At first glance, the Gateway MT6723 seems to be a pretty nice laptop. It has solid construction, a decent keyboard, and a nice screen even though it has a pretty mediocre resolution. However, the low end processor, integrated video and questionable thermals really bring down my opinion. The basic stats of this laptop include:
- CPU: Pentium Dual Core T2310 (Merom) @ 1.46 GHz
- 2 GB PC2-5300
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (integrated)
- 15.4" TFT Display with 1280x800 resolution
- 160GB SATA HDD @ 5400RPM
For more complete specs, check out the output from HardInfo.
The Core 2 Duo line of processors covered a massive range. "Pentium" and "Celeron" variations tended to be lower end models with less cache and lower clock speeds. This one is a Pentium and it is definitely on the lower end of the scale.
Being one of the slowest, you would think this CPU would run relatively cool. But in this laptop at least, it runs so hot under full load that it will throttle. I checked to make sure the fan and heatsink were relatively dust free and that the fan seemed to be working well but it still runs hot.
As far as upgrade possibilities, being a laptop there aren't many. I couldn't find any information on CPU upgrades for this model. You can of course upgrade to a larger hard drive or SSD. Mine already has 2 GB of RAM which is the maximum officially supported.
The integrated Intel video cements this as a low end machine. It has a pretty nice screen for a low-end laptop so if your main need was for word processing, spreadsheets, and e-mail then this would have been an ok budget machine when new. However, for both retro usage and modern usage it is pretty lousy. Using integrated Intel graphics makes it useless for retrogaming. The extra slow CPU and the RAM being limited to at best 4 GB makes it less than ideal for Windows 10 or modern mainstream Linux distributions.
Like all the machines I use, I have BOINC installed on this one and it is able to do work for all of my usual projects including Einstein@home, Milkyway@home, Rosetta@home, Asteroids@home, Universe@home and World Community Grid. You can see how it is doin overall at FreeDC.
Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2025/02/13/digital-archaeology-gateway-mt6723/
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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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