Gateway DX100 review: Gateway DX100

The Gateway DX100X starts at the near rock-bottom price of $449 (after $100 rebate); our $801 review unit featured upgrades that included a 15-inch LCD and a double-layer DVD burner. The Intel Celeron-based DX100X can handle most mainstream applications, but it has serious expandability issues, giving it a shorter shelf life than a more flexible system such as the eMachines T6524. If you're looking for an entry-level PC for dorm or family room use, there are better options in the same general price range, including the Dell Dimension E510, which boasts a mainstream Pentium 4 processor and a TV tuner card. For budget buyers, we still recommend Gateway's own eMachines line; the $599 T6524 (no monitor) delivers the best bang for your budget buck, thanks to its AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU, 1GB of RAM, and expandability.

Entry-level PCs are often betrayed by cheap-looking cases, but the DX100X's silver-faced, black-accented tower looks sharp enough to fool onlookers into thinking it's a much pricier system. Plus, its BTX design results in whisper-quiet operation. Our main design complaint is with the front USB, microphone, and headphone ports: they're so deeply recessed that unless the tower is sitting at desk level, you'll have a hard time seeing and reaching them. Two USB 2.0 ports are on the front, with four in the rear, but there are no FireWire ports to be found.

Internal expansion is not the DX100X's strong suit. The optical and hard drives lack easy tool-free removal; you'll be reaching for the screwdriver set to add components to the two empty drive bays, one 3.5-inch and one 5.25-inch. If you want to add more RAM, you'll have to replace the existing pair of 256MB modules; the motherboard has just two DIMM sockets. There is a single free PCI slot and one x1 PCI Express slot, but no x16 PCI Express or AGP slots for adding a dedicated video card. Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with the onboard Intel GMA 900 graphics processor.

The Gateway DX100X delivered acceptable performance scores, despite its poky 2.93GHz Celeron D 341, which is an upgrade over the default 2.8GHz Celeron 336 chip. The similarly budget-minded HP Compaq Presario SR1620NX, with a 2.0GHz AMD Sempron 3400+, performed 7 percent faster on CNET Labs' SysMark 2004 benchmark, while the Shuttle XPC K6200h, with a marginally slower 2.8GHz Intel Celeron D 335, was 12 percent slower. In the same price range, our current budget recommendation, the eMachines T6524, blew past the DX100X with a SysMark 2004 score an astounding 29 percent faster.

Without a dedicated video card, the DX100X simply won't handle graphics-intensive games and applications. Video editing and Quake 4 definitely aren't on the menu for the integrated Intel GMA 900 GPU.

Even without games and video files eating up storage space, you might bump up against the DX100X's small 80GB hard drive. You can upgrade to a 160GB drive for just $50 extra, a worthwhile investment. Likewise, consider investing another $50 for Logitech's X-230 2.1 speaker system, which would be a major improvement over the muddy-sounding pair of Gateway speakers that ship standard with the DX100X.

Alas, Gateway's FPD1565 LCD monitor can't be remedied quite so easily. The 15-inch LCD--definitely on the small side for a modern PC--produces fuzzy text and washed-out color. But the real crime is that although the monitor includes both analog and DVI inputs, the DX100X itself has only an analog VGA port. It may be possible to get a sharper, more colorful image from the FPD1565, but not from this PC. A more easily viewable 17-inch LCD is $90 more than the 15-inch option.

The rest of the DX100X's features include a double-layer DVD writer, an 8-in-1 media reader, a somewhat archaic 56Kbps fax/modem, and an attractive, multimedia-savvy Gateway keyboard, which sports not only dedicated playback controls, but also Web-navigation and document-editing buttons. Besides the Windows XP Home operating system, Gateway also provides Microsoft Works 8, a 90-day McAfee Internet Security Suite subscription, and a six-month AOL membership.

We wouldn't expect a spectacular warranty from an $800 PC, and Gateway's default support plan lives up (or down) to our expectations. To keep costs down, parts and labor coverage lasts a mere 90 days, and tech-support calls are on your dime; there's no toll-free number for basic warranty buyers. The most basic upgrade, $49 for one year of support, including onsite service, is a must-have. On the plus side, Gateway does provide extensive Web-based help, including real-time chat with technicians.

Application performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating

SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating

SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating

eMachines T6524 (2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

175 

194 

157 

Gateway DX200X (3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4 519, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz)

159 

170 

149 

HP Compaq Presario SR1620NX (2.0GHz AMD Sempron 3400+, 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

146 

162 

131 

Gateway DX100X (2.93GHz Intel Celeron D 341, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz)

136 

149 

124 

Shuttle XPC K6200h (2.8GHz Intel Celeron D 335, 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

120 

134 

108 

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:
eMachines T6524
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3500+; ATI Radeon RS482 chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200 graphics chip using 128MB shared memory; WDC WD2000BB-22GUC0 200GB 7,200rpm EIDE
Gateway DX100X
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.93GHz Intel Celeron D 341; Intel 915G chipset; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; integrated Intel 915G graphics chip using 128MB shared memory; Western Digital WD800BD-22JMA0 80GB 7,200rpm SATA
Gateway DX200X
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.06GHz Pentium 4 519; Intel 915G chipset; 5124MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; integrated Intel 915G graphics chip using 128MB shared memory; Seagate ST3160023AS 160GB 7,200rpm SATA
HP Compaq Presario SR1620NX
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.0GHz AMD Sempron 3400+; ATI Radeon RS480 chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200 graphics chip using 256MB shared memory; Seagate ST3160021A 160GB 7,200rpm EIDE
Shuttle XPC K6200h
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.8GHz Intel Celeron D 335; ATI 9100IGP chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; integrated ATI 9100 graphics chip using 128MB shared memory; Western Digital WD1600JB-00GVA0 160GB 7,200rpm EIDE