Gateway 675 laptops?

[axemanxt40]

Someone in a previous thread of mine said to look at gateway laptops, and quiet honestly they kinda went to the top of my list because for 2300 I get

A P4 2.8ghz processor
1024 RAM
40 gig HD
17" display
Radeon 9600 Pro 128
Spare battery

and on the phone they said their battery can last 90 minutes - 120 minutes during intense use. However, nothing beats hearing from someone who has actually bought a laptop from gateway recently! So any takers?

BTW the other companies I am looking at are voodoo (m:855 which looks great from the reviews but its $$$), and hypersonic.

 

[Frightcrawler]

dont bother getting that much ram. you will be paying more than you could be.
ram from the laptop seller ALWAYS costs more than Ram bought elsewhere.
i suggest buying the least amount of ram and then buying from Crucial Technologies

 

[wutwjd]

I was seriously looking into getting the M675 myself but, after doing some research, I found that HP offers a much better deal on a nearly identical notebook. Using a student discount and the 100 dollar rebate they have going on, I can get the following for about 1600:

3.06GHz CPU
256MB of RAM (I agree with the dude right above; it's MUCH cheaper buying your own RAM)
60GB 5400RPM HD
128MB nVidia 5600
Oh, and of course, the 17" screen (zd7000)

Of course, the only thing holding me back is the graphics card. Still waiting for HP to carry the Radeon 9600.

I've had a chance to play around with both laptops. Here are my thoughts: The M675 looks a bit better from a purely aesthetic point of view. The machine just looks slicker. However, the HP's screen looks better than the M675's. Speedwise, seeing as how I wasn't able to do much with either notebook, I was satisfied with how they both felt.

Seems like money isn't that big of an issue (you're looking at the M:855?? lucky...). Since money is a huge issue for me, I'm leaning heavily towards the HP.

Hope this helped...

Oops, forgot to suggest that you try asking Gateway to match HP's price.

 

[TazExprez]

If I were you, I would definately upgrade the 2 DIMM 512MB for the 1 DIMM 512MB for the extra $60.00. It will cost you over $100 per 512MB card if you decide to get all of your RAM aftermarket.

 

[axemanxt40]

Wut, first off money is a concern I'm also in your shoes...college student...etc. However, I am looking at voodoo because I know that there wouldn't be anything wrong with that laptop...however I want to save money hence why I am researching companies like gateway that have what I want for a lot less, and I will go the cheaper route if the quality is there.

And on a side note...right now I have a HP laptop which my current school gave me, but since I'm transferring they are taking it back. I would really think about it before buying an HP/compaq laptop. The one they gave us is a piece of s***, the keyboard randomly freezes up, the built in wireless is disgusting on their centrinos you can get signal if your really close to a router but thats it. These are all related (except the wireless) to their crappy bios, so that might be something you want to consider. I know it drives me nuts when im in lecture typing notes and my keyboard locks up.