Gateway DT10G
By David Bayon
Published on Sep 13, 2009
Gateway DT10G
Gateway's business line of PCs is all about reducing your total cost of ownership through "performance and manageability", and that's evident in the DT10 desktop family. Low power-draw, easy upgrading and no small amount of processing power is a good combination for any office desktop, and the DT10G largely succeeds in its aims.
The midi-tower case shares the same orange flash across its midriff as the small form factor DU10G, but this is no cramped space-saver. Clip off the screw-free, lockable side panel - which comes with a handy reference guide to the motherboard's ports and connections stuck on the inside - and you'll find a spacious, well-designed interior.
Our review model barely begins to fill the available bays and sockets, but should you want to upgrade in the future it's a doddle to do so. Every disk bay features a tool-free, slide-off locking bracket, and the internal hard disk bays sit perpendicular to the rest for easy access; a quick pinch to the sides of the bright-green caddy is all it takes to slide one out in a second.
A single 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk sits in the lowest of the four bays, neatly hooked up to the motherboard with the SATA cable tucked out of sight beneath it. A further cable connects the DVD writer and, aside from the usual power and front-panel connectors, the only remaining wire links the motherboard to the useful chassis intrusion detector.
The stock Intel cooler never rose above a faint hum in our tests, but there's nevertheless a funnel to take the hot air directly out of a side vent. This might be more useful should you opt for a hotter and more powerful quad-core processor, but this DT10G's Core 2 Duo E8400 didn't push it too hard, even at 3GHz. A single 2GB stick of DDR3 RAM leaves three slots free, and helped the Gateway to a solid 1.48 in our real-world benchmarks - more than enough for the smooth running of office applications. It's also Intel vPro-enabled.
It's clearly an Acer motherboard and chassis - Gateway's parent company - but that's no bad thing. Although it's a tower chassis, a set of rubber feet on the side allow it to be laid down to suit differing desk setups. An extra button sits prominently on the front for one-touch system recovery via Acer's recovery software, and you can also make use of the installed Wave Embassy Trust Suite in conjunction with the integrated Trusted Platform Module to add to the level of security.
Legacy devices are supported by the serial port and PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors on the rear, and you get a total of ten USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet divided between front and rear panels. Both DVI and D-SUB ports mean old and new monitors will connect without the need for adapters, and an optional media card reader can be installed in the front panel.
The 300W power supply sits at the top of the case, and we were impressed to see the Gateway consuming a mere 33W when idle and 54W when benchmarking heavily. For a system with such processing power, that isn't to be sniffed at.
It comes with Vista Business 32-bit installed, along with various Gateway and Intel management suites and, strangely, a couple of CyberLink media utilities. The bundled keyboard and mouse are standard business fare - nothing spectacular, but durable and comfortable to use - and the overall feel of the PC is that it will withstand a few knocks in its lifetime.
The one stumbling block is the price. At £544, it's dearer than the A-Listed (but ageing) Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 - despite the latter's quad-core CPU, 500GB hard disk and innovative fold-out case mechanism. The one-year on-site warranty cover and two further years of replacement parts also seems a little light for a business PC.
Where the Gateway does have the clear edge, though, is in terms of longevity, as the scope for upgrading as the years pass is huge. Whether that's enough to swing the vote is down to your long-term purchasing strategy, but the DT10G is certainly good enough for serious consideration.
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