- Lots of Expansion Ports
- Includes FireWire Port
- No Wireless Networking
- Fairly Bulky
- Intel Celeron D 325 (2.53GHz) Processor
- 256MB DDR Memory
- 40GB 4,200rpm Hard Drive
- 24x CD-RW/DVD Combo Optical Drive
- 15" XGA LCD Display and Intel Extreme 2 Graphics with 64MB Shared Memory
- AC'97 Audio
- v.92 56Kbps Modem and 10/100 Ethernet
- Four USB 2.0 Ports, One FireWire Port and One Type II PC Card Slot
- 14" x 10.4" x 1.6" @ 7.5 lbs.
- Windows XP Home, MS Works 7, Norton Anti-Virus 90-day
10/27/04 - Gateway's M520 series is designed to be a wide screen notebook, but the M520CS version of the notebook foregoes the use of the wide screen to produce a unit for the more budget oriented consumer.
Powering the M520CS is the new Intel Celeron D 325 processor. This is a new version fo the Celeron that has a higher bus speed to allow for improved performance over previous Celerons. Matched up to this processor is 256MB of DDR memory. This is enough to run Windows XP with delays only in multitasking.
Storage on the M520CS is average for a budget notebook computer. It comes standard with a 40GB hard drive and a 24x CD-RW/DVD combo optical drive. The combo drive allows the M520CS be used for burning data and music CDs or watching DVD movies on the screen.
As previously mentioned, the frame of the M520 is designed to use a wide screen display, but the M520CS model uses a standard 15" LCD display with a 1024x768 resolution. This gives the M520CS a bit of an odd appearence. The Intel Extreme 2 integrated graphics lack the power to do any sort of 3D graphics such as gaming.
One area where the M520CS does well is in the expansion. The system has a total of 4 USB 2.0 ports and is one of the few that does have a FireWire port. There are a few drawbacks however. The most notable of these is the lack of integrated wireless network, something that is standard on most notebooks today.
