Gateway FX6850-51U: A Strong Performer Gets Lost in the Crowd

Presenting strong general performance for an appealingly lower price, the $999 Gateway FX6850-51U paints a tantalizing photograph. But in a very category which is crowded with versatile, overclocked machines of all styles and sizes, this Computer gets missing in the shuffle.

Gateway's usage of Intel's Core i7-2600 CPU, a 3.4GHz pace demon that can immediately overclock by itself (when necessary) to a mighty 3.8GHz, is an excellent alternative for this inexpensive desktop. Combined with 8GB of DDR3 memory, the program attained a robust score of 159 on our WorldBench 6 examination suite. Certainly you can find faster techniques while in the Overall performance desktop PCs group, but none can rival the price-to-performance ratio that Gateway's desktop delivers.

The more compact, boutique vendors ended up initial towards the gate with Sandy Bridge-equipped desktop machines, and some have pushed their devices to your brink, via overclocking. Thus the Micro Convey MicroFlex 25B--technically categorized as being a Mainstream desktop PC--achieves a major functionality enhance with its overclocked Core i5-2500K processor, enabling it to outrun the FX6850-51U at a lower value ($849). To the Gateway system's credit, nonetheless, it incorporates a 1TB tough push that's much roomier than the MicroFlex 25B's 300GB providing.

The FX6850-51U's discrete Nvidia GT440 graphics board delivers a puny 33 frames for each 2nd on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmarks (at 2560 by 1600 resolution and high quality). The Micro Convey PC's humbler Radeon Hi-def 6870 graphics board cranks out 112 frames for each 2nd within the very same test on the identical configurations.

Gateway houses the FX6850-51U in a normal Fx chassis with spring-locked panels around the front with the situation that conceal the system's two 5.25-inch bays and two 3.5-inch hotswap hard-drive bays. A recessed tray carved into your prime of the circumstance can make a great storage place for products that you plug into the system's two top-mounted USB ports or two front-facing USB ports. A multiformat card reader rounds out the face of this delightfully glossy (but getting older) chassis.

Regrettably, the system's interior is marred by messy wiring clumped toward the center, which will complicate set up of new units while in the solitary totally free five.25-inch bay or two totally free three.5-inch bays.

You receive two open up PCI Convey x1 slots. The system's wireless card occupies a third PCI Express x1 slot, as well as the one PCI Convey x16 slot inside the rig goes for the aforementioned Nvidia card. Absolutely nothing around the within of the circumstance is accessible without a screwdriver.

We ended up let down through the insufficient diversity inside the connections for this Pc.4 USB ports as well as a multiformat card reader adorn the system's front, and 6 much more USB ports look around the FX6850-51U's rear. They be a part of just one gigabit ethernet port and... that's it for main connections supplied through the motherboard. The Nvidia GT440 includes a link for DVI and HDMI, as well as the wireless networking is actually a good touch, but we're accustomed to seeing eSATA and USB three.0 connections on top-tier devices .

The keyboard and mouse involved with all the technique are predictably generic.

Gateway's FX6850-51U delivers robust overall performance in a beautiful (albeit acquainted) shell, but there are numerous intriguing options to select from--even at this superb price tag.