Gateway unveils Grantsdale PCI Express PCs in retail

Gateway Inc. will introduce its first desktops based on Intel Corp.’s new 915G chip set through several retail outlets, the company plans to announce Thursday.

The Gateway 500GR and 550GR are based on the 915G chip set, formerly known by its Grantsdale code name. The 915G incorporates a number of enhancements such as support for DDR2 (double data rate 2) memory, enhanced integrated graphics, and the PCI Express interconnect technology.

On Monday, Gateway announced it had added CompUSA Inc. as a retail partner, but did not provide any information about the types of PCs it would sell through that retailer. The new desktops will make their debut this weekend at CompUSA and Best Buy Co. Inc. stores, where Gateway already sells notebooks.

The company has also expanded its relationship with Office Depot Inc., which plans to carry the new systems. Gateway had quietly sold select PCs through Office Depot, but will now sell a larger lineup of Gateway-branded products through the stores and on Office Depot’s Web site.

Since discarding its own unprofitable network of retail stores in April, Gateway has found new retail partners in Best Buy and CompUSA for the distribution of Gateway-branded products. Gateway also sells PCs with the eMachines brand through Best Buy and CompUSA.

The addition of PCI Express to the 915G chip set improves the graphics performance of the 550GR, which comes with ATI Technologies Inc.’s Radeon X300SE graphics card with 128MB of memory., Gateway said. The new interconnect technology also allows faster data rates in the Intel Integrated Graphics chip used in the 500GR, the company said.

Gateway’s rivals Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. launched PCs based on the new chip sets in June, but shipments of those new PCs were halted after Intel discovered a manufacturing glitch in a certain undisclosed number of its chip sets. The problems were confined to a specific batch of chip sets and Intel says it has fixed the situation.

The 500GR has a target list price of $849.99, while the 550GR has a target list price of $999.99. Prices might vary because the individual retailers have different pricing and rebate policies, a Gateway spokeswoman said.

The 500GR comes with Intel’s Pentium 4 530 processor at 3GHz, 512MB of PC3200 (400MHz) DDR SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 200GB hard drive, and a DVD+/- RW drive. The 550GR comes with the Pentium 4 540 processor at 3.2GHz, 512MB of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 200GB hard drive, the ATI graphics card, and a DVD+/-RW drive.

Gateway also introduced two new monitors Thursday, the 17-inch VX750 CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor for $169.99 and the 17-inch FPD-1750 flat-panel monitor for $499.99.