15.4 Inch Wide Screen Vs. Standard 15 Inch

Say what's the advantage of the wide screen on a notebook is it just for watching widescreen dvd's? and how about viewing photos in a application like photoshop do the images appear distorted there. Last thing I though I read somewere that you sometimes see back bars like on some material viewed on widescreen tv's just don't want to have to go through the hassel of having to return this thing if I can figure out if it's going to work for me. Thanks

Tcj

doing most things, no distorting of the pictures unless you use them as on your desktop, then windows stretchs them to fill the desktop, and even then its not bad. The widescreen also help with opening two windows side by side. I really like my wide screen and won't go to a standard 15" (which is not only less wide, but its also taller so the lappy has a boxier profile.
go to Curcuit City or Best Buy and fondle one... that's the only way to know if you like it.

Hi will do, go check one out that is. Circuit City has a great sale on a Gateway Notebook PC (MX6027) 15.4 inch with a 60gig harddrive for 599.00 with NO REBATE! only thing here is that it only comes with 256MB of DDR memory and no S-video out, but the thing I really like is the built in 4-in-1 media card reader. What do you think about this deal? And how hard do you think it would be to upgrade the memory. Thanks for all your help!!!!!!

Tcj

what are you going to do with it? If you're planning on playing games, this isn't the system because it has intergrated intel graphics. They don't say what speed the HDD is, which likely means its a 4200 RPM which is slow (I'd only look for a 5400 RPM drive... or 7200). It has a Celeron, not a Pentium M so the limitations of Celerons come into play (they are essentially stripped P-Ms without the power control features, crippled cache, they run hotter and the battery depletes faster than with P-Ms. They are cheaper to buy). If I were looking for a cheap processor, I'd look at AMD Semprons before a Celeron. If this is the price range you want I'd look for a deal on a HP zv6000 or Compaq R4000 or (in my mind) better yet a Compaq V2000z.

Word of caution, make sure your 4 in 1 or 6 in 1 reader accepts the memory card you use.. compact flash cards don't always fit.

Don't worry about the RAM, you're better off getting 256MB and then adding you're own that you buy through Newegg or Tiger Dircect or Crutal, much cheaper and not hard to do (so long as you ground yourself before you crack the case).

Boy you've really been a BIG HELP, and I Really Appreciate it! I really plan on just using it for web surfing and a lot of word processing thats why I didn't get the Acer a few weeks back when there was a huge 300 dollar rebate at C City. The Acer had that AMD processor and I actually prefer AMD over Intel the Gateway will be the fist machine I ever had with a Intel processor, but the keyboard on the Acer was well to mushy it feels like it flexes or gives everytime you press the keys almost like there are tiny springs under the keyboard that's the only way I can explan it. The keys also seemed like they didn't have enought travel when you press them because I plan on doing a lot of wordprocessing and the keyboard feel was extremely important. I actually already picked up the Gateway but haven't taken it out the box will continue to check on other models. Circuit City will let you return it for a full refund if you don't open the box so for 599.00 with no rebates I thought I would just pick one up before the sale ends Saturday. Really seemed ok in the store only thing was boot time was a little slow but I was told the extra memory would take care of that. Programs that were preloaded ran fine actually great and this was with just 256mb of memory plan on adding 1 gig eventually. As for the card reader it accepts SD which is what I have in both my cameras. Got a high end desktop so I'm not going to be super pickey on the notebook. Thanks
Tcj

Hey Curt31!,

I just saw your posts and i think i am a bit late in helping u decide what system you should get..DARN!, but i was going to suggest the Gateway MX6124..Why?, BECAUSE I HAVE IT!!, and i love it!!, I had it for 2 weeks now and this system rocks!, I can't believe the power and how fast this thing is, it's got 512 MB standard and I use it mainly for my cartooning business. Playing DVD's and music CD's are awesone,I'm planning on testing out it's PC card capabilities, I'm going to get a digital camera soon, and will use my computer to upload photos of my beloved nephew and niece! I would highly recommend this notebook to anyone who is thinking of getting a Gateway.

Thanks for looking at my opinion!, GO GATEWAY!!

