Gateway has had a gaming laptop in its lineup for years—the company just never advertised it as such. Its 17-inch laptop series, from 2004's M675XL to the current P-170L QS (recently renamed the P-171 FX), can be customized with a speedy processor, a powerful graphics card, and a wide selection of components. With this in view, it made sense for Gateway to come out with an official mobile gaming line, which it calls the FX series. The Gateway P-171XL FX ($2,999.99 direct) is the über-gaming machine out of three FX models being offered on Gateway's Web site. Although it lacks extravagant artwork or cool LED effects, the copper trimmings do make it stand out—at least a little bit. If you're a hard-core gamer, you'll appreciate the 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 processor and the nVidia GeForce 8800M GT. And the P-171XL FX is fairly priced, as well.

From a design standpoint, the P-171XL FX didn't go out of its way to reel in the teenage crowd. The older, classier audience might appreciate the subtleness of the copper trimmings on the sides and around the keyboard area. In addition, the big "FX" logo on the lid is muted and doesn't grab your attention. Gateway could have gone with brighter colors for the trim, but they would have clashed miserably with the polished black exterior. Toshiba had tried a "Sunlit Copper" tone a while back and realized that if you can't go all-out gaudy, don't bother at all. Dressing down is also one way of saving money for more important things. Of course, you could spare no expense and opt for things like pulsating LED eye-candy, custom paint jobs, and fancy metals, like those found on the Dell XPS M1730 and the Alienware Area-51 m9750.

The keyboard feels as if it could use another layer of padding underneath; it lacks the resistance that we liked on the keyboard of the Dell XPS M1730. As with the P-170L QS, the mouse buttons are loud when clicking, although most gamers will be using an external mouse. Unlike the speakers on the Dell M1730 and the Satellite X205 SLi4, the built-in speakers on the P-171XL FX aren't as thumping during a game, so attaching a pair of external speakers might be a good idea. Don't worry about plugging in too many multiple USB peripherals. The 9.2-pound frame and the meager 1 hour 32 minutes of battery life will keep it tethered to your desk in any event.

If you're a hard-core gamer, the P-171XL FX's 1,920-by-1,200 resolution is exactly what you want. It's a notch higher than the X205 SLi4's 1,680-by-1,050 resolution and matches that of the Dell M1730 and the ASUS G2S. In home-theater terms, this resolution is considered 1080p, and it's the highest you can go on current laptops. Now that Blu-ray has been declared the winner of the high-def format war, it seems unfortunate that this laptop came with an HD DVD-ROM drive, since it's only a matter of time before HD DVD drives in laptops will be discontinued. While they're still available, however, a built-in HD DVD-ROM will let you take advantage of the latest high-definition movies in HD DVD. The P-171XL FX bundles CyberLink's PowerDVD, a high-definition video decoder that does a terrific job of playing smooth and artifact-free video content.

Having an HD DVD-ROM means you can only watch HD DVDs, not burn them. And remember, even though the HD DVD portion will become obsolete, you can still use the drive to burn and read single-layer and dual-layer DVDs or CDs. As with all laptops with HD DVD drives, an HDMI port is supplied here. With it you can hook up the laptop to a huge flat-panel TV and treat it as a standalone player. The HDMI cable isn't included, however.

The P-171XL FX is equipped with three USB ports, half as many as the Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi4. The XPS M1730 has five, so Gateway doesn't really get any points there. It does, however, come with an eSATA port for current and future-generation hard drives and peripherals that support this connection. You can also find standard features like a 1.3-megapixel webcam, a fingerprint reader, and a multi-card reader. Ample storage, one of the hallmarks of 17-inch laptops, is particularly generous in the P-171XL FX. This notebook has dual 200GB, 7,200-rpm hard drives (400GB total), matching the Dell M1730's storage and trumping that of both the Toshiba X205-SLi4 (320GB) and the ASUS G2S (160GB).

As you can imagine, a gaming laptop is not exactly an energy saver because of the heat-emitting parts. Despite the 51W consumed during idle time, the P-171XL FX still draws less power than a typical desktop. The Toshiba X205-SLi4 consumes more energy, drawing 64W during idle state. When I cranked up the engines with the CineBench R10 test, the Gateway drew 94W, 13W higher than the Toshiba. This is understandable, because of the high-powered processors these systems use. When both systems were put into sleep and shutdown states, they consumed 1W each, which is average for a laptop. Energy Star requirements dictate that no more than 14W be consumed during idle state.

Many gamers choose their laptops based on performance. The Gateway P-171XL FX ranks among the best, integrating a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900, the same processor that's in the super-expensive Dell M1730. This component alone costs upward of $600 if purchased separately. Keeping up with processor performance is the 3GB of RAM. In terms of raw performance scores, this processor-and-RAM duo beat out the Toshiba X205-SLi4 by 47 percent on the SYSmark 2007 Preview Overall score. Because it loads components similar to the Dell M1730's, the P-171XL FX came within 3 percent of the Dell's SYSmark Overall score. Video-encoding and CineBench R10 scores were neck and neck with the Dell's, but the standard, non-overclockable Penryn processor on the Toshiba was simply no match for an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme.

Graphics is the most important factor in 3D gaming performance. The P-171XL FX puts in the latest from nVidia—the GeForce 8800M GT. On 3DMark 06 tests, it came within 1 percent of the Dell M1730's SLI nVidia GeForce 8700M GT, running at 1,920-by-1,200 resolution. It beat out the Toshiba's SLI GeForce 8600M GT, running at 1,680-by-1,050. Having an SLI or a dual graphics card configuration isn't always better. The Gateway single-handedly, so to speak, beat the X205-SLi4 on Crysis and World of Conflict demos. It even handled Crysis with all the eye candy turned up.

Three thousand dollars might sound expensive for any laptop, but when you consider the $600 CPU and the even pricier graphics card, the Gateway P-171XL FX doesn't seem like such a bad deal. If you're a gamer on a tight budget, you can always go with lower-priced alternatives, such as the Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi4 ($2,499) or the ASUS G2S ($1,850). Or you could really trick it out by going with my Editors' Choice, the Dell XPS M1730 ($4,024). But for those gamers whose budgets fall somewhere in between, the Gateway P-171XL FX has a good balance of premium parts and price for a gaming laptop.

Check out the Gateway P-171XL FX's test scores.

More Notebook Reviews: