Opinion: Gateway

[ufrich]

I dont know about the rest of you guys but i think Gateway PC"s are excellent. Besides the price i cant find a thing wrong with them or their line of laptops. I personally have 3 of them and they are excellent machines. Tech support is excellent. In the 2 years i have owned my PC's i have had a broken floppy drive, bad CD burner, and a monitor that burnt out on me, and all i had to do was call them up and my parts were in within days. Dont get my wrong they are pretty expensive and i would probobally not buy one anymore since ive learned how to build one on my own, but there tech support is arguably the best around.

[Joe03]

Expensive, and not always optimized for full performance. Decent reliability (my 1993 gateway is still working).

Better to build one yourself if you know how

[Spacetrek5]

You could do worse than Gateway.

Our first home system, a G6, was purchased a few years ago. Gateway's tech support had a better personal touch back then but has always been decent and they answered a question I emailed a few months back even tho it was after the 3year period. Their support for updated drivers could be better. The last time I upgraded the O/S, I flash upgraded the BIOS to the latest version only to end up with a no boot situation. The hardware has been reliable - they did replace the mouse within a few days when the original crapped out.

If you're the type who doesn't really want to 'play' with your hardware and who values a tech support department, go for it. If you want to stay on top technologically, and do regular upgrades, build your own.

[card_magic]

I'm with everyone else here... they are way expensive. (Then again, so are Macs.) I was talking to this girl who just recently got a Gateway for $1800. I spent $1200 on mine this summer (I already had the HDD and CD-ROMs though), building it myself, and it blows her's out of the water. I'm sorry, but 600 dollars for a worse computer, and a bunch of tech support? Not worth it to me. But then again, I know computers. And I'm fully against ANY factory systems. But as someone else said... you could do a lot worse... remember Packard Bell? Those things sucked. My advice.. find someone who knows computers, have him build you one.. and throw in an extra case of beer. He'll give you free tech support for life, then. hehe.

-Jim

[LiLRiceBoi]

Well i just skimmed through the posts...

I agree with bhess.

the tech support, isnt really that great. they sit there with a manual and try to diagnose the problem while you describe it over the phone. they usually dont know much about computers either, they just read some possible solutions. AND the worst part, you usually have to wait on hold for a LONG LONG time.

[Cody]

card_magic: one thing that is wrong with your post:

Add $150 - $200 for your HD
Add $100 for the CD-ROM (assuming it's not CD/RW or anything).

Then, that brings your system up to $1,400. Now, there is probably $400 worth of software on their (Office XP costs that much alone for you to buy it, not including Windows, that, and other programs).

I don't see why you couldn't upgrade a Gateway. I asked their eSales and they said it was fine if you did internal tweaking and added and removed parts. Whatever was left of the original was still under warranty (software always is).

[Cody]

LiLRiceBoy:

Oh yes, I forgot this. Most tech support (for advanced users like me) can be done online. They have a Java thing or something where you can talk to the TechSupport on there. I tried it 3 times: Once on a Sunday (around 6:00 in the morning, CST), once on a Friday night at 6:00 PM (CST) and once on a Monday Night night (9:30). I waited no longer than 2 minutes for a tech rep to show up. I asked some advanced questions, and they answered them all (Such as, Would there be any advantage to upgrading my system from ATA/66 to ATA/100? some stuff about hardware and BOIS, etc. etc.). [note: these aren't very very advanced, but not all places would know things like this]

It is also helpful to have a Gateway if there are other people in the house that are computer illiterate. Makes it easier for them, too.

[Cody]

Hey guys... I am building a system that I printed off from gateway (probably from either Pricewatch, TigerDirect, or egg something)

not building as in buying the parts, but putting the prices together.

[Fingers]

Cody I agree that it's no bargain to build your own IF you factor in the software that comes bundled with a Gateway or Dell, but I'll still never buy another prebuilt PC.

As for tech support, I couldn't disagree more though. I've owned Zeos's and Microns, both of which have/had top rated customer support, and it's almost always better to come to SysOpt. When you use the manufacturers tech support, you are getting the opinion of ONE person, who is reading off of pre-prepared guide notes, and might not have any practical experience of their own. That's fine for known problems that are common on similar machines, but when you start using hardware and software that wasn't on the machine when it left the factory, those guys become babbling idiots... in my experience.

More times than not, I've still had to find the answer elsewhere (read here) after getting off the telephone and rubbing my sore ear.

[This message has been edited by Fingers (edited 08-19-2001).]

