Gateway - Laptop with Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology

** I purchased this laptop for $1449+tax while Best Buy was having a 2 year interest free event. I didn't open the box because I wasn’t sure, based on the reviews I had read here about Vista 32-bit compatibility, if I would keep it. A week after I bought it, it went on sale with a $200 discount, so I went back in to get my price-adjust - $200 refund no problem. I decided then that, at the killer price of $1249+tax, I *had* to keep it and find a way to load Vista 32-bit. I own a copy of Vista 32-bit Ultimate and vowed to myself to make it work. ** The good news is that, since I waited so long to do anything with this system, Gateway, as of 9/16/2008, has gotten their act together and made available online both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista drivers for this machine. ** After opening the box, the first pleasant surprise was to find a disc that contains both Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit, along with instructions that describe how to load Vista 32-bit. My plan was to clone the hard drive before I ever booted from it, just in case anything went wrong - that way I would have the original and unmodified copy Vista 64-bit that the system came with. ** I used Clonezilla (excellent freeware drive cloning program) to clone the hard drive (a Seagate 200GB momentus 7200.2) to a second external laptop drive (a Seagate 320GB Momentus 7200.3) mounted in an external case. Then, I removed the original hard drive from the laptop, put it in a safe place, and installed the cloned hard drive into the machine. This led to the discovery of the second pleasant surprise - this machine can hold 2 SATA hard drives! Making sure that all networking was disabled to prevent the system from "phoning home", I booted Vista 64-bit without incident from the cloned drive and then followed the instructions that describe how to create the 2 System Recovery DVDs and the Application and Drivers Recovery DVD. I also looked at the device manager and noted the manufacturers and names of all the peripherals (sound, wireless and wired network, modem, motherboard, etc) so that I could download the correct drivers from the Gateway site. ** I followed the instructions for installing Vista 32-bit. As shipped, the hard drive has 3 partitions, and Vista 64-bit is loaded in the first partition (the C: drive). I loaded Vista 32-bit into the second partition (the D: drive), allowing the machine to be dual-booted, and then loaded the drivers for Vista 32-bit that I downloaded from the Gateway web site. ** My primary requirements for a laptop are fast hardware and a 1920x1200 display driven by a discrete graphics card - this is one of the few laptops one can buy at retail that incorporates those features. I am a software developer and was really just looking for a “portable" desktop system that was very fast. Weight was also not an issue for me, as this system won't be moving around much, but I would not hesitate to lug it around with me if I had to - it's that much of a joy to use. The only thing I really wish this system had is a backlit keyboard. My son has a MacBook Pro 17 and it sure is nice to be able to read the keys in low light. The feel of the keyboard on this laptop is just fine. They keys feel sufficiently stiff and responsive, certainly better than my old Dell laptop, but I'm not a touch typist. ** I agree with some of the other reviewers here that the fans are a bit loud, although they don't come on too often for me, and the DVD drive button is not well-placed. I also wish the DVD drive had a light on it so you know when it's being accessed, although the drive-access light at the lower right of the touch pad is sufficient. ** Overall, however, I couldn't be happier with this system. I now have both Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit installed, the potential to have a ton of hard drive space, great hardware specs, compatibility with my old USB hardware that has only 32-bit device drivers (under Vista 32-bit), and a big, gorgeous display (although I wish it had a matte finish instead of a glossy one). At $1250, this laptop is a killer deal, and at $1450, it’s still very good. As one other reviewer stated, you won't find anything that comes close to this machine for the price.

