Mick Lockey

Gateway E-4000

The E-4000 comes in an all-black, compact, and attractive four-bay case that can stand vertically or lie on its side. (The system is also available in a three-bay Micro Tower case.) Our review unit measured a mere 13.5 inches high by 4 inches wide by 15.5 inches deep when set up as a tower--significantly smaller than most full-sized desktop cases. Much like other corporate systems we've reviewed, it opens easily after you release one large thumbscrew and slide off the three-sided cover. This compact case design is a slight improvement over the previous version of the E-4000, whose clamshell case was awkward to maneuver. Handy latches make removing hard and optical drives easy and quick. The system features six USB 2.0 ports, two of which are located on the front of the case at the bottom corner.
With such a compact design, the E-4000 won't accept many upgrades: Our test configuration had no open drive bays for installing an additional optical or other 5.25-inch removable media drive (it does have a 3.5-inch bay for another hard drive). Its size also means that the PC will take only compact cards. Another gripe: The small oval power button is hard to see except when the system is powered up. Equipped with a 2.4-GHz Pentium 4 processor and 256MB of 266-MHz DDR SDRAM, our test model earned a PC WorldBench 4 score of 108--a few points faster than the earlier E-4000 (which had half as much RAM), but slower than other systems with a similar configuration. Just as the E-2000 did, this unit faltered in our high-end graphics tests. Its integrated graphics--dependent on system memory--produced weak frame rates and noticeable image tics such as inaccurate lighting and slight texture glitches. We also experienced periodic crashes during game play. But this system was never meant for gaming; we ran our graphics tests on it only because we do so on all the systems we review. If you want a gaming system, look at Gateway's 700 series desktops.
The 17-inch Gateway EV700 CRT monitor rendered sharp colors and details on our test photo, while text and fonts on business documents were legible, though not as crisp as we've seen on other 17-inch CRTs. The EV700 matches the system's black color scheme, though.Like the E-660, the E-4000 has a set of management software tools so the system can be monitored over a network. They include LANDesk Client Manager 6.3, which can help system administrators detect and log trouble areas--such as a failing hard drive, a slow fan, system overheating, or software conflicts--or be alerted if someone opens the case. With DMI (Desktop Manager Interface) 2.0, Wake-on-LAN, and Alert-on-LAN, administrators can maintain the system remotely.
A middle-of-the-road member of Gateway's corporate family, the E-4000 provides modest performance and limited expansion options, but its compact case and manageability over a network make it a top choice for large deployments in space-constrained environments.

Buying Information

Gateway E-4000 PC WorldBench 4 score of 108, 2.4-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM, Windows XP Professional, 60GB hard drive, 48X/24X/48X CD-RW drive, integrated graphics card with 64MB of DVMT, 17-inch Gateway EV700 monitor, no speakers, network adapter, compact case. Three-year parts and labor warranty; lifetime 24-hour, seven-day toll-free support. $ 1179 PC WorldBench 4 score of 108, 2.4-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM, Windows XP Professional, 60GB hard drive, 48X/24X/48X CD-RW drive, integrated graphics card with 64MB of DVMT, 17-inch Gateway EV700 monitor, no speakers, network adapter, compact case. Three-year parts and labor warranty; lifetime 24-hour, seven-day toll-free support. http://www.gateway.com 800/846-2000