Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!rutgers!gatech!psuvax1!news From: goldstin@shire (Jonathan Goldstine) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Gateway 2000 (summary: long) Message-ID: <1989Jul22.044227.4809@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> Date: 22 Jul 89 04:42:27 GMT Reply-To: goldstin@shire (Jonathan Goldstine) Organization: Penn State University Lines: 91 On July 10, I posted a request for opinions about Gateway 2000. I have gone back through half-a-dozen postings about Gateway 2000 in the preceding month, and have seen about twenty postings since then. I have also received half-a- dozen comments by e-mail. Here is a summary. In May, Milan purchased a 386-20 from Gateway which he returned a month later because it would not run certain software, especially Windows/386. He was upset with Gateway because he had been assured before the purchase that the machine would run Windows/386 but the company conceded later that it was having difficulty running Windows on that machine; because he lost several weeks trying to get things straightened out; and because Gateway's 30-days money back guarantee does not cover software, so he had to pay for the MS Dos that was bundled with the machine. The computer was a 20MHz 386 with a 4 Meg memory and a motherboard called Gene II. It seems likely from other postings that the problems Milan was unfortunate enough to encounter were specific to one particular configuration. For example, there was a report of a Gateway 2000 386 20MHz machine purchased last October (motherboard unknown but thought to be Gene) that ran Windows/386 version 2.03 without difficulty, but only after Gateway replaced the Award BIOS with a Phoenix BIOS (at no expense, the next day by air). "I have yet to find a hardware card or a software product that will not run." There was also a report by someone who thought he had a Gene II motherboard in his Gateway 2000 who was unable to run Compaq OS/2, although he declared himself "very satisfied" with his machine. Here are excerpts from the e-mail that I received: "The support is good ... I don't regret I bought their computer. Problems - when you call support (toll-free of course) - it may take a day for them to get back to you. Otherwise - I'm satisfied." "Excellent machine!!! I just got done with some consulting where we purchased three 386/25mhz machines and they worked great. We had a problem with a 3 1/2 inch drive going bad but they replaced with no questions. One suggestion or complaint. The tech support is hard to get in the afternoon because they are so busy but if you call early in the morning it is not too bad. System worked flawlessly otherwise." "... we are running a Gateway 386/20mhz machine that we have Xenix on. We have had no problems with compatibility. We did experience some problem when we purchased serial boards to allow for 8 serials on the gateway machine. The board they originally suggested did not work. We swapped them for the boards and paid an additional $50-$75 for the new board and everything is ok now." "I just ordered a Gateway 2000 386/25 tower model with 4 mb ram 64k static memory cache, and 150mb ESDI drive. The system is made entirely of name brand components (i.e. AMI motherboard, ATI VGA wonder card, Miniscribe drives, NEC monitor, etc.) ... The cost savings on this configuration of the Gateway is substantial - a comparable Dell system would run me $2500 more while a Compaq would cost about $7,000 more. ... I feel that this cost difference is too great to ignore, while Gateway's use of name brand components makes for a relatively low risk purchase." "In Dec. '88 I bought a Gateway 286. ...I'm real happy with the machine and the company. ... The docs are marginal. But the big deal about Gateway is the tech support. It's fantastic. I've called a few times with problems or questions. Usually they give you an appointment for the next day when they will call you back. The support people have always been knowledgeable and willing to help. That in itself could make buying a Gateway worth it." I also received a comment that "Gateway ships several machines with a WD 1007 controller, which makes no use of the DMA channel, and is not exactly blazing fast. Not so hot for a 386." (In this regard, I note that some postings about disk controllers have suggested that use of DMA is undesirable under DOS but useful in a multiprocessing system such as Unix.) To sum up, most people seem to be reporting positive experiences with Gateway 2000. The company is currently shipping its 386 25MHz machine with a Wedgetek motherboard and AMI BIOS; for $500 more, you get a Micronics motherboard with 64K cache and Phoenix BIOS. It is currently shipping the Orchid Prodesigner VGA card ($80 to upgrade to the VGA Plus, i.e. to upgrade from 256K to 512K), and the Western Digital 10007 ESDI controller. Personally, I am tempted by the cache machine, but I am hesitating because of an incompatibility problem that I have not seen discussed. According to Everex, ENIX currently will not run on the Micronics 25MHz board (it will run on the 20MHz board). They are looking at the problem but make no promises about solving it. They have not tested the Wedgetek board. I do not know whether there are any difficulties running other (generally much more expensive) versions of Unix on that Micronics board. If anyone has information about the Wedgetek 386-25 and Micronics 386-25 cache boards, send me e-mail and if it is of general interest, I will post a summary.