Gateway One ZX6961-UR20P 23-inch All-In-One Desktop PC

Jul 29 2011 - At $900, the Gateway One ZX6961-UR20P sits roughly in the middle in terms of prices. In terms of features, it has some good items to it such as a larger 1.5TB hard drive, 6GB of memory and an internal power supply. The design lacks much of the innovations in terms of size or peripheral ports found in many of the competing models. This includes no USB 3.0 or eSATA ports for external expansion. The system is also much larger than other all-in-ones that could cause issues for those looking for a more compact desktop system.

Jul 29 2011 - Gateway shares much of the same designs now as their parent company Acer. In fact, the Gateway One ZX6961-UR20P is nearly identical in the base design as the Acer Aspire AZ5761-UR20P. This includes the use of the Intel Core i3-2100 dual core processor. This is Intel's second generation of the chip that provides a number of improvements to the performance but it is still the lowest of the new Core i3 dual core processors. It will do just fine for most tasks but it will fall behind other systems in more demanding tasks such as desktop video. Gateway does help out a bit more than the Acer design by including 6GB of DDR3 memory over 4GB which is beneficial to those that will do multitasking.

One area where the Gateway One ZX6961-UR20P sets itself apart from the rest of the all-in-one market by providing an above average hard drive capacity. Most systems have settled on the one terabyte size. Gateway includes a larger one and a half terabyte drive that allows for a lot more space for applications, data and media files. The drive does spin at a slower 5400rpm because of the green class drive that is used. The larger size is also beneficial as the system lacks and high speed external peripheral ports such as USB 3.0 or eSATA for external storage. A dual layer DVD burner is standard for playback and recording of CD or DVD media. It would have been nice to see a Blu-ray compatible drive for improved media support but it would have pushed the price closer to $1000.

The display and graphics are pretty much identical between the Gateway One ZX6961 and the Acer Aspire AZ5761. It uses a very responsive 23-inch multitouch display panel that features a 1920x1080 resolution for full 1080p HD video support. Unlike the Acer system, the Gateway includes their Portal software that gives a bit more functionality to the multitouch screen. It may not be as robust as HP's offering but still a step up from the base Windows 7 touch support. The graphics use the new HD Graphics 2000 that is built into the Core i3 processor. It is an improvement over the previous GMA integrated graphics but it still lacks sufficient 3D performance for anything beyond casual PC gaming at lower resolution and detail levels. At least it also provides acceleration for video encoding when using compatible applications.

While many all-in-one strive for compact designs, the Gateway One ZX6961 is a bit on the chunky side. Think of it more as a 23-inch display that has had a small form factor system strapped onto the back of it. This makes it a bit heavier and thicker which translates into a bit more difficulty fitting it into a smaller space. The benefit of the design however is the power supply is internal to the system rather than being an external power brick that typically has to be hidden behind the unit or under a desk.

The large overall size of the Gateway One ZX6961 makes storing the wireless keyboard under the monitor pretty much impossible. This is one feature that many all-in-ones have started to adopted as a way to unclutter the desktop when the system is not in use. Now, if it used the design akin to the older ZX6900, the keyboard could still be stored under it.