Introduction

Irvine, CA-based Gateway, Inc., now a subsidiary of Acer, Inc., is well known to anybody who was into computers in the 1990s for the company's trademark black-and-white cow-print boxes and brick-and-mortar stores.

After some post-dot-com-bubble financial struggles and management shakeups, Gateway shuttered its retail stores and withdrew from the international market, focusing instead on online sales.

While not a brand most gamers associate with hot 3D performance, the company is making inroads with its FX series, which ranges from $999USD for the base model FX6840 to the $3000 and up FX6800.

Gateway set us up with the FX6803 for this review. This system comes from the middle of the company's gaming desktop range, featuring an Intel i7 930 processor and an ATI HD 5850 graphics card.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

Here are the system specs from Gateway's website:

Gateway doesn't sell its machines on the company website, preferring to move products through retail outlets such as TigerDirect and Amazon.

An Intel i7 930 running at the stock 2.93GHz provides processing power for the system. The proprietary motherboard based on the X58 chipset hosts 9GB of Kingston DDR3-1300 SDRAM. A single 1.5TB Seagate 7200RPM drive provides storage, and an ATI HD 5850 GPU runs the display. A 750watt power supply provides juice for the system.

The FX6803 retails in the $1400-1500 range, depending on tax and shipping costs.