Gateway 17" vs. 4780 - Page 2

One man's spec revision is another's man's specs thrown out the window. Anyway, if you read the Voodoo laptop reiew currently on Anandtech's front page you'll see that the whole issue is a bit of a mess. I think it's a little generous to ATI to call it a simple spec revision - I doubt even the 9600 XT that will be appearing in the Dell 8600 notebook will meet the specs originally set out for the 9600 pro.

Well, the fact is, is that Sagers do meet pro specs (Speed, memory size), as will other vendors soon enough. The spec revision was needed for practical purposes...

That's a nice laptop. I saw one in the local Gateway Country store yesterday.

Not trying to be anti-Sager (I have a 5680 myself) but I think this will offer serious competition to the 4780. All it really lacks is internal Bluetooth. The screen is a beauty.

The hard drive is 7200 rpm w/8mb cache - it's the same Hitachi that's in the Sagers (and most of the other laptops that offer 7200 RPM).

The ram is PC2700, but no big deal, it's cheaper to upgrade to PC3200 in the aftermarket anyway.

They claim a 2.5 hour battery life watching DVD's or doing apps as well. Probably a little over an hour with serious gaming, like the Sagers (the reps in the store had no idea). Also, they do offer a secondary battery that fits in the media bay, like the 5680 has, it's just not on the web site yet.

All and all a nice deal. Configured out like my 5680 it came out to $150 more, but with a 17' wide screen instead of the 5680's 15 inch wide angle.

I just got back from my local Gateway store. I had to go check it out. Damn this is a nice looking system.

Screen is amazing. Case and keyboard are sturdy. I like this case design better than the 4780, all silver, looks great. Upgrading is through the bottom, don't need to rip apart the keyboard and crap to get to the memory, etc.

Pros

• Dual Channel memory! Whoohoo
• Internal wireless G
• Accidental Damage Protection Plan. I could do something stupid like drop it, spill coffee on it, they will fix it no charge.
• Local Store. If I do have a problem, I can bring it 3 miles down the road to get it fixed, if they can't fix it, THEY pack it up, and THEY pay for shipping to get it fixed.

Cons

• No Bluetooh
• No subwoofer
• No TV Tuner.
• No built in camera

Sucks not to have those little built in features, but I don't think I would really use them much anyways. They are just checkbox features.

As much as I wanted a 4780, I can't wait around anymore. I need a system by end of month before I go home for the holidays. I'm going to order the gateway and try it out.

make sure u give us a good review!

It does have a TV Tuner option, dude.

Bluetooth is the only feature I hate to see missing, but it's easy and cheap enough to add via a USB dongle.

If I don't get this external monitor problem fixed with my 5680 I may well return it and get one of these instead.

Hmm, I don't see that option on the web site. I meant internal. All I saw on the website was an option for an external USB TV Tuner.

I don't need it anyways. My desktop has a Hauppage PVR 250 card in it, I use that to do all my tivo-like tv recording.

Sh1t ! I was also expecting the 4780 but this Gateway is sooo sweet. Anyone knows if it's already available for instant delivery?



Cheers.

I ordered a that gateway also and have 2 questions

1) (Techies please dont beat me for this but...) Does dual channel memory work with 512 and 256 combination RAM or does it only work for 256 and 256 or 512 and 512 setup.

2) Gateway said they only offer 5400 rpm as maximum speed for the harddrive, maybe my gateway rep is wrong but I definately saw some posters saying gateway offered 7200 rpm, should I call and ask someone else other than my rep about it?

Well, I ordered. I have 30 days to try it out and see if I like it, If not i'll return and continue waiting for the 4780.

Price for the system came out to about $2100

I'll post a good review with pictures when I get it


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Application Software: Microsoft® Works 7.0
AntiVirus Software: Norton AntiVirus 90 day Introductory Offer
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology
Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM (2-256MB Modules)
Hard Drive: 60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Floppy Drive: Modular 6-in-1 memory card reader
Optical Drive: Modular 24x/10x/24x CDRW and 8x DVD combo
Extended Service Plan: Value Service Plan-1Yr Parts/Labor/No Onsite/1 Yr Technical Support
Accidental Damage Protection: One year accidental damage protection
Expansion Slots: One Type II PC Card Slot
External Ports: (4) USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), VGA, Parallel, TV Out, S-Video
Screen: 17.1" WXGA TFT Active Matrix
Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 8x AGP w/ 128MB DDR video memory
Keyboard and Mouse: Full-Sized Keyboard and EZ Pad® Pointing Device and Integrated 10-Key Pad
Multimedia Package: Integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack, line-in and mic jacks
Speakers: External speakers not selected
Battery: High-capacity lithium ion battery with AC pack and 1 yr. limited battery warranty
Modem: Integrated V.92 56K Modem
Network Adapter: Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Internet Service Provider: Six months America Online® Internet access
Wireless Networking Adapter: Integrated 802.11g wireless networking card

1) The way I understand it, they need to be the same.. 256/256 , etc.

2) My sales rep told me 7200 rpm. If it's not. I have the email and chat logs to prove he told me it was, and i'll just demand they give me what they promised

Congrat I am lookong at one but I cannot make my mind. Maybe I just do it but I hate to get something else than a Sager, but live goes on. Let us know what is your experience with the system, I am looking to get the same model. However, I do CAD work but it is engineering, I do not need the high definition screen. The Gateway lp screen looks really good, same as Sager 4760. Again , congrats

...just remember...

another con here is that the option to upgrade probably won't be there with Gateway.

