Can this Gateway 500XL 3.4Mhz be upgraded to 1GB RAM?

Hi All,
I'm thinking of buying this PC from Tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...692&CatId=1344
as the price seems good. Can that RAM be expanded to 1GB? Also, what
are your feelings about the quality of this unit & do you know of
similar deals on the web? Thanks.

Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:53:21 -0500, Dan
wrote:

Hi All,
I'm thinking of buying this PC from Tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...692&CatId=1344
as the price seems good. Can that RAM be expanded to 1GB? Also, what
are your feelings about the quality of this unit & do you know of
similar deals on the web? Thanks.

Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying


Tiger Direct is best avoided.

The unit is refurbished. ie - it's already been either
refused or has broken once. It uses a proprietary power
supply that would be difficult and expensive to upgrade if
possible at all, and likewise expensive just to replace.

It's nothing special really, more negative than positive. I
didn't bother to check but if there's a warranty handled
through TD, that could be yet another problem. If you're
willing to spend over $1000 I suggest a new OEM system, FROM
that OEM directly, or have a good local shop build it.

It's not 3.4GHz, but rather 3.06. That means it's older stuff.
Gateway doesn't list a 500XL on their site. It only
has 2 slots for DIMMs, so chances are, you'll have to scrap the existing
to get to 1GB if it's possible.

"Dan" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I'm thinking of buying this PC from Tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...692&CatId=1344
as the price seems good. Can that RAM be expanded to 1GB? Also, what
are your feelings about the quality of this unit & do you know of
similar deals on the web? Thanks.

Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying

"Pen" wrote in
:

horrible!
not to mention that gateway will give you ZERO support.
for this kind of money you can get a system built
of 3 times the power. do it yourself. its not difficult.
just buy a "barebones" and go from there.

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 03:32:24 GMT, techumseh
wrote:

"Pen" wrote in
:

horrible!
not to mention that gateway will give you ZERO support.
for this kind of money you can get a system built
of 3 times the power. do it yourself. its not difficult.
just buy a "barebones" and go from there.
Thanks to all that responded. Maybe y'all can give me some
recommendations? I'm looking for a PC w/at least a 3.4Mhz processor, 1
gig RAM, 128 Meg Vid. RAM and 80 gig hard drive. A 2nd 10k RPM 80 gig
HD would be nice but I think it'd be cheaper to by that on aftermarket
& install it. I'd also want an 18" LCD. I'm looking to spend $1400ish.

The machine will be used for surfing, VHS video capture to transfer to
DVDR w/some light video editing and maybe some gaming. My main concern
is that I'm disabled and want to use Dragon Dictate to
navigate/control windows as well as dictate. On my current 1Mghz Dell
w/360k RAM Dragon isn't very fast when using it to navigate Win 2k.
Its pretty good but I'd want something faster if I were to use DD all
the time. Based on my usage, do the specs I'm looking for sound
appropriate? Any idea if Dragon would work better w/less RAM but a
faster processor or vise-versa? I ask because of tradeoffs I may have
to make due to lo budget.

Also, what's the best chipset to look for or is it very important?
Does the below mentioned Dell sys sound like a good deal? I've shopped
around a lot and it seems like a good deal. I'd love to be able to
build my own at sites like sysbuilder.com or cpusolutions.com but they
seem a bit pricey.

Sorry for rambling. Thanks for your help!



Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:50:45 -0500, Dan
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 03:32:24 GMT, techumseh
wrote:

"Pen" wrote in
:

horrible!
not to mention that gateway will give you ZERO support.
for this kind of money you can get a system built
of 3 times the power. do it yourself. its not difficult.
just buy a "barebones" and go from there.
Thanks to all that responded. Maybe y'all can give me some
recommendations? I'm looking for a PC w/at least a 3.4Mhz processor, 1
gig RAM, 128 Meg Vid. RAM and 80 gig hard drive. A 2nd 10k RPM 80 gig
HD would be nice but I think it'd be cheaper to by that on aftermarket
& install it. I'd also want an 18" LCD. I'm looking to spend $1400ish.

The machine will be used for surfing, VHS video capture to transfer to
DVDR w/some light video editing and maybe some gaming. My main concern
is that I'm disabled and want to use Dragon Dictate to
navigate/control windows as well as dictate. On my current 1Mghz Dell
w/360k RAM Dragon isn't very fast when using it to navigate Win 2k.
Its pretty good but I'd want something faster if I were to use DD all
the time. Based on my usage, do the specs I'm looking for sound
appropriate? Any idea if Dragon would work better w/less RAM but a
faster processor or vise-versa? I ask because of tradeoffs I may have
to make due to lo budget.

Also, what's the best chipset to look for or is it very important?
Does the below mentioned Dell sys sound like a good deal? I've shopped
around a lot and it seems like a good deal. I'd love to be able to
build my own at sites like sysbuilder.com or cpusolutions.com but they
seem a bit pricey.

Sorry for rambling. Thanks for your help!



Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying
Sorry, forgot to ask, whats the better OS for what I'd be doing, XP
Pro, XP Home or XP Multimedia? Thanks again.

Dan

Remove NOSPAM from address when replying

Tiger is far better than some out there. Take newegg or example;
Some prime examples @ www.resellerratings.com. IMO anyone should read
up about their service before plunking down your cash. You might just
get "NOTHING" like I have.

5/18/03 10:41 PM (1 of 3 users found this review helpful)
I've paid to send two of the Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards back with no
satisfaction. The boards will not function with three 1GB PC-2700 DIMMs
installed (won't even load Windows with one 1GB DIMM installed). Newegg
ships stuff that is untested and below specifications, they definitely
need to check before they send components. If a board won't even post
meeting the specified maximum configuration (3GB PC-2700 RAM, 256MB AGP
Video [Evga], Western Digital 160GB EIDE hard disk, no other
components; 550W Enermax power supply won't be a problem), why should I
pay for it? No testing, means you have a high percentage of getting bad
components.

5/15/03 2:09 PM
Will never buy from them again.
What they delivered was different from what they advertized.
Customer support says you're stuck with it, they will allow return
for a 15% restock fee assuming you haven't filled out the warranty
card or written on the manual and have every little item it came with,

down to the twisty ties - basically you are at their mercy as to
whether your return is in like new condition, on top of that you have
to pay shipping charges.

Poor RMA policy - you have to pay shipping costs, they
say it costs you the same to drive to a local store.
This is pure BS! It doesn't cost me $15 to drive to
a local store. Why should you be out this money? The
customer did nothing wrong, but they have to pay
shipping costs and are without the product because
they won't ship a replacement untill they get your
old one back. So you are stuck paying and waiting when it
is not your fault.

High shipping charges, $6 per item is ludicrous!

I will shop elsewhere, the competition has lower prices,
lower shipping costs, and the competitions customer
support treats you like they would like to have you
as a return customer, plus some others will ship new
item to you before your old one gets to them during an
RMA.

Review (Very Dissatisfied)

Posted by
4/30/03 12:18 AM (0 of 1 users found this review helpful)
I still dont see where the great customer service that everyone speaks
of. This is the second time I got the shaft at newegg.com. I was told
by Paul from newegg that my order would be overnighted and he would
remove all shipping costs off my order because of the problems I had
with my previous orders. Not only did it take 2 days for me to recieve
my "Overnighted" shipment my order was never credited for the shipping
charges. I dont understand how you can sell overnight or even tell
someone that you will overnight something but you have to wait 1-2 to
process the order, kinda defeats the purpose of overnight. I would have
expected that my order would be rushed out to show that they were
serious.

Review (Very Dissatisfied)

Posted by
4/18/03 9:32 AM
An absolute terrible experience. I have ordered many times from Newegg.
But now they have a policy of verifying the shipping address. Well
because I don't want an expensive compnent sitting on my front porch i
change the shipping address to my work. Remember many orders that have
always gone to this address.

Yesterday I get a system generated email saying they can't verify my
shipping. And to contact my credit card and add it to the memo field.
So I call my company and they said they don't have any alternate
shipping fields. Understandable I guess. Some people use their card to
order flowers. Are they going to have to call their card company, wait
thru all the menu systems and change their shipping address everytime
they order flowers. Heck no that defeats the prupose of online
shopping. If I am going to have to spend 15 minutes on the phone
everytime I order I'll call the flower shop directly.

I called newegg back and the Customer Rep said no problem. They would
personally call and verify my card. Hindsight tells me they still
aren't going to get and shipping address from my card company because
they have no place to keep it.

And again I get a generic response from a computer telling me they
can't verify my shipping address.

And this is after I browsed the web and found the product cheaper but
because I have had no problems in the past I paid the extra 50 to go
with new egg. But they can't seem to find a way to pick up a phone and
call my credit card company.

Hopefully this orderal will protect some of you buyers and save you the
days of hassle I have had to go thru.

Review (Very Dissatisfied)

Posted by
4/11/03 8:22 PM (0 of 1 users found this review helpful)
HORRIBLE! FRAUD!! purchased 2 OCZ 512MB memory (CL2) WITH overnight
shipping and received a CL2.5 version. After receiving the product, I
looked
at PriceGrabber and Newegg's site to see if there was some mistake.
Turns
out, Newegg purposely posts the memory to be a CL2 version on
Pricegrabber
and puts CL2.5 on their site. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! I noticed there are
many
other OCZ products posted this way. They tried to jip me by sending a
cheaper product in place of the one I ordered. I don't see how a
company
with such poor business ethics can receive high ratings. Newegg, I will

NEVER do business with you again.

**update**

I posted 2 comments (1 on Pricegrabber and the other on
Resellerratings) regarding Newegg's false advertisement on OCZ
memory. Newegg told me their "false advertisement" was not their
fault and blamed the problem on PG, saying they truncate their numbers;
therefore, it misleads customers. When I asked PG, they told me they do
NOT truncate part numbers and blamed the fault on the manufacturer. PG
then decided to delete my post regarding Newegg's false advertisement
b/c they claim it's the manufacturers fault. It's obvious one or
BOTH parties are lying. PG, instead of helping consumers, are helping
merchants, in this case Newegg. If you don't believe me, click on the
links below. The Kingston memory should cost around $100 but Newegg is
able to sell it for $80. (If what PG said was correct, having it be the
manufacturers fault, then Kingston also has ambiguous part numbers -
I think not!) Notice the part numbers are clearly different:
KVR400X64C25512 (Pricegrabber) and KVR400X64C3/512 (Newegg). Newegg is
ripping us off, purposely linking us to products that doesn't match
the product on PG, and hoping we don't catch their "mistake."

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...7af87830bc4ff7
(PG's site)

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...r=pricegrabber
(Newegg's site)

On 17 Jan 2005 23:13:32 -0800, wrote:

Tiger is far better than some out there. Take newegg or example;

With all due respect,

YOU MUST BE ON CRACK.

There is such a vast, extreme difference in the user
feedback for Newegg vs Tiger on almost every online forum
you'd care to visit. Tiger has complaints with BBB in
several states and was even charging people's credit cards
for unwanted services which is a BIG "no-no".

Comments about these reviewers' reviews, below -

Some prime examples @ www.resellerratings.com. IMO anyone should read
up about their service before plunking down your cash. You might just
get "NOTHING" like I have.

5/18/03 10:41 PM (1 of 3 users found this review helpful)
I've paid to send two of the Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards back with no
satisfaction. The boards will not function with three 1GB PC-2700 DIMMs
installed (won't even load Windows with one 1GB DIMM installed). Newegg
ships stuff that is untested and below specifications, they definitely
need to check before they send components. If a board won't even post
meeting the specified maximum configuration (3GB PC-2700 RAM, 256MB AGP
Video [Evga], Western Digital 160GB EIDE hard disk, no other
components; 550W Enermax power supply won't be a problem), why should I
pay for it? No testing, means you have a high percentage of getting bad
components.

Understand that Newegg sells products. They do not make
motherboards, spec them, nor offer hand-holding when
something goes wrong. Note that the user "sent two back",
that in itself is a sign that Newegg was accomodating to the
user. Realize that any Avg. Joe can plop down $50 and buy
hardware that they have no hope of using unless it just
"happens" to work using whatever they happened to try.

It's possible a board (or other product) is defective, but
that tells nothing of the vendor who sold it, assuming it
was a new product obtained through normal retail channels.
In other words, above reviewer most likely would've had same
problem buying same board anywhere, but with Newegg the
reviewer was able to get the product RMA'd relatively hassle
free... even though the user couldn't distinguish the
problem and choose a different board.


5/15/03 2:09 PM
Will never buy from them again.
What they delivered was different from what they advertized.

More data is needed. Tiger as well as other merchants may
also have ads that are incorrect... unfortunately but it
happens. I find "almost" everything bought from newegg to
have been exactly what was advertised, FWIW.

Customer support says you're stuck with it, they will allow return
for a 15% restock fee assuming you haven't filled out the warranty
card or written on the manual and have every little item it came with,

Yes, "every little item". What kind of clueless buyer
thinks they can pick and choose what to send back instead of
the WHOLE thing? I doubt we're getting the whole story
here, Newegg has been quite reasonable with me in the rare
event I needed to return something. It goes without saying
that one doesn't fill out warranty cards, clip UPCs for
rebates, or deface any part of the product untill they're
certain they'll be keeping it.



down to the twisty ties - basically you are at their mercy as to
whether your return is in like new condition, on top of that you have
to pay shipping charges.

Yeah, "down to twisty ties". Reviewer wanted to just stuff
loose parts into the box in a half-assed fashion I suppose.
How much common sense does it take to just repack something
as delivered?



Poor RMA policy - you have to pay shipping costs, they
say it costs you the same to drive to a local store.


