Gateway FX6831-03 Desktop PC – Intel Core i7-860 2.8GHz / 16GB RAM / 1.5TB HD / DVD±R/RW Drive / Blu-ray Drive / ATI Radeon HD5850 / Gigabit / eSATA / 2 x DVI / Windows 7 Home Premium
- Price: $1,649.00
- List Price: $1,699.99
- Manufacturer: Gateway
- Item Model: PT.GAH02.005
- Weight: 31 pounds
- Box Size: 7.5 x 19 x 17.7 inches
- Warranty: 1-Year Limited Warranty
- Categories: Desktop Computers
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Propel deep into game play with the trendy racing car-like design of the Gateway FX6831-03 Desktop powered by the new Intel Core i7 Processor, true-to-life ATI Radeon HD5850 graphics, 16GB DDR3 Memory and a massive 1.5TB of storage! Loaded with killer performance to conquer the hottest DirectX 10 games, blaze through Digital media and create digital content with unbelievable multi-core performance.
Enjoy the next generation of video playback with the HDMI output, which allows a single cable to transmit uncompressed high-definition video and audio to your digital TV or capable external monitor. A myriad of front-accessible ports make it easy to connect, including the Digital Media Card Reader for convenient connection and downloads from your digital devices. And with a touch of a button, you can turn your monitor into a media slideshow of your favorite photos with the unique photo frame button.
Pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version), you’ll be able to easily create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. Better ways to find and manage files, like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, help you speed through everyday tasks. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to.
Box Contents: Gateway FX6831-03 Desktop PC, AC Power Cord, Multimedia Keyboard/Optical Mouse, DVI-to-VGA Converter; Software Bundle: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit, Microsoft Works with Office Home and Student 2007 60-Day Trial, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 60-Day Trial, 1-Year Limited Warranty
Tags: Gateway FX6831-03, Intel Core i7 860, Windows 7 Home Premium
Like many, I wanted to avoid the whole Vista fiasco, so the Gateway FX6831-03 is my first new computer in seven years.
You only have to look at the specs: I7-860 processor, ATI5850 video card and an insane 16 gig of DDR3 memory to know this is a blazing fast machine at a modest price, so I’m going to talk about the out of the box stuff. I ordered the Gateway FX6831-03 desktop PC from Amazon via standard shipping and it arrived in good shape from J&R Music and Electronics in less than a week.
First, I opened it up to look inside. The case is crummy sheet-metal with screws, but the layout looks solid with no glaring problems and a big power supply (I’ve uploaded some photos into the “customer image” section). It has bays to add two more hard drives to its 1.5 TB drive (which is a bit slow). I added a 1 TB Hitachi SATA internal drive to handle just HD video files. Setup was a bit tricky–I was expecting a simple plug and play, but I had to go into the device manager and format the drive before it would show up. It’s all good now.
The interior is tight. Wedging in additional PC cards would be tough, though I would be hard pressed to think of what else to add. It has two disk drives–one CD/DVD burner and one Blu-ray player. I would prefer a single Blu-ray/DVD/CD burner.
The exterior is really sweet with red racing stripe glowing strips, an extremely fast multi-card reader and LOTS of USB ports (10!), FireWire, HDMI and more. You can nestle your iPod or MP3 player on a little indented platform on top, right next to two of the USB ports.
Turning on the Gateway FX6831-03 was a pleasant surprise. First there was a pretty good “whir” sound, then it settled down to dead quiet. I had to double-check that the fans were going!
The setup was a snap. I don’t know which was better: the new machine or the 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium. In any case, unlike my previous Windows machines, I was able to get on line in seconds instead of wasting half a day fiddling with settings.
Unfortunately, the computer has no setup disks, and the setup instructions were of the pathetic “don’t use this machine in the shower” sort. After removing some bloatware and downloading about 50 updates (true!) I loaded and tweaked dozens of personal programs. Note: Windows 7 doesn’t use Outlook Express–it uses Windows Live Mail. Also, Windows has a nice (free!) anti-virus Microsoft Security Essentials program that won’t bog down the system. Simple stuff, sure, but it was new to me and much appreciated. Rebooting only takes about 60 seconds.
You can also use Windows Easy Transfer between your new and old machine, but it I couldn’t make it work via USB cable, so I had to use an external hard drive. It takes several hours and is a bit buggy. Also, start planning on moving all your e-mails and e-mail addresses to your new machine.
Most of my old (some very old) programs work on the Gateway FX6831-03. High end products like Photoshop, Photomechanic, Pinnacle Studio HD and games like Supreme Commander 2, Dragon Age and Age of Empires II are amazingly fast even at highest resolution! I’ve only had it a few weeks, but this machine is everything I could possibly want.
Unless you need the ultimate, top-of-the-line video card from ATI more than the 16gb of RAM, this rig is a sweet deal. The computer is fast and whisper quiet, which is an advantage for me because I also make sound recordings. Blue-ray HD movies look crisp and smooth, and the massive hard drive reads and writes impressively fast. I partially migrated from an XP computer using LapLink’s PCmover Professional (sixty bucks well spent), and installing all those peripherals clustering aroung my desk took all but a day of finding the appropriate Windows 7 drivers on the manufacturers’ web sites. I use this machine at home for both research/productivity and hobby. If you comparison shop for a computer to use for sound recording, photography and video editing, and everyday workhorse productivity, this one surely gets you the most bang for the buck at the moment. It is fast enough that your 32-bit software will run at least as fast as it did on your old computer, likely faster, but it shines with 64-bit applications. Very highly recommended.
A word about Gateway: I always read product reviews and do my homework before I buy anything, and this turned out to be the third Gateway computer in a row for me (my first PC was a Northgate – remember those?). Each has worked flawlessly. I tinker and tweak, and Gateway computers (as do Apple machines, truth be told) always impress me with their quality engineering. So two thumbs up here, too.