I purchased this product in early November. My configuration and model selections were done from a local Gateway Country Store. I am very pleased with the product. The configuration combinations I was looking for were simple to find and most product information detail was readily available. I chose this product line because I was not ready to commit to Windows ME or 2000 operating system. The business line of computers is the only one that allowed selection of Windows 98 which is both stable and proven. I ordered a PIII 933Mhz with 256MB of RAM and a 45Gb fixed disk drive, 32MB ATI Radeon AGP graphics card, DVD CD-ROM and a CD-RW. I stayed with the low end speakers and vanilla SoundBlaster AudioPCI sound card (I don't need another stereo.) The performance is wonderful. It is fast. I love it. I have used Parson's QuickVerse 6.0 Bible Reference Collection and had 9 volumns of books open at the same time (with map and table graphics included) without any hesitation from the equipment at all.
However, it is a bit expensive and if you have confidence in the stability of Windows ME and/or 2000, you can purchase one of Gateway's lower end models with as much processing power for a lot less money. The drawbacks are price (they really should offer their other models with Windows 98 as an option), Norton Virus software comes preinstalled (no option to not have it preinstalled or substituted with McAfee). From the research I have done, Gateway has a solid reputation for quality, service and dependability. This, coupled with the fact that there is a local storefront available in my are made the selection of Gateway over Dell an easy decision for me. Ordering was easy and delivery was fast. The price listed in this review included a 22 inch Mitsubishi Diamondtron flat CRT monitor, 45 GB fixed disk, 3Com PCI ethernet NIC, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Suite, HP Scanjet 5300 CSE color flatbed scanner, Warranty upgrade to 5 years, Gateway Music:)Ware CD Creator Pack with instructor training, Gateway Learning Library for Office Professional on CD and a 1 year subscription to their on-line learning site. If you buy from their Country Store, Negotiate...they will throw in freebees if you ask. Be specific.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 3576
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 41-50