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We have collected 2 reviews of the Gateway SX2311-03. Experts rate Gateway SX2311-03 5/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the Gateway SX2311-03 and Gateway Desktop computers.
With the SX2311-03 budget desktop PC ($599 as of August 24, 2010), Gateway jumps into the crowded compact-PC market. Since there's simply no way to squeeze more out of a miniature system and still keep it competitive, PC makers end up creating similar models priced in the $600 range. That doesn't mean, however, that there isn't enough variance between system loadouts to establish a pecking order. You might think that the use of an AMD CPU--specifically, the 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 820--should have allowed Gateway to slap a lower price tag on this machine. Instead, from the looks of things, the company chose to use the savings to beef up the system's components. The 4GB of DDR3 memory is a bit better than the 3GB we've seen on competing desktops such as the Acer Veriton X480G or Acer Aspire X1301-B1812, but nothing much compared with the 6GB of RAM in Gateway's own SX2840-01. We do like the inclusion of a 1TB hard drive--but in that respect, the SX2840-01 matches the SX2311-03. Why do we keep bringing up Gateway's other recent desktop? As far as specs, what it doesn't match on the SX2311-03, it beats.
Unlike typical technology upstarts, Gateway has had a storied journey that began on an Iowa cattle ranch in 1985. Its two founders, Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond, built the company from the ground up with a $10,000 loan from Waitt's grandmother and enjoyed quite a successful run up until the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s. Despite attempts to remain profitable, like entering the consumer electronics market and purchasing eMachines in 2004, Gateway was ultimately acquired by industry giant Acer in 2007. The company still operates as a subsidiary of Acer, which isn't a bad thing considering they are among the top three largest PC makers in the world. The Small Form Factor system that we'll be reviewing today, part of Gateway's SX desktop series, is nearly identical in form and fit to the Acer Aspire X1200 we looked at nearly two years ago. Of course, the internals have been beefed up to meet today's standards, but the layout and styling cues are very similar. The SX series from Gateway is one-third the size of a traditional desktop tower yet it still packs a sizable punch for its small footprint.