are either owners or soon-to-be-owners of Gateway machines, any idea why there is not a Gateway section on the forum just like there is for Dell, Toshiba, and Alienware?

Because no one has asked PC Torque to establish one yet. Do you think that there should be one?

BargainSeeker, yes I do. Just reading through this thread, there are at least 4 or 5 different topics covered (including this one - my bad!) that would be easier to find if we posted them separately in a Gateway section. I could be wrong, but it seems there may be a fair number of 505 and 675 owners on this forum that might like to be able to share info without having to sort through all sorts of other brands to find it...

Anyway, would anybody mind if I wrote the admins to ask for this?

Not at all... Since there aren't any Gateway forums out there that I could find, it would be good to make this the first!