E-machine...worth it?

[dev 47]

I'll admit...I've never liked e-machines, of course, I've never bought one...but after being told they had been bought out by Gateway and then looking on their site to see a really nice sounding machine...my mind changed...

For $549 I can get:

AMD Athlon

[sloppet 3]

now that is what u call a powerful machine... great pc dev.. I would buy it if i would live in your country.. in poland everything is 6 times more expensive than in usa, and we earn less

I think this pc for ~ 550$ rocks!

Holy MFKR!!

[The_Family_Guy 2]

Sounds to me like too good of a deal. Is there any kind of warranty? I don't see one on that list.

Plus, add about $500 for a monitor, a crappy one I mean. For the one they have on the screen, add $900+.

Plus there are better, 10K rpm hard drives. And I hope you have Microsoft Office to install on it, or else add another $350. The sound card lacks too, as well as the GeForce.

It's a good BASIC computer, but they always get you with the monitor.

Dell has better deals. And costumer service (at least for me; those guys in India are so nice.)

PS  (Edit) It's AN E MACHINE! No! Put down your money! Walk away!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

My son bought a similar E-machine. He has had it for about six months, and is quite happy with it. One assumes you already have all the necessary peripherals. For about $350 or less you can get a 19 flat monitor made by ACER.

[xiziz 11]

The Processor seems to be on a 754 socket, instead of the newer 939/940 socket. judging by its speed. What i mean by this is that AMD 64 processors sold alone for this socket(754) aint manucatured anymore, there outdated(and yes... im on one of those outdated processors wishing id spent 100USD more for a 939 system, instead of spending 3-400USD to upgrade now).

Ive found that the chepest way to get around is to buy the newest technologies(note newest, not best), and then upgrade them to the best just before they are taken out of stock(at their chepest moment). that way you will have a top-preforming PC for probably 4-5 years, instead of having a awsome machine for 3 years, and then having to buy a completley new one anyway.

Cheers

[MayorTim 16]

I wouldn't go for it. It lacks a monitor, speakers, a good sound card, a good graphics card, or a good motherboard.

I also recommend Dell, while the actual price will be higher, they usually include a rather good LCD monitor and speakers are very cheap ($40 or so).

For a very good (But sort of on the expensive side) Gaming grade desktop, The XPS 400 is for you! The base model starts at $999, with a 19 LCD, but I recommend a $40 GPU upgrade (128mb to 256), $60 RAM upgrade (512 to 1gig), $60 hard drive upgrade (80gig to 160gig), and $30 2.1 speakers with subwoofer.

All in all, the above PC with the upgrades I recommend runs for $1,214.

A VERY good deal, considering it also comes with a dual core processor (albeit an Intel one.), and a 17 Ultrasharp LCD (Extremely good brand of LCD monitors, I use one myself), Speakers with Subwoofer, and it will be able to run most games today with settings on full and most games in the forseable future.

[Rymac91 15]

All of the Pc's I use are emmachines...my PC is one...my sisters is one...this one(my moms) is a old one and my dad has one....they are good for the basic stuff and you can always update it a bit after a while...and when they get too old..make them a server in the basement ...emachines are value machines mind you...so you might want to be careful with some...becuase on my emachines in only a few months after buying in the CD-Rom drive stoped working...not sure why...it just doesn't read disks...it ejects from PC command and ejects normally...oh well...anyway..Emachines are pretty good though...some people think value PC's are not worth the money but considering we have aren't going to pay 800 for a PC like a $500 with more features..so...long story short...go ahead buy it..if you like it tell about it to your friends

EDIT: now we don't buy them with the monitors..saves us about 80 to 100 off the price to buy one without one....also don't buy them with the printers...lexmark printers are rather crappy...and the cartragages cost alot...

[SamFlash 0]

Dev , go ahead and buy it.  It's pretty good bang for your buck.  The processor is reasonably quick and 1GB of ram isn't bad even if it's shared with the video.  Later when you have a little extra you can always update to a separate video card and disable the on board video.  Go to TigerDirect and you can usually pick up a pretty good 17 inch LCD monitor for under $200.  I've seen them as low as $146.  The early E-Machines were pieces of crap but they've improved considerably within the last year or so.  It may not be the newest or latest and greatest but it's a solid machine that should last you well for the next couple of years.

And for The_Family_Guy , try Open Office as a replacement for Microsoft Office.  It's free.

[dev 47]

I've got office...great speakers, good monitor, printer, etc...I don't need that..I just need a new machine. I've currently got a PC that is just about out of date...I thought of fixing up but I think I'd rather replace it. It's a Compaq (Never will buy that again btw...) and it has 256mb RAM, 80GB HD, and CD drive is broken...it doesn't play DVDs correctly anymore and is just getting old...

I want a new machine, but I don't want to spend big bucks. I knew I would recieve answers like get a XPS, and I WANT ONE lol...but I can't even think about affording one. I am wanting this computer to last until college (3-4 years) and then I'll buy me a nice Alienware laptop or something....Right now, I just want something that will do all basic functions, as well as play SC4/TS2/AOEIII well...

It is funny how this came up too...

I was talking to DuskTrooper about something and Wal-Mart crappy e-machine computers came to topic and he informed me that Gateway bought them...I then checked out their website and though...WOW that is cheap for what I see!

So tell me...how well would SC4...TS2...AOEIII run on this? And what would be the most important upgrades if I wanted to improve performance?

[nooneatall 6]

By the looks of it, it seems like impressive specs. The one thing to watch out for is the board, possibly, which can really lag down a computer even with good specs. For that kind of money (I'm assuming American dollars), you're going to get cheaper components, etc., but even still, it seems like a good price for the specs.

If you want the best for the cheapest money possible, you're always better off building yourself a PC. However, unless you know what you're doing, it's not as good an idea.

Not too sure about E-Machine's reputation, but chances are it's not the best warranty/ support as probably meantioned above.

All-in-all, I'd probably say go for it, unless you're willing to spend a bit more and look at systems with better components (board, hard-disc, RAM, in particular). Because good-quality components can make a big difference, believe it or not. I know from experience.

Good luck.

[MayorTim 16]

Well, to answer your question:

I own a Dell XPS 400

Pentium D 3ghz
1gig RAM
Nvidia 6800 256mb vram

SimCity 4 runs very smoothly for me on full settings, and since it isn't very graphics intensive, you should be fine also.

I have never played either of the other games, but since they have really stunning graphics, I would expect them to be rather graphics intensive, and the graphics card your getting in that e-machine may not be able to handel them full settings without lag.

I would expect all 3 of those games to be playable, but after 2 years or so your definately going to be hurting preformance wise.

[Yellowlab 11]

I don't know...it always bothers me when the picture of something is not what I'm getting, at that picture shows a monitor, but it doesn't come with one. It always reeks of false advertising to me, but that's just me. To each his own.

Specs are good for $500.

[masher 3]

e-machines suck!!1 I bought one and returned it the same day!! It was all messed up! And I had not touched it!

[The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz 27]

I'm currently looking at a new desktop of my own, that will get everything running faster. I too would like your opinion. It's a Dell Dimension9150 for

[defcon pilot 0]

I have a Sony VAIO, not sure what model. Cost about $1200, not including monitor. (We already had that.) Came with mouse, keyboard, and speakers. Specs:
3.2 GHz Pentium 4 CPU
250 GB Hard disk
ATI Radeon 9200 Graphics Card
Video and sound cards - Not sure
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
500 or so MB DDR, expandable to 2 GB
DVD-Plus/Minus RW Drive, speed: Not sure
Well, I'm kinda not so hot on specs, but it's pretty good and plays SimCity smoothly.
Not so sure about E-machines, but I don't think I'd want to get one.

[SamFlash 0]

It looks like a solid desktop machine that should serve you well.  Every machine is a compromise unless your fortunate enough that money is no object.  I don't know how the price translates into American dollars but the specs are good and I'm sure you'll enjoy having it.

