Personally, I wouldn't walk across the street for a Gateway of any kind, even if it was free.
Been working in the technology field since '95 and have a collection of horror stories I could tell about Gateway's hardware and support.
For the same money, you can get a darned good Dell, or check out the HP laptops. You can get a LOT of laptop for the money (that is, a pile of standard features) from HP. Not wild about some of their desktop units, but they do put out some good laptops.
I guess it's kind of a Ford vs Chevy thing, but in my humble opinion, they can keep that Gateway stuff. (Then again, you can always get to the AR15.COM discussion forums on most any brand of PC) [:D]
Just my 2 cents worth...
By the way, if you can afford to buy the better half a laptop, you're obviously much wealthier than I, or you haven't spent enough on your weapon collection this year..... [;)]