If you want an ultra-portable laptop capable of crunching data, encoding/decoding media, and gaming capabilities that are on par with most mid-range desktops, the P7811 FX by Gateway is your ultimate solution for budget-minded (most bang for your buck) consumers. I haven't been a fan of laptop gaming until recently. After several friends picked up older models of the FX series laptops, I was impressed, but not sold. I enjoyed the raw power and performance of my many gaming towers that I've built over the last 15 years. Recently, a friend dropped a ton of money into a another manufacturer's gaming laptop with SLI, and I was intrigued until I found out the ridiculous price. Once the P7811 FX was released with a new architecture, I decided to make the move. My beastly gaming rig is no more...sold piece by piece. I don't regret the decision one bit. Lan parties are so much easier now, and other electronic chores (video editing, etc.), while slower than a desktop, are certainly done much faster than my old dual-core laptop could muster. Additionally, I can plug this laptop into any one of the HDTV's in my home and instantly have access to Media Center, downloaded movies, etc., and play games with performance on par with many "gaming" ATX platforms. HDMI and VGA adapters are simply must have connections these days (HDMI-DVI adapters are worth the investment if you have an LCD that you'd like to use that doesn't support HDMI). Gaming performance is excellent if you are not concerned with the absolute peak performance from the latest, most bleeding edge titles. Even at 1080p and highest settings, most current titles run easily at frames per second that surpass the display's capability to keep up, and you can't ask for more than that without simply claiming bragging rights. UT3, COD4, Supreme Commander, Crysis (lowered settings), all look outstanding. There are a few cons to this machine, as there are to all gaming laptops, but the one real gripe I have about this machine is the battery, which sticks out an inch at the back of the machine. This forced me to buy another case, as my 17" case just didn't quite work for this machine. This should not be a show-stopper for anyone, though, as this is already a large unit. Many reviewers have complained about heat (which is probably the number one cause of lock-ups with these machines), weight, and battery life. Perhaps these folks should have done a little more research before buying this product. This is a desktop replacement--essentially a mobile desktop--and should not be mistaken for an ordinary notebook or laptop. If ultra-portability (working on your lap on a plane, etc.) is your concern, this is not the machine for you. This unit will run much cooler if the Vista performance settings are configured per your needs--battery saving mode will enable you to safely surf the net while the machine is resting on your lap without causing third degree burns, and battery life will easily last the length of a feature-length movie. Want to play a game or render a video? Select a performance power profile and allow for ventilation. Yes, it will get hot in performance mode, or while stressing the components with other consuming software. A cooling pad is not essential, but the FX should be resting on a hard surface (a desktop or laptop surface) to ensure proper air flow. I simply improvised a rear prop to lift the unit an inch off of the surface to increase airflow, and I've not experienced one heat related lock-up. I'd recommend a cooling pad for gaming sessions lasting longer than eight hours. Its transistors will thank you with a long life. Its lack of BluRay is inconsequential--external drives will be available at affordable prices soon. Besides, the future is downloadable HD movies, so the point is almost moot, and disks themselves, even as backup media, will be rendered obsolete in a few years. While the chassis isn't overtly flashy, it's glossy finish does smudge easily. It looks great and unassuming from a distance, but up close, the carbon-fiber effects are gorgeous. The glossy makeup, however, really attracts fingerprints, so I suggest that a very soft cloth should be kept in the laptop case to wipe it down. A micro-fiber towel works excellent, and won't scratch the surface. I wish there were XP drivers available, as little would make this unit even more attractive to me, and other gamers, if the OS could easily be backed down to XP Pro x86 or x64, but Vista has come a long way. Tweaking the OS to remove unwanted software and services will greatly improve the efficiency and performance of the OS, and XP-esque performance can be had. I've finally given up on the late, great Windows XP with this machine, and have upgraded all other laptops and desktops in my home to Vista Home Premium or Ultimate x64, simply for the Media Center capabilities. The OEM hdd is only 200GB, which is a bit of a disappointment. I added a second 40GB drive for just the OS which really increased the read time for games, media, etc., that are stored on the OEM drive. I'll eventually upgrade to a second 200GB hdd for RAID0, as I believe gaming laptops have so much to gain from this upgrade that it's almost essential. unlike ATX rigs. Still, 200GB is plenty for installed software, especially considering that the unit has an eSata port which is easily accessible. It packs a lot of punch for its size, which isn't all that huge, has a gorgeous 1080p display, and an assortment of useful connections. Add a bluetooth adapter and a BluRay drive, and I would have paid substantially more. Don't doubt. Buy!

