Gateway M675 review and banchmarks - Page 8

Thanks Romo!

I spoke with a gateway sales person yesterday about the 675x and they are willing to deal with the price a bit and delivery is about a week.

In the long run I think the upfront investment for the XL will be worth while.

Thanks for you advise, I will let you know how it goes.

Romo, well stated!

Khausner, I'll confess that I still don't actually have my system yet, so you should take your guidance about the video card from someone like Romo who has actually had a chance to test it!

However, you do have plenty of ports to attach a mouse to, of either the PS/2 or USB type. I've ordered a Logitech MX Duo wireless mouse and keyboard combo, to attach via the USB port. But any kind of mouse should work just fine, as long as you have drivers for it. (By the way, I much prefer a mouse to the touchpad)

Good luck with your purchase!

Wow. Thats great to hear.. I just ordered from the Store... I was told that the ETA was the 23rd..... when i went to check the order status online it tells me the ship date will be on the 23rd.... Sure hope it ships long b4 then

Review after a month

I have been so busy that I never had a chance to post my impressions of this machine.

I use the machine for a variety of tasks: Work, DVD burning, Analog audio recording, Wireless, Light gaming. I also intend to do more photo and video editing with it.

First off, as much as this machine is big, I have no problem moving it around and using it on my lap. I'm typing this right now as I sit on my couch with the machine on my lap. Amazingly, it does not get too hot. I have yet to have to take it off my lap due to size or heat. Obviously, because of it's size, it is easier to use on a desk or table at times, but people should not be discouraged by the size if they want a "laptop", as well.

The screen is beautiful. DVD's are crisp and clean. The sound is far better than expected. Especially with tweaking eq settings, etc.

I have been thoroughly impressed with the quality and performance overall. I am not an intense gamer, but have played flight simulator, madden 2004, black hawk down and need for speed- all have been awesome. Performed without any flaws.

The only problems that I have had is that I needed to reinstall the sound driver (took about a minute with the application cd) after analog recorder stopped recognizing the sound card. I've also had an annoying high pitched whirl from the fan, at times. Blowing air into it seems to have made it better.

The fan is loud, but you get used to it. Obviously, it is a trade off for such a powerful machine that can remain cool enough to sit on your lap.

I have also found Gateway to be responsive to customer service inquiries. I had a number of shipping and upgrade issues and the company has been able to accomodate me every time.

For those wondering, it was a little less than two weeks from order to receipt of the machine.

As to all of those complaining about the ship dates and the companies response- I agree they could be a little bit more clear with the process. But, the machines are in demand because they are delivering a quality product. Sometimes you need to wait and be patient. It's better to wait upon a quality product than to go out and rush a purchase of this type based on impulse and immediate availability. I, too, questioned my decision to wait when I wondered where my machine was. I am very happy with my decision.

Well guys I just recieved my machine. I'm typing on it right now. First impressions are great, the keyboard is excellent for typing, I love the screen, looks awesome. I haven't really put it to the test in terms of performance yet, just getting all the software cleaned up. But so far I love this thing, best investment I've made. One question for you guys that have the machines, can you turn the wireless internet on/off, maybe i need to read, lol, but I figured you guys would know. Well i'll do some benchmarking and post up some pics soon, just wanted to say my 1st impressions.

There's an on/off button to the wireless radio at the top right of the keyboard. Have fun with your machine!

Software Q

If you purchase a DVD burner with the 675 or any other for that matter does it come with supportable software? XCopy? what? After purchasing my computer on the 1st of January I am finally getting it Friday! No S**T!

Software that came with 675XL(with DVDrom/R/RW)

OS of course
Works 7.0
Applications & Drivers (which only has Nero 6 and Norton2004trial with other assorted drivers and software
Inter video DVD Play 6

I had Nero Express installed and have also noticed that some version of Roxio is on the application/driver cd.

Mine came with nero as well. I pretty much uninstalled everything minus that. I put office 2000 on instead of works.

J.

I am new to this forum and have done a lot of research on buying a laptop. Thanks to all of you for your valuable input. My choices have come down to Sager 4780 or 8790 (if it ever comes out) and the Gateway M675XL. Is the Gateway M675XL worth the money? Also can you notice a difference (besides size) of the 60GB 7200 vs 80GB 5400? I could use the extra 20GB but if performance is that much noticeable over the 60GB then I would preferr that. Thanks again.

Paledrifter, you may want to do a search on this forum on the terms 7200 vs 5400. This has been discussed at some length, but I'll give a short summary. Unless you're doing heavily disk-intensive applications, the difference between a 5400rpm and a 7200rpm drive is not very significant. The difference between 4200 and 5400 is noticeable though, so many people will advise you to at least go with the 5400 if that's a choice you have to make.

For Gateway (at least when I ordered) 7200rpm is not an available option, so I went with the 80gb 5400. Some folks have bought 7200rpm drives to put in their m675 and had a good experience - I opted not to spend that extra money.

In my opinion, the m675 is certainly worth the money (and the wait if you end up customizing). The machine is well-built, performs well, has a beautiful screen and exterior, and is decently priced. It's not the absolute fastest machine, falling just ahead of the 4780 and probably behind the 8790. But it's available now, and did I mention that it is attractive?

Do you guys think the Mobility 9700 will ever show up as an option? Dell is offering the 9700 in two notebooks now.

Am wondering if anybody else has seen this with the ATI9600 set at 1440x900, 32-bit, 120 DPI (or anything over 100). I noticed on some applications that display rows of text, such as explorer, event logs, etc., the letters 'i' and 'l' together ('il') have some RGB color bleed through. Has anybody else tried these settings and noticed similar results?

Where I can have MORE photos of M675X .... ???

Thanks!
(PS: I'm thinking buy one M675X )

Tucsonan,

I experimented with it tonight and only saw irregularities if I had ClearType on (Start->Control Panel->Display->Appearance tab->Effects->Use the following method to smooth screen fonts).

Seems to have the same effect on a HP 17" system, but I believe the screens are from the same supplier.

To me it's not a terrible problem but now that you pointed it out, it does stand out.

kuldaan, thanks for checking . I didn't think it would be specific to the M675 only, which you have confirmed. I am using ClearType and thought I'd been staring at the LCD too long and my eyes were buggin' out or something.

I noticed if I turn down the brightness a notch or too it pretty much disappears (although it's still somewhat visible if the LCD is slanted away). I did a little tweaking on the color scheme and brightness level and found a comfortable combination that eliminates (or hides) the color bleed. I call it my "Mean Green Color Scheme".

I'm having a problem with winamp 2.9 on mine. It locks up whenever I put in an audio cd and try to change tracks or stop/pause etc..., i have the same exact version of winamp on my desktop and it does not do this. I've also tried the new version 5. I do not have this problem in windows media player, works fine with cds. I can live with it, but i'm the type of guy when i find a problem, I just have to fix it. Any ideas, or similar problems from you guys?

Hi guys.
I'm really interested in the 675 series. But is there a way to customize the notebook? The online website doesn't appear to have an option on doing that. How did you guys custom order yours?

The M675X and XL you can't not customize. Only M675CS


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