Gateway FX 6831-03 Gaming Desktop PC Review

[Julio Franco]

While many hardcore gamers and hardware enthusiasts will tell you it's better to build your own rig, some still choose to go with a custom-built model from a recognized brand name. These often come attached to higher premiums, but also to comprehensive customer support and warranties covering the entire system, plus the peace of mind of not having to deal with any troubles that may occur while assembling it piece by piece.

Read the full review at:
https://www.techspot.com/review/265-gateway-fx-6831-gaming-desktop/

Please leave your feedback here.

 

[rpsgc]

Really Gateway? 16GB of RAM and then an HD 5850? That system needs an HD 5870.

 

[compdata]

This is definitely a reasonable system for my purposes - thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Guest]

I learned along time ago with boxed computers that just because is says it has a "x" processor doesn't mean it runs at that speed. Oddly enough that experience was with Gateway. I had a custom built 233 MMX (hey I said it was a long time ago) a friend had a custom built 200 mhz processor and another friend and another friend had a 266 mhz gateway.

since the 266 had a cheep motherboard and other components it had the same speed as the 200 mhz. Which at the time made a huge difference. I other words it wasn't a 266 it was a 200 do to crappy components.

 

[Guest]

No SSD or option for one? Next.

 

[BlindObject]

I gotta say, the case looks nice, but of course, I'd much rather build my own.

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...really - you're going to have that kind of a rig with those little, dinky speakers?

That's not too bad of a rig for the price. I agree with the video card upgrade though.

 

[MrAnderson]

The price is not too bad at all.

And - What?! 16GB DDR3... Super!

I want one of those; add a more powerful video card and I'll take it!

 

[Guest]

Current user of this rig for over a month now. It is definitely a solid performer. I'm not a gamer, but use it exclusively for web and graphic design, and it handles multi-tasking without a hitch! A lot of computer for the price for sure.

 

[Guest]

this review should include the rating system that windows has included!! To see how this bad boy compares to our pc's at home..

 

[Guest]

I'm slightly confused with what is says about the crossfire capabilities. I've read a load of reviews on this pc and they say it only supports one PCI slot, meaning no additional GPUs to add. Does crossfire technology not require another slot or something? Since the other reviews mention that one of this products major downsides is that there is little room for upgrading in the graphics department. Sorry, I'm new to things when it comes to dual graphics card, hopefully someone can clear this up for me!

 

[Julio Franco]

The H57 chipset on the Gateway FX motherboard supports Crossfire. You get three PCI Express slots: one 16x, one 4x and one 1x. The fastest one is used for the primary graphics card and you have the option of adding a second card on one of the slower slots although performance will suffer marginally because of the limited bandwidth.

Higher-end platforms like the P55 and X58 can push much more bandwidth through the PCI Express lanes and in fact do triple and even quad GPU gaming feasible. But that of course goes beyond the scope of this gaming system at this price range.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Killview]

very nice for the price. i would def see my self buying one of these for a friend or myself if needed.

 

[CokeCanNinja]

I'm getting one of these and putting a ATI Radeon HD 5970 and a better sound card in it.

 

[Guest]

Unless you are doing video transcoding or 3D modeling and graphics design, a gaming rig or normal home pc doesn't need anywhere near that much ram. Money would be better spent on better graphics or an SSD. My homebuilt runs an overclocked Core i7 920 on an x58 motherboard with 6GB of ram and a Radeon 5870 that would run circles around this thing and have never come close to utilizing all 6GB even with 10 apps open and gaming at the same time. This is a marketing ploy for the ignorant...nothing more.

 

[Guest]

I think the level of RAM is not a marketing ploy but it is indicative of how cheap the manufacturers are able to get it. To be honest I am very much considering buying the cheaper model of this (the 8GB and no blu ray one) because it is 200 or 300 dollars less that the enthusiast PC, even without SSD and blu ray spinner. Seeing as multi-GPU offerings are never worth the price increase to me (40% increase in performance for 100% increase in price is a bit steep) the lack of 2 16 PCI ports is no issue. Furthermore Turbo boost offers a reason (however slight) not to overclock your processor. Can anyone give me a good reason to build your own PC over buying one of these? The price for what you're getting is very good indeed.

 

[Guest]

Just a quick question, I bought one of these systems based on the positive review but I cannot figure out how to get the TURBO BOOST feature to go past 2.93Ghz??.....They advertise this i7-860 as going up to 3.43Ghz??

Is this somehow BIOS crippled by Gateway?...if so, is there a way to unlock the FULL TURBO BOOST speed of this chip?


thanks

 

[Guest]

First off, 16GB of ram is not "cheap". Kit on Newegg sells for $710 - $890. You can get a Radeon 5870, 8GB of RAM (more than enough) and an intel X-25 M SSD boot drive for pretty much the same cost and you've just made your computer much faster and more powerful than this one. More RAM above what your computer is utilizing doesn't make your computer faster...period. Its merely for E-Peen.

Why build your own? There are several reasons. (1) Quality: Retail components are far higher quality, more robust, perform better and last longer, have more embedded features for expansion, overclocking, tweaking etc, and longer individual warranties on components (3-7 years for core components). Essentially you are able to get exactly the computer system that you want and it is far easier to repair if something breaks or expand when you need more capcity. (2) Cost: It is inittially the same or slightly better, meaning you can build a far better computer yourself for the same price you are willing to spend on an off-the-shelf and your computer has more upgradability and expandability. In the long run it saves you money because you can change or upgrade individual parts instead of throwing your whole computer out to buy another. (3) Individuality and Fun Factor: It is more fun to build a model than purchase it already built. Likewise you can customize your rig however you wish. Since you choose every component you get exactly what you want and nothing you don't.

 

[Guest]

It's probably the case that the processor is always using all the cores, and you are not looking at what it is for just one. Look at the table partway down this review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2839

 

[Guest]

Quote guest: First off, 16GB of ram is not "cheap". Kit on Newegg sells for $710 - $890. You can get a Radeon 5870, 8GB of RAM (more than enough) and an intel X-25 M SSD boot drive for pretty much the same cost and you've just made your computer much faster and more powerful than this one. More RAM above what your computer is utilizing doesn't make your computer faster...period. Its merely for E-Peen.

Why build your own? There are several reasons. (1) Quality: Retail components are far higher quality, more robust, perform better and last longer, have more embedded features for expansion, overclocking, tweaking etc, and longer individual warranties on components (3-7 years for core components). Essentially you are able to get exactly the computer system that you want and it is far easier to repair if something breaks or expand when you need more capcity. (2) Cost: It is inittially the same or slightly better, meaning you can build a far better computer yourself for the same price you are willing to spend on an off-the-shelf and your computer has more upgradability and expandability. In the long run it saves you money because you can change or upgrade individual parts instead of throwing your whole computer out to buy another. (3) Individuality and Fun Factor: It is more fun to build a model than purchase it already built. Likewise you can customize your rig however you wish. Since you choose every component you get exactly what you want and nothing you don't.

My reply:
If you had read my comment, you would have seen i said it shows how cheap they can get it. THEY. Clearly because they are buying it in massive bulk they can afford to use this much.

I'm in the UK, and the cost for the Cheaper model of this computer in GBP is £800. If I follow the enthusiast build guide, I can purchase the video card, the processor, the mobo, the ram and the case before it breaks this budget. Im afraid that it is definately more expensive for me to build my own PC.So, for me, anything you say about price is utterly incorrect for me.

While you say constructing it is 'fun', I thought that at first. But then I thought about all the things that could go wrong, or that I might not have, or if I ruined a component somehow. That wouldnt be fun. Individuality does not compensate for much greater costs.

Also this PC allows me to upgrade it - it has a free hard drive space for a SSD, and I dont want another graphics card, so just one good PCIe slot is fine.

Please can someone else give me a better argument!

 

[Guest]

You obviously know nothing about computers. I gave you several "better" arguments. If you don't want better arguments than take your willful ignorance elsewhere and stop polluting tech blogs with Gateway propaganda.

 

[Guest]

I'm the guy who originally asked the question...

Your three points: quality, cost, and 'fun'

I can't really say too much about the quality myself, but I'm guessing that they dont like you overclocking your parts, and that should void the warranty, no? You say I could get 'exactly the system that I want', but the only other thing missing from this system (for my purposes) is a SSD boot drive, which I could easily add and use for that purpose.

Cost: Over here in the UK, a HD5870 goes for £300, a 40GB Intel X-25M Gen2 SSD goes for £100, and the RAM goes for £200. So, that's £600. This PC here costs £800. So I have £200 to spend on my case, my processor, mobo, power supply etc. This system, to me, offers exceptional value for money. (The prices stated were the cheapest on google shopping, by the way).
Expandability - if I was going to build my own PC, I would roughly follow the enthusiast guide on this website. They recommend the same socket. I would not really consider buying more than one graphics card, but if I did I would just use the weaker one on one of the *gasp* smaller empty PCI sockets there are! Sure it might limit the frame rate just a teeny tiny bit, but then looking back at the cost advantage to me, it is worth it.

Fun - sure, if you think so. This is, obviously, the most personal of the things you said, so in my opinion it doesnt really matter too much.

Sorry if I offended you somehow, but this PC is probably a better deal in the UK than the US I guess... I was trying to find out if there was a huge advantage to building your own that I had completely missed...

PS: Sorry if some of the sentences are badly phrased - cant be bothered to proofread it.

 

[tipstir]

Cost to much to build your own today. I have purchased 3x Quad-Core and they're all Gateway DX series just like the FX series as ACER has taken the ownership of Gateway. Still for what I had paid for all 3 not bad. I can add almost 7 SATA II drives, RAM maxes out at 8MB far cry of the 16MB you got in this rig. Still, PSU, CPU, video, LAN, HDD can be upgraded using third-party parts. The 3 are so quiet when they run you don't anything. Still prior years I've always build and OC the CPU an etc. But cost to do so was cheaper. Just have to find the right deals online with no tax or no shipping charges. Some might charge for shipping but still comes out better.Shoot I even go a deal on 1080P with 40,000:1 ACER 23" monitor with HDMI ports still cost me less online than heading to the local retail store.

UK Pound vs the USD can't compare the two in prices. Your price will vary from ours. Plus vendors have raised prices more than since 2007.

 

[Guest]

Quote Tipstir: Cost to much to build your own today. I have purchased 3x Quad-Core and they're all Gateway DX series just like the FX series as ACER has taken the ownership of Gateway. Still for what I had paid for all 3 not bad. I can add almost 7 SATA II drives, RAM maxes out at 8MB far cry of the 16MB you got in this rig. Still, PSU, CPU, video, LAN, HDD can be upgraded using third-party parts. The 3 are so quiet when they run you don't anything. Still prior years I've always build and OC the CPU an etc. But cost to do so was cheaper. Just have to find the right deals online with no tax or no shipping charges. Some might charge for shipping but still comes out better.Shoot I even go a deal on 1080P with 40,000:1 ACER 23" monitor with HDMI ports still cost me less online than heading to the local retail store.

UK Pound vs the USD can't compare the two in prices. Your price will vary from ours. Plus vendors have raised prices more than since 2007.

_________________________

Of course, we do get screwed over in the UK, and that is part of the reason that buying one of these is so appealing to me. Does anyone know why the prices have been increasing, or if it is just to do with the recession?