At this time Gateway has done a turnaround in policy and Dell has also which made a decision to return a Dell system and order a Gateway.I will get into this shortly.
I ordered A Gateway Select 1300.It was delivered 7 days after order.
My ordered configueration is the 1300 Alathon processor /128 megs of PC133 ram/40 gig 7200 rpm hard drive/32 meg Nvidia M64 video card/Sound blaster audio pci sound card/combo HPNA 56k modem/linksys 10/100 eithernet card/DVd rom.No monitor.
The tower has a 250 watt power supply.All bays are on rails with clips which makes it a tool less setup.All pci card are held into place by a latch again there are no screws.It is set up with two fans for cooling and does not need a shroud to direct the air flow.It is extremely well designed.One drawback is the lack of a reset button.It comes loaded with Windows ME....another but unavoidable draw back.The standard warranty is one year onsite and 3 years parts.One year of wonderful AOl is included(good Christmas gift for your kids that have moved out)
The computer was the low end 1300 configueration.There are two more steps up but I have extra hardware so a low end machine is fine.I am speaking about the Video card and sound card in my case.You would find the base configueration quite sufficient...Basicially the computer flies.
Let me through some benchmarks at you.These are Norton benchmarks.These are for computers I have owned and returned.
Dell 8100 P4 1400\256 PC 800 rambus/ 40 gig 7200/32 meg Nvidia video card.....476
Dell 4100 P3 1000\256 Pc133 sdram\40 gig 7200\32 meg Nvidia video card......525
Gateway Select 1300\256 Pc 133 sdram\40 gig 7200\32 meg
Nvidia video card....708
Quite a bit of difference.....Benchmarking with different programs told different results but the 1300 held its own with the P4 1.7 in almost all areas(Passmark Preformance test).SiSoft Sandra gave the 1300 extremely high marks quite a bit higher than the P4.
I want you to be aware of the sound card that is offered on the low end 1300...There is no joystick port.You will need to step up a notch in price or buy an usb joystick.
I did replace the video with a ATI Radeon 64meg DDR VIVO card and added another 128 megs of ram.Also installed my Sony CDRW..GREAT system...Also returned to Win98se.
Dell tech had a major problem even discussing faulty hard ware if I uninstalled Windows ME on the 4100 or 8100 even though drivers for Win98 were sent with the systems.I never needed software support but when a Dell diagnostic came up with a 3 major errors with the usb,floppy and hard drive they did not want to even discuss the issue with me with an os change. Not a good sign at all....Dell got the systems back.There have been major changes at Dell....I am not so sure that they are heading in the same direction that put them in the number one spot.They have dropped their trademark 1/3 warranty to 1 year on the L...4100...and 8100 systems.You have to buy up for 3 year coverage.
Gateway`s tech support has had no quams about Windows 98.
In the past I have been a glowing commerical for Dell.I wrote opinions that at the time were valid.I will not delete them....but that was then.
So far Gateway tech support picks up quickly on a phone call and seems not to be in any hurry to quickly resolve an issue and get off or tell you to call them back later this is good.
So far this is a heck of a computer....I feel stroungly that Gateway has moved in a positive direction and I have no regrets and am in fact extremely happy with my choice...







Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1152
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD