Gateway FX530: Mad Cows and Quad Core Overclocking
by Jarred Walton on February 9, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Support and Warranty
If you're interested in purchasing a prebuilt system, particularly a high-end configuration, warranty, service, and support are probably going to be important considerations. As a large OEM, Gateway has a comprehensive set of support solutions available - and they can even support non-Gateway systems for a fee, if you're interested. They offer 24/7 phone support, but we weren't able to test this out as our system did not come with a serial number we could use with their support services. Given that we have a review unit, that's not too surprising, and whether or not our support experience would be representative of what others could expect (unless we purchased the system ourselves) is debatable. Besides phone support, Gateway also offers email and online chat support, and like Dell and some others they give customers the option of letting them take remote control of their PCs to help troubleshoot problems (broadband connection required). The chat service is available between 3 a.m. and midnight PST, and email can be used at any time. Unfortunately, again we weren't really able to test out any of the support options as they all required a serial number.
We were able to use their online chat service to ask some sales questions, however, and while that may not be indicative of the level of support people will get, it's at least a place to start. Our online chat support generally went well, with the support people providing reasonable answers in most cases. One of the items that we brought up several times with different personnel was Windows Vista, and we basically asked for advice on whether we should upgrade now or not. Invariably, the answer was that Windows Vista was the next-generation operating system from Microsoft and we should upgrade, and there was definitely a strong push for Windows Vista. Several of the salespeople indicated that Windows Vista has generated a lot of interest among customers and that they have been getting a lot of new sales in the past week. That's all well and good, but our own experience with Windows Vista is a little less enthusiastic. It's not too surprising that their sales department is encouraging people to use Vista, but it would have been nice to see some of the people recommend a more pragmatic approach.
Outside of chatting with the sales staff about Windows Vista, however, our experience was a lot better. They were generally helpful and there wasn't a huge push to get us to upgrade components that we didn't really need. The salespeople asked us what sort of work we wanted to do with our computer, and based on our answers they provided reasonable suggestions. We still wish there were a few more options in some areas, specifically in the graphics subsystem we would like to see GeForce 8800 cards, but that should come in the next month or so. The top FX530 models tend to remove some of the lower end features, so if you're looking to balance price and performance you might be better off starting with either the $1000 or $2000 model and making upgrades rather than starting at the top and trying to downgrade.
As we frequently state, it is difficult to evaluate the level of technical support you get from a company without actually owning a product and testing it for months or even years. This is particularly true when all the support options require you to have a valid serial number. Again, recognizing that we can't be sure the technical support will be the same type of service, the online chat usually put us in contact with someone in about a minute. If you need guaranteed fast support service, Gateway also offers upgraded support contracts at a reasonable price. Finally, Gateway also makes a point that they now offer 100% North America based phone support, so that should generally keep the communication barrier down to a minimum.
The other major factor in the warranty/support equation is how long the warranty lasts. The basic system warranty for all Gateway computers is one year technical support and hardware warranty coverage, without any on-site support. You have to pay for shipping the system to Gateway, but Gateway will pay for the return shipping. However, you can choose a three year "value" (no on-site service) warranty instead for an extra $89, or you can go with up to a four year warranty with on-site coverage at a cost of $70-$170 depending on how long do you want the warranty to last. Accidental damage is available for $50 and lasts as long as your warranty, or for an additional charge you can get the Total Protection Plan. The Total Protection Plan includes improved phone support that eliminates the phone menus prior to talking to a technician (usually cutting a couple minutes off your total phone time), and you are also guaranteed a 30 second response time. Next day on-site support is also guaranteed for calls placed before 5 p.m. The cost of the Total Protection Plan ranges from $120-$270 and is available in one to four year lengths.
Given the cost of the system we are reviewing, we would likely opt for the most expensive warranty coverage and get the four year Total Protection Plan. The warranty coverage appears to cost the same whether you get one of the cheapest Gateway computers or one of their most expensive models, so the more powerful the system you plan on purchasing the better the value you get from the warranty plans. Considering you can get an overclocked quad core processor that is guaranteed to work for at least four years (perhaps with a few component replacements if necessary) starting at around $2400, the Gateway FX530 has a lot to offer, especially for businesses that need good support and performance but don't demand as much from the graphics subsystem. If support and warranty service aren't important to you, the overall value is still quite good, but it is possible to custom build a similarly priced system that would end up performing a bit better.
If you're interested in purchasing a prebuilt system, particularly a high-end configuration, warranty, service, and support are probably going to be important considerations. As a large OEM, Gateway has a comprehensive set of support solutions available - and they can even support non-Gateway systems for a fee, if you're interested. They offer 24/7 phone support, but we weren't able to test this out as our system did not come with a serial number we could use with their support services. Given that we have a review unit, that's not too surprising, and whether or not our support experience would be representative of what others could expect (unless we purchased the system ourselves) is debatable. Besides phone support, Gateway also offers email and online chat support, and like Dell and some others they give customers the option of letting them take remote control of their PCs to help troubleshoot problems (broadband connection required). The chat service is available between 3 a.m. and midnight PST, and email can be used at any time. Unfortunately, again we weren't really able to test out any of the support options as they all required a serial number.
