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Gateway 7405GX Review

post #1 of 10
12/27/04 at 11:17pm
Thread Starter 
Well I just bought the Gateway 7405GX notebook at Best Buy a few days ago as I'm a high school student in need of portable productivity aswell as CPU power for gaming and multimedia. After weeks of looking around I stumble across this notebook at Best Buy. Here are some of the major specs:

Mobile AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
512 MB RAM
80 GB HD
7.5 lbs.

This notebook system came at a cost of $1,299. I'm now going to go through actual review of the notebook.

Performance

This aspect of the system is part that excited me the most. I first installed CoD and Doom 3 to see how the notebook ran under a gaming atmosphere. I have one word; SMOOTH. There wasn't a tint of lag even on Doom 3 when I had the quality settings on high. I almost forgot I was using a laptop as the speed was excellent and flawless.

Battery Life

Well the battery life of this system may be the only downfall of this whole system, however it wasn't THAT bad. If your not gaming, the notebook will easily run for a good 2-3 hours on the battery. However, this quickly decreases when gaming and/or using very intensive software (Adobe Products, etc.). For my purposes, this wasn't a very big issue, however an active long-range traveler might find this a problem.

Display

I hardly ever find myself adjusting the screen or my seating position due to a display interferance like fading and glares. Its very bright, crisp, clean, and easy on the eyes. Couldn't have been better.

Look

The notebook is black except for the top which is silver. The case is practical and simple. The screen pulls everything together to give a traditional laptop feel and look.

Overall

I would highly recommend this notebook to gamers and multimedia junkies, aswell as people looking for a good business system that will pretty much take anything you through at it. I would NOT recommend this notebook to users that are look for the ultimate lightweight solution with long battery life. Although the notebook isn't bulky, it is still 7.5 lbs. and the battery life isn't all that impressive for an active traveler.

Pros:

Fast CPU
Firewire port
4 USB 2.0 ports
DVD Burner
5 in 1 Memory Card reader
Wireless 802.11g

Cons:

Descent to low battery life
7.5 pounds (which still isn't that much)
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post #2 of 10
1/5/05 at 4:56pm
u got a sweet deal man, i got mine for 1399
enjoy!
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post #3 of 10
1/5/05 at 5:28pm
excellent review, i got mine for $1649 but in CANADIAN FUNNY MONEY...........

ps, watch for cracks along the silver top cover near the hinges!!
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post #4 of 10
1/6/05 at 3:15pm
as a new 7405gx owner - i'm freaked out by the entire cracking hinge issue- has it been resolved??
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post #5 of 10
1/6/05 at 10:34pm
I've seen (and heard) of a lot more eMachines being affected by the hinge issue than Gateways. In fact, I'm not sure that there's been many Gateways at all affected. While they are variants of the same Arima notebook, there are a few differences between the two. For starters, I believe that the Gateways use a different hinge pin than the eMachines, which could alleviate the cracking issue.

Anyone out there know any more definitive info?
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post #6 of 10
1/6/05 at 11:12pm
2 7405gx's in toronto have been affected

the first one was right out of the box at futureshop at north york center, as i was going to buy one, then the salesman brought out another one that appeared to be fine.. but in 2 days a hairlight split down the left side hinge made me return that one also, before i did, i held the notebook and opened/closed it around 100x ( i don't excatly remember) and the split didn't get that much worse considering i was using considerable force to try and split it.

i am on another unit i picked up at warden and hwy7 and this one seems to be ok so far.. but i wouldn't hold my breath.. this one also has a hitachi 80gig 8mb cache hdd, still 4200rpm tho.

overall the unit is pretty decent for the price, did anyone get the extended warrenty? im almost sure i will keep this unit as everything seems to be holding up nicely, even transfering 6gb via wifi and it didnt' seem to crash my router any.

i have seen dell's with the same issue and when i worked at toshiba, a hinge split wasn't uncommon.
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post #7 of 10
1/7/05 at 12:58am
Thread Starter 
I have not noticed nor seen any cracking or splitting on my 7405GX's hinges. I do notice that there is stress on the hinges when I go to open and close the notebook in a hurry. I suggest opening and closing the notebook as slow as possible when you aren't in a rush. The stress of ecessive "fast" opening and closing will obvious increase risk of cracking and splitting the hinge. Nothing has happened to mine so far and I hope to keep it that way as long as I carefully open and close.
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post #8 of 10
1/7/05 at 1:43am
I always try to open mine closer to the hinges - that way, you minimize the flex and torque on the screen as a whole...
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post #9 of 10
1/7/05 at 11:15am
for how long have u guys had your 7405gx's? and how often do u close and open it?

i have tried opening it from diff places, and yah, there is considerable amount of flexing and torquing on the hinges in comparison to the top lid, lately i have just been opening it from the top, with 2 hands one at either end of the lid, parallel to the hinges....
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post #10 of 10
1/7/05 at 11:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fireface
as a new 7405gx owner - i'm freaked out by the entire cracking hinge issue- has it been resolved??
Well actually, it isn't as serious as it may appear at face value. The cracks are in the hinge covers, and not in the hinges themselves.

This is an ugly, stress-related, cosmetic defect that belies the value and reliability of the machine. However, so far the mechanical hinge mechanism has not been affected.

Supposedly it has been corrected in the eMachines m68xx series, but I have no information about the 74xx series.

Welcome to the Gateway 74xx /eMachines m68xx club.
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