Systems range from the high-end to ones designed for budget gamers Delivering on a promise made last year, Gateway started its 2008 campaign by launching a new line of desktops and laptops Monday designed to appease gamers.Targeted at budget and high-end gamers, the FX Series desktops and notebooks include multi-core processors, the latest Nvidia graphics cards, and support for Microsoft’s DirectX 10.1 gaming platform to carry out graphics-intensive applications.The systems were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show being held in Las Vegas between January 7 and 10. The high-end FX540XT gaming desktop, powered by Intel’s quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor, includes 1T byte of storage provided by two 500G byte hard drives. The system also uses dual Nvidia 8800 GTX graphics cards with 768M bytes of video memory. Priced at US$3,799.99, it runs Microsoft’s Windows Vista Home Premium OS.Other gaming desktops in the FX540 line run Intel’s quad-core Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor and provide up to 500G bytes of hard drive storage, with prices starting at $999.The Gateway FX7020, a budget gaming desktop priced at $1,099, will be powered by AMD’s quad-core Phenom 9600 processor operating at 2.3GHz, and includes Windows Vista OS. Loaded with 3G bytes of RAM and 512M bytes of video memory available on Nvidia’s GeForce 8800GT graphics card, the system provides rich graphics and blazes through multi-threaded programs, Gateway said. It also includes 2M bytes of L3 cache and up to 500G bytes of storage. The system includes a high-definition TV tuner for high-definition TV support. The system will be available later this month, Gateway said. Gateway’s new P-Series FX edition gaming notebooks sacrifice horsepower by providing power efficiency and mobility for gamers on the go. The company has plugged the Intel Mobile Extreme X7900 dual-core processor into the high-end P-171XL FX Max notebook with overclocking capabilities for gamers to tweak the speed for better system responsiveness.The laptop includes an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS with video memory of up to 512M bytes. It also comes with 3G bytes of RAM, a 17-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, up to 400G bytes storage via two hard drives, and support for 802.11n wireless networking. The laptop is priced at $2,999.Available in multiple configurations, other P-Series FX laptops are mostly powered by Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors and come with 17-inch LCD screens, hard drive storage up to 250G bytes and 3G bytes of RAM. The laptops will be available in January in the U.S. through the company’s Web site and Best Buy retail stores, with prices ranging from $1,349 to $1,999. Gateway last year identified gaming as a growth category after it was acquired by Acer for $710 million. Although Acer is reviewing Gateway’s product roadmap to enhance the company’s offerings, Acer said it would allow Gateway to design its own laptops during the first quarter of 2008. Technology Industry