Digital Trends

Gateway M520S

October 24th, 2004 | by Ian Bell

Introduction

The Gateway M320 and M520 product lines are currently being sold through retail stores and directly through Gateway's website. The M320 line is being marketed as the thin and light laptop while the M520 is being branded as more of a desktop replacement notebook with multimedia capabilities. We reviewed the Gateway M320XL last week and while we loved its looks, there were some design flaws which we were disappointed in. This week we look at the big brother to the M320, the M520S desktop replacement.

There are three notebook computers in the M520 product line. For the budget conscious, the M520CS features an Intel Celeron CPU at 2.5GHz, 256MB of RAM and no built-in wireless capabilities while offering an affordable starting price of only $799. Stepping up to the M520S will get you an Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM and integrated 802.11b/g networking for only $200 dollars more. And lastly the top-of-the-line M520X features Windows XP Professional as the operating system and a larger 60GB hard drive for an extra $279 starting at $1278.99. Gateway offers a “Step Up” program which will add more memory, more hard drive space and a 6-in-1 media card reader for a little extra money. Overall, all three systems are very competitively priced.

Image courtesy of Gateway