Sincerely,

Jose

Hi thanks for your advise I picked up a machine almost identical to yours only difference mine came with 256mb of memory and yours comes standard with 512mb I just ordered the new memory actually 512 so I'll top out at 768. Also your processor is 1.5GHz and mine 1.4GHz other then that we basically have the same machine. And I like you really love it plus it's just plan sexy! Say once question how long does it take yours to boot up, I know they probably loaded it down with a lot of programs in your startup. Thanks for your help.

Tcj

Hi TCJ!,

With my Gateway, it boots up in 1 minute, which is a big improvement to what my old Compaq laptop started up, i had to wait 3 minutes to start using it.

If you defrag and clean up your cache routinely, you will be able to boot up fast, I will give you some specs on my computer, It's name is Digit. =)

Intel Celeron m w/processor 370
Operates at 1.50 ghz
15.4 widescreen ultrabright display
512 MB DDR2 dual channel memory
Dynamic video memory, supports up to 128MB shared MEM

1 firewire,4USB 1 VGA, 1 MIC,1 Headphone,1 S- Video

I paid $749 for Digit, and I am Happy with it, i am told that I have the slowest processor, but it doesn't matter, It's still a good performer. =)

Sincerely,
Jose

Hi well one minute that?s pretty good! Mine is booting up kind of slow but I've been told with the memory boost that everything will speed up dramatically, so I'll be getting back as soon as I install it. My machine tops out at 1 GB of memory and my processor is the Celeron M 360 that operates at 1.4 GHz, and I also have the 15.4 widescreen ultra bright display, just ordered 512mb of 333 DDR2. I'll have to check on the video shared memory but I know it's less the 128, ditto to the 4 USB ports and fire wire this is one of the major reasons I went for this machine the extra USB ports and the card reader. Don't have the s-video but at $599.00 with no rebates I figured it was still an excellent deal especially with the 60GB hard drive. Really didn?t want to spend to much next year the new 64 bit version of windows is coming out and the Celerons don?t currently support it. Yep I?ve also been told that the Celeron is slow but not from my vantage point saw one in the store with a GB DDR and it flew saw someone?s else?s post that has a Celeron based notebook and he said the thing exceeded his expectations as far as speed is concerned. I?ll be getting back as soon as I install the memory hopefully mine with approach the boot time of your if so I would really be happy!! Thanks for your feed back my Celeron brother.
Tcj

You have got a good computer man!! =)..Congratulations!,you know, I think I saw the same computer that you have because the other 1 I was considering was $150 less than Digit's price. the only diffrence was the screen was 2 inches smaller and had only 256 MB Memory on it, it was $599, but I wanted more memory and bigger screen, so I went and got the MX6124.

TCJ, maybe we can be Gateway penpals!, and talk about just our Gateways!, =), My internet addy is RADAR717@aol.com. we can just talk about how happy we are about our new computers and maybe teach each other how to do things on them, since we have the same computer...slightly.., would you like to do that?.=)

Hope to see you soon, Gateway penpal!

Sincerely,
Jose

That sounds great! really would be nice to chat with someone with similar interest. Will be dropping you a line shortly. Enjoy that confuser Say did yours come preloaded with that Google toolbar? mine did and I just love it, especially the spell checker, makes quick on the fly e-mails and stuff a snap especially if the sight you're on doesn't have a spell checker. Check it out if you have it installed if not go to Google and type in tool bar, you can remove it if you don't like it, but I doubt it. Talk to you soon.

Tcj

Your problem can be corrected by right-clicking on your desktop then select ''Properties''. Then in ''Display Properties'' choose ''Desktop'' tab, then make sure that you have selected ''center'' for your picture's position. Then you can change the color of the sidebars to make the desktop photo look really nice.

Are you sure the Gateway MX6124 comes with 256MB memory??, When I got mine, it came standard with 512 MB!, and I paid only $749 + Tax.

I have not had any slowdowns on my MX6124, maybe if you regularly defrag your system and delete your Temp. folder every week or so (I do it every week, habit!) you wont have any slowdowns.

Once again, I am very happy with my MX6124, I even gave it a name!, DIGIT. =)

Sincerely,
Jose