NEW Reviews Beta Feedback

Gateway E-4300 SB

77

Good

Avg User Rating
0 User Reviews | add yours »

Pros
Exceptionally thin, but still expandable
Cons
Noisy at startup; so-so performance

Performance: Very Good: 82
Features: Good: 72
Design: Fair: 69

Find out how these scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Performance
ACD Systems ACDSee	596
Adobe Photoshop	381
Adobe Premiere	505
Ahead Nero	577
Discreet 3ds Max DirectX	393
Discreet 3ds Max OpenGL	456
Microsoft Office XP	560
Mozilla	564
Multitasking	750
Musicmatch Jukebox	519
Overall Graphics Score	Fair
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit	48.97
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit	47.67
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit	36.4
Roxio VideoWave	302
Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit	93.34
Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit	68.91
Unreal Tournament, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit	47.87
Windows Media Encoder	391
WinZip	426
World Bench 5 Score	86
World Bench 5 Word Score	Very Good

Performance
WorldBench 5: Performance word scores reflect comparisons of PCs in the same category (power or value) running the same operating system. See Your Guide to the Top 100 for more details.	Very Good: 86 (Windows XP Professional)
Base configuration	Good
CPU	3.2-GHz Pentium 4 540
System memory	512MB of DDR2-400 SDRAM
Hard drive (GB): Total capacity. May represent multiple hard drives.	160GB
Monitor size and model	17-inch Gateway FPD 1730 LCD
Graphics: Most integrated graphics systems use the PC's main RAM.	Integrated Intel 915G
Case type: Vertical cases are towers (over 20 inches), midsize towers (15.5 to 20 inches), or minitowers (under 15.5 inches). Horizontal cases are desktops (5 inches or taller) or compacts (under 5 inches).	Compact
Open bays, slots	One externally accessible bay, one slot
Extra features	Fair
Removable-media drives	8X DVD-ROM/48X CD-RW combo drive
Sound card	Integrated Realtek HD Audio
Speakers	Gateway 2.0
Communications	V.92 modem, network adapter, six USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire ports
Software	Microsoft Works
Other	N/A
Graphics quality: Based on new testing begun in the November 2002 issue. Insufficient data for systems tested in previous months.	Good
Setup and ease of use	Good
Vendor's reliability/service: A vendor's score is based on surveys of PC World readers. Vendors receiving insufficient data scores did not generate enough responses to our most recent survey for us to make a determination.	Average/Average
: Lifetime refers to the lifetime of the product.	Three-year parts and labor warranty; 24-hour daily toll-free support during warranty period

What You Should Know about the E-4300 SB

A PC With Little Included RAM Can Do Light Work

This system offers less than 1GB of memory, which is the bare minimum that any full-featured new computer should include. Whether this amount of RAM is optimal for you depends on the PC's operating system: Windows Vista and Apple's Mac OS X don't run well with less than 1GB, Windows XP is fine with 512MB and not too bad with 384MB, and Windows 98 is good with 256MB. Depending on the distribution, Linux can run with as little as 128MB, but most Linux users are better off with at least 512MB--and 1GB is better.

The more installed memory your PC has, the more applications you can run smoothly at once, and the better the system will perform. Upgrading memory in a desktop after you purchase the PC is a snap, but usually it's worthwhile to buy the amount of memory you want preinstalled with the system.