Actually they had been (maybe still do?) refund shipping if
you put in a request... though it'd probably depend on the
circumstances.

What online vendors DON'T expect the user to pay shipping
though? It would have to be those who charge more to offset
this additional cost. Personally I don't want to pay more
for products due to OTHERS not being able to pick good
products or get parts working.

This is pure BS! It doesn't cost me $15 to drive to
a local store. Why should you be out this money?

$15 is a lot of postage for most items, possible but again
insufficient info to determine if this is accurate.

The
customer did nothing wrong,

Actually that has not been determined, they tried some
particular memory and it didn't work right. Most people
would try different memory. A few more elightened users
would try different timings, and test with memtest86. It's
common that someone can't just grab 3 1GB DIMMs at random
and plug them into a motherboard and expect it to work with
zero configuration. Perhaps that was the assumption made in
error, again insufficient info. We dont' even know if the
user EVER got those 3 modules to work @ PC2700 speed in a
different 'board, any board at all.


...but they have to pay
shipping costs and are without the product because
they won't ship a replacement untill they get your
old one back. So you are stuck paying and waiting when it
is not your fault.

Of course they won't ship replacment. How many products
does someone expect to receive for the price of one?
This is pretty standard practice, has nothing to do with
Newegg in particular.

At this point I pause to mention that some people just can't
get over themselves, that they'll blame anyone except
themselves, or even focus all blame in one place instead of
recognizing that there may be several parties to blame:
Motherboard manufacturer, memory module manufacturer, user
who didn't check Asus' 'site for recommended modules or buy
memory guaranteed to work, user for trying same board over
and over with no valid reason to believe a different
specimen of same board would behave differently.


High shipping charges, $6 per item is ludicrous!

Hmmmm. It cost this tool $15 to return ship but paying $6
to get it shipped is unreasonable?
MANY of the items on Newegg's site have free or
unrealistically cheap shipping (like $1, $4, cheaper than
one could ship even the smallest package to same location
via FedEx). Apparently user has never heard of eBay if they
think $6 is anything but cheap.



I will shop elsewhere, the competition has lower prices,
lower shipping costs, and the competitions customer
support treats you like they would like to have you
as a return customer, plus some others will ship new
item to you before your old one gets to them during an
RMA.

Review (Very Dissatisfied)

I'm sure Newegg will miss this customer. ;-)



Posted by
4/30/03 12:18 AM (0 of 1 users found this review helpful)
I still dont see where the great customer service that everyone speaks
of. This is the second time I got the shaft at newegg.com. I was told
by Paul from newegg that my order would be overnighted and he would
remove all shipping costs off my order because of the problems I had
with my previous orders. Not only did it take 2 days for me to recieve
my "Overnighted" shipment my order was never credited for the shipping
charges. I dont understand how you can sell overnight or even tell
someone that you will overnight something but you have to wait 1-2 to
process the order, kinda defeats the purpose of overnight. I would have
expected that my order would be rushed out to show that they were
serious.

Review (Very Dissatisfied)

It's quite easy to see by packaging if the order was in
fact, overnighted. HOWEVER, some people don't seem to grasp
that paying for overnight shipping alone, does not mean the
package will be on their doorstep the next day. It means
that when it ships it uses that method. They also have an
expedited handling fee to get an order processed
out-of-order, instead of the que it's in. Either way, with
ANY vendor you're going to wait for them to fill the order.
Newegg is noteworthy about being faster than average when it
comes to filling orders, shipping, and notification of when
it's shipped.

Now, above user thinks that they shouldn't pay for overnight
shipping AFTER the fact? Perhaps they need to buy more
hardware and then they'll realize that nowhere, unless
clearly mentioned, is it implied that an order with
overnight shipping, is going to be shipping *at that
instant* so it's on the customer's door the next morning.
If it's that important for this to happen, customer needs to
call in and find out specifically if vendor can get the
order shipped same-day, not just choosing a faster shipping
method from the carrier (Fedex).



Posted by
4/18/03 9:32 AM
An absolute terrible experience. I have ordered many times from Newegg.
But now they have a policy of verifying the shipping address. Well
because I don't want an expensive compnent sitting on my front porch i
change the shipping address to my work. Remember many orders that have
always gone to this address.

Yesterday I get a system generated email saying they can't verify my
shipping. And to contact my credit card and add it to the memo field.
So I call my company and they said they don't have any alternate
shipping fields. Understandable I guess. Some people use their card to
order flowers. Are they going to have to call their card company, wait
thru all the menu systems and change their shipping address everytime
they order flowers. Heck no that defeats the prupose of online
shopping. If I am going to have to spend 15 minutes on the phone
everytime I order I'll call the flower shop directly.

