Gateway GT3016b review

Gateway's GT3016b is a desktop PC that comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 installed.

It doesn't look like the kind of PC you'd want to give pride of place in your lounge, though, and the lack of remote control, TV tuner and TV-out shows that Gateway doesn't expect you to.

However, Windows XP MCE's music, picture and video organisation features should prove useful wherever you put this PC, and you can easily add a TV tuner later and use its free electronic programme guide (EPG).

This particular PC comes without a monitor, so it's ideal for upgraders who want to keep their existing peripherals. If you're after a complete system, Comet also stocks this PC with either a 15", 17" or 19" LCD.

Gateway has had to cut some corners to build this budget PC, even if the specifications, which include a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM and 200GB hard disk, don't make it seem this way. Closer inspection shows that the processor is the budget Pentium 4 519 rather than the full Pentium 4 530. Both run at 3GHz, so the differences are subtle, but the 519 doesn't have Hyper-Threading and runs its memory slower. This results in performance scores that are little better than we'd expect from a notebook, although still acceptable for everyday tasks.

Gateway hasn't included a graphics card, so you won't be able to play 3D games on this PC. Strangely - and we've never seen this before - the GT3016b lacks a graphics card expansion slot, so you can't even install your own card later. It has only one PCI slot and one PCI-E x1 for expansion.

Most PCs can be noisy, but the GT3016b, which uses a BTX design, is whisper-quiet. The built-in memory card reader and roomy 200GB hard disk are useful, but the DVD writer is slow as it writes to DVD+R DL discs at only 2.4X and doesn't support DVD-R DL discs.

The rather weedy stereo speakers are no good for anything but the occasional beeps Windows makes, but support for six-channel audio means you can add a 5.1 surround-sound system. Bundled software includes Microsoft Works 8 and Microsoft Money 2005.

Sadly, with few upgrade options and a low-powered processor, this PC just isn't as good value as the alternatives in this month's Labs.