Gateway NV55S15u A6-3400,15.6" LED-Backlit,AMD Radeon™ HD 6520G,4GB DDR3,640GB,Windows 7 64Bit,HDMI etc $398 @ Fry's 11/16 & 11/17
 

Part of Fry's two day sale 11/16 & 11/17

Item is available for shipping. Usually limited quantities available online. Mostly B&M.

EDIT: Not available for shipping anymore. B&M only.

Link [frys.com]

Specifications:

Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M Accelerated Processor 1.4GHz with TurboCORE Technology up to 2.3GHz (4MB L2 Cache)
Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD 6520G Graphics with 512MB of dedicated system memory(3), supporting Unified Video Decoder 3 (UVD3), OpenCL® 1.1, Open GL 3.2, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 5.0, Microsoft® DirectX® 11
Memory: 4096MB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Display: 15.6" HD Widescreen Ultrabright™ LED-backlit Display, 1366x768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
Storage Drive: 640GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
Audio: High-Definition Audio Support, Two built-in stereo speakers, MS-Sound Compatible, Built-in Microphone
Camera: 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam (1280 x 1024)
Card Slots: Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader for Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard™ (MMC), Memory Stick PRO™ (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card™ (xD)
Ports: 3 - USB 2.0 Ports, 1 - HDMI™ Port with HDCP support, 1 - VGA Port, 1 - Headphone/Speaker/Line-Out Jack, 1 - Microphone-in Jack, 1 - Ethernet (RJ-45) Port
Communications: 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Battery: 6-cell Li-Ion (4400 mAh) Battery, up to 4 hour battery life
Software: Gateway MyBackup Solution, Power Management & Recovery Management, Gateway Social Networks, Adobe® Flash® Player 10.2 & Adobe® Reader® 9.1, Nook for PC and New York Times Reader, Bing Bar™, AUPEO, Microsoft® Office 2010 preloaded (purchase a product key to activate), Microsoft® Office Starter 2010, Norton™ Online Backup, Security: Norton™ Internet Security Trial, CyberLink® MediaEspresso, CyberLink® PowerDVD™, Nero® 10 Essentials, WildTangent® Demo Games, Microsoft® Silverlight™, Skype™, Windows Live™ Essentials — Wave 3.2 (Mail, Photo Gallery, Live™ Messenger, Movie Maker, Writer)


Warranty: 1 Year limited warranty

Deal is live now.

you forgot to put "laptop" in the title. :p. good price, though. I'd jump on it if it had a longer warranty/better graphics/black Friday wasnt right here/not gateway/etc/fry's has tax for me, but good to ponder.

Lot of "IFs" in there. :lol::lol::lol:

Seems like a good deal for the price. I haven't seen many $400 laptops that would match this in performance, and it has HDMI.

Here is Gateway's spec page [gateway.com] for those interested. Mediocre battery life and weight (5.73 lbs) are the main downsides that I see, but they are not out of line for this class. Of course, some people aren't fans of the Gateway brand.

Anyone have links to a guide that explains how to overclock the A6/A8 CPU's and integrated GPU's? In all the AMD threads I see people talking about how to overclock the chips to get i3/i5 performance, but never a guide on how to do so.

TIA

Is this laptop comparable to the deal last weekend at Office Depot for $350+tax? The OD deal was for a Gateway NV55S02u. It feature pretty much the same spec.

I got the same laptop at BB 2 weeks ago for $379, except it was 500 GB HDD...Nice laptop. runs very cool.

Yeah, heh. Just bad timing on this deal, especially with the Office Depot one earlier, at least for me.
@person asking about the Office Depot deal: This one's a very slightly upgraded version of that. They're pretty comparable. Only immediate difference, I think, is the HD [screen might be slightly better on this? Nobody knows].

I've had the Gateway C-140X for maybe 5 years now and it still runs well. The only problem I have with it is that the fan doesn't always come on. I'm seriously considering picking this one up.

Edit: I did pick one up. $10 shipping + no tax...not bad.

Glad to have helped a fellow SDer.

Specs look the same other than the Office Depot machine has a 500GB HDD and is white. I picked one up and like it. Still on the lookout for a 14" machine though so it may be going back to OD.

I considered this lappy too, but just like you I am on the lookout for a 14" model. I just bought the HP 14" A4 on sale at Best Buy this week. Slightly weaker (Dual Core and 6480 Graphics) compared to this but it's much smaller. Are there any 14"ers with these specs?

Not enough 14" deals, all I see is 15.6" 15.6" 15.6"! :ranting:

At least 15.6" isn't 17". All I ever see is 17" after 17".

Agreed. As far as 14" goes, this is the best deal right this second:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspa...pe=product

EDIT: I hate to hijack this thread (because the OPs deal is quite good) but after doing some research, there's only a handful of 14" lappys that utilize the A4 and A6 chips. There are currently no 14" lappys that utilize the A8 chip. There does that idea. Although I've read that you can swap out CPU's yourself but haven't seen anyone that's actually accomplished that.

Now, back to this deal!

When you are looking for something, you just can't find it. And as soon as you buy one, deals will start showing up.

Thats how it usually goes for me. :lol::lol::lol:

Yep. These AMD machines are great so I like seeing these deals anyway.

In for one! Thanks to the OP and repped.

I'm going to give my Acer (AMD E-350) to my dad and upgrade myself to this. :)

A couple years ago I owned a Gateway NV53 that was pretty nice for the price range. I abused the heck out of it on business trips and general hard usage, which definitely contributed to why it crapped out on me after only about 18 months.... I was rough housing with my dog on the bed and layed the laptop down at an odd angle pretty hard and bent the heck out of the screen...heard a *FZZZT!* and the screen flickered off, back on, then went ALL WHITE and shimmery. Game over. lol Which was what necessitated me buying the Acer that I'm typing on now. I like the Acer quite a bit, though I preferred the appearance and design of the Gateway by a slight bit. I'm looking forward to my first quad lappy...this looks like a great deal...and I won't have to screw with Black Friday madness. :D

Enjoy some :sleepy: on BF.

thanks!!

I'm looking for a 14" lappy too! I was upset i missed the 2nd gen sandy 14" thinkpads at 1600x900 for like $460, but then it turns out they got canceled as a price err. and the evil part of me was happy.

anyway, so we wait. if a crazy 14" deal gets posted someone PM me!

this deal is so similar to the OD which i also almost bit on... must resist for same "IF" reasons listed above.

I own this laptop as I bought it from bestbuy. But it does not live up to the overclocking claims of the 3400m CPU. Mine wont get past 2.3-2.5 at all with out crashing. Im not sure if its the cpu or something built in the mobo but it certainly is still very fast as I upgraded mine to 8 gig ram and a 7200 RPM drive. I did run it at 2.3 GHz stable with all cores active and it got somewhere around 5500 on passmark's CPU test which is better than most Mobile i5 cpu's. I might have a bad cpu for overclocking but im nto quite sure. Perhaps someone else would like to confirm or deny this? Just my 2 cent's.

So quad core = i3 ... or no?

Yes, the A6-3400m is better than the best i3(i3-2350m). The i3 gets 3000 on passmark CPU test while the A6-3400m gets around 3500 stock with no OC. But like I said when the A6 is locked(OC'ed) at 2.3 GHZ your going to be in the mid 5000's with the intel i5's.

Also the Radeon 6520 is much better than any of Intel's current integrated video options.

Not to crush your dreams or anything, but just fyi, you're basically trading in an Acer for another Acer. Gateway was bought out by Acer a few years back and now, if you look closely, their models parallel each other.

That being said, I bought an Acer Gateway about a year back and it's still going fine. They are pretty decent budget laptops.