Something to think about.

Cheers,

Rakewell

True, I didn't think about that. Then again, have you seen the costs invloved in upgrading the Sagers? Almost better off to ebay your current and just buy a new system.

I agree, the cost to upgrade is too much. I tried to upgrade mine. They wanted $750 for the board only. Then you need to add memory, CPU, CPU fan, harddrive and you are left with the same screen, old. Better of to buy a new lp.

I went back to Gateway Country today and brought along my 5680. I forgot my cam - damn! One of my stores is right by there, so perhaps tomorrow I can get some side-by-side pics.

Observations:

The good:

The Gateway is MUCH slimmer than the 5680, but naturally it's wider. It weighs about the same. The GW actually looks a LOT like those 17' Powermac notebooks, the Titanium ones (although it's just silver color, not actually Titanium in the case of GW) with the lid closed.

Full size keyboard that is very nice, and includes a numpad like the 8890's do.

Their touchpad is better (I thought) and has an actual scroll wheel which is much easier to use than using the side of the pad ala Sager.

Upgrading is a snap - there are 4 screws on the bottom panel, take them off and you have access to memory, CPU, Mini-PCI, everything.

There appears to be a spare mini-PCI slot, so if you really wanted internal Bluetooth and can find a card on Ebay, you could add it.

Everything is modular and easy to remove, like the 5680. The media bay is almost exact the same (just on the left instead of the right) and takes the same kind of peripherals - second hard drive, floppy, media reader (which it comes standard with - you save money if you opt for the floppy) and eventually a secondary battery - it's not out yet but the Gateway reps in the store say it will be available around early December.

Their bios allows for booting off USB floppy drives and devices (like keychain storage) unlike the 5680 - so you could actually get away with not having a floppy. I really wish the 5680 bios offered this.

Pricewise it's very competative with Sager - it can be had for well under $2800, even including a DVD writer and the 3.2 processor.

The bad:

Memory, as has been mentioned before, is PC2700. Yes, you CAN upgrade it - there's even an option in the Bios for 3200 - but it should be standard. Considering it's an 800mhz FSB, I am at a loss as to why they did this - it's a big performance hit.

The screen is only WXGA, which is the wide-aspect version of SXGA. I've seen WUXGA (Dell's have them) and they are MUCH better. It may surprise you all, but I wasn't impressed with the 17' screen, even side by side with the 5680. Even the Gateway reps were impressed by the 5680's Wide-angle 15' screen, (I have the UXGA one). The GW's screen is of course bigger, but the viewing angles aren't as good (you really have to look at it dead on, unlike the 5680) and it's not nearly as bright.

Battery life is about the same as the 5680's, a little over an hour, 2 with the secondary battery. I guess with all that hardware this is to be expected.

Now for the big one:

The hard drive model # is HTS540880AT00. It does in fact appear to be a 5400 rpm Hitachi, although the model number is specific to Gateway and thus not easy to look up. That 54 in it kind of gives it away - the Hitachi Travelstar hard drives that are 7200 rpm all have 72 in the model number.

I COULD be wrong about this, but even the Gateway techs there didn't know, and I suspect I'm correct. I wasn't able to benchmark it however, so we'll have to wait until one of you who ordered one gets it and can do so to know for sure.

All in all, a nice laptop, but I didn't come away quite as impressed as I thought I would be. Those of you holding out for the 4780 may still wish to wait, at least until we can get some better specs out of this thing.

Well done ixian. Nice post.

I agree the PC-2700 memory sucks, but it can be easily upgraded in the aftermarket, and cheaper at that.

As for the hard drive.. Guy told me it would be a 7200RPM.. Maybe the display model they had there was a month or so old. Either way, I'll hold the sales guy to it

What didn't you like about the screen? It's the same screen that will be in the 4780, same screen in the 4760 and all other 17" notebooks. I thought it looked great. (aside from the ugly default windows theme they where using ).

Alas, they got the display model two days ago. It's brand new, like the laptop. It's possible they offer a 7200 and a 5400 option - all the other laptop vendors do - but it's odd that there's no option specifying one or another, or that none of their reps seem to be aware of it. I think the fact that they don't mention the speed is a sign that the default drive is in fact 5400, but maybe it's just because this laptop is so new.

As for the 17 inch screen, all I can say is, I advise you to go check one out if you can. I just wasn't that impressed. Kind of washed out and the viewing angles aren't that great. It's not horrible by any means, but it's no where near the best laptop screen I have seen. As I mentioned, even the Gateway reps were impressed by the 5680 screen, and it's a 15'.

Ugh I seriously don't know if I want the 4780 or the Gateway now. On one hand the gateway is already out and I really need a laptop. On the other I already waited so long for the 4780....

I'm really confused... :P Both systems are great however I think the gateway model is more visually attractive compared to the sager.

I really wish pctorque would give us a timetable of when we can expect the 4780. I'm tired of waiting!!! I've waited since JUNE.

End of october.. It's already 1/3 into November and still no news on the 4780. UGHHH

Adam did release news on the 4780. I agree sager is taking their time, but they did say that they were working out a few minor problems which is causing the delays. I'm sure we will see the release any day now.