We have seen many a Gateway machine put through a thorough workout and come out the other end with some excellent benchmark scores. On rare occasions, however, we receive a Gateway PC that does not live up to our expectations, and unfortunately this is one of them.

When it comes to build quality, its difficult to find anyone who can match the standards that Gateway has set. The Performance 800 is a clear demonstration of this, housed in a sturdy tool-free case that cleverly utilises a locking mechanism to hold the side panels and components in place. This makes accessing the internals of the Gateway machine an absolute breeze, and is certainly a feature that the Labs team would love to see more often. Within the case, there is plenty of open space and all the cabling is tied back so as to leave almost the entire surface of the motherboard clear and visible. One interesting feature to note is that the internal 3.5in bays are oriented sideways, which allows the user to remove or replace the hard drive with ease.

Living up to the standard of quality that Gateway has set in the Labs, the Performance 800 is a well balanced system, although it didnt quite live up to its namesake when it comes to the benchmark results. The Performance 800 proved to be the slowest machine in the 3D benchmarks and performed below average in the 2D application-based tests, as the graphs will testify. Despite running a Pentium III/800MHz CPU and 128Mb of SDRAM, which is a reasonable spec, the performance deficiency can be pinpointed to the slow 5,400rpm Quantum hard disk and less than desirable TNT2 M64 graphics card. The TNT2 M64 is well past its prime now, and will certainly prove a disappointment to the avid gamer.

Though the Performance 800 comes with Microsoft Works Suite 2000, a top quality Sound Blaster Live! Value, and quality Boston Acoustic speakers with subwoofer, that is about the extent of features on offer. Whilst this is not a bad package in itself, it simply cannot compete with the likes of the Peripherals Plus PCA700A, with its DVD-ROM, CD-RW, TV tuner, Ethernet card, Web cam and massive software bundle. Furthermore, Gateway proved unable to provide a suitable specification for under the $3,000 Labs price cap, and it is further penalised as a result.