BF @ officedepot:

Gateway 15.6" Laptop w/ AMD A6-3400m Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard-drive (model# NV55s02u) - $379.99

Oh yeah, I know...but, there is still a slight difference in the quality of the encasement between the lines, both in terms of sturdiness and aesthetics. In my experience, the Gateways are better looking and don't flex (or "creak") as much.

I know some people have negative opinions about Acers, but I find them to be decent to good laptops for the price with the Gateway iterations just a smidge better in fit/finish. I think the Gateway would have lasted a lot longer had I not abused the heck out of it. :D These things aren't exactly built like the old IBM's...so I'll be taking care of this one a lil better...

Where did you see this? I only see the "Gateway 15.6" Laptop with AMD A4 Processor, 4GB RAM and 320GB HDD (NV55s17u)" - $299.99.

I just added it. If you look at the ad scans it is cut in half. $20 more than the recent sale/AC to staples, but is now the best <$400 deal.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/show...?t=3559448

Page 3 on the top right. Page 5 on the left is the other half.

Oh thanks! Nice catch. I missed out on it last time, maybe I'll try again this BF (if lucky).

Also, at BB there's an A8 HP system that's going for $430 during BF. I might go for it, depending [BB's warranty policies are total garbage, right? I'll probably get squaretrade or something].

Thanks OP. Perfect timing. Being told my 2-3yr old Dell laptop was too old to play a game I bought and downloaded, which took 3 hours to download, made me purchase this. Luckily I'm not married so I only have to justify to myself why I paid $400 to play a $15 game.

Shipping unavailable.

Now B&M only.

solid deal.

Sounds like a great deal...other than having to camp out overnight in the cold to get a shot at it. No thanks. Best Buy's "herd people into a line and hand out tickets" system means all the door busters are generally sold out 2 hours before they open.... Not sure how hot that HP lappy will be...but if it's considered a door-buster, you'll need to be there the night before to get it....

Yeah, it isn't for me, but that guy was talking about a BF laptop, and if you're going to stand in line, may as well do it for an A8, you know? :P

3 per store. :lmao: Good luck to you though. I don't think I'll be waiting in line overnight for it.

Good inside, bad outside...IMO
 

Looked at this in person yesterday and it just wasn't very impressive from the physical / aesthetic side. Very plastic feeling...at least some companies try to dress it up, use sturdier plastic, or have it reenforced. The little floating keys feel unstable and fragile and apparently are fragile. There were (2) on display and both had keys broken off of them.

That said, I love the internals. The A6 is solid enough, 512MB graphics card, 1.3 MP Web Cam comes in handy, 640GB drive has double the space of my current laptop. Best specs I could find for a sub $400 laptop.

If you're ok with the plastic and you aren't tough on your electronics, this laptop may be just what you need...just too cheap feeling and not durable enough for me.

Used to love Toshiba, but they seem to be on a downward slide. DV and Envy HP's are ok, at least in my experience, but the other lines might as well have Compaq logos on them, and I hate Compaq. Dell Inspiron / Vostro = crap...company bought a bunch and they break constantly. Had Latitudes before and they were better, but the only Dells that look appealing are the Alienware, which are overly expensive. Gateway / Acer seem middle of the road in quality and price, so they are a decent option when you find a deal. But Asus and Lenovo seem to be the best options right now.

Anyone else have a ranking they care to share? This is a Windows-oriented request, please post all of your Mac-love elsewhere.

Toshiba is beyond the worst for me - the one time I bought a fancy laptop it was a toshiba and it was horrible. Ugh.
HP is okay-ish but their keyboards suck - I am typing on one now and it is insufferable. I bought a tm2t and bought [and am returning for multiple reasons] a Pavilion DM7 or something.
Acer is OK but their quality is pretty awful, really. I had a Aspire One - worked OK, then nothing but problems. Gateway was bought by Acer so they're around the same. I'd put HP over them.
Asus is fairly well-respected and I haven't heard anything bad - I'd put them and Lenovo, as you have, near the top, with Dell underneath them [of course it depends which one you get ...].