CNET Editor's rating: 8.0 out of 10
Reviewed by
Dan Ackerman
Review date: 05/19/08
Release date: 05/10/08
The good: Excellent performance for the money, particularly with games; offers more memory, a larger hard drive, and slightly faster CPU for same price as the model it replaces; includes HDMI and eSATA ports.
The bad: Not configurable; wimpy CPU for a gaming system.
The bottom line: The Gateway P-6860FX offers GeForce 8800 gaming muscle and plenty of memory in a midprice laptop, making it a great choice for gamers who fall just short of hard-core.
Always looking for the right mix of power and value, we were big fans of Gateway's 17-inch gaming laptop lineup, ranging from the $3,000 P-171XL FX to the $1,299 P-6831FX, a retail-only model that was the cheapest way to get Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GPU. Gateway's recent refreshes of these systems have been equally impressive, even if they just offer minor component tweaks, in the form of the high-end P-172FX and a new version of the company's budget gaming laptop, the P-6860FX.
For $1,350 (the system is occasionally on sale for $1,299) the P-6860FX offers some decent upgrades from the earlier P-6831FX, bumping the RAM from 3GB to 4GB and the hard drive from 250GB to 320GB. The CPU also gets a slight upgrade to a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo T5550, but the underpowered processor remains the one weak point.
The P-6860 also includes the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, although you're unlikely to see any real advantages or disadvantages from that in everyday computing tasks or playing current games, until more software is specifically coded for 64-bit systems. Because 32-bit Windows can address only 3GB of RAM, the real advantage of using the 64-bit OS is the capability to use 4GB or more.
With upgraded components but the same low price, the Gateway P-6860FX is our current choice for budget gamers.
Physically identical to the Gateway P-172XL FX and P-6831FX models we recently tested, the P-6860FX has the same glossy black plastic chassis with brushed aluminum detailing and copper accents around the keyboard, making a more subtle gaming machine than Alienware or Dell models.
As in the previous versions, the keyboard and separate number pad have roomy, comfortable keys--even if we're not crazy about the dark red used on the number keys, which can make them hard to see. Above the keyboard is a row of media controls, with buttons cut right into the brushed metal border. These backlit buttons look cool, but it's sometimes hard to tell if you've pressed them hard enough. A touch-sensitive volume slider sits to the right, and was responsive and easy to use.
The 17.1-inch display has a native resolution of 1,440x900, which isn't as high as the 1,920x1,280 in the more expensive 17-inch Gateways, but with the system's slower CPU, you probably won't want run most games at higher resolutions. We liked the screen finish, which was somewhere between the high-gloss finish found on most consumer notebooks (too much glare) and the matte finish found on business systems (too muted).
Gateway P-6860FX
Average for category [desktop replacement]
Video
VGA, HDMI
VGA-out, S-Video, DVI or HDMI
Audio
Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data
3 USB 2.0, mini FireWire, SD card reader, eSATA
4 USB 2.0, mini FireWire, multiformat memory card reader
Expansion
ExpressCard
PC Card or ExpressCard
Networking
modem, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth
Optical drive
DVD burner
HD DVD or Blu-Ray
All the current 17-inch Gateway FX laptops include not only an HDMI output (quickly becoming standard equipment in high-end systems), but also an eSATA port, which is good for hooking up external SATA hard drives. The higher-end models have thankfully dropped the fairly worthless HD DVD drive, but there are no Blu-ray options in the P-series lineup.
The P-6860FX isn't the fastest performer in nongaming applications, because of its 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 CPU. Compared with the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 in the P-172 or the 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 in the HP Pavilion dv9700t, it excelled only on our Photoshop test, thanks no doubt to its massive 4GB of RAM, which the 64-bit OS can fully address. Still, we didn't run into any slowdown or stuttering when playing media files, Web surfing, and working office documents at the same time.
The low-end CPU/high-end GPU combination is an odd one, but it's largely works if you primarily want to use the Gateway P-6860FX as a cheap gaming rig. With the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card, we were able to get frame rates reasonably close to the more expensive P-172, and got more than 60 frames per second in Unreal Tournament III even at the display's maximum resolution. We tested the 64-bit compatible game Crysis on both this system and the older P-6831 model (which has 32-bit Vista), but, as we expected, the difference in performance was negligible.
Our battery testing, using CNET Labs' video battery drain test, gave us 2 hours and 1 minute of battery life, which is fairly impressive for a desktop replacement, as many 17-inch laptops give up well short of the 90-minute mark. Because desktop replacements spend most of their time tethered to a single location, battery life isn't usually a big factor.
The system includes an industry-standard one-year warranty with parts-and-labor coverage and return-to-depot service. Gateway offers a 24-7 toll-free technical-support phone line, and the Web site has the usual driver downloads and FAQs, plus options for e-mailing or online chatting with techs.
Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds) (Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Gateway P-6860FX
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 8800M GTS; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm.
Gateway P-172X FX
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS; 160GB Seagate 7,200rpm (x2).
Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi4
Windows Vista Home Ultimate Edition; 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100; 3,072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB (x2) w/ SLi Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT; 160GB (x2) Hitachi 7,200rpm.
HP Pavilion dv9700t
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300; 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS; 250GB Hitachi 5,400rpm.
Intro:
The Gateway P-6860FX is a 9.3-pound, general-purpose notebook computer.Compared to other mainstream consumer notebooks on the market, it is midpriced at around $1,350.Has Wi-Fi (wireless connectivity) built-in.Features NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS graphics with 512MB of video memory.
Noteworthy Features:
Has 4 GB RAM, which is considerably more than some similarly priced notebooks.Also, this notebook has a 320GB hard drive, which is considerably larger than some similarly priced notebooks.
Weaker Features:
Has a 9.3-pound weight, which is considerably heavier than some similarly priced notebooks.For example, the Lenovo 3000, at around $1, 260, has only a 4-pound weight.
Suitability:
A mainstream consumer notebook, suited for general mobile computing.Preserve favorite home movies for future generations by saving them onto DVD with this computer's DVD burner.Comes with office-grade word processing software -- fine for most serious business or academic writers.With 512MB of dedicated video RAM, this machine will do very well compared to most other notebooks, when it comes to multimedia applications and games.If you have a wireless network at home, wirelessly browse the Web from any room in your house with this Wi-Fi enabled laptop.
Value:
In general, this notebook has good features for the money.For example, when it comes to screen size, the average price of mainstream consumer products with a similar screen size is considerably more -- right around $1,615.
Suggestions:
(1) Given this device's Wi-Fi capability, you may want to get a wireless access point for your home, so that you can browse the Web more conveniently from any room.(2) To get the most out of this laptop's Bluetooth capability, you could have a Bluetooth-enabled headset, handheld or other device, and be able to link it wirelessly to your computer within a range of 20-or-so feet inside the same room.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Best Price to performance ratio
I?ve done my Research on the Gateway p-6860FX Gaming laptop. I hoping this review will help anyone else looking ...
I?ve done my Research on the Gateway p-6860FX Gaming laptop. I hoping this review will help anyone else looking to buy this awesome laptop.
I will go with the Pros first: 1. 17 Inch Screen 2. Geforce 8800m Gts 3. B,G,A,N and Bluetooth 2.0 Wireless 4. 4 GB Ram 5. Maybe not the fastest Processer at 1.83 GHz, but at least as fast if not faster than my 2.8 GHz PD 6. Webcam and Mic 7. 320 GB Hard drive 8. Esata, HDMI, Vga, Gigabit Ethernet, Media Card Reader 9. Not very heavy if you carry in backpack 10. Number Pad next to keyboard 11. Hard switch for Wi-Fi 12. Large Track Pad with up and down and left to right scroll 13. It stays relatively cool because it has a large heat sink for both CPU and gpu. 14. The bottom does not get hot for regular use, but when playing Crysis or any other intensive game it can start to get hot. 15. Even when you are playing Crysis there is not much CPU heat, but there is tons of gpu heat. (Outside the laptop, not inside)
Now for Games: 1. COD4: Everything Maxed Out (never below 30 FPS) 2. Crysis: With first patch
If you upgraded the processer to the 2.5 GHz then you probably could get everything at very high next to shaders and object quality and maybe shadows.
With all of those settings turned on I get 25 ? 35 FPS (Frames per Second) in open and 15 to 25 Fps in Fights.
Word in Conflict Demo:
With the resolution set to highest and everything else set to very high I would get around 25-30 FPS unless you zoom down into the fight then you get around 10-15 FPS.
Any other game you play will be on max graphics unless you go to a super high resolution like 1920x1200.
Hard drive Speed: 31.2 MB/s (Min) 60.4 MB/s (Max) 48.2MB (AVG) for around 3 min testing using HD Tune.
Super Pi: (1)1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU against (2)2.8 GHz Pentium D CPU
Wireless Range with D-Link DIR-625 N Router: 40 Feet away though a floor and two walls. 4 Bars sometimes changing to 5, but I think this is not connected to N. So if it was then it would get even longer range.
Battery Life: Battery Life is okay considering what?s inside this laptop. Playing the game Warrock lasted 1 hour and 15 min on max performance. Surfing the web would last over two hours depending on performance level and screen brightness.
Power usage: Max Performance / Screen brightness all the way up / Wi-Fi on
Just typing a Word Doc: (48 watts) Playing Crysis: (102 watts)
Now For the Bad: 1. The Keyboard: (The shift key is too small and the arrow keys are right next to it; so when I type, I push the up arrow instead of shift. Also the Fn key is where the Ctrl key should be and you can?t reprogram the Fn key for games. 2. The Screen: Compared to my Dell 2007FP 20 inch monitor, its does not look very good. All of the colors are washed out and the screen seems too bright. 3. Has to be polished to keep looking nice. Attracts finger prints easily. 4. Web Cam: Color is off and is laggy using Skype. 5. Microphone: Needs to be more sensitive 6. Mic Jack: Even though it recognized something being plugged into the Mic jack, it did not work. (Would just use internal Mic.)
Overall this laptop is great and half of the problems can be easily fixed as long as you?re not on the go. For $1250 with free game and 2 years no interest you can?t beat it. For some more great info on the laptop similar to this, go here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/2008/gateway-p6831fx/gateway-p6831fx-view-back.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx%3Fi%3D3273%26p%3D3%26cp%3D2&h=493&w=1920&sz=103&hl=en&start=139&sig2=6f_-zjnsFdHIYqKLV_xl9g&um=1&tbnid=SOtMcvsYAUL_wM:&tbnh=39&tbnw=150&ei=gsgoSP7RMoaWigHdrdTtCA&# 38;prev=/images%3Fq%3DP-6860FX%26start%3D126%26ndsp%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dcom.google:en-US:official%26sa%3DN:
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by roccosperanza (see profile) -
June 12, 2008
8 out of 10 - Excellent Great laptop with only a few cons
I just bought this laptop today and although I haven't gotten the chance to install too many games on ...
I just bought this laptop today and although I haven't gotten the chance to install too many games on it, I can say that the games that I did manage to install ran very smoothly. However, I found that starting the computer up was very tedious. It took a long time to load and there was a ton of bloatware from NetZero to a freaking eBay shortcut on my desktop... But all this can be removed easily of course. It's got a fair price and Best Buy offers you a free game when you buy it (I chose Crysis). I thought Vista was very confusing though. I didn't like how the Add/Remove Programs was taken out of the Control Panel.
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by xlca (see profile) -
June 5, 2008
8 out of 10 - Excellent Great for WoW
After trying to run World Of Warcraft on a non-gamer laptop for much of a year, with 16FPS on a ...
After trying to run World Of Warcraft on a non-gamer laptop for much of a year, with 16FPS on a reallly good day, I just bought this laptop last week. In WoW, at 1400 x900 with everything turned up, I'm getting 60FPS.. better than my desktop! I love it. Good gosh I hate those red numeric keys though. Not enough contrast, hard to see them unless in fully-lit room. I'm going to either swap them out, or get a little bendy USB light for now to shine down on them.
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by jrazr (see profile) -
May 29, 2008
8 out of 10 - Excellent 8800GTS puts this budget laptop on the top tier
I doubt you're going to get 90-125 FPS in Crysis w/"Very High" settings, but what I did load, ...
I doubt you're going to get 90-125 FPS in Crysis w/"Very High" settings, but what I did load, and benchmark, are: 3DMark 06, Default settings = 7424 3DMarks (that's only 1000 less than my 2.5Ghz, 8800GTS 640MB desktop!) Supreme Commander: 1400x900, All settings on high, 4X AA, averaged 24 FPS. On the default settings, resolution @ 1400x900, same result; 24FPS. Seems to be CPU limited. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: All tests done at native resolution of 1400X900. DX 9, default settings = 58.8 PFS. DX 9, all settings high except for low shadows = 55 FPS. DX10, All settings at default = 36.9 FPS. DX 10, All settings on high except for low shadows = 27 FPS Could be a driver issue with DX 10 Though CPU limited, for $1350 (as of May 08), it's a darn good performer. I did some looking and for that price I could get a faster processor, but would have to sacrifice the graphics to a 2nd or even 3rd tier card. That you can upgrade the processor yourself only adds to the value.
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by avatar36 (see profile) -
May 15, 2008
Memory - SO DIMM 200-pin,
1 ( 1 ) x ExpressCard/54
Interfaces
1 x Microphone - Input - Mini-phone mono 3.5 mm,
3 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A,
1 x Audio - SPDIF output,
1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire),
1 x Storage - Serial ATA-300 - 7 pin external Serial ATA,
1 x Display / video - HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A,
1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45,
1 x Headphones - Output - Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm,
1 x Display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15),
1 x Modem - Phone line - RJ-11
Power
Power device form factor
External
Battery
Technology
9-cell Lithium ion
Installed Qty
1
Battery capacity
7800 mAh
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support
1 year warranty
Service & Support Details
Limited warranty - Battery - 1 year,
Limited warranty - Parts and labor - 1 year
Operating System / Software
OS Provided
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition
Software
Norton Internet Security (60 days subscription),
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial),
Microsoft Works 9.0,
Microsoft Money Essentials,
CyberLink Power2Go
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