Gateway GT5662 Desktop PC

Features:

• Box Contents - Gateway GT5662 Desktop PC, keyboard/mouse, Software Bundle - Windows Vista Home Premium, Norton Internet Security 60-Day Subscription, Microsoft Works 9, Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 60-Day Trial, 1-Year Limited Warranty
• AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20GHz Processor
• 2MB L2 Cache, 2MB shared L3 Cache, 3600MHz Bus
• 3072MB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM Max - 4GB
• 500GB (7200RPM, 16MB Cache) SATA Hard Drive

Customer Reviews:

Lots of muscle for the money [Posted on 2008-01-20]
I think I got my money's worth on this desktop PC. It has given me no problems in the few days I've had it; the setup was flawless (Vista is not a boogeyman, just a slowed and bejeweled windows XP); the speed and graphic card capability is impressive (DVI-D cable included along with a VGA cable); nice looking, well documented, color coded for cables; some bloatware easily removable but I am trying out the Norton Internet security software which has gotten good reviews; hard drive is a little noisy; good mouse and keyboard.

I think it's a keeper. I've been waiting for a desktop with the Phenom quad-core chip and a decent graphic card. This is not for serious gamers, but for the rest of us it will certainly do. I am amazed how it handles the Google Earth display of 3D city scenes (when rotating them rapidly!). Twenty years ago, that would have required a Cray (a very costly research mainframe, for you younger computer enthusiasts).

It even comes with Vista on a restore disk! You don't have to roll your own. It seems to have around 11 MB set aside for a restore partition, so you actually have closer to 450 GB available to you. I just went to the Canon website to find a Vista driver for my MP450 printer - no problem there. It drives my HP 2207 monitor perfectly using DVI-D.

You know, if you know Windows XP, you won't have any trouble with Vista. I've found it very easy to navigate, no instability - just a lot of popups for verification that you want a particular program to run. Go to Control Panel > Additional Options > User Accounts and Family Safety > Change Your Windows Password > Turn User Account Control on or off > unclick the UAC button and click OK. Phew! Think how long it took me to find that the first time! Now you will be a somewhat greater risk (so get WinPatrol - great program) but less hassled. Make that hard decision to choose risk over supposed safety.

The instability comes from Windows Explorer browser - it goes down regularly. Use it just long enough to download Firefox, the stable, fast, versatile browser that knowledgeable people love. So what? On XP on my laptop, I had programs like WinPatrol asking me the same thing, for my protection. Ethernet was just a plugin, no configuration problems. On Comcast, I'm getting 16 Mbps on downloads. But it doesn't have Gigabit ethernet (1000Mbps), just 10/100 - good enough for me.

Some programs take advantage of all four cores, others just use one. Anyhow, you always have elbowroom. I had the intention of using this for HD video editing (when I get my HD cam, that is) and I think this baby can handle it.

I had thought of buying a Mac, but the Mac desktop costs $2500 or so and up for quad or eight core. Better quality hardware and operating system, but more than I need to spend to do what I do: surf, game a little, photo editing, Google Earthing, music collecting, and massively multi-tasking at times ( 40 browser tabs open along with five or ten other programs running).

This is my first Gateway ever. I might be back, someday. I believe Gateway was recently bought by Acer in Taiwan, to give them instant name recognition in the US. Both Gateway and AMD give you one or two special programs to make life a little easier: online storage (15GB) and a media program.

This is a powerful middle of the road desktop. Not for gaming freaks - Company of Heroes probably won't shock you with its frame rates. But it might just get you through the next five years or more of technical progress without leaving you in the lurch - that's something.

ADDENDA:

Using the above recommended Firefox browser, I have just counted the number of tabs I have open and was surprised to find it numbered seventy (70)! Decent speed, too. Not too shoddy! I might get to like this Gateway.

I just read the second reviewer's experience and I feel for him. However, I noticed this is his only Amazon review. He didn't buy his Gateway PC through Amazon. I looks like a bit of spite that he wants to spread throughout cyberspace. I wonder where else he as placed spiteful reviews.

But my experience after a week with this machine has been great! I've installed some of the software that I like to use and have had no problems. In fact, I've tuned it up a bit by reducing the number of programs in the startup lineup, defragmented it, deleted some bloatware and now it comes into the windows Vista desktop in one minute flat after being turned on.

I have shutdown the Google and Vista indexing since I find I, as a home user, never try to find old files. I have downloaded a program called 'Space Time' which is a Mac-like browser for serious surfers. It uses a lot of resources, but this machine takes it in stride. Not to put too fine a point on it, as Dickens was wont to say, I really like this Gateway GT5662 Quad core baby.

Make sure you keep up with the updates to your drivers for the ATI XT2400 card. They have a new Catalyst 3.0 Video Card control program and drivers. You can also find newer drivers for the ethernet card and other hardware. Also keep up on your updates for Windows Vista (SP1 due out mid March 2008 - 600MB+ download!), your security software (Norton Internet has been good so far for me), and browser updates (to patch those eternal security holes).

By the way, JR Music and Computer World, the supplier, has always shipped promptly and I've had no problems with a number of products I've bought from them.

Frankly, I'm upgrading this to five (5) stars in my rating. Unfortunately, I can't seem to change number of stars in this review system. But I love it!

Horrible experience  [Posted on 2008-01-27]
I purchased my brand new Gateway at Circuit City thinking that a quad processor for less than $700 was a heck of a deal, even if it was an AMD product and not Intel. Instead, my experience has only reinforced the mantra you get what you pay for.

After setting up the computer and installing the latest Vista updates, I started putting the machine through it's paces. It is now two days and 15 plus blue screens of death later, I'm putting the damn thing back in the box and taking it back to Circuit City. The crashes have been numerous and inexplicable in their timing...and I haven't even tried challenging the machine with any new games or multi-tasking. One certainty is that every time it comes out of hibernating mode, it's a guaranteed crash.

The fact that these repeated system crashes are occurring STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX is not only inexplicable but also inexcusable.

Buyer beware with this system. I would strongly recommend against buying this AMD Gateway product, at Circuit City or anywhere else for that matter.

My second Gateway computer.. [Posted on 2008-02-02]
I bought this system when the motherboard fried on my old Gateway 5082 (hopefully they fixed that little issue) after only 18 months.

One surprising thing is.. the video isn't on-board.. there's actually a card (with dual monitor support!).. it's not top of the line.. but it pushes Battlefield 2 and World of Warcraft pretty well.

Vista.. as well as the upgraded connections for hard drives (from IDE) makes integrating your old stuff a royal pain, hardly worth it.

Major Annoyance.. when you hit the button to eject a CD/DVD/CDROM.. you'll catch your finger on the flap as the thing opens - design flaw.

All in all, it's a nice system.. not really noticibly faster than my old one.. but for the price, who can argue?

Great PC for the Price [Posted on 2008-05-23]
I recently bought the Gateway GT5662 and honestly, this is a very good computer. It runs programs effortlessly, the AMD Phenom has great power. The computer only uses about half the RAM most of the time, so you can continuously run more and more programs without hassle. The only problem I've ever had with this computer would be Vista. It ALWAYS seems to have a problem some how. Granted, Vista looks nice and is smooth running when it is done loading. But, there are still problems needed to be fixed. The computer comes with pre-installed software like most PC's now-a-days do. Data Transfer from USB drives and other devices are amazingly fast. When I bought this computer I only payed about.. $550 for it. So, this really is a great mid-range PC for the buck. Definitely a great purchase.

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