Folks - I bought one of these laptops, then had to return it. There are some 'features' of this notebook that might effect it's usefulness to you. First off - this notebook is by far the fastest thing I have ever seen as far as a portable solution. It's georgeous 1920x1200 display and that awesome Nvidia 9800m GTS graphics card with 512 megabytes of dedicated RAM make this thing scream. It has a Windows experience score of 5.2 - and the 5.2 is because of the Core 2 Duo 8400 CPU - all the other components rated a 5.8 or 5.9. (The RAM is DDR3!!) A few other awesome things to consider about this notebook - the CPU is easily upgradable - you can easily swap the CPU in this machine to a faster one. The other (seemingly) hidden fact about this notebook? There is a second hard drive bay. In fact, the hard drive mounting bracket is included. With a 320 gb SATA 5400 rpm drive running about $120 these days, it's almost a madatory addon to buy another drive and pop it in. Now - for the 'dark' side of this baby's force. The Nivida graphics card does not appear to have any 32-bit drivers available. This includes Vista or XP. The really funny thing is that Gateway includes a CD in the box that allows you to install Vista 32-bit - they give you instructions and everything - but they DON'T SUPPORT IT. In fact, when I contacted Gateway support (to get help finding drivers for Vista 32-bit) they informed me that it ACTUALLY VOIDS THE WARRANTY to put an OS on the system that is not the pre-installed one - and this includes the Vista 32-bit they included in the box!!! They didn't care at all that they include instructions and a CD with the 32-bit Vista OS - they WON'T SUPPORT IT. I really wanted to dual-boot the system with either XP or Vista-32 bit, and then have Vista 64-bit for my gaming. I travel a lot, and I wanted/need one notebook that would do both work and play. My work uses VPN and VoIP software that is currently only 32-bit compatible - it won't work on Vista 64-bit. Most 32-bit programs will run just fine on the Vista 64-bit OS - but just my luck - not the two pieces of software I really needed to justify this being my work laptop. This notebook specs are awesome, but it just won't do the 32-bit thing - and that means for me it wasn't a fit. I have to tell you - returning it was not easy. One last thing - the Vista 64-bit drivers are NOT included on the included CD (the same CD holds Vista 64-bit and Vista 32-bit). Do yourself a HUGE favor - go into the Gateway Recovery Center and create the Application and Driver rescue CD. Until Nvidia releases a driver on their web site that includes support for the video card included in this laptop, you won't be able to re-install the OS without creating this CD. Burn two copies - put them in the same envelope as the Windows Vista CD that Gateway includes. I can't tell you what a huge issue this created. So, I recommend this laptop highly - it is a fantastic buy - but be warned of the 32-bit compatibility issues. With this laptop, if you want to work and play, it will be a challenge without 32-bit support. Also - all you travel monkeys out there - the power brick for this laptop is HUGE!!

I spent a couple of weeks agonizing over the choice between this or a top end Sager NP5786 for more than twice the price. In the end, I decided that I'd be willing to make a few sacrifices for that kind of savings I'd get going with this Gateway. Turned out there wasn't much being sacrificed at all. From the moment the machine came out of its box, it was obvious Gateway built it to a standard I would have considered impossible for something in its price range. Every detail is high quality, sturdy and well put together. The case is solid, the keyboard is responsive and flex-free, even the hinges and latch scream quality. The one exception worth mentioning is the DVD drive tray - it does feel somewhat flimsy compared to the rest of the computer, though I haven't actually had any problems with it at all. The machine performs even better than it looks, however. The P8400 may be the low end of Intel's Centrino 2 processor line, but that's something like saying a low-end Ferrari...it's still screamingly fast. Coupled with the 4 GB of DDR3 Ram and awesome 9800 gts graphics card, this thing hits just under 10,000 points in 3dMark 06; enough for any game out there. I'm currently playing Sacred 2 at high detail, at the laptop's beautiful native 1900x1200 resolution, at silky smooth frame rates. It'll handle anything else just as well. Speaking of the screen, it has to be seen to be believed. Colors are vibrant and lifelike, brightness is excellent even for outdoor use, and the viewing angles are nearly 180 degrees; you can see the image perfectly until you're looking at the back of the screen horizontally, and vertical angles are nearly as good. To be fair, there are couple of issues, it's not entirely perfect. The speakers are a little less than I would have hoped for on a gaming notebook; they aren't terrible, but certainly aren't anything spectacular; both maximum volume and bass are fairly limited. The laptop only comes with a 200GB hard drive; not really massive amounts of space anymore. There is a second bay available for an easy upgrade for those that need more, however; I picked up a 320GB drive off Newegg for about a hundred bucks, and have all the space I need for now. I've also heard of some earlier revisions of this laptop having issues with overheating. I have not had any myself, however; though temperatures do get fairly high under heavy gaming, I've never seen any artifacts, crashes, or shutdowns from the heat, and even just raising the back of the machine up on a couple of CD cases to let some air under it drops the temperatures significantly. I do use a Zalman NC-2000 cooling mat with the machine when I'm gaming though, now, just for a bit of an added safety margin. It's worth noting that after I brought my machine home and had it for a few days a friend of mine had to have one too, went out and bought one as well, and it just as ecstatically happy with his as I am with mine. Though I plan to have this laptop for a good long while, I can say with near certainty that my next one after will be a Gateway as well.

