Bought New Notebook (Newest Gateway FX)

[Action]

I bought a new notebook today... the Gateway P7811FX
Here is a link at Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8892825&type=product&id=1211587727985

Basically it is the a very much upgraded version of the FX Notebooks several of us have.  Here are the specs:
17" 1920/1200 LCD 
Core 2 Duo P8400 Processpr (2.26GHZ)
nVidia 9800 GTS video
4GB RAM
64bit Vista Home Premium
200GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

Specs are great and this thing runs games awsome even at the native resolution!

Here are my complaints and probably why I will be returning it and just keeping my old FX for awhile longer:

1) Although the LCD is VERY high resolution and games look awsome it is kind of dimmed compared to the 1440/900 LCD in the older P-6811fx notebooks.   Plus this one happens to have a dead pixel which as most of you know I can not stand!!!!  GRRRR!

2) The GPU fan comes on and goes off really fast and annoying while doing simple tasks like posting this message.   Its like the fan comes on real fast for a second to cool the GPU and the shuts off really fast -- a quick burst of air then off  (quote annoying).  Now this may very well be because the earler versions with a P2886 and possible P2887 serial numbers had a very bad over heating issue from what I read in the forums.  Mine is the P2888 which the store only had one of... The P2888 supposedly has the over heating issue resolved.  But the fan sure can be annoying.  I am used to it coming on and staying on for awhile on my older FX notebook... but even then it would rarely come on during non-gaming applications.

So bottom line this is a very nice notebook but is it worth the upgrade if you already have the slightly older version of the Gateway FX line of notebooks?  Right now I am incline to say no.  It is definitely faster and has more ram.  But the increase in speed is not huge compared to the older FX.  In otherwords its about 20-25% faster.  I kinda expect it to be more.  Now this is without me tweaking it and was comparing it to a well tweaked P6811fx.

I am just now deciding either to get a refund or exchange... leaning towards refund and just wait for the next version.  I was just so impresed with the gaming and how much better the graphics looked.  The 1920/1200 LCD has much better viewing angle compared to the 1440/900 LCD but again slightly dimmer it seams.  But the 1440/900 LCD has a bad black crush when not viewing directly at it.  This 1920/1200 LCD does not have that problem at all....its just over all slightly dimmer.

In all honeslty if it was not for the dead pixel, I probably would keep it.

[=[TN]= Venus_Wong]

Hey Action,

The fan speed is OEMs answer to a design flaw in nVidia's GPUs. It seems, but they won't admit it, that many mobile and some add-on PC cards are defective. There's even a lawsuit pending...


http://www.girardgibbs.com/NVIDIAGeForce.asp?_kk=nvidia%20gpu&_kt=516d8b96-f74b-422c-9e76-3383e457b6b2&gclid=COrC8ODVnJYCFQWc1AodbikgiQ

HP knew about it a while back and when they pressed nVidia all they got in return was the sound of crickets. As I recall HP put out a BIOS fix to ramp up the fan speed in an attempt to keep the chip cool. So did Dell...

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=tt_comq&thread.id=184

This could be nVidia's undoing since they my have to spend millions to redesign and then replace the defective chips.

[Action]

Yeah could be...  This could be Gateways attempt to solve the nVidia problem by bursting the fan so often.  I notice that the burst of air does not occur until the GPU hits 49c.  But they should make it come on and stay on for awhile... the fan burst on and off so fast is what is annoying.  It does stay constantly on while gaming which is obviously good though.  And the highest I saw it get was 74c which is actually cooler than the GPU can get on the older model P-6811fx.

I should state that this fan bursting issue has been resolved in a bios update according to some forum posts, but I looked and it appears I have a newer bios so not sure where to get it or if there is a newer one.  So not sure or can not validate this.

For under $1400 this new P-7811fx is definitely a bargin even with its small flaws.  Definitely the fastest gaming notebook you can get for that price or even close to it. I just will not accept a brand new notebook with a dead pixel.  I'd probably exchange it but they only had the P2887 serials left and do not want to take a chance with now getting a unit that has the overheating issue.

[Jpwinkis]

just get a new Laptop with no dead pixels and then let me have your 1.8ghz chip on your old laptop and Ill give you my 1.6 to put in it and some money for the diffrence

[Action]

just get a new Laptop with no dead pixels and then let me have your 1.8ghz chip on your old laptop and Ill give you my 1.6 to put in it and some money for the diffrence

I did not end up getting another one... decide to wait until next model or more likely just get new desktops... we are definitely in need of desktops as our current ones are very outdated.

But if I did keep it, the plan was to use my older one as an upgrade toy, put in faster processor, etc.  Then yes I would of sold you the 1.8.

[Jpwinkis]

I looked for a 2.2ghz that cytog got but there like 250 new on newegg, but I could get one at a good deal on ebay but I was hoping to get one before the lan. I still cant run TF2 without getting low FPS.

[Action]

I looked for a 2.2ghz that cytog got but there like 250 new on newegg, but I could get one at a good deal on ebay but I was hoping to get one before the lan. I still cant run TF2 without getting low FPS.

I doub't the 200mhz difference would really cause that much difference in TF2 as TF2 runs fine on mine (1..  Sounds like something else is messing with it? 

[Action]

From what I read at the notebookreview forum, this model has already been discontinued.  Not sure due to the over heat issues people have had or a new model is already about to come out.  I think it is the later as I think the next model will be quad core.