Gateway MX3416 - $579 ... or less at Office Depot

[elvindeath]

I saw this deal and am thinking about picking one up for my wife for Christmas: Click Here

It's a basic wireless laptop for $579 (729 minus 150 rebate), plus I have a 10% off coupon that will work with it.

Basically she wants to move an old desktop out of our "tv room" and replace it with a simple laptop to let her do emails and do minor office work (via her VPN and Microsoft OFfice Apps). I assume there will be some limited use of the machine for media purposes as well, including showing off some digital photos and holding on to an iPod music repository. The laptop will spend most of it's lifespan in the home, and I doubt she'll be bringing it to work more than once a month. Only real environmental dangers are the kids (6 and 8 months)

No gaming, no high end display work, and no graphics/photo work.

I have only limited familiarity with Gateway (my 500 user office has a lot of Gateway laptops), and I haven't been terribly impressed with them ... but this price really can't be beat. I love my Fujitsu Lifebook, but it cost me nearly $2000 and that's total overkill for the wife. I'd appreciate any comments anyone has on this machine, or Gateway's in general ... as well as any feedback re: buying tech from Officedepot. Thanks in advance.

 

[PCGOD]

Looks plump full of junk preinstalled software.
First step is to reformat harddrive and install XP bare, not from a restore disk.

Isn't dual Core.

RAM is ok

I'll PM you a better option.

 

[geoffkin]

My girlfriend just got an MX3417 from BB for $450. They wanted $40 to 'clean up' all the junk programs that bog it down at start up. Is this worth it or can someone tell me how to do it myself? Don't think I can do a complete reinstall of Media Center, since they only give me a restore disk? THANKS!

 

[mroverclocker]

do a complete format, reinstalling the restore will only load the same bloatware on it again.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: geoffkin
My girlfriend just got an MX3417 from BB for $450. They wanted $40 to 'clean up' all the junk programs that bog it down at start up. Is this worth it or can someone tell me how to do it myself? Don't think I can do a complete reinstall of Media Center, since they only give me a restore disk? THANKS!

You don't need to do a reinstall. Just uninstall the stuff you don't want on there using the normal uninstall method in Control Panel.

This method works just as well as starting from scratch, and sometimes better if you can't find all the drivers to do it from scratch.

 

[lobbyone]

After uninstalling, consider using a registry cleaner