[RADAR1797]

I have ordered and serviced hundreds of computers for the government and Gateways seem to have less problems than Dells. Nothing empirical, but I stopped ordering Dells and get all of our computers from Gateway.

-RADAR

[jad1097]

Cody you save quite a bit more than $100-300 when you build your own. In this thread you could see a system I configured for about $1,300 (including Windows 2000) but a similar gateway I configured on their site was over $2000! That is at least $700 saved! Who needs Office XP when you can download a FREE office suite , your average user does not need an office suite anyhow. Most people don't even use most of the software that comes with those computers either. Even if I only saved $100-300 instead of over $700 I would still build my own.

[joerg]

I currently buid my own comps but i baught my first 2 both compaqs baught them on sale and thaught i got a fair price. I would recomend a compaq even though they get a bad rap. My friends own gateways and dells and there always bragging about how there cdrw broke or there monitor burnt out and they had it replaced for no charge. I dont no why they brag they say compaqs suck and they wouldnt replace my parts but after having my first comp, compaq presario for 3years now and it still turns on everday and has had no problems runnes just as good as when i baught it. Compaqs tech support has always been helpful and even today i called compaq and they supported the fact that i was builing my own comp and would be tearing some of the parts off of my old one they even emailed the drivers to me.

[Cody]

I would never buy a Compaq. A cousin of mine has one, and they have trouble even turning the thing on!

Their modem doesn't always work, their sound card sounds like a scratched record (even with high quality speakers), and they can barely crank out 10FPS in games (not multiplayers) with the lowest settings.

Please note that this was a system they spent good money on. I have been over there so many times... Ugh.

I agree that their tech support may not be the greatest. But for most big problems, I would probably go online first anyways. I just hate the idea of having 30 different places to go for different hardware problems. I am researching for the future (for when 64-bit systems come out), and trying to have an idea of what I want. The 3 contendors are: Gateway http://www.gateway.com , Milwaukee PC (my current system, excellent) http://www.milwaukeepc.com and building my own.

Is there anything besides tech support and some idiodic rants about their parts catching on fire (which I seriously doubt. If that happened, they would be dead already), I don't see anything wrong with them. I am almost done doing a field test of Gateway vs. MPC (Milwaukee PC) vs. build your own as far as prices!

Hold onto your horses.

I expect MPC to be a bit more, because their systems are a hair more expensive, but their tech support, is like *wow*. I had a DVD drive fail on me once. I emailed them with what it was doing, and less than 5 minutes later, I got an e-mail back (this was on a Saturday too) saying to bring it in whenever. I took a 20 minute trip to thier store, and in 5 minutes I had a new DVD drive (the old one was an AOpen 12X, and they said they would give me an AOpen 16X instead).

[joerg]

I seems like you came in here asking for our opinions on gateway and other computer manufactors. We gave you the information we knew and half of it you did not believe and the other half you didn't even consider. It sounds to me like you work for gateway or something, i dont know why you asked are opinions on something you have allready decided on especially when you should know being a sysopt member that most of our advice would be to build your own. I am sorry if i have said something wrong or incorrect but this is how i feel about it and if you think i just didn't like you coment about compaq you wrong i was just trying to give you more options to explore.

[Cody]

I have understood and taken in the information on Tech Support. I even acknowledged it in my previous post! I would never buy a Compaq. I have seen many many problems with them, and I am happy that you have yours working!

On a different note, here is the total I have come up with:

Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz $549
256MB PC800 $81
Intel 850GB Motherboard $145
40GB 7200RPM HD $105
GeForce 3 64MB DDR $290
Toshiba 16X DVD-ROM $47
Plextor 16/10/40 CDRW $162
SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 $53

$1432

Now, add to that $100 for a decent case, $150 for shipping, and $50 for tax, and you get: $1732.

I configured a Milwaukee PC system, and that cost $2,600. That one comes with a Titanium case (Worth over $300) Fire Wire, Rumblepad, Force 3D Joystick - 3 Year Limited Warranty. Soo, I would tack on $500 to get my self built one up to the MPC price. you hten have 2,200. Then you add the three year warranty, and you are pretty close. The gateway cost $2,174, so, as you can see, they have pretty good prices.

They are (I will honestly confess) more expensive than building your own, but, with the tech support, warranties, and PGS (Pretty Good Service), I think it is worth it.

What I have found is that price varies little between Gateway, MPC, and BYO (Build Your Own). Basically, if one has a deal, get it. Otherwise, if they were all the same price, I would probably go with MPC. I get AWESOME tech support, and they are friendly and helpful.

Please keep this thread going, though, maybe for suggestions on other brands for other people who are in similar situations.