The Gateway MX6426 has an interesting dichotomy of features. It has a Turion 64 processor which is among the earliest 64-bit laptop processors. It competed with the Pentium M early in it life and later on with the Core and Core 2 processors. It was quite a bit faster than even the fastest Pentium M processors and competed favorably in terms of price.
However, this laptop (and probably lots of other featuring the Turion 64) has some limitations that prevent this processor from reaching its true potential. The biggest limitation is the fact that this laptop only supports a maximum of 2 GB of RAM (it originally shipped with 1 GB). I'm not sure why they skimped on the hardare this way as the biggest advantage of 64-bit processors was support for RAM above 4 GB.
The next limitation makes the first one a little less important. This laptop shipped with Windows XP which is a 32-bit OS. This isn't really the fault of Gateway though, AMD just had 64-bit CPUs available commercially before 64-bit operating systems were ready for prime time. This laptop can of course be upgraded to a 64-bit OS and I have it running a 64-bit version of Xubuntu at the moment. However, the 2GB limitation means that this really isn't much of an advantage.
Unfortunately, the video solution isn't that great either, at least if you were hoping to play any games. This laptop features the Mobility Radeon Xpress 200. While slightly better, this was more or less the equivalent of the Intel GMA 950 which is about as low end as you can go. So while the CPU would have been more than enough for the latest games, the Xpress 200 with its shared memory and limited capabilities would have been useful only for older titles or those with very light requirements at the time.
The hardware of the MX6426 includes:
- CPU: Turion 64 MK-40 @2.2 GHz (K8)
- RAM: 1 GB DDR-333
- Video: Mobility Xpress 200 (RS480M)
- Screen: 1280x800
- Hard Drive: Fujitsu MHV2080A (80 GB)
- Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082N
For more complete specs, see the output of hardinfohere.
As far as the design, it's similar to other Gateway laptops of the era. They had an understated gray and black design with blue lighting that seemed to be popular with many manufactuerers at the time. It feels solid and well built and the keyboard is reasonably nice to type on. Overall, it seems like a pretty good choice for a budget laptop. Obviously for gaming you would have needed something with a dedicated GPU as opposed to the integrated motherboard solution this laptop provides.
Though useable with a modern OS, it's not the greatest choice. The single core and limited RAM expansion really hurt it in that regard. However, if you are looking to play around with Windows XP it would work great.
Like all the old (and new) computers I play around with, this one runs BOINC and it supports most of my favorite projects including Einstein@home, Asteroids@home, Universe@home, and World Community Grid. It hasn't received any work for Rosetta@home but that project doesn't alway provide non-VM work and this laptop may not have enough memory for Rosetta work anyway. You can also check how this laptop is doing on FreeDC or BOINCStats.
Check out some of my other recent posts:
Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (461-464)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-461
The One (June 1992)
https://ecency.com/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/the-one-june-1992
SVintage Photos - Lot 3 (457-460)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-457
Three Tune Tuesday - Some Folk-ish Choices
https://ecency.com/threetunetuesday/@darth-azrael/three-tune-tuesday-some-folk
Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (453-456)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-453
ST-Log (April 1988)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/st-log-april-1988
Check out my other Social Media haunts (though most content is links to stuff I posted on Hive or reposts of stuff originally posted on Hive):
Wordpress: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/darth-azrael
X: https://x.com/Darth_Azrael
Blogger: https://megalextoria.blogspot.com/
Odyssee: https://odysee.com/@Megalextoria:b
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-2385054
Daily Motion: https://www.dailymotion.com/Megalextoria
Books I am reading or have recently read:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson
Total Power by Vince Flynn
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