[MayorTim 16]

Very nice Muzz... though I recommend downgrading from the 3 year warranty to the 1 year, and saving 200 Euros. With the saved money, you could upgrade from a 19 LCD to a 19 Ultrasharp LCD, which is considerably better. You should also upgrade to XP Professional, since its only a 20 Euro upgrade.

I customized it myself to see how it would work, my configuration came out to 1,040 Euros (not sure what that is in $, which is what I am used to).

[The_Family_Guy 2]

Date: 2/14/2006 2:36:55 AM Author: The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz

I'm currently looking at a new desktop of my own, that will get everything running faster. I too would like your opinion. It's a Dell Dimension9150 for

[Praetorian Cohort 0]

Date: 2/13/2006 6:14:04 PM
Author: MayorTim
I also recommend Dell, while the actual price will be higher, they usually include a rather good LCD monitor and speakers are very cheap ($40 or so).

For a very good (But sort of on the expensive side) Gaming grade desktop, The XPS 400 is for you! The base model starts at $999, with a 19' LCD, but I recommend a $40 GPU upgrade (128mb to 256), $60 RAM upgrade (512 to 1gig), $60 hard drive upgrade (80gig to 160gig), and $30 2.1 speakers with subwoofer.

All in all, the above PC with the upgrades I recommend runs for $1,214.

A VERY good deal, considering it also comes with a dual core processor (albeit an Intel one.), and a 17' Ultrasharp LCD (Extremely good brand of LCD monitors, I use one myself), Speakers with Subwoofer, and it will be able to run most games today with settings on full and most games in the forseable future.

quote>
Gaming Grade is how they're able to charge nubs more for hardware. My Media Center PC can easily keep stride with the majority of gaming grade PCs.

I would go with Hewlett-Packard/Compaq over Dell. Hewlett-Packard offers AMD CPUs as well as Intel, and, from what I have seen, AMDs are much better than their counterparts in the same price range. They may only clock at 2.2-2.4GHz, but they run much faster and cooler than a similarly-priced Intel.

Don't decide on a graphics card solely on dedicated memory. I'm not an expert on ATi, so I can't really speak about the Radeon series of cards, but you'll definatly want to stay away from the nVidia 6200 and 7300 Series. Personally, I would reccomend either the 6600GT, 6800GS, or 7800GT graphics cards. If you have the money, go for the 7800GTX. If you have to have an ATi, I would get one of the X1000 Series. The previous generation of ATi cards are far inferior to their nVidia counterparts in terms of price/performance, and I'm not impressed by the X1300, X1600, or X1800 series. The X1900 XTX, while expensive, outperforms the 7800GTX, though, as previously mentioned, is much more expnesive, and you have to buy the CrossFire edition if you want to run two.

For optical drives, I can't live without two, so I would at least get a CD RW/DVD combo drive and CD-ROM drive. I personally have a HP DVD+/-R/W LightScribe Dual Layer drive and a DVD-ROM drive. It does its job well.

I have an Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC with AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego core), EVGA GeForce 7800GT, 1GB DDR RAM, and Sony 19 LCD that has cost me about $1200 total.


To sum all that ^ up, Hewlett-Packard + AMD + nVidia =

[dev 47]

Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

[plasticboy 36]

Date: 2/14/2006 8:45:15 PM
Author: dev
Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

quote>
Buy IMac and forget about what is inside of your computer.

[MayorTim 16]

iMacs, while EXTREMELY nice, cost more than that Dell XPS, and out of those 3 games, it will only play one (and badly).

[Rymac91 15]

I have a Emachines T3256 it has

-2.4Ghz AMD Athlon Xp proccesser

-160Gb hard drive

-8 in 1 Media Card reader(USB counts as one)

-48x CD ROM Drive(though it broke down after 4 months of constant use(I used only it and I used it everyday for 4 months))

-DVD Burner/CD burner

-512Mb of RAM

-5 USB ports

-Geforce4 Video card

-some Nividia sound card(It's the speakers...not the sound card that make the differnce)

-Media Keyboard(which is actully very nice)

-2 button mouse with scroll wheel

all for $580(I didn't buy a monitor with it since I already had one...I didn't need the speakers that came with it since I already had some and I didn't need the printer since I had one already)

I play SC4 and TS2 on it...it works great...I set sim city to hardware and I can run up to 200,000 on a medium map with 1gb of plugins before it starts to slow down...I can play on 5x6 lot,about 28 sims before it starts lagging...considering your specs on the new one I think it'll handle these games fine...mind you this will last you until college before you'll want to upgrade it with more RAM.


