Gateway UK today unveiled its latest notebook and desktop PCs, pitching the products at consumers and small businesses needing performance on a budget price. The roll-out also takes in Intel's latest dual-core desktop processor technology.

That said, the notebooks feature previous-generation CPUs: the new MX6640b, MX6638b and GT3220b laptops are based on Pentium M 750, Pentium M 725 and Celeron M 360 chips, clocked at 1.83GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.4GHz, respectively. All three are based on Windows XP Home Edition, contain a four-in-one memory card reader, DVD±R/RW dual-layer optical drive and 802.11g Wi-Fi. Hard drive capacities come in at 80, 60 and 60GB, respectively.

The MX6640b ships with 1GB of DDR 2 SDRAM in dual-channel configuration, while the two other machines contain 512MB. The top-end notebook's 15.4in widescreen display is powered by an ATI Mobility Radeon X600SE GPU with 64MB of video RAM. The other machines have chipset graphics: in Intel GMA 900 on the MX6638b and an S3 Unichrome Pro on the GT3220b. They have 15.4in and 14.1in widescreen displays, respectively.

Gateway's GT5012b desktop has a 2.8GHz dual-core Pentium D 920 processor, 1GB of dual-channel DDR 2 SDRAM, Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics with 256MB of memory taken from the main RAM bank, a 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive, DVD±R/RW dual-layer optical unit, eight-in-one memory card reader and 7.1-channel audio.

Gateway said the four machines are all available now through Staples stores. The MX6640b costs around £799, the MX6638b £649 and the GT3220b £499. The GT5012b costs around £599. ®