Gateway MX6448 Laptop Review - Page 2

I'd wait until Windows Vista Ships, if your gonna pay that much for a notebook
from BB at least it will have the lastest OS, something too consider

No matter when you buy when it deals with computers you could always come up with an excuse to wait. If you wait you can get a better deal on a faster processor and more ram, even harddrive space. If you wait they will probably start bundling better video in cheaper notebooks because of vista. If you wait you could get a quadcore notebook and a dual core graphics core etc etc etc.

If you have an application that you want to use it on now, buy the best deal you can find. XP will be supported for a few more years by then any notebook hardware you buy will be out of date.

$999 is actually a fairly inexpensive notebook. When I got mine for $849 its on sale I think $999 is the retail price because sale ended. If you watch it will go down again or youll find a deal on something similar of another brand.

I got this lappie yesterday and I have a question about the screen... anyone notice that the colors are banding on the desktop? I have checked the settings for video and it is set at 32-bit, but it looks like 16-bit to me with banding everywhere (including the windows login screen).

any ideas or is this 'normal'?

o.d

Are you talking about the screen in the grey area where you can see the darker blocks next to the lighter when it should blend? If so I notice those from time to time. Sometimes when I unplug and plug back in it goes away kind of odd.

yeah I figured that out after I wrote my earlier message. I actually had an issue with my power adapter... it was plugged in all the way, but no power... I would have to wiggle it and then it would start charging the battery.

anyway I took it back and got a brand new laptop and everything is fine now including the screen. If I unplug the power I get the banding so it I am thinking it is some sort of ATI powerplay setting (you can turn it off in the ATI catalyst control center under the powerplay tab).

I just tried it, yeah if you have powerplay settings turned on and set to optimum battery performance, then you will get 16 bit color basically. its kewl cuz it gives you the option of setting powerplay for when the lappy is plugged in, for when the battery is 'high' and for when the battery is 'low' and it lets you decide what percentage of battery life is considered low. I just turned off powerplay to keep the ati card running at full speed always.

i got an mx6453 and i suppose its ok.
about the same thing i think. tl52 proc, 2 gigs o ram, 160 gig drive, crappy onboard video
got this just to hold me over til i can decide upon/afford another good comp

do you like that screen bryan? i hate it has the narrowest good viewing angle i have ever seen, and the resolution sucks
have to look at it dead on straight to see it properly and i dont dig that at all
yeah bf2 plays like crap on this
and cant get drivers or anything from anywhere except gateway official support?
and when might they update the drivers? try never i dont like that at all

so long as this thing holds together for a few months i will be ok though

Yeah that really sucks, on my MX6447, I CANNOT use any other drivers(only Gateway's) I ask then why, and was told, that's the way IT IS, and we DO NOT RECOMMEND that you use any other drivers other than Gateway's OEM, all of our OEM PC's as of Oct 2006 are made that way, so get used to it, nothing you can do about it, at least for now However they were nice eunff to give me this info: MX64XX Mobo's Blade-K8F 6W UMA Single or Double Core Proc, Motherboard w/ RS485M + 1394 ATI Chipset...............

yeah im only moderately impressed by this comp. i mean it seems ok for what it is, and that is sure not a hardcore comp users comp.
the screen is a real bummer and definitely teaches me a lesson there.
so long as its a big screen its good, right? wrong. resolution is everything, and viewing angle is a crapshoot.

this thing does get the job done though. wish the video performance was better. on paper, the onboard video is not all that bad looking. that shared video memory just does not have the memory bandwidth of a discreet card though and that kills the performance

I'd have to agree with you on that, (The Shared Graphics and the MCE 2005 was a real let down to me) however, I bought this notebook cause it was Vista Ready, and it did have a nice price tag, and it will run Vista Areo Glass, I plan on upgrading the Ram to the MAX 2GB DDR2 and see how well it runs Vista, maybe Gateway and ATI will have better driver support in the near future, sure would be nice if they ever do, I just had WAY TOO MANY problems with my 7405GX, it wasn't Vista Ready (Cannot run Areo Glass) and it would Break down a lot, and most of the problems I had with it, I wasn't able to really FIX, so I sold it...........

ok so bf2 is asking a bit much then. and i really had no idea on the screen until i actually started using it. the last laptop i had was with the sort of matte dull anti-glare finish. this thing gets the job done fairly well, all in all

@ Brian'sMX505x
Does your MX6448 heat up fast? I mean, mines throws out some hot air through the exhaust port (left-back side of lappy) while doing simple tasks like word processing or even being idle.
Does your MX6448 do the same?
I've used PC Wizard 2006 to get temp readings from CPU and HDD and their readings are:
CPU - 58 ºC and HDD - 51 ºC
136 ºF 127 ºF

I believe 136 ºF is quite hot for a Lappy, not even my desktop reaches that temp (2.8ghz vs 1.6ghz with step speed which lowers freq).

My MX6447 gets warm but not hot, and I'm running Vista Home Premium, and keep it on most of the day, it only has that one side vent, so, just make sure, that it's in a well ventilated area

I just got it exchanged. The fan was failing, plus it had the plug problem (needed to twist the plug so battery could start charging). I even got $100 back from the store, so actually I got this lappy for $700. Thank god its has heating up!!

Anyways thanks for the advice on the lappy cooler, will be getting one shortly.

LOL
I think my TI-86 can run UT in low-med settings(I dont think it requires too much hardware)

Oh and one more thing; I didnt know that the ATI 1150 was integrated, I though all ati and nvidia were dedicated memory and so.

Shared Memory SUCKS, Dedicated Video is way Better, here's the reason why...... I have 2GB of PC-4200 533Mhz DDR2 Memory, and 128MB up to 256MB of that can be used for Video Apps, but the big draw back is, that when it's being used, you have less system Ram....BAD NEWS while running Vista's Aero Glass, also, on a Vista cold boot, it will used up to 400MB to 800MB of system Ram and have almost 90% of processes running eating up the rest of what system Ram you have just doing nothing at all on Vista, and the ATI CCC Drivers for Vista aren't even up to the task, at least for now they're not Even turning off Aero Glass didn't give me any more improvment, so, I Uninstalled Vista Home Premium, and Returned it for a full refund, I'm sorry to say this, but, even tho This MX6447 Notebook is a Vista Ready PC, it run Poor at best with Vista, so I went back to XP Media Center 2005, at least it's a stable OS on my MX6447, Vista WAS NOT!!! it took and used up EVERYTHING I had just to Run so, FYI if any of you are thinking of Upgarding to Vista on a Notebook with (Shared Memory) and anything less than a 2 or 3GHz Duo Core Proc, even with 2GB of DDR2...........Don't even bother, you're in for a HUGH Disapointment with the Higher end Vista Versions, at the very least, I'd say, that Vista Home Basic, is a better choice (that's the one without the Aero glass), and doesn't require High-end-Video Graphics............No Kidding My MX6447 Notebook could barely run Vista Home Premium if and when I ever recieve my express upgrade version of Vista, I may or may not try it again, after all this was an upgrade and not a Clean Install, maybe I should have tired a Clean Install..........WHo Knows?