Gateway M675 review and banchmarks - Page 5

yeah I checked the tracking info & mines on a brown truck somewhere in town

Weird though when I originally went to the Gateway order status page, my order was no longer in the system, and when I used my phone # to look it up, didn't show either.. Luckily, I had saved the UPS tracking#

I'm glad I ordered a stock M675XL system now that it only took less than 4 days from order to delivery!

After looking at a review of teh Nvidia cards vs. the ATI video card on anandtech.com, the GAteway looks better and better!

Do you know of any message boards dedicated to M675 owners? I would love to hear from more actual users.

I've had mine for not quite a week (received it last friday) and I love it to death.

Nice clarity, quiet keyboard, more silent than the M350X, and a nice wide screen

I havent had a chance to have fun with wireless yet because I still have to get a wireless router.

M675 MCE Possibility

For all interested, I contacted Gateway about the inclusion of Microsoft's Media Center Edition with the Gateway M675. I was told its in the "Pipeline" although no date was given as to be expected (Stock owners, etc). I need a comp soon and I did mention in a prior post that I was comparing to HP's zd7000 series, there is a considerable difference in price between the HP and Gateway with nearly the same configuation, nearly $400 to be exact.

The Gateway rep also told me they would be competitive with other vendors so anyone considering the Gateway may want to take this into consideration. Go to www.hp.com and configure the zd7000 with the same componants as you would the M675. I configured the HP with Media Center with a price of $2,324.00 with $100 off rebate, the Gateway came to $2,698.00 with the NOSHIP coupon code. Considerable difference and might be worth the comparison on the call to Gateway. Let them know of the price point difference and who knows, it may save you a few pretty pennies, erm, many dollars.

I am holding out for the the M675 with MS Media Center, I think it will make for a more rounded machine as I would like the components to be internal without the need for extra items on my desk such as the Pinnacle solution. Maybe I'm asking too much although I think we will see many more machines soon with its inclusion.

Romo and others, also wanted to thank you for your imput.

-Spavo

The Eagle Has Landed

I'm posting this reply via my new M675XL which arrived earlier this evening

I'm gonna put it through its paces tomorrrow at work. But in the meantime, I'll be exploring... So far so good..

First impressions: the machine is a work of art, technically and aesthetically. And it's not that much bigger than my old Sager which had the full size keyboard. The wireless performance is impressive since the antenna is reporting an excellent connection from where I'm sitting in the bedroom, about 45 feet from the router. Overall everything feels zippy and the screen's awesome to say the least and the cool blue LEDs looka really nice...

...more to come...

Looking forward to your full review Romo. Any possibilty that you could post some pics? I saw the earlier pics in the post but more would make the wait even that much more toilsome. I can see the eagle in the horizon and I'm awaiting its landing as well...

-Spavo

Will do... I'm hoping to get enough flight time for a complete review by the w/e plus my FREE Gateway camera should be arriving today.

Home.

I also haven't had time to fully play around. But...it is a fantastic looking machine. It is smaller than I expected and a marvel that they fit all the power into the box.

What I am most impressed with is its understatedness. The silver outside case is very classy, yet humble. The screen is phenomenal! Very smooth performance. No problems yet. Good to go out of the box with a clean desktop.

I'll try to post more this weekend. Hope I can find some time to play.

M675XL Price Increase

Looks like they have increased the price across the board on the M675 series. The M675XL now resides at $2,799.00...ouch. What gives?

-Spavo

I'm really enjoying my M675. I've had it for almost a month and have zero complaints about the machine itself. I do travel a lot for business, but I just make sure to grab first class so I have enough space :P

I've already upgraded the hard drive to a 7200rpm 60gig, and I'm STILL working on upgrading the ram to 1gig of PC3200. I'm finally over that GeIL fiasco (don't buy geil ram for this system!), and ordered some cheaper Apacer ram that should be here in a couple days.

The keyboard is the best notebook keyboard I've used. The keys are large and have great response. The machine is damn sexy. I have my 19" Sony Trinitron monitor sitting to the side collecting dust cause I love this 17" widescreen display to death. It's so crisp and bright.

I'm a first time laptop owner, but I can't say how happy I am to have purchased this machine instead of keeping the Alienware I had ordered. Even after upgrading the HD and RAM, its still 500$ cheaper than the Alienware.

They've upped that stock M675XL config to include 1GB RAM. It doesn't say what type of ram though. IMHO, unless they're using the 400MHz PC3200 RAM, they could have upgraded the DVD-R/RW drive to the DVD+-R/RW that's available instead. With my stock 512MB of 333MHz PC2700 RAM, I was gonna save up for a few months then upgrade to 1GB of the PC3200 RAM myself.

Hopefully, though it's a good sign that the demand and popularity of this underrated machine is on the rise.

Romo, I just ordered one today! Booyah! I asked them if they could knock $300 off AND THEY DID!!!!! They said estimated ship date is 1/31. Man, I am STOKED! This is my first Gateway laptop, and my first Gateway machine since 1996 (I bought a p2 way back when!) . That is one BEAUTIFUL machine!

Congrats! & welcome to the club. It looks like Gateway knows they need to price this system competitively and looks like they're seriously making it happen.

Price increase

I see, I've noticed that the RAM includes 1 Gig now. Still waiting for mine as I'm to order soon. Great feedback so far and it seems it is gaining some popularity. Hope to join the club soon.

-Spavo

I want this biotch so bad but i promised myself no laptop till DOOM3! thats when all hardware will come out of the woodwork.

Re: the keyboard. It's definitely the most solid and responsive keyboard I've used.

...Here's something to try: hook up your M675 to your dusty 19" and extend the destop so it displays on it. It's cool gaining even more space for your Windows desktop this way... My company's AVID video editing system is set up this way and I've gotten so use to working with two screens that I tried it on my 675 and it works great, since I had an extra 17" CRT gathering dust too.

romo,

Thanks! I just tried it and it's awesome.

Are you all ordering online, telephone or from a brick and morter store? I'm wondering which method is best when trying to get a good deal. Any haggeling suggestions would be appreciated!!

steve

Dude...what did you tell the rep on the phone to get $300 off!? That's awesome. I just bought a M675X at my local store for $200 off ($1,999.99 base - 10% AAA discount)...but now I'm wondering if I should just suck it up and go with the XL so I can get the 128MB video. I'll be saving $280 bucks there with the 10% discount.

Also...I heard the video card is upgradeable on the M675 series...is this true? It would be nice to be able to get a nicer vc at some point...since the M675X only comes with the 64MB and an identical M675CS machine with 128MB cost over $250 more!