Being on a budget and wanting a gaming notebook wasn't looking good until I found this PC. Go to Dell, Sager, or Asus your looking at around $2000 for the same power and size of that this PC has. Its by no means the fastest notebook in the world, but for its price and power nothing can compare to it. The PC is solidly built and doesn't look or feel 'Cheap'. The screen is on strong hinges and doesn't make a sound when opening or closing. Despite being a glossy screen it does a good job at not acting as a mirror and is very clear and bright. The media controls and full size keyboard are very handy to have. Gateway added really good cooling systems built into this notebook, but when playing Crysis be sure to place it on a desk. The speakers are average, but on the plus side they can be turned up pretty loud so sharing youtube videos with friends and playing music are still enjoyable. Battlefield 2142 runs maxed out without any lag and loads online games in just seconds, over wireless too. Crysis is the most poorly optimized game out right now but that doesn't stop this PC from running it on high with out hickups on DX10. Call of duty 4, everything maxed out, not a problem anywhere. This is also my first Vista PC and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with 64-Bit. I can run old school 16-Bit personal favorites, such as SimCity 3000, with out problems, when Windows XP was giving me 16-Bit errors. Vista runs fast on this PC and has many tools to keep the PC running good for many years. This is no question that this is desktop a replacement. So if you want ultra portable this isn't your PC. How ever, its only 1.7" thick and weighs around 9.2 pounds. I'm also getting over 3 hours of battery life. That's coming from a 17" gaming laptop. Its safe to say that that's pretty much unheard off. This makes the Dell XPS 1730 sound like something from the Dinosaur age. This PC is also really upgradeable. Do your research and you can add a Blu-ray drive later on to take full advantage of the 1080 screen. Upgrade the CPU, add a second hard drive, add bluetooth for really cheap. Laptops are now no longer held down by the "You cant upgrade a notebook" idea. Amazing price, performance, features, tech support, the list goes on. Gateway is right now the smartest notebook manufacturer in the market. If your a budget gamer and want a notebook that's going to last for many years, or if this is your first notebook, get this Gateway, the P-7811FX. There's nothing better on the market right now.

I bought this laptop about a week ago, and so far I'm absolutely in love with it! The first one I bought had some stuck pixels and cloudiness on the left side of the screen, but I exchanged for a new one that has no problems so far =) -Pros- The display is so beautiful, and it's almost hard to go back and use laptops with lower resolutions after this. I have never seen my games look so beautiful. The full keyboard with number pad is also a nice bonus (especially for gamers or anyone who needs the number pad), and the keyboard feels very ergonomic in my opinion. So far it can handle every game I've thrown at it- looking great and running great. For example in World of Warcraft I can play on all high settings, and in almost any situation I will get 55-60 FPS. Most of the time 60 FPS unless I am in a large group. Some people don't like the way the laptop looks with the black and orange, but personally I think it looks unique, beautiful, and sleek. I've also received nothing but compliments on how it looks. I'm used to using older laptops so I might be biased on the battery life and weight department. The laptop isn't that heavy in my opinion for a 17" laptop, and I'm definitely not that strong or anything, but I can easily tote the laptop around without breaking a sweat or getting worn out. Although if you need to carry this laptop for an extended period (like around a campus, or through an airport) then you definitely would want to invest in some sort of carrier for this laptop. The battery life: When I put it on power saver settings, and turn the brightness all the way down I can get around 2 hours worth of battery life just browsing the internet and using the word application, which I think is very, very good for a laptop of this size. -Cons- This shouldn't even be considered a con, but having a high definition 1080p screen with no Blu-ray drive might be a con for some people. In a way I'm glad there is no Blu-ray drive because it would have driven up the price by $300-500 more, but it would be a nice addition. You should be able to install a Blu-ray drive yourself if you want. There also is no built in Bluetooth, but this can be easily fixed with a cheap USB Bluetooth adapter. Speakers aren't that good. You'll definitely want to upgrade them if possible or use external speakers if you do anything like editing music, or if sound quality is important to you. It's good enough for me on listening to songs and the like, but it seems to sound worse the higher volume it is. Gets loud enough in my opinion and can be heard above the television or whatever if they aren't too loud, but it also doesn't sound that good on high volume. -Bottom line- This is a laptop that costs half of what competitors charge for similar specs. Awesome performance in all fronts in my opinion, and looks great. Only stay away if you need a Blu-ray drive (although you should be able to install one yourself), or if you need optimal battery performance.

