Gateway M675 review and banchmarks - Page 10

Got It!

I finally received the M675X! Compared to the ship times other people mentioned ... I think mine came pretty fast. It shipped from China like 2-3 days after I ordered it and I received it 4 days later (all business days of course).

I love the speed -- after what I was working with before this is great. Even though I knew the dimensions -- it's larger than what I thought it would be -- but the widescreen is great!

In response to some of the people saying they can't take advantage of the widescreen when viewing dvd's -- You have to make sure you are viewing the widescreen version and if you are using WinDVD right click on the video and go to widescreen options and change it to pan and scan (something like that?).

I personally don't think the fan is that loud -- for what the machine is. It also seems to stay cool. After reading reviews about how hot this machine gets I was expecting to to get hotter than my iSeries -- it doesn't come close to those temps on the bottom of my iSeries.

Graphics are excellent -- i only have the 64MB card but it looks really good -- I just downloaded Need for Speed Underground demo to test it.. great graphics, no freezing or skipping of the music or movement! GREAT!

The screen has NO dead pixels ... perfect shape -- clear and BRIGHT! (when plugged in) -- I found out you have to keep brightness low when using battery -- really does make a difference.

In regards to battery life.. I think I'm getting about 2 hours 15 minutes -- which I think is good for what the machine is. What do you expect with a 17.1" screen and a Pentium 4 HT?

Only problem -- wondering if anyone else had this problem. I had it sitting on my desk -- clear all around it (it was kind of a hot day outside though and it was warm in my dorm room) -- anyways .. I watched a DVD for about 1hr 20 minutes and it froze -- nothing would move so I ejected the disc and it was VERY hot - guessing that's why it froze. Anyone else have these problems?
--To be honest I do not plan on watching DVDs all the time on this -- but when burning is this a problem? - I hope not!


VERY happy with the purchase. Love the keyboard -- the keys are quiet and have a nice bounce back on them ... I was used to the trackpoint on the IBM laptops but am getting use to the touchpad on this and liking it much better.

The Memory of M675 is 333 Mhz or 400 Mhz ? .... [2x 256Mb] ...

What is the difference of DVD-R/-RW/CD-RW of DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW ??

Thanks!
Dener

Depending on the model and whether you customize your order, the RAM speed/type will vary. My stock M675XL came with two 256mb PC2700 DDR modules running @ 333MHz. I think the newer XL models come with 1024mb of the PC3200, 400MHz variety, but you'll want to double check with the sales rep.

The DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW drive option provides the most flexibility and compatibility for use of DVD recording media, capable of writing to DVD+R or RW at 4x or DVD-R/RW at 2.4x (Although I seem to be able to write to DVD-Rs at 4x too...). The latest XL model now comes standard with the multiformat drive. The drive is optional on the CS.


M675XL+ | 17" | P4/3.2HT | 512MB/80GB | ATI 9600/128 | WiFi-G | 4x DVD±RW
...there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't...

I orded the M675CS, with configurations idem M675X, but add ATI Radeon 9600 128Mb and WinXp Pro ... But I don't know what memory speedy/type will comes.

[sorry for my english, because i'm not american]

I got the M675CS, and have 512 MB (2x256MB 400Mhz... )


[]'s
-=*Dener*=

What is the best driver for my video card ?? (ATI Radeon 9600 Mobility 128MB AGP8X) I want play CS 1.5 and 1.6, Far Cry, UT 2004, War III, NFSU, Quake III, GTA Vice City, Battle Filed and others...!

What is the max fps in cs I will make/have ?

You know, I had the same problem at first, but I thought it was because I was using DVD+R copied dvds in my player (as it's only a DVD-R). Yeah, that shouldn't make a difference, but according to Gateway tech support, it does. Hogwash. Ever since those first two weeks, all of my discs play fine and I don't experience that issue anymore. Make sure your drivers are all up to date and you keep up with Windows Update. Yes, the disc may get a little warm, but I'm more apt to think it's the software. When I played the dvd with Windows Media Player 9, the freezing stopped. Try a couple of other software players and let me know what happens.

As for burning, no problems what so ever. Just seems to take forever to burn. It's like the burner is only burning at 1x.

I just ordered a M675 refurb from Ecost. Couldn't resist the price of $1299!

Question,
This comes with a 80211.b adapter. I would prefer G if available on a mini-pci card if gateway uses the mini PCI configuration. Anyone know or have you tried to switch it out? Exterior shots look like its very similar to a Sager 4780 which would tell me no...but ya never know!

Larry

Good luck! You'll have to let us know how it works out and how it performs.

Just ordered an M675 today

hello,

i just wanted to say thank you to everyone that answered my questions. after a few months of research, i ordered the laptop this morning. after i've had it for at least a week, i will post back here to let everyone know how i like it.

again, thank you for all of your help.

indera

I will try to sit down and write a longer "review" of my 675 unit, i got this morning, within the next week.

