Gateway earns its loyalty
Lou Dolinar
12/21/98
Tulsa World
FINAL HOME EDITION
Page 9
(Copyright 1998)
Gateway bills its G-6-450 as an enthusiast's computer. And what's not to enthuse about? PCs of this type, sporting the top-of-the-line Intel Pentium II 450 megahertz processor, are the fastest systems you can buy for the home these days.
While not cheap, at about $2,500 at this writing, people who want this kind of performance know who they are.
I've had this monster on my desktop for a couple of weeks now, and I'll be sorry to see it rejoin the cows back in South Dakota. It ships with a wonderful 19-inch monitor that is so bright as to demand you wear shades, and maybe even sunscreen. Not surprisingly, the performance of this class of computer is incredibly snappy, more so than the iMac.
Gateway includes a volume control, CD controls and a few other dedicated buttons, including a "sleep" button, on the keyboard. I find this approach tacky, and prefer on-screen controls, but hey, some people like it.
Let's look at some of the basic specs: a generous 128 megabytes of RAM, about twice what you'll need until Windows 2000 comes out. A humongous 14.4 gigabyte Ultra DMA hard drive, so even my boss' three teen-age sons won't run out of room for their downloaded photos. An STB Velocity 128 8MB AGP graphics card. A DVD drive and MPEG decoder card lets you watch DVD movie disks on this system, as well as standard CD fare.
Except for the video card, which is good but not great, this is pretty much state of the art, though it would be nice to be able to run the output from the DVD player into a standard TV set.
I didn't have a chance to play with all of its sophisticated phone functions. As with most PCs of this type, it has a 56K bps modem, supporting the latest V.90 spec. And yes, it handles fax, speakerphone and voice mail. Additionally, it supports caller ID and something called "Distinctive Ring" which, in effect, gives you the capacity to create a second phone line to which all your fax functions can be switched. If you're willing to wait for delivery, you can add various custom tweaks, including a rewritable CD-ROM, tape backup, Zip drive, and so on -- the mini-tower case has plenty of room for expansion. Relative to most PCs, setup is OK; relative to the iMac, it is a pain in the neck. Part of the thrill of owning an enthusiast's PC is all the impressive-looking wires dangling off the back, which are not simple to attach.
Complicating things, and sending me round the bend for the better half of a day, was a balky mouse port that wouldn't initially accept the plug. Force settled that problem, however.
You can get similar systems from other manufacturers, maybe even a little cheaper. Don't worry too much about benchmark ratings within the 450 megahertz class, though; speed variations in most of the reviews I've seen are less than 5 percent, which nobody is about to notice.
Better to pay attention to some of the nonhardware matters. Gateway's always had good word of mouth, and one survey this year, by Ziff-Davis, found Gateway at the top of the heap in owner loyalty among PC manufacturers. This is worth something -- a lot, actually -- particularly to first-time buyers, and you won't be sorry if a Gateway costs you a few hundred bucks more than some no-name clone.
If you need to save, skip the G-6 and take a look at Gateway's cheaper models. Gateway also offers some very attractive financing and warranty plans; check its Web site at gateway.com. Gateway has 24-hour toll-free support, (800) 846-2301, and a three- year parts and labor warranty -- the first year of which is on-site. You can add another two years of on-site coverage for $99.
A couple of things worth mentioning on the downside that apply to high-performance computers generally: While the system is as snappy as all getout, its tremendous capabilities didn't do much for the Internet when I connected at home via a 56K modem. It's pretty obvious why: The speed of the connection, rather than the speed of the computer, primarily determines the Internet experience. The other issue, which we'll see more of in the coming months, is how much performance do you get for your money? In this context, a top-of-the- line processor looks increasingly like luxury goods: nice to have, but not worth the money for most people. Using Gateway's own pricing as a guide, a G-6 system like the one I looked at runs, at best, half again faster than its system based on the 333 megahertz Celeron chip. It costs, however, twice as much.
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