Although it was not love at first sight (a more subtle design and a fingerprint resistant finish would have helped) I nevertheless grew to love the laptop specs and price. Unfortunately, as our relationship evolved I became aware of critical problems that sadly pushed me into a premature and unfortunate divorce. One of the most troubling aspects of this computer is the lack of quality control. Upon opening the box at home I noticed fingerprint stains on the lcd lid. When I opened it to power the computer I found more fingerprints inside around the touchpad and keyboard. This was a harbinger of more problems to come. During the booting process Windows warned me that the computer had been shut down improperly and requested that it be started in safe mode (the computer was sold as brand new not as an open item). Eventually I was able to start the computer normally. Although the screen boasts a glorious 1920 x 1200 resolution, I clearly noticed the faint outline of clouds when the screen displayed a black background, which could prove to be distracting. One of the most obnoxious aspects of this computer is the loud sound of the cooling fan. I can understand that the fan should kick in when the workload on the CPU demands it, but I was only browsing the internet when the fan would loudly turn on and off without the ability to gradually accelerate or decelerate according to the circumstances. After s few minutes of browsing the internet another fan came on (probably the GPU), which was not as loud, but why should there be so much noise when engaged in rather mundane and undemanding tasks? Although, I did not test the temperatures inside, the keyboard became very warm and the air emanating from the vents was rather hot. As I began to explore other features my disappointment grew. Although this computer has state of the art components, the BIOS does not support RAID 0 (rendering the second hard drive bay a worthless appendage) or Trusted Platform Module 1.2, which Vista Ultimate needs in order to set up Bitlocker. The computer also lacks a fingerprint scanner (common in many computers) and no bluetooth. Another unsettling event came via the card reader. When I placed a 4gb sd card with family pictures I noticed that after closing the explorer window and then attempting to open explorer again to see the contents of the card explorer would just freeze. I had to reboot the computer several times experiencing the same problem no matter what sd card I put in. I check the drivers that control the card reader by uninstalling and installing again to no avail. After so many disappointments I simply gave up. Although this computer's scpecs and price are very enticing, Gateway needs to seriously address fundamental issues of quality control before I take another chance walking the aisle with this product.

1. appearance looks outdated but acceptable, latch, big wireless button, battery stick out 1 inch at the back, poor color choice black & orange, louest clicking sound ever from that touchpad buttons, and with indicator lights behind tp buttons, i constantly mispressed on that red light instead left button. good thing is cover and palmrest pretty shiny. 2. build is sturdy, 8.8p on the system, with adaptor about 10p, carryable. rit palmrest gets warm with hard drive underneath it. smart creative hard drive compartment design, no screws needed( has springs). 2nd hd has tray and conector handy. cpu is located at the bottom, easy to upgrade. 3. performance, montevian 2.26 scored 34.1s on wprime, pretty good. ofc u can swap the cpu for a faster one like 2.53(30.6s on wprime) or 2.8. not sure about extreme processors since p7811 comes with only 120w adaptor vs dell xps 1730 230w. ddr3 1066mhz memory scores 5.9 on wei, interesting. hard drive is 7200rpm with 16mb cache, the fastest on the market. 9800mgts is super, great fps and video quality, scored 8731 on 3d mark06, my old dell xps ( 256mb 8700m gt) 3d06 score is 4400. ya, do the math. lcd screen is good, no light leakage, color is a bit to dark though. after changed brightness & gamma setting , colors is still very dark. lcd screen is just not good enough to go with 9800m gts. speaker is the best i ever heard from a notebook with audio 2.0, ZERO DISTORTION. however volume is low and sound effects is way behind dell xps 1730 with 5.0+subwoofer. lets put it this way, p7811 is like that cleveland basketball team, with one superstar James--gpu 9800m gts tries to carry mediocre components , yet always falls short. gateway p7811 is more of an all around desktop replacement than a gaming specialist like dell xps 1730. the unit i bought from queens center bestbuy had bsod-blue screen of death, restarts every 15-30 mins. ran prime95 on it, all passed. didnt ship with correct drivers or applications. so i installed vista x64 on my own hd, and installed intel wifi & nvidia graphics driver only, and now its problem free. this gateway p7811 gives me a feeling of "dell" with their design. also, no way any pc maker can make money sell this at $1249. either gateway do it for brand awareness or just wasting their parent company acer's money. from a consumer's standpoint, this could be the bargian of decade.