Low Price Gateway FX6860-UR20P Gaming Desktop (Black)

Gateway FX6860-UR20P Gaming Desktop comes with these specs: 2nd Generation Intel Core i7-2600 Processor 3.4GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology up to 3.8GHz, Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel H67 Express Chipset, 8GB DDR3 Memory, ATI Radeon HD 6750 Graphics Card with 1GB of Discrete Video Memory, 1.5TB SATA Hard Drive (Green Product - variable RPM), 16X DVD±R/RW SuperMulti Drive, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, High-Definition Audio Support with 5.1-channel Audio Support, 10 - USB 2.0, 2- USB 3.0, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, USB Keyboard and Mouse, 43.0 lbs. | 19.5 kg (system unit only), 1 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty with Toll-Free Tech Support, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card, Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Norton Internet Security Trial

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Lightning fried my previous Gateway FX6831-03 last week, despite surge protectors and a battery power supply. AAAARRRGGGH! I replaced it with the FX6860-UR20P since they are so similar.

I'm a photojournalist and quite like Gateway's built-in multi-card reader with red glowing "racing stripes." This new machine also gives you the option of connecting to the internet via a WiFi card or standard Ethernet connection. I'm using WiFi from now on; I'm pretty sure the electrical surge that killed my old computer came in through the Ethernet connection.

The FX6860-UR20P contains a USB 3.0 card with two ports. This machine also sports TEN regular USB 2.0 ports on the back, front and top! You can nestle your MP3 player on the indented platform on top, right next to two USB 2.0 ports and a covered storage compartment.

This is an amazingly fast and powerful computer. It processes high definition video or rips through RAW files in Photoshop like they were JPEGs. It easily handles the latest high-end games. The Intel Core i7-2600 Processor and the ATI Radeon HD 6750 Graphics Card are both well regarded. Not bleeding edge, but far more power then almost anyone needs.

Drive Bays: I filled the two bay trays with a 1 TB Hatachi hard drive and the 1.5 TB Seagate Barracuda drive rescued from my old Gateway machine. They both work great and gave me tons of additional storage.

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People seem puzzled, but this tray system is quite simple:

1. Turn off the computer. Slide the front panel down. Pull the plastic tray out of the bay with the folding handle.
2. Fit a hard drive into the tray, flexing the tray slightly so the pins skewer the screw holes on the sides of the drive.
3. Gently slide the tray back in. You'll feel the drive engage the built-in socket at the rear of the bay. No tools necessary; all this takes about 60 seconds.
4. Power up the computer. You may need to format a new drive to NTFS. That's it.
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Personal Hardware Upgrades: I replaced the "SuperMulti Drive" in this machine with a Pioneer BDR-205 so I can burn and play Blu-ray disks. I also swapped out the generous 8 gigs of RAM in the FX6860-UR20P with the 16 gigs from the old machine. (Yeah, it's overkill, but I already had the RAM sitting there.) Even loaded with these extra goodies, the FX6860-UR20P consumes less power than my old computer--between 86-118 watts as opposed to 140 watts. It also runs cooler and is dead quiet.

***YES, THIS COMPUTER SUPPORTS 16 GB OF RAM!*** Despite what some reviewers have said, I popped in 16 GB of RAM and the computer instantly recognized it all with no issues or software tweaks. I've posted a picture of the Windows Experience Index of my present machine.

As usual these days, the FX6860-UR20P has no setup disks. The printed instructions are of the pathetic "don't use this machine in the shower" sort. You'll want to uninstall the bloatware and make your own disks and backups, of course.

Beware: there are NO open card slots available in the FX6860-UR20P. The sizable video card, tiny WiFi card and USB 3.0 card fill all the slots. It also has a curious lack of extra component connectors. I wanted to add a couple of extra case fans and I had to buy some splitters just so I could power them.
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Be very ware: everyone says that Gateway's customer support is worthless, but I figured it would be worth the risk. If I ever have a problem, I'll update this review.

This is a very powerful computer at a bargain price. It's even better than my old FX6861-03, which is saying something. Gotta give it five stars.

