Gateway 500GR Desktop PC (3.00 GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW Drive, CD-ROM Drive)

Rating:
Summary: THE WORST COMPUTER I HAVE EVER OWNED.
Review: I have had this computer for 7 weeks, and I've had nothing but problems. I bought it new from Best Buy and because it's past their 14 day return policy, the only thing they will do is take a look at it, IF I BUY their extended warranty.
I have been on the phone NUMEROUS times (to a 605 Utah phone number, NOT an 800#) with GATEWAY. Twice within 24 hrs. they told me to run the restore DVD.
Do you really think that a new computer should LOCK up EVERYDAY upon booting up????
I've asked for a replacement, and Gateway said that I could ship back the computer, and they would fix it.
OKAY....What do I do in the meantime for a computer that I need for my work???? Is this a bad joke??

Rating:
Summary: This Baby ROCKS!
Review: Picked one of these up the last week of August, 2004.

+: The SATA hard drive makes this baby scream! This P4 3.0GHz 512mb PC3200 DDR machine beat the pixels off my P4 3.2GHz 1.0gb PC3200 DDR w/128mb ATI RADEON 9600 that uses an ULTRA ATA hard drive. I couldn't find a machine with all of the same features at a better price. P4 530 HT w/1mb level 2 cache, dual layer 8.5 gig DVD burner, 200gb hard drive, 48x CD-ROM, 7 USB ports, 3 firewire, plus serial and parallel ports and built-in 8-in-1 media reader. The audio sounds perfect when connected to a surround sound speaker system, only fair when using the speakers that ship with it.

-: Replace the ball mouse with an optical mouse. The 64mg video is adequate for business use, but lacks TV/DVI-out or TV-in.

Overall: I was sold on the SATA hard drive, 7 USB ports, 400mhz DDR dual channel memory, P4 530 3.0GHz HT w/1mb level2 cache. Upgrade the video card and you've got one heck of a beast to be reckoned with.