I will say it came with a 80211.g adapter vs the b that the web site had on it. THAT was like the icing on the cake.

I got a new Sager 4780 a week ago. It overheats and gives me a BSOD with any real processor load from the day I got it (Last friday incidentally) I will ship it back to them friday or monday and get my money back.

This isn't QUITE as fast as the Sager with a 3.2 processor vs this 3.0 and, this only came with 512 megs of memory vs the 1 gig that came with the 4780.

The keyboard is mounted closer to the front which makes it much easier for me to use. Also this keyboard always responds to my 2 fingered typing. The Sager didn't.

I never do gaming, I use a laptop for primarily email, burning discs, ordering items for work etc. Pretty mundane I know.

It also came with a 2x DVD -R burner. The ordering page wan't clear what DVD was going to be in it. I did have to go out and buy an XP Pro upgade but still this thing is a MAJOR BARGAIN! It's a bit noisier than the Sager but it doesn't overheat and die either!

The screen seems like the same screen thats on the HP 17 inchers. Nice! 1440 x 900 which is exactly what I wanted. Text is easily readable, java chat pages come through at a reasonable size and photos and graphics come through fine as well. The mix was an issue with the 16xx X 10something 8500 Dell I used last. Even after adjusting fonts where I could. The 15.4" screen wasn't large enough for me for java chat apps and web graphics didn't display properly. This 17" is great.

Too bad CNet gave it such a crap review. They would have sold a lot more units, and should have! It's very non-tweaky, user friendly, simple, but full featured. For the $1300 I gave ecost, this was FREE!

Larry

Man, I LOVE mine! I have no complaints what so ever so far. I'm just having some difficulty using the S-Video to hook up to a tv, but that could just be me and not getting some settings. We'll see. People have nothing to say but great things when they see it and I show them what it can do. I agree about C-Net. I think this notebook got robbed.

Here's some other good news about this refurb machine.

I just called Gateway and what they call their Extended Limited Warranty, THREE YEARS, including tech support is available unit 08/26/04 for $199 from Gateway. Includes, I'm told everything except coverage for accidents or using it as a frisbee or the like. 08/26/04 is based on the date that batch was delivered to ecost.

No I have no connection with ecost or gateway, I just think it's a super deal is all.

Larry

Sounds like it. That's great!!!!!!

hello,

i've had my m675 for about 2 weeks. i've spent most of the time so far installing software. the only complaint that i have is that the shift key on the right is too small. i miss it on a regular basis. (smile). other than that, the keyboard and keypad are great. i like the fact that the keys are tight.

it is extremely fast, which i like.
the fan is not as noisy as i thought, which is a good thing because the laptop is on for the better part of 18 hours a day.

i haven't had time to watch an entire movie yet, but i will soon.
i also haven't tried to burn a cd, but that's coming soon also.

i should have purchased the 80 gig drive, as i've used 30 gig putting on all of this software and bringing my files over. i didn't see a 7200 80 gig option though.

it was delivered 3 or 4 days early and naturally the day it came, i wasn't home, which is rare. when i got back and saw the ups note, i jumped back in the car and tracked down the ups guy. hey, it was a friday, which means that my laptop would have been sitting until monday - NOT!

if everyone that purchases one, gets one like mine, you should be extremely happy.

i used it on battery only and it lasted for 2 hours, that's cool with me, as i don't take it many places.

the only place that i noticed that it was warm is by the power button.
i like the blue lights.


my specs are:
xp pro (i already had a copy that i had not used)

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology

1024MB 400MHz DDR SDRAM (2-512MB modules)

60GB 7200rpm Ultra ATA hard drive

CD/RW- DVD combo drive

Portable Total Protection Plan -- 4 year part/labor/on-site/4 year technical support w/ 4 year ADP

17.1" WXGA+ TFT Active Matrix w/ ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 8x AGP w/ 128MB DDR video memory

it also has the default things like a modem, network card.

i didn't order a wireless card, because i got the linksys speedbooster router and card for my birthday last month. i haven't set that up either <smile>

i hope this helps people that are about to buy one.

i also wanted to thank everyone again, that replied to my gazillion questions before i purchased the laptop.

indera

Just like 'Chiefsmackaho' I also purchased my M675 via the HSN website. I had been researching laptops all over the place, Best Buy, Circuit City, online etc. Obviously I had researched online as well. Then I saw the M675 on HSN -- what appealed to me most was the screen size, the fact that it has a separate numeric keypad, and the design... honestly have you ever seen a laptop look this good?! Oh yeah and don't forget that scroll wheel which I haven't been able to find on any other laptops, ingenious!

This is my first laptop -- it is replacing 2 emachines desktops, one which i purchased a little over 2 years ago and a newer emachine i bought about 6 months back which I originally intended to turn into a home theatre PC (HTPC), but realized it lacked in many areas. In the interest of saving a TON of space and being able to literally be on the PC while simultaneously watching TV sounded like an awesome idea. Gateway for me was the top pick.

