Gateway quality question.

I had a two part question. How quality of a product does Gateway produce and in this day and time how much does the brand play into the quality? Any and all information would be appreciated.

Caveat: Personal opinion only… The major manufacturers pretty much all buy their components from third-parties on bid, and have gone downhill as a result IMO. What exactly is "in" any branded laptop or tower may be specific to that model or may change due to inventory anywhere along the serial numbers. Market (price) has a big impact on what a manufacturer puts into their product. I wish the deciding factor was technical specification and quality control, but I highly doubt those factors have much of a voice in face of market. One exception comes to mind from general and not specific or documented information, and that is ASUS.

Caveat: Personal opinion only… Used to have a Gateway computer at work. We were an authorized distributor of a certain pre-engineered steel building manufacturer and as part of the "dealership" we had to use their design program. Part of of the "package" was that their software came pre-installed on a computer. It was a Gateway. I hated it. Gateway (at least then) uses alot of proprietary things - including almost all of their drivers. When we quit dealing with the afformentioned company, the computer was reformatted and put into general use. What a pain! I sent it in to the local computer shop (and paid its value) and got it operable. It always caused problems when anything was upgraded. At one point I stripped it down and attempted to use it's components in other systems with limited results. Floppy disk would work, CD player and Tape drive were a no-go for me - as was the sound card. Never reinstalled the Hard drive anywhere else. I ended up putting it back together and giving it to our local school for them to play with in their computer technology class. That being said… I know people who have had Gateway's and never had any trouble… but they never upgraded them or made changes to anything. I'm not a Tech. The people here who actually understand how computers work probably would have had no trouble… but thus was my experience.