Gateway Profile 4: What's in the box?

Gateway is to renew its battle with Apple for market share next week with a new PC built around a flat-panel monitor.

Gateway confirmed on Monday that it plans to release its new Profile 4 systems on 26 August. Six Profile 4 models will be available, with prices ranging from $999 to $1,999.

The high-end consumer all-in-one, the Profile 4XL, will come with a 2.66GHz Pentium 4 processor, 17-inch flat-panel monitor, 512MB of double-data rate (DDR) SDRAM, 120GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD combo drive, USB 2.0 and Windows XP Home. It's priced at $1,999. The 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor is available as a $150 upgrade.

The midrange model, the Profile 4X, would pack a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 17-inch flat-panel monitor, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive, CD-RW drive and Windows XP Home for $1,499. For the same price, the Profile 4SE Cash and Carry is nearly identical but with a smaller 15-inch flat-panel monitor and larger 60GB hard drive. The $999 entry-level model, the Profile 4SE comes with a 1.7GHz Celeron processor, 15-inch flat-panel monitor, 128MB of memory, CD-ROM drive and Windows XP Home.

The two business systems, which also could appeal to some consumers, come with Windows XP Professional rather than the Home edition of the operating system. The higher-end Profile, the 4LS, fits in between the X and XL models. It comes with a 2.53GHz Pentium 4 processor, 17-inch flat-panel monitor, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, 80GB hard drive and CD-ROM drive for $1,899. The entry-level business all-in-one, the Profile 4L, comes with a 2GHz Pentium 4 processor, 15-inch flat-panel monitor, 20GB hard drive and CD-ROM drive for $1,499.

The pricing of the systems seem to be aimed more at Apple than at other competitors, said analysts. Apple's high-end iMac, selling for $1,999, comes with an 800MHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 17-inch wide-screen flat-panel display, 256MB of SDRAM, an 80GB hard drive, a DVD recording drive and Mac OS X. The $1,499 model comes with a 700MHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 15-inch flat-panel monitor, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a CD-RW/DVD combo drive and Mac OS X. The entry-level model, at $1,299, is nearly identical but comes with only 128MB of SDRAM and a CD-RW drive.

Gateway has closely matched two of the iMac model's prices, while offering processors with greater clock speed or more extras, say analysts. The Profile 4XL comes with twice the memory of the high-end iMac and a hard drive that is one-third larger. The X model is nearly identical in memory and storage to the $1,499 iMac, but offers a larger monitor. The 4SE's biggest advantage is price: $300 less than the low-end iMac.

The 4LS matches the price of the $1,899 iMac - with an 800MHz PowerPC G4 processor, 15-inch flat-panel monitor, 256MB of SDRAM, 60GB hard drive and CD-RW/DVD combo drive - with a larger display and beefier hard drive. Gateway also offers three models at the crucial $1,499 price compared to one for iMac.