Experiences w/ gateway laptops?

[NTB]

Just wondering what other people's experiences with Solo laptop computers were. I found out that I could get a deal on one through school, and that I could pay for it over time rather than shelling out all at once (having family work at school has its benefits; no tuition being one and stuff like payroll deduction - over time, not one big cut - for this computer being another.) Anyway, here is what I ended up ordering. Should be in either late next week or early the week after:

Gateway Solo 5350
Intel P-III M 1.13GHz
256MB PC133 RAM
30GB HDD (didn't say rotational speed; I'm guessing 4200, which seems to be standard in all but the high-end IBM drives)
14.1" XGA LCD screen
modular 8x DVD-ROM
modular 3.5" floppy drive
High-capapcity Lithium-ion battery & AC adapter
Integrated 56k modem & 10/100 ethernet
integrated stereo sound
Two type-II or one type-III PC card slots
8MB AGP 4x integrated video
tv-out, VGA out, serial port, parallel port, 2 usb
XP home / microsoft works suite
3 year parts and labor warranty
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grand total = $1380

before anybody says anything, I realize that the video sucks on this. But then again, the toughest games I would probably put on here are NES and SNES emulators; I had no intentions of playing serious 3d games on it anyway. Heck, I don't play them all that often on my desktop rig. My main purpose in getting this was to avoid using the school's labs (plenty of computers, but most of them are so buggy it's ridiculous) and so that I can work on stuff without having to listen to all the fans in my desktop. It'd be nice to be able to work outside on the benches around the campus rather than being stuck indoors, as well.

Nate

 

[CrackRabbit]

Gateway Laptops are generaly good, but always have something funky about them, i have to friends who love/d thiers, except one of them the cooling system all but failed, and it would get so hot he would have to put it in the fridge to keep it running while compiling and rendering stuff :Q, the other is still quite happy with his, but it has some funky memory (has 32 onboard and you can only have 1 dimm slot) and video stuff (a 4mb card that is openGL compiant but wont run openGL stuff), also his sound card isnt detected properly in windows xp (the laptop is only like 2 years old). What video chipset does the 5350 use? if its a Rage128 based chipset you should be just fine, but if its a Savage chipset, dont expect to run anything 3d at all, they just dont work well...


m2c,
Crackrabbit

 

[MWink]

It looks pretty good (except for the video). I almost bought the Gateway Solo 600x. The only reason I got the Dell (Inspiron 8200) was because I know Dell will be around for the next 3 years to support it. Gateway is not doing too well and could go out of business. BTW, a nice tidbit of info I recently found out, the Dell Latitude is the same as the Gateway Solo.

 

[NTB]

CrackRabbit - the mainboard, including the integrated video, appears to be Intel rather than ATI or VIA & Prosavage video

MWink - I forgot about that, but your right. Gateway isn't in the best financial shape. I guess, though, that as long as it works, I'll be fine; and I would think that my school would be bailing out and looking for another vendor if Gateway was in truely serious trouble. I haven't heard anything to that affect, so hopefully I'm safe for the time being.

Nate

 

[NTB]

Going up ^

Nate

 

[corkyg]

I have had 4 laptops in the past 8 years. We have gone from a 486X to a mobile P3 750. The best of the lot was my last one - a big Gateway Solo 9300CX. It came loaded with 98SE, and a free upgrade to ME. It is now running XP Pro, and, in the almost 2 years I have had it, it has NEVER crashed, locked up, blue-screened, or failed. It has needed no tech support, and has been 100% reliable across the USA, Europe, and the Caribbean. It has features that newer ones don't have. It has a 20 GB drive, a DVD/CD ROM drive, 2 PCMCIA slots, 2 USB ports, a 1394 Firewire Port, a decent Actiontec V90 modem, a Synaptics touchpad, and a modular floppy/LS-120/2nd HDD arrangement. I got it with the LS-120, which is great because all my other systems have them as well. I have the rail assembly and a 2nd HDD which I can slip in replacing the LS-120 floppy. That allows me to clone my drive and always have a backup HDD all set to go in case anything ever goes wrong. Maybe that is why it never has. Bottom line - my Gateway Solo experince has been outstanding. The 15.6-inch screen makes for awesome DVD movies when in a foreign country with so-so TV in a hotel.