Gateway 500 Series Desktop + 17.0" LCD + Epson C62 Color Printer (2.40 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 80GB hard drive)

Rating:
Summary: Superior desktop machine at a reasonable price
Review: It's true that you can get a decent desktop pc...these days. But that usually means (at best) 256 mb ram, 40 gb hard drive, a modest pentium 4 processor and a big ol' crt-monitor that takes up a lot of space on your desk. However, if you invest a little more you can end up with the Gateway 500x with 512 mb ram, a 120 gb hard drive (I axed the printer and upgraded the hard drive instead), P4 2.53 ghz processor and a sweet 17" flat panel monitor. I've had my 500x for a few months now and absoultely love it. If my buddy Renato were here he'd give you all the overly in-depth technical details, but he's not so here's the deal in laymen's terms: Unless you're a heavy (and I stress heavy) duty gamer or do tons of video editing, the 500x has more than enough muscle to meet your everyday computing needs (and then some), including web surfing and downloading all your favorite images, movie and sound clips. Both the cd and dvd drives have worked flawlessly for me. I work with multiple applications open at all times (including those that are known to be resource hogs) and have had zero reliablity problems with virtually no notice of speed degradation. Everything about this machine has been rock solid and it performs tasks at a blindingly fast speed. The sound system and video graphics are great. For the price and quality, you could do a heck of a lot worse than the Gateway 500x (and not that much better).