It's pretty common for online vendors, those of PC parts in
particular, to require address confirmation. That mean
whatever address is used, it has to be on record with CC
company, whether that be the billable address or an
alternate. If reviewer finds their CC company can't manage
to add an alternate address, they should consider a
different CC for such purchases, or arrange for either
Pickup of the package instead of delivery, or signature
requirment. This is not new information to anyone who
regularly deals with shipments but has no receiver available
when the order is expected. If/when it's necessary to leave
pacakges, another alternative is a lock-box if prior
arrangement can be made with the delivery person, which is
often possible else probably when a large plainly visable
note is left behind... but still it's better to just make
alternate arrangements to foregoe any of this.



I called newegg back and the Customer Rep said no problem. They would
personally call and verify my card. Hindsight tells me they still
aren't going to get and shipping address from my card company because
they have no place to keep it.


So reviewer just goes brain-dead while that conversation is
going on... could've mentioned that there was only the
billing address attached to the card, but wasted Newegg's
time instead.


And again I get a generic response from a computer telling me they
can't verify my shipping address.

No kidding!
What would be worse, getting a response that it DID verify
the shipping address, which would be impossible since
reviewer already knew there was no alternate address on
file.



And this is after I browsed the web and found the product cheaper but
because I have had no problems in the past I paid the extra 50 to go
with new egg. But they can't seem to find a way to pick up a phone and
call my credit card company.

I"m not at all surprised that this reviewer has had problems
in the past... the concept of problem-waiting-to-happen
comes to mind.

If Newegg called the CC company, what good will that do
since it has already been mentioned that there is no
alternate address on file, but that newegg requires this?
Basically the reviewer is a little slow to grasp the
obvious, that based upon a common policy that Newegg and
many many other vendors have, his CC company is not a good
choice for someone buying online.


Posted by
4/11/03 8:22 PM (0 of 1 users found this review helpful)
HORRIBLE! FRAUD!! purchased 2 OCZ 512MB memory (CL2) WITH overnight
shipping and received a CL2.5 version. After receiving the product, I
looked
at PriceGrabber and Newegg's site to see if there was some mistake.
Turns
out, Newegg purposely posts the memory to be a CL2 version on
Pricegrabber
and puts CL2.5 on their site. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! I noticed there are
many
other OCZ products posted this way. They tried to jip me by sending a
cheaper product in place of the one I ordered. I don't see how a
company
with such poor business ethics can receive high ratings. Newegg, I will

NEVER do business with you again.

Hmm. Pricegrabber posts Pricegrabber prices.
If pricegrabber doesn't update timely, then items subject to
fast turnover will indeed be listed with old specs.
Or maybe it was a typo.
Or maybe it was because Newegg is satan's minion.

Regardless, when one clicks through another 'site to get to
Newegg's, then sees that Newegg lists the memory as CL2.5,
not CL2, how dense would they have to be to expect it to be
CL2?

Reviewer thinks Newegg selectively false advertised OCZ
products? Seems a little peculiar to me that they'd go
against SOP for only one make of product.


**update**

I posted 2 comments (1 on Pricegrabber and the other on
Resellerratings) regarding Newegg's false advertisement on OCZ
memory. Newegg told me their "false advertisement" was not their
fault and blamed the problem on PG, saying they truncate their numbers;

Ok then, so what's Newegg's fault then?
Let's be clear about this. I could post a link on one of my
websites that reads "OCZ memory, CL2, $3 @ newegg", but that
in NO WAY obligates newegg to anything other than the item,
specs, and price that THEY advertise, on THEIR 'site.

Reviewer is either a noob or an idiot or both.

therefore, it misleads customers. When I asked PG, they told me they do
NOT truncate part numbers and blamed the fault on the manufacturer. PG
then decided to delete my post regarding Newegg's false advertisement
b/c they claim it's the manufacturers fault. It's obvious one or
BOTH parties are lying. PG, instead of helping consumers, are helping
merchants, in this case Newegg. If you don't believe me, click on the
links below. The Kingston memory should cost around $100 but Newegg is
able to sell it for $80. (If what PG said was correct, having it be the
manufacturers fault, then Kingston also has ambiguous part numbers -
I think not!) Notice the part numbers are clearly different:
KVR400X64C25512 (Pricegrabber) and KVR400X64C3/512 (Newegg). Newegg is
ripping us off, purposely linking us to products that doesn't match
the product on PG, and hoping we don't catch their "mistake."


Maybe reviewer learned a lesson here, that hearsay about a
product through a 3rd party 'site, does not override the
actual vendor.