My Gateway to Internet Heaven
Written: Dec 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: everything
Cons: nothing
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| piglet2061's Full Review: Gateway Select 750 Deluxe |
When my husband and I bought our very first computer we really didn't know too much about computers or what brand to buy. We went out to our local Best Buy and bought a Packard Bell, we thought we had made a great decision but have long since found out that Packard Bell was one of the worst brands we could have bought. We had constant problems with it and had to have many parts replaced including the cd rom among others. Finally, after putting up with this lemon for a little over two years it finally died a horrible death and that is when I decided I was going to get the computer that I had always wanted and that was a Gateway. I was very familiar with Gateway computers as my brother had purchased one and so had two of my friends, they gave glowing recommendations on their Gateways. So I found the nearest Gateway Country store and off I went to free myself from computer hell.
I went to look for my Gateway with my parents who wanted to make sure that I didn't get taken this time. My Dad is my fellow computer geek and we oohed and aahhed over the new 1GHz they had sitting in its own little booth, it was drawing quite a crowd of interested customers. I teased my Mom that after I purchased my Gateway Dad would need a new one to keep up with me and that she should purchase him the 1GHz Gateway Performance. She just shook her head and let us two computer maniacs fantasize to ourselves.
I selected the Gateway Select 750 as my new computer and we talked to the Gateway sales representative about the various packages I could choose from or add on as I saw fit.
Gateway Select 750
Computer Description
Mid-Tower Case
AMD Athlon 750 MHz w/Performance Enhancing Cache Memory
64MB Memory Module
8MB AGP Graphics Card
15GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
20x Minimum/48x Maximum IDE CD-ROM
3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Diskette Drive
Canon BJC-2100 series Bubble Jet Printer
SoundBlaster AudioPCI 128D
GCS-200 Speakers by Cambridge Soundworks
56K PCI Voice Modem
EV700 17" Monitor
Microsoft Intellimouse
Software
Microsoft 98 Second Edition
Deluxe MS Office 2000 Small Business
Gateway Go Back
Norton Anti-Virus 2000
Quicken Basic 2000
One year AOL included
I added the Deluxe MS Office Small Business program for my husband to use instead of the Microsoft works program. He did work part time in real estate and I thought he could use this for his business, he has since gave up the real estate business and he never even looks at this program. That is a bummer because in reality I wanted to expand my memory to 128MB instead of the 64 it came with but I didn't have enough money for that and the business program so I opted for the business program and now he never uses it..oh well, I can always expand it down the line.
The service was fantastic and the Gateway representative told me my computer would arrive in seven to ten days, in fact it arrived in five! It was very easy to assemble and set up, every cable was color coordinated and I think even my sister could have set it up, okay maybe I won't go that far..sorry sis. I was online in no time that is after the registration problems with AOL but that is another story all in itself which I have already reviewed.
I was very impressed with the speed in which the pages loaded and the vast superiority the Gateway had over my Packard Bell, I was in cyber space heaven.
The only problem I seemed to be having was in shutting down my Gateway, it would only shut down properly one out of two times. I went to the Microsoft Update page and downloaded the patch to Windows 98 Second Edition and thought my problems would be solved but I was still coming up with the dreaded blue screen every third time I would shut down. I went to the Gateway site and they had me do some reconfiguring and the problem was still occurring so they had me make a shortcut on my desktop for shut down and this works all the time..I still don't know exactly what the problem was but now that I have the shortcut in place it never happens anymore.
I love the Gateway Go Back program which lets you undo those dreaded download mistakes and set your computer back to the way it was merely minutes, hours, or days ago. This is a handy feature to have and it seems that Microsoft has picked up on this and created their own Go Back like program within Windows Me.
Conclusion
All in all I am a very satisfied Gateway customer and would recommend this computer to anyone looking for a dependable and fun computer to own. I have not had to interact with Gateway customer service so I really can't rate them as of yet..I really hope I never have to. I did purchase a one year on site and three year labor and parts warranty if I ever have the need to have something fixed or replaced so that keeps my mind at ease.
Gateway truly is my Gateway to the internet!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1642.96
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: 701-800
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
piglet2061
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Member: Peggy
Location: Northeast Ohio
Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 125 members
About Me:
Enjoying the flowers and sunshine with the Hubby and the Beagles in Ohio.
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