Gateway ships dual-core media center PCs into retail

Irvine (CA) - Gateway today announced that it is offering its first dual-core media center PCs through retail stores. The Pentium D-based systems will be offered in mid-July from about $850.

Most users may not be able to find a convincing reason to spend extra money on a dual-core system at this time. Gateway, however, follows Intel’s strategy to push these next-generation processors into the mainstream and especially multimedia application fields. The firm’s upcoming media center PCs - a product segment that was repeatedly highlighted by Intel as early adopter for dual-core technology - will be available with Pentium D chips for a price that is close to single-core models.

The dual-core entry level system will be the 835GM media center PC, which comes with a Pentium D 820 (2.8 GHz), the 945G chipset, 1 GByte DDR2-533 memory, a 250 GByte SATA drive and a DVD burner. The system will be priced at $850 and will be available at retailers on July 10.

One step higher is the 840GM that is equipped with a Pentium D 830 (3.0 GHz), a BTX case, Intel’s 950GMA graphics chipset, a TV tuner, a 250 GByte SATA drive, a DVD burner. Pricing for this model is set at $1050.

Gateway will also offer new single-core version multimedia PCs, such as the 831GM with a Pentium 4-6xx series chips. Similarly outfitted, with the exception of just 512 MByte DDR2-400 memory, the units will be available form about $700.

Users who are able to spend more money get a new option to grab the latest and greatest with Gateway’s new BTX-based FX-series that aims at enthusiast users. The company offers three pre-configured models that range in price from about $1100 to $2000. Optioned out with a Pentium D 840, 4 GByte of memory, a 500 GByte harddrive, performance DVD burner, as well as a 19" LCD, a FX model can top out at about $3300.