I saw an E Machine model T3958 today for $500.00 without monitor or $800.00 with monitor. Supposedly rebates bring the latter price down to $525.00 but it probably takes forever to get them. If you haven’t guessed, this is a Best Buy thingie.
The machine has a DVD-RW and a CD-RW; 80GB HD; Celeron D Processor 340; 512MB DDR and an 8 in 1 Media Manager, whatever that might be. It comes with Windows XP Home edition and I am tempted to buy it except that I know nothing about E Machines.
I would appreciate any and all thoughts on this machine, