Gateway FX6800-01e

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Duration of ownership:

Strengths: great price super fast, great graphics, easy to setup and use right away.

Weaknesses: locked bios, can't overclock the VERY flexible i7 processor, can't squeak much into the only pci slot available.

Overall Evaluation: after waaaaay too much research and comparison shopping i finally decided to by my 2nd gateway machine (1st was back in the 90's). i've had and built a dozen blazers in between, and i know the landscape more than fairly well. after 4 days of tweaking, installing and upgrading... i'm extremely happy with the fx6800-01e's performance, and more so with the price tag. it was easy to pop in addtl 9gb's ram, a few portable hard drives and just watch it tear up every app i throw at it. WARNING: 1) the bios is locked so you can't overclock the very 'tune friendly' i7 processor. 2) make sure you won't need to add much in the way of expansion cards... you'll barely get anything in the cramped solo pci slot available. bottom line, for under a grand out the door and 1,200 jacked up nicely... you couldn't build a better mousetrap for the money unless you stole it.