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gadget — Episode 109 – Gateway FX6800: Value Gaming with uberGeek Performance
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The FX6800-01e is the latest in Gateway’s line of high-performance FX desktops: this one designed to offer value-oriented gaming. The FX6800 is powered by Intel’s latest CPU, the Core i7-920 “Nehalem” — This chip is a quad-core unit operating at 2.66Ghz with Turbo Speed Technology that can boost the clock rate to 2.93Ghz as more performance is needed.
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The i7 has been specifically designed to speed the repetitive calculations that are required for gaming. The end-result SHOULD be a much better gaming experience, even at lower CPU clock speeds. It’s complemented by Intel’s X58 chipset and supported by 3 sticks of 1GB DDR3 memory for a total of 3GB with an additional 3 memory slots available for upgrade.
Storage on the FX6800 starts with a 750GB 7200RPM Seagate SATA II hard drive with 16MB of cache. The drive is housed in a quick-release tray that can accommodate a second internal hard drive. Optical storage is provided a 18X DVD SuperMulti Drive with LabelFlash technology. A storage feature of note on the FX6800 are two 3-1/2″ SATA drive bays at the front of the unit. Gateway has included two hot-swap caddies for additional high-speed storage that can be setup as additional volumes, a set of dedicated backup drives, or placed into a RAID array to ultra-high-speed performance. The storage options are rounded out by a 15-in-1 Media Card Ready that rises out of the top of the case. The case of the FX6800 has been designed to be as clean as possible. Not only does the aforementioned media card reader rise from its flush position on the top of the case, but there is also a flip-out panel on the front that hides the forward audio ports and a firewire connector. The optical drives are hidden behind drop panels and the hot-swap bays are covered by a retractable cover. The case is accented by Gateway’s FX rust-color scheme and completed by a touch-sensitive multimedia control at the front of the case that only appears when the unit is powered. That touch-sensitive multimedia control is actually quite useful for a typical gaming and media user. You have immediate access to volume and media center launch controls, as well as the most commonly used multimedia functions like forward, reverse, pause and play. It also includes a control pad for navigating DVDs or media menus. Ports are a-plenty on the FX6800. It comes with 2 PS/2 sockets for the mouse and keyboard, 1 serial plug, Ethernet port, a modem port, 8 audio ports, and a total of 10 USB 2.0 connectors. Video performance on the FX6800 is provided by an ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 512MB of discrete video memory. The back of the card has two DVI connectors and a HD port with a component output adapter so that you can easily connect your FX6800 to your HDTv. |
The FX6800 also has a second PCI-Express x16 slot and they include the crossfire connector for those who want to upgrade their video to SLI. A single thumbscrew locks the cards down into the motherboard, but unfortunately the side panels are screwed and taped shut… a strange limitation on a gaming machine.
Gateway includes all the typical accoutrements of a gaming rig. The FX6800 includes a set of USB powered speakers, USB keyboard and mouse with matching FX color schemes, plus all of the cables, connectors and adapters to make the system work for you.
One of the major themes of the FX6800 is simplicity. The 15-in-1 card reader has a “Smart Copy” button that will automatically transfer the contents of any connected memory card to your internal storage. There is also a “backup” button at the front of the case that can be configured to backup all the contents of your system to any of a number of storage devices. These add to the elegant design of the FX6800 while giving you a large range of functionality without overly increasing the learning curve of the desktop.
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While on the topic of design, we have to mention the noise of the FX6800… or the lack of it. Gateway has done an excellent job of reducing the mechanical noise to almost inaudible levels. Two oversized fans cool the innards of the FX6800: one on the CPU and one exhausting out of the back of the case. Together with the fan in the power supply, these fans dynamically adjust their rotational speed, keeping it low until the thermal needs of the system necessitate more air flow. Combined with a fan placement that baffles even the little sound generated by the blades, an oversized CPU cooler with copper heat pipes, and a straight air path, the end result is a desktop that is quiet enough to really be on the desktop.
Enough about the specs, let’s talk performance. First off, Gateway has equipped the FX6800 with Windows Vista 64-bit, meaning that it will be able to take full advantage of all the memory, no matter how much you might upgrade it. In its stock configuration, the 6800 scored a 5.9 on the Windows Experience Index, so you’re guaranteed to have the smoothest possible Vista experience. We decided to run our PCMark and 3DMark Vantage tests with the machine in the default configuration that we received from Gateway. We didn’t tweak the system, reinstall the OS or otherwise optimize it for performance. We wanted to see what a typical gamer would see if they had just pulled the system out of the box. In PCMark vantage we recorded a low score of 6037 and a high of 6112. That’s much higher than the 5717 average of the Gateway FX540XT — our previous lab performance standard. That comparison is important because the FX540XT came with an Intel Quad-Core Extreme CPU clocked at over 1GHz higher, a high-performance RAID array with two 10,000rpm hard drives, and higher-speed memory — and yet, aside from some of the hard disk benchmarks, the FX6800 trounced the FX540, besting it by 20% in image manipulation, and a whopping 215% in CPU gaming. In 3DMark Vantage the low-water mark was 7061 with a high of 7100. This doesn’t really compete against the SLI setup of the FX540XT, but the incredibly high gaming score of the new CPU makes up for it, allowing the FX6800 to more than hold its own in gaming. We ran the regular battery of games like Bioshock, Crysis, Warcraft and Unreal Tournament and were dazzled by the quality of the image and the smoothness of video. |
Both of these benchmarks prove one thing — that there is such a thing as high-performance value-gaming. The Intel i7 is DEFINITELY a winner for gaming rigs and it does quite well with speeding up operations like rendering, transcoding and anything else that needs plenty of repetitive calculations.
The Gateway FX6800-01e comes backed with a 1-year warranty and will be available this holiday season for ~$1200.
