Gateway FX530: Mad Cows and Quad Core Overclocking

Final Thoughts

The Gateway FX530 is really a very good system, and considering the performance and features being offered the price is one of the lowest out there. If you're looking at getting a new workstation, it might be worth considering the Gateway FX530 instead, as the overclocked quad core CPU should be more than fast enough for all but the most demanding users. With prices of the 3.2 GHz Core 2 Quad version starting at $2000, businesses that do a lot of content creation or other work that can benefit from multi-core processors should definitely give the system a look. Normally, businesses tend to shy away from PCs that come with enthusiast level features like overclocking, but Gateway is a large corporation with an equally large support department, so some businesses will be very pleased with the performance, support, and warranty being offered.

In terms of stability, we have absolutely no complaints. Throughout testing, the Gateway FX530 performed with aplomb, without any crashes or other unpleasant behavior. Given some of the torture testing we do, the ability to complete the tests without any issues is definitely commendable. That goes double for overclocked systems.

Unfortunately, while the FX530 as it stands will be very good for some uses, there are definitely areas where of falls short of the competition. Gaming enthusiasts will almost certainly want a better graphics subsystem, especially with the official launch of Windows Vista and DirectX 10. In the graphics department, the Gateway FX530 appears to be about four months behind the curve, and the prices of various graphics upgrades are not very competitive either. You could save quite a bit of money by purchasing the system with the stock GeForce 7600 GS and doing any graphics upgrades on your own rather than paying Gateway to do it. Of course, once you're willing to make one upgrade on your own, you have to wonder if you really want to purchase a prebuilt system in the first place.

One other item that we haven't talked about much yet is all of the software that comes preinstalled. Some of the software consists of useful utilities to help you keep your system running smoothly. One such utility is called BigFix, and it helps people stay up-to-date with the latest Windows patches. In our particular case, we didn't see anything other than the critical Windows updates, but BigFix should also help end-users stay up-to-date with their drivers and other software. In standard OEM fashion, however, there's quite a bit of other software installed that's not nearly as useful. Google desktop and the Google toolbar both come preinstalled, along with some AOL and other Internet service provider offers. Many people will want to spend the first 30 minutes or so just clearing out the extra software that they don't want installed/running in the background. On the other hand, Microsoft Works is also included, so if you don't feel like spending the money on Microsoft Office at least you still get a basic set of business applications.

Another aspect of the system that we will cover more in-depth in the future is the 24" LCD. Subjectively, we would say that the display is as good as most of the other 24" LCDs we've used. It's bright, and it worked well when watching movies, playing games, or just doing typical computer work. The current price is around $680, so it is definitely a reasonable alternative to displays such as the Dell 2407WFP. You can also get an optional speaker bar that plugs into the bottom of the display, and while it doesn't sound as good as discrete $75 speakers (which is what the speaker bar costs), it does sound better than any other LCD speakers that we've heard. With the speaker bar, the LCD is more like a combination computer monitor/HDTV, and it does have all of the necessary inputs to function as an HDTV should you so desire.

What it really comes down to is performance, and if you're the type of user that needs a lot of CPU performance for various tasks but you're not as worried about graphics performance, the FX530 is definitely a system worth considering. There are a lot of companies out there currently offering systems built around Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, but without spending $3000 or more it's very difficult to find a system that can match the performance offered by the FX530. It's even more difficult to find anyone willing to factory overclock and provide warranty coverage for a QX6700 without spending $4000 or more. The system we tested did cost $4000, but almost $1000 comes from the graphics subsystem, and another $750 comes from the 24" LCD. Considering that the retail price of the QX6700 is about $1000, being able to get a complete system starting at around $2000 with an overclocked QX6700 is a really good deal. Put another way, on a $2000 system, increasing the price by 5% yielded a 15% or more speed increase in many applications. Basically, there's really no reason to consider purchasing the Gateway system with a stock QX6700. If you don't need a quad core processor, getting one of the lesser Core 2 Duo processors instead would make sense, but if you're already planning on spending close to $1000 on a CPU you will get much better bang for the buck by spending $1100 instead.

With the FX530 Gateway has shown that they can include features that cater to the enthusiasts of the world. Unfortunately, they don't manage to do this in all aspects of the system, but it's a great starting point. All they really need to do now is come up with a configuration that allows customers to purchase graphics cards faster than the X1950 XTX without incurring a performance hit from the bottom X4 PCI-E slot. At the very least, the FX530 appears to require some tweaks to the motherboard design, if not a completely new motherboard, if it's going to fully utilize newer graphics cards. The BTX form factor also means that it won't be easy to upgrade the motherboard on your own in the future should you so desire. At least part of the point in getting a prebuilt system is to avoid having to do that sort of work, however, so anyone looking for a fast PC that they can just go out and buy should definitely give Gateway's FX530 a look. For serious gamers, though, Gateway still needs more cowbell.