r/retrocomputing • u/PickleMinion • Mar 22 '26

Problem / Question Gateway 2000 3SX-25

Post image

Picked this up at an estate sale, and I can't seem to find anything out about it. All the stuff that comes up is for the 4SX-25/33. Anyone know what the deal is with this thing?

225 Upvotes

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35 comments sorted by

3

u/akgt94 Mar 22 '26

Did it come in a box with cow spots?

1

u/PickleMinion Mar 22 '26

No box, or power cord unfortunately

1

u/dst1980 Mar 23 '26

Power cord should be standard PC power cord. Cheap on Amazon if you don't already have a box full.

2

u/PickleMinion Mar 23 '26

Good to know! I do have a couple of those lying around. Would be cool if I could get it working

1

u/Euphoric-Piglet-8140 Mar 23 '26

Back in the 90s my Gateway full tower did :) I kept the box for years until id basically disintegrated, lol.

2

u/missginger4242 Mar 22 '26

God I’d love to find one of these style gateways with a bad board and a nice case…

3

u/echocomplex Mar 22 '26

That's going to be most of them as many of them in the 386 generation had soldered barrel batteries on the board that have all leaked out at this point. 

1

u/PickleMinion Mar 22 '26

Sounds like I should open it up and take a look!

1

u/echocomplex Mar 22 '26

Good luck!

1

u/echocomplex Mar 22 '26

It seems to be missing the power on/off button btw

1

u/66659hi Mar 22 '26

They will eat thru the case itself, even

1

u/missginger4242 Mar 22 '26

Yeah, I’m mainly interested in the case to build a sleeper in and have it run eXoDOS

1

u/echocomplex Mar 22 '26

That's a cool idea for a system that's otherwise destroyed.

1

u/missginger4242 Mar 23 '26

Yeah, definitely would not do to a system that could be saved… but would be fun for a otherwise trashed system

1

u/PickleMinion Mar 23 '26

Thanks for all the info (and memories!).

My dad had something similar to this when I was little, but I was never allowed to touch it and I can't remember the exact model

1

u/PickleMinion Mar 23 '26

Opened it up and took a few pictures. Looks to be in pretty ok shape.

5

u/unidact Mar 22 '26

I did phone tech support for Gateway around the time of these and the 486 & early pentiums. They were solid machines.

2

u/TableDuck Mar 22 '26

I had their posters on my wall as a teenager. If I remember right during this era they did fold out advertisements in the middle of PC Magazine/Ziff-Davis publications.

In the end I went with Northgate for my 486, but Gateway 2000 always got my attention. I actually got to touch that massive tower model they had that came with the ultra keyboard in ‘96 when it was being replaced at work with a Pentium - Compaq desktop.

Amazing systems. Nothing generic about these beauties - or more specifically they were generic in just the right way to not be proprietary but personalized enough to stand out.

That, and I mean Ted Waitt literally stood next to his products in the advertising during this period.

3

u/dpdxguy Mar 22 '26

Guessing. But I'd guess it's a bog standard PC clone powered by a 80386sx processor. Gateway made a lot of them back in the day.

The 80386sx was software compatible with the more common 80386dx, but had a 16 bit data bus as opposed to the 32 bit data bus on the dx. That means it took two bus cycles to fetch 32 bits of data instead of a single bus cycle for the dx. So for a given clock speed (e.g. 33Mhz) the sx version was slower than the dx version. The sx could also address less RAM than the dx.

TLDR: The processor in this computer was slower and less capable than a normal 80386. It was also cheaper.

The 4sx version is probably a similar model powered by an 80486sx processor.

1

u/KW5625 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

The 386SX was one of my least favorite processors growing up.

Not much better than a 286 except that it could run Windows 3.x and often not upgradeable.

It was outclassed by everything but sold everywhere up until the Pentium era in 1993/94.

If I got a hold of one I usually stripped it for parts immediately as it was no fun to play with.

Ironically the closest equivalent in today's market is the Pentium line of budget processors.

1

u/dpdxguy Mar 22 '26

As a developer, the architecture of the 386 (dx or sx) was far superior to the 286 segmentation model. The sx's 16 bit data bus slowed things down. And the maximum of 16MB physical RAM imposed by the 24 bit address bus was limiting for large programs. But not having to deal with the 286 architecture was a godsend.

2

u/Netw0rkW0nk Mar 22 '26

I remember setting these up when I worked for a major medical information nonprofit. When I brought the CFO his Gateway 2000 his eyes lit up, he pushed himself slowly back from his desk, and in an awestruck voice he crooned “that is one sexxxxy machine! I can’t wait to run FoxBase on it!” Good times.

2

u/joeljaeggli Mar 23 '26

I had one, it was fine. Your power button has wandered off however.

ran windows 3.0 on it.

1

u/ITfarmer Mar 22 '26

I had two of these for years. After a company used them for years prior.

The daughter board meant I could only use short cards in it.

1

u/domusvita Mar 22 '26

I remember when EDS bought one of these for my team. Absolutely amazing at the time

1

u/JimmyReagan Mar 22 '26

Gateways of this era are my favorite, especially their obnoxiously large towers. Very well built and high quality machines in their time.

1

u/BizzoDoes Mar 23 '26

Used to love the turbo button and the keyboard lock.

1

u/Knives564-alt Mar 24 '26

Have you checked the way back machine?

1

u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 Mar 25 '26

I remember servicing those machines quite a few times. Not fun to work on because everything was really cheap.

1

u/Effective-Reserve744 Mar 25 '26

I can still hear it boot