Gateway FX 6831-03 Gaming Desktop PC Review

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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?

I get the review…but like many I’m done with buying computers from the “big manufactures” They use cheap parts and limit your customizations…you can build it yourself but like some say you may not have the time or you simply don’t want to spend nights in forums trying to figure out what caused that BSOD this is where the boutique pc companies come into play…All the good ones I know are Main gear, ACS Gaming computers, Digital storm just to name a few…I would never buy from any of the big guns…not worth it IMO

Ive seen the shift from maingear...prolly my favorite design from then in a while...but then again im kinda liking the Colossus from the ACS guys...competition is good!!!

Guest the market has cause the prices to go up, but here the deals can be had on dealnews.com good place to start or word of mouth. I use to hit the Computer Fairs, but those vendors are cutting deals with DOA parts. I not using them again for building. Still you can use Amazon.uk, but your have two different VAT taxes over there right? I've been to UK several times where the pound was greater than the USD. But you pay more than us.

ACER makes Gateway systems, Along with the Q4-64-bit Gateway I've also purchased 2 laptops and 1 netbook under both names. No issues with them. Only 2nd netbook is made by ASUS. If I see a deal I'll buy it! If I need it though?

I had purchased a Gateway FX 6831-03 and it worked well for one day. Then I would get cursor artifacts, green lines and freeze ups. I believe ATI has many problems with their 58xx series video cards. I tried a bunch of things but ended up returning the computer. I wish the computer had worked out. I don't think it's Gateway's fault really.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=124747&enterthread=y

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ATI-Radeon-Gray-Screen-Crash,9529.html

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

I really like that case. If I had te money and was in a place where they sold this, I would certainly buy this. I don't care what you guys say about making your own. I bet none of you could build a PC with a case like this.

Had my Gateway system for 6mths... awesome gaming rig! Proof is in the pudding... I use it all the time from Modern Warfare 2 to Dragon Age 2... to Star Craft 2... it is a great system that has worked amazing well. The extra RAM does help out in performance along with the fact that it is a 64Bit system. Taken it from a person that actually owns this system... it is a great buy! For the poster that says building is better... you are right, but time is money also! I have been working in the IT field for over 15yrs... I have built my own systems, etc... but why do that when I can get this for a fraction and it works great? ;-)

Some of the parts are questionable, yes, but overall it's a nice build for the price. The case looks very roomy, although I would have preferred a bottom-mounted PSU for it. Just a pet peeve of mine.

Still, this will end up a lot cheaper for a lot of folks than building their own, since these systems typically come bundled with peripherals and software that you would otherwise have to purchase.

In the end - prebuilt systems are a good option for a lot of people, and it's not right for anyone to try to tell them otherwise. You can argue until you lose your voice about how it's better to build your own blah blah blah, but some folks really just want a working computer so they can get right to what they want to use the computer FOR. Sometimes it really isn't about the journey.