EDIT: you could get a Mac mini for the same price...I'm looking at a Mac for next year

[dev 47]

Date: 2/14/2006 9:15:04 PM
Author: plasticboy

Date: 2/14/2006 8:45:15 PM

Author: dev

Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

quote>

Buy IMac and forget about what is inside of your computer.

quote>

Buy it for me and I will give you both of my current computers, a box of chocolates, and a flower.

[TheCrybKeeper 301]

Date: 2/13/2006 10:34:35 AM Author:dev I'll admit...I've never liked e-machines, of course, I've never bought one...but after being told they had been bought out by Gateway and then looking on their site to see a really nice sounding machine...my mind changed...

 For $549 I can get: AMD Athlon

[Praetorian Cohort 0]

Date: 2/14/2006 8:45:15 PM
Author: dev
Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

quote>
You're kidding. What did he reccomend instead? Pentium 4? Read some of the reviews of AMD CPUs online. I'm sure most other people will think otherwise. And, like I said earlier, check out Hewlett-Packard. They normally have some form of a sale online.

[dev 47]

Date: 2/15/2006 12:18:11 AM
Author: Praetorian Cohort

Date: 2/14/2006 8:45:15 PM

Author: dev

Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

quote>

You're kidding. What did he reccomend instead? Pentium 4? Read some of the reviews of AMD CPUs online. I'm sure most other people will think otherwise. And, like I said earlier, check out Hewlett-Packard. They normally have some form of a sale online.

quote>

Well...he works in a PC shop and told me how AMD CPUs fail for no apparent reason, etc...I trust him a good bit.

As for HP...I am on a HP right now...and my other is a Compaq. They both suck. I hate them. I won't but those brands again. Just my opinion though...this HP really just isn't working well for me...it is old, but it's never had much luck...it has been risen from the dead twice I believe, and I've seen the blue screen of death numerous times...So yeah...

[Easy Bakes 253]

Just build your own. in the long run you get a better machine that you can upgrade for a while and you dont have to deal with sales people.

 

 

 

 

[The_Family_Guy 2]

Date: 2/15/2006 12:23:05 AM Author: dev

Date: 2/15/2006 12:18:11 AM Author: Praetorian Cohort

Date: 2/14/2006 8:45:15 PM Author: dev Well...seeing mixed opinions, and being on the fence I decided to talk to an expert...he informed me not to buy it...the AMD CPU, as well as a few other things just don't make it too good.

quote> You're kidding.  What did he reccomend instead?  Pentium 4?   Read some of the reviews of AMD CPUs online.  I'm sure most other people will think otherwise.  And, like I said earlier, check out Hewlett-Packard.  They normally have some form of a sale online.

quote> Well...he works in a PC shop and told me how AMD CPUs fail for no apparent reason, etc...I trust him a good bit. As for HP...I am on a HP right now...and my other is a Compaq. They both suck. I hate them. I won't but those brands again. Just my opinion though...this HP really just isn't working well for me...it is old, but it's never had much luck...it has been risen from the dead twice I believe, and I've seen the blue screen of death numerous times...So yeah...

quote>

 

Yeah, try to avoid HP and especially Compaq. My Compaq never took upgrades well at all. I installed a new video card (with enough power from the power source) and now computer likes to shut down without notice!

 

Actually the AMD computers perform slightly better than the Pentiums, but I've heard of weird motherboard problems that arise from that.

 

Personally, stick with the Dell, and if you have problems, their costumer service will get you out.

[MayorTim 16]

AMD cpu's are about 4 years ahead of Intel cpu's technology wise, as they are able to process more information with much less clock speed. They are also cheaper, and are the gamer's cpu of choice.

Never heard about any problems with them, and, if you can, I definately recommend AMD over Intel.