Gateway's E-6500D Proves That Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Gateway's E-6500D BTX tower desktop has a side panel that comes off easily and inside there's plenty of room for expansion. In contrast to many modern desktop systems and hardware that are difficult to take apart and have no room for expansion, solution providers will find the the E-6500D easy to service and modify.
The E-6500D desktop system is ideal for solution providers that build custom systems by installing special hardware. Some of the typical applications would be systems that cater to graphic artists, authors of multimedia and gaming software, engineering and geophysical applications and video production.
The E-6500D is Gateway's most expandable desktop system. The BTX tower case features seven drive bays, including two external 5.25-inch bays, two external 3.5-inch bays and three internal hard drive bays. The external 5.25-inch bays are suitable for optical drives and special multimedia hardware while the external 3.5-inch bays are good for floppy drives, media card readers and other smaller peripherals. With three internal drive bays available, it's easy to configure small RAID arrays with large amounts of storage space.
Integrated Ultra ATA100 and SATA II controllers support the latest hard drives, as well as RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5. The system comes preloaded with Windows XP Professional.
The motherboard features five expansion slots including one PCI-E x16, one PCI-E x1 and three full-height, full-length PCI slots. It also features integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with up to 224 Mbytes of shared memory. The Sound Blaster compatible audio system offers front and rear audio ports. Other ports include six USB 2.0 ports (two in front and four in back), three FireWire ports (two in front and one in back), one serial port, one parallel port and PS/2 connectors for the included mouse and keyboard. The system measures 16.5 inches high by 8 inches wide by 17.5 inches deep and weighs about 38 pounds.
Depending on the horsepower required, the E-6500D can be configured with single-core processors as fast as 3.8GHz or dual-core processors up to 3.4GHz. The sample unit was priced at $1,169, which includes a 2.8GHz dual-core Pentium D processor with an 800MHz front side bus and twin 2 Mbyte caches. It also includes 1 Gbyte of dual-channel DDR2 667MHz memory, two 160-Gbyte SATA II hard drives mirrored in a RAID 1 configuration and a 16X double-layer multiformat DVD burner.
The system was tested for performance using PassMark's PerformanceTest software, which can be used for free for up to 30 days. The system scored 416.8, which is quite fast and about equal to some dual-core servers that have recently been tested.
Gateway offers a two-tier channel program, member level and premier level. Member partners are defined as those purchasing as much as $250,000 in products, while premier partners exceed that amount.
Both levels have access to dedicated sales support, online training, customized marketing, marketing development funds, deal registration and pre- and post-sales support. Along with the inside sales representative, there is the ability to use eSource, Gateway's online procurement tool. Product discounts average higher than 10 percent, and the company offers competitive credit terms for qualified members. Partners also have access to product training, Webinars, e-newsletters and e-blasts with product, promotional and program news. Support is 24x7 and successful partners are entitled to quarterly market alignment funds, which reward those that exceed sales goals.
Gateway's channel program proves to be easy to navigate and has no up-front costs for partners, making it the ideal vehicle for partners looking to maximize sales volume.
