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Gateway Debuts $599 Media Center PC

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

June 23, 2005, 10:20 AM

Gateway late Wednesday announced the availability of a low-cost PC equipped with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 through its recently acquired eMachines product line. The desktop computer, which will sell for $599 and is available now in retail stores, is the cheapest Media Center PC to date.

The company says it is targeting the back-to-school crowd with the eMachines T6520, as well as offering three other low cost non-Media Center systems starting at $339 USD.

While the computer may be cheap, it still carries many of the features of its higher-priced competitors. The T6520 includes an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor with 1 GB of DDR SDRAM, and a 200GB hard drive. The system utilizes the new ATI Radeon Xpress 200 platform, which has received rave reviews by tech outlets.

For portable media, the system includes an 8-in-1 media reader, and both a rewritable dual-layer DVD drive and CD-ROM drive.

At $599, the eMachines Media Center PC comes in at same price as the recently announced Nvidia 7800GXT graphics card, which was also launched Wednesday. An equivalent system from Dell equipped with Windows Media Center Edition 2005 would cost nearly $200 more than the eMachines T6520.

All the new PCs include software and a free three-month membership to America Online. Microsoft Works and Money will come standard with the machines; however, the company will also provide a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition with the PC.

Gateway acquired the eMachines brand in early 2004, replacing the company's cow-themed retail brand after closing all of its brick-and-mortar locations due to poor sales.

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By Adrian79

posted Jun 26, 2005 - 11:33 AM

ok, I found it on bestbuy.com , but it sells for 30bucks more, and has NO mediacenter OS, and only 512ram...damn!

Score: 0

By Kulvinder

posted Jun 24, 2005 - 1:07 AM

No Comments

Score: 0

By Kulvinder

edited Jun 24, 2005 - 12:59 AM

Can u tell me the cost for every model. i m keenly interested in windows XP Media Centre PC.

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Jun 24, 2005 - 4:21 AM

kulvinder go to the hp site and check them out you can customise some of them to suit your needs or budget if you know a little about hardware.

Not sure if dell or any of the other bigger companies have the customise features or not pretty sure alienware does if you feel like spending a small fortune.

Score: 0

By shy_one

posted Jun 24, 2005 - 12:53 AM

with a bit of luck this will start a bit of a price war between the lower and mid classed media center pcs my computers a year old almost time for a new one:)

Score: 0

By p0rk69

edited Jun 23, 2005 - 10:37 PM

eoswald-

Drumcat is right, but you are wrong Gateway and E-Machines are both avaible at BestBuy and this particalur model arrive this evening (Thurs) and is avaible for sale. Now you will not find the exact same model from gateway on store shelves and on their website but close.

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 5:31 PM

"Gateway acquired the eMachines brand in early 2004, replacing the company's cow-themed retail brand after closing all of its brick-and-mortar locations due to poor sales."

Am I mistaken, or do I still see Holstein boxes on the television commercials? The Cow Box is still there, Ed, at least on TV.

Score: 0

By eoswald

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 7:42 PM

Drumcat-
You are right... Gateway is still available through mail order and online through their website. However, it is no longer available in retail locations such as their own retail stores (since closed) or through third parties, which the company did some tests and were not happy with the results.

Score: 0

By Adrian79

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 3:31 PM

599$ now add 300$ for moniter lol =$900 for this pc ;) ...nice try guys

Score: 0

By DigiBrian

posted Jun 25, 2005 - 11:47 AM

You would hook up a media PC to your telly and stereo wouldnt you? so you dont really need a monitor.

Score: 0

By nate

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 5:00 PM

Most new PCs these days don't come with monitors by standard (Dell thows in some $50 junk). My 19-inch Samsung LCD I puchased 3 years ago works just fine, but I've upgraded my PC twice since then.

Plus, you can also just hook the Media Center PC up to your TV, so a monitor isn't even needed. When you look closely, the deal is quite good, but eMachines doesn't have a great reputation for quality hardware and service.

Score: 0

By foxtyke

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 12:44 PM

Not too bad, surpasses most computers and is offered at a lower cost, very nice.

Score: 0

By frankwick

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 11:37 AM

What's the difference between the Radeon Xpress 200 and the Radeon X600 Pro? I just ordered my xpmce PC and it comes with the latter.

Score: 0

By Kramy

edited Jun 23, 2005 - 1:58 PM

"Xpress" sounds kinda like the "GeForce 6200 TurboCache" - Slow in other words, but more than fast enough to play DVD's and decode video.

Radeon PRO's are a different line of products. It's a ton faster - the newest ones are the X800 and X850, which support crossfire, so that's pretty close to top-of-the-line. Probably about how my GeForce 6600 compares to a 6800Ultra.

Edit: Oh, someone else responded. Never leave for 30 min, then come back and read the comments. :P

Score: 0

By me__2001

edited Jun 23, 2005 - 1:42 PM

Xpress 200 is the new onboard graphics chipset from ATI that supports crossfire, the X600 is a low end PCI-E graphics card

Score: 0

By auiotour

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 11:26 AM

Not to shabby. Might have to pick one up and put it in a different case to save the embarassment of owning an emachines computer. Owning a gateway is almost worse.

Score: 0

By stevetures

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 10:48 AM

Anyone found it online yet?

Score: 0

By PhoenixPath

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 12:04 PM

Can't even find it on Gateway's site. You'd think something like this would be on the main-page.

Score: 0

By nate

posted Jun 23, 2005 - 2:03 PM

Not great marketing :)

Rebates are up though:

http://www.emachines.com/news/rebate.html

Score: 0

By VikingBlade

posted Jun 24, 2005 - 7:50 AM

Well if it's an eMachines, don't they just show up at retail outlets like Bestbuy first since you can't configure them?

Score: 0

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