We were able to use their online chat service to ask some sales questions, however, and while that may not be indicative of the level of support people will get, it's at least a place to start. Our online chat support generally went well, with the support people providing reasonable answers in most cases. One of the items that we brought up several times with different personnel was Windows Vista, and we basically asked for advice on whether we should upgrade now or not. Invariably, the answer was that Windows Vista was the next-generation operating system from Microsoft and we should upgrade, and there was definitely a strong push for Windows Vista. Several of the salespeople indicated that Windows Vista has generated a lot of interest among customers and that they have been getting a lot of new sales in the past week. That's all well and good, but our own experience with Windows Vista is a little less enthusiastic. It's not too surprising that their sales department is encouraging people to use Vista, but it would have been nice to see some of the people recommend a more pragmatic approach.
Outside of chatting with the sales staff about Windows Vista, however, our experience was a lot better. They were generally helpful and there wasn't a huge push to get us to upgrade components that we didn't really need. The salespeople asked us what sort of work we wanted to do with our computer, and based on our answers they provided reasonable suggestions. We still wish there were a few more options in some areas, specifically in the graphics subsystem we would like to see GeForce 8800 cards, but that should come in the next month or so. The top FX530 models tend to remove some of the lower end features, so if you're looking to balance price and performance you might be better off starting with either the $1000 or $2000 model and making upgrades rather than starting at the top and trying to downgrade.
As we frequently state, it is difficult to evaluate the level of technical support you get from a company without actually owning a product and testing it for months or even years. This is particularly true when all the support options require you to have a valid serial number. Again, recognizing that we can't be sure the technical support will be the same type of service, the online chat usually put us in contact with someone in about a minute. If you need guaranteed fast support service, Gateway also offers upgraded support contracts at a reasonable price. Finally, Gateway also makes a point that they now offer 100% North America based phone support, so that should generally keep the communication barrier down to a minimum.
The other major factor in the warranty/support equation is how long the warranty lasts. The basic system warranty for all Gateway computers is one year technical support and hardware warranty coverage, without any on-site support. You have to pay for shipping the system to Gateway, but Gateway will pay for the return shipping. However, you can choose a three year "value" (no on-site service) warranty instead for an extra $89, or you can go with up to a four year warranty with on-site coverage at a cost of $70-$170 depending on how long do you want the warranty to last. Accidental damage is available for $50 and lasts as long as your warranty, or for an additional charge you can get the Total Protection Plan. The Total Protection Plan includes improved phone support that eliminates the phone menus prior to talking to a technician (usually cutting a couple minutes off your total phone time), and you are also guaranteed a 30 second response time. Next day on-site support is also guaranteed for calls placed before 5 p.m. The cost of the Total Protection Plan ranges from $120-$270 and is available in one to four year lengths.
Given the cost of the system we are reviewing, we would likely opt for the most expensive warranty coverage and get the four year Total Protection Plan. The warranty coverage appears to cost the same whether you get one of the cheapest Gateway computers or one of their most expensive models, so the more powerful the system you plan on purchasing the better the value you get from the warranty plans. Considering you can get an overclocked quad core processor that is guaranteed to work for at least four years (perhaps with a few component replacements if necessary) starting at around $2400, the Gateway FX530 has a lot to offer, especially for businesses that need good support and performance but don't demand as much from the graphics subsystem. If support and warranty service aren't important to you, the overall value is still quite good, but it is possible to custom build a similarly priced system that would end up performing a bit better.
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akers - Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - link
Can anyone shead some light on why Gateway is delaying shipment on the FX530? I have had two delays so far and they cannot promise that it will be deliered by the second delay date. I have heard that there were so Vista problems but it was fixed by now.rfaster - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
My system arrived last week - I ordered it bare bones with the quad core OC'd to the 3.2.Specs - I put in a 8800GTX (fac OC'd to 600) - 2nd slot so its only running at 4X ( I did not realize this until I read the great article on this site), I'm running 2 150 10K raptor's, 4GB 667 ram. The best I can do is low 9K's on 3DMark 2006 (Running Vista Ultimate 32bit). I'm seeing easy 1,200's from other folks with similar setups.
Question - Is the 4X for Slot 2 causing the SLOWNESS? As you pointed out in your article there is NO way to fit the 8800GTX into slot 1 - so I am trying to decide if I should accept the 4X speed on my $699 8800GTXOC - or ship this pc back. I hate to think that my $699 video card is a WASTE on this system due to the 4X?
rfaster - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Akers - on the delay I was told they are having a difficult time sourcing the parts needed to build this system. I was a bit put off by the delay on getting this box -- reminded me of my experience with Alienware a few years back ----JarredWalton - Monday, March 26, 2007 - link
Right now, Vista plus 8800 GTX is probably going to be a bit slower than normal. Still, I wouldn't worry too much - you can see that your low 9000s score matches what I got in 3DMark06... which is really just a benchmark and not an actual game.Darkskypoet - Thursday, February 15, 2007 - link
Now, correct me if I am wrong... But One of the major hinderances to the Quad FX platform (yes I realize 2 dual core chips is power hungry, and inelegant vs a dual die Quad core) is NUMA, rather the lack of proper NUMA support in XP. Looking at the benchmarks (and in fact all Quad FX bench's) sites continue to use XP variants to benchmark the Quad FX systems vs Conroe. XP does not support NUMA, one article in particular I had read mentioned this fact explicitly, and also mentioned that in many cases accessing data in memory in a NUMA dumb system incresed memory latency SUBSTANTIALLY. Consider that in a NUMA dumb O/S, the data required for a process / thread assigned to one chip, could inadvertantly have it's data stored in memory directly linked to the other CPU. This alone hurts benchmarking scores like crazy. In reality a Quad FX setup, if benched with real SMP/ SMC aware software, should eek out a higher per core performance vs Quad Core Conroe, then an X2 vs Dual Core Conroe.I saw this because the interconnect superiority (When run with NUMA Aware O/S : Vista / Linux / Etc.) will show itself vs the somewhat limited FSB in use in Quad Core C2D implementations; thus increasing performance per core vs Quad Core C2D.
I'm not saying we're gonna see the Quad FX Systems out perform C2D systems here. However, given proper NUMA support, the Benches will be a lot closer. Added to that we can use 2xxx series opterons in QUAD FX, and it starts to become a bit of a nicer picture for AMD. The icing on the cake however, would be that one should expect to be able to drop 2 native Quad Cores on to the QUAD FX boards in the near future.
I believe Nintendo Summed it up for us previously, "Now you're playing with power". If AMD follows this track, then they have a platform out that is fully tested, and stable; running 2 NAtive Quad core chips for the Enthusiast market. As unknown as the Performance of K10 is at this stage, 8 cores with should be mighty interesting. Mighty interesting Indeed.
Anyone know of a Proper NUMA aware OS used in Quadcore C2D vs Quad FX benchmarking?
Tuvoc - Saturday, February 17, 2007 - link
Windows XP x64 edition DOES support NUMA. I have dual Opteron 265s (nicely overclocked from 1.8 to 2.2) and as long as the BIOS is set correctly, then Sandra reports the NUMA statusI also have an Intel Quad core, and it is blindingly fast....
roflsaurus - Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - link
BTX case?JarredWalton - Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - link
BTX is a new form factor that Intel came up with a couple years ago, but the computer parts manufacturers have been relatively slow to adopt it. Basically, it reorganizes the locations of various parts in order to allow for better cooling. Motherboards are also mounted on the offices side of the case, compared to ATX. So where you would open the left side of the case on an ATX system, on the BTX case you would open the right side. If you were to put an ATX motherboard and a BTX motherboard next to each other, on the BTX motherboard everything would appear to be "backwards".Tuvoc - Sunday, February 11, 2007 - link
They say Gateway had to increase the voltage to make the overclock stable - but by how much ? That would have been intresting to know. Also core temps under full load certainly would have been very interestingJarredWalton - Monday, February 12, 2007 - link
The motherboard doesn't appear to work all that well at higher FSB speeds, so Gateway's overclocking is accomplished via changing the multiplier. More on this in a moment.Voltages are also a bit odd. CPU-Z reports 1.238V, but the BIOS is set to 1.450V. Obviously, there's a pretty big difference, and which is more accurate I cannot say. That illustrates the problem with reporting CPU temperatures as well: the BIOS/motherboard implementation will have an impact, as they can read the thermistor differently. Basically, you only end up comparing the Gateway results to itself, and the important thing is that there were no issues with stability when running overclocked.
Back to the FSB stuff. The BIOS has support for adjusting FSB speed and RAM speed, but only in large steps. The FSB can be set to 533, 800, 1067, and 1333 - default being 1067 for Core 2. The RAM can be set to DDR2-400, 533, and 667 (or Automatic). Basically, all of these items select a ratio and bus speed. DDR2-533 represents a 1:1 bus/RAM ratio, while 400 is 3:4 and 667 is 5:4. Using those ratios, you can use the FSB-1333 speed to modify the overclocks a bit. I was able to run the bus at 1333 with DDR2-533 and a 10X multiplier to end up at a 3.33 GHz CPU speed (and a real DDR2 speed of 667).
RAM voltages can be adjusted as well, but only to 1.8, 1.9, 2.1, or 2.2V. I didn't play with these at all. No point in trying to fry Gateway's equipment. I would venture to guess that the CPU could run at 3.3-3.5GHz if you want to push things (3.33 seemed perfectly fine in somewhat limited testing), but again I don't want to push too hard and end up with a dead PC/CPU/RAM/mobo/whatever.
Hope that helps,
Jarred Walton
Editor
AnandTech.com