I recently purchased the Gateway FX6860-UR20P, and have been very pleased with its performance. I bought this Gateway partially because of the easy swap drive bays. I wanted to install an internal Blu-ray burner in the empty optical drive bay. Unfortunately, this bay was not the easy swap kind. Only the two extra 3.5 inch hard drive bays have this feature. So I had to open the computer to install the Blu-ray drive. I had to remove the front panel to mount the drive. It would only slide in through the front with the panel off. This was a bit tricky. The front panel is plastic, and my fear was of breaking it. I managed to get the drive mounted and to get the front panel back on. The drive did not come with any cables. I had just installed a second hard drive into one of the easy swap bays, and therefore did not need the SATA and power cables that were included. I attempted to connect the Blu-ray burner with these cables. I did not have a problem with the SATA cable. There was an extra SATA port on the mother board for connection. My problem was with connecting the power cable. This cable was only five inches long with a Molex plug on the end. There was nothing near by to connect to the Molex plug. The only way I could find to connect the power cable was through an unused cable in the bottom with the female version of the plug. However, the power cable was too short and would not reach. I took the computer to a local computer repair shop, and was told that I could connect the cable to the unused cable in the bottom. He recommended using a Molex extention cable. I am going to order the extention cable, and hope this solves the problem. The repair shop said most computers have extra leads from the power supply for connecting additional devices. He had never seen one wired like this Gateway. He has been working on computers since 1983. This is the only complaint I have with the unit. It is very fast and quiet running. I use it in my home business. My only other problem is my older applications will not run under Windows 7. My last computer used Windows XP. I am considering upgrading to Windows 7 Professional so I can use the XP mode for my old software.

UPDATE:
The Molex extension cable works fine. I upgraded to Windows 7 Profession so I could run my old software in XP mode. The programs are running, but I cannot get my older printers to work in XP mode.

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I purchased this computer because the computer I had could neither effeciently nor effectively handle the size of workload that I required. I am working on three major projects. The first project is my attempt to complete research of my family ancestry. My family tree now has more than 5,800 people in it. The media library includes copies of official records and individual photos (from birth to death/present) and each photo and document is linked to each and every person depicted or mentioned in it. The library presently exceeds 4,700 items. When the program is running and being used, all of these links must be maintained. Due to the size of the program workload associated with manipulating this amount of data, it would take several minutes for my previous computer to move from one screen to the next. Simply to open the program took several minutes. I sought a more powerful computer to resove this processing issue. I am pleased to say that the Gateway FX6860-UR20P has made manipulation of presently stored data and download of additional data a snap. What was taking sometimes 5 minutes or more to process now processes in seconds. The second project involves writing a family history that discusses in detail the contributions and the life of each member in the family tree. In order to do this efficiently, I must be able to easily access and review the data in the family tree while I am documenting details in the history. In addition, I must be able to obtain information from online sources to help me research historical events, places, statistics, and conditions that allow me to chronicle the contributions of family members within context of the times in which they lived. My previous computer simply was too slow when I tried to use these three programs simultaneous. The Gateway FX6860-UR20P enables me to open windows for and use these three programs and several others without delay--I am no longer required to close windows or programs completely in order to browse, research, and manipulate the data found in others. The third project entails a book that I have been working on for several years pertaining to the six major world religions. There are more than 1,000 pages in the book and it contains thousands of reference notes from each religion's sacred scriptures as well as references related to each religion's historical creation and evolvement. Efficiently building a table of contents, paragraphing and subparagraphing, and building an index in the book demands a great deal of computer processing power. The Gateway FX6860-UR20P has simplified my work and eliminated the many computer freeze-ups that I was experiencing with my previous computer.

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Amazingly fast, quiet.

Ignore complaints about not knowing which swappable hard drive to get. I went to BestBuy. They told me - I bought it there (2Tb, cheap!). I brought in the little (internal) tray and Geek Squad plopped in the HD for free. Done. Perfect. Fast to boot, shutdowm, etc. Second one I own. Within four short months of my previous (amazing) purchase, Gateway upgraded to Sandy Bridge - 2x as faster-than-fast now. Wow.

I did NOT "trust" the HP alternative. Been there done that. Plus HP support? I did not believe what the store said and feel support will be non-existent...eventually. I mean it was probably a fine machine but there WERE differences: overall design, no internal fast graphics card (!), other features...

If you want to do PC gaming...this one a "no-brainer".