My machine arrived just about 1-1/2 weeks after I ordered it, came with the 5400rpm 60GB hard drive, unlike Chief who mentioned he had a 4200rpm 80GB. Not sure what the real deal is here, but yes I would rather sacrifice that 20GB for a faster drive for sure. I probably won't even load this thing about 1/2 full... years down the road!

The screen is pheonmenal -- there is a TON of screen 'real estate' here... 1440x900. It is extremely crisp, bright, no dead pixels, nothing. When you turn into battery mode folks yes the screen does dim, but if you like you can turn the brightness all the way back up if you like. As far as battery performance, yeah I've been getting about maybe an hour and half or so... that is with everything on all the time, and a little bit brighter screen, and always connected to the network, and a USB mouse, etc. For those that complain about battery performance... yes it is justified, but remember the performance you are getting - a P4 with HT and 3.0Ghz. I don't think a Centrino can compare in terms of raw performance and/or video power for that matter.

Anyway I am EXTREMELY pleased with this purchase, and I encourage others who are considering this machine to look into HSN for the features/price... since this is supposedly an exclusive configuration which you can't get anywhere else -- they save you a bit of money since they don't include the memory card reader, but this will allow you the flexibility of buying this separately or putting in a 3.5" disk drive in it's place. Also you get a pretty good software package (which they ship you separately... surprised it didn't come with Microsoft Money?!), also a FREE Targus case.

So long folks and happy notebooking! :-)

Congratulations and welcome to the neighborhood. I'm still loving my laptop and now I think I use it more than my customized kick ass desktop!

almost there

thanks to everyone here who has shared their M675 experiences. this thread has been one of the most useful M675 resources on the net.

after reading about all of the discounts that everyone has received, i got excited about the possibility of having lots of $$ knocked off the price... which is good considering i'm going after the $2779 XL with a bunch of accessories. well... no such deal. after sending Gateway a quote for a similarly configured zd7000 which was $400 less (shipped), a manager knocked $150 off the XL price and offered free shipping. later, i mentioned AAA, and the sales person confirmed that the AAA 10% off would be better than the $150 i was just offered... but they can't combine the offers and so i'd have to pay the shipping. oh well... it's better than full price, but i wasn't offered any free cameras or anything special. the guy was really nice... but he wasn't into bargaining.

i may just go ahead and do it as i'm truly sick of researching and just want to get a system. but i'm wondering if maybe i should save a few bucks by going with the XL Special Plus:
http://products.gateway.com/products...5xlsppl&seg=hm

it's the same as the XL except:
* 3.2 GHz (instead of 3.4 GHz)
* 64MB video RAM (instead of 128MB)
* 2x DVD-R/-RW/CD-RW (instead of 4x DVD±R/±RW/CD-RW)

i'm not too concerned about the DVD writer... i've never actually burned a DVD, but i can't imagine there's much of a problem sticking to one format rather than having access to both. and it would be a slightly slower system (due to the slower processor and less video RAM)... but i can't imagine i'd notice a huge difference. i'm a pretty heavy user... audio applications and software development... but i'm not doing any heavy duty graphics or video games (those days are over). i'd like to run the system in dual-monitor mode and somebody mentioned that 128MB would be better for that... which makes sense. but i wonder how much a difference it truly makes. without having the two systems to play with, i guess it's impossible to know. also worthy of noting is that they are currently offering a $100 rebate on the XL special, but the AAA discount doesn't apply to this system (since it's "special").

also, i'm wondering whether it's worth the extra $170 for the 3-yr warranty. on one hand, it seems like a nice thing to have on a system this expensive. on the other hand, i've worked with many computers in my life (a Gateway from way back and plenty of DELLs) and i've never had any problems.

finally, i had him throw in a 200GB USB/firewire drive (for backup), the port replicator, and the carrying case.

if anyone has comments, i'd love to hear. in the meantime, i'm going to distract myself with something as i contemplate throwing down $3100+ for this baby.

thanks
-scott

p.s. salesguy said the estimate was 4 weeks for a shipped system...

sraposa,

try this link and see if you can get a better price. it lets you customize everything.

http://products.gateway.com/products...=m675eb&seg=sb

i purchased a 4 year in-house contract for $199.

i don't know if this will help you, but i used a dell laptop as a comparison and was able to get the price down around $400, which included the AAA discount. i posted my specs, 3 messages above yours.

i'm not cheap and i'm really happy with the laptop, which arrived in 2 weeks, but like you, i could not spend 3 grand. i had to keep the price reasonable.
i did get free shipping also.

i hope this helps.
indera

Indera, could you please look at the ram in your machine and tell me the make and model # or any other descriptive info on the ram modules themselves. I'm trying to upgrade my 675 xl to 1 gig of pc3200 ram but can't get it from Gateway, they only make it available on newly ordered machines ( got mine in December of 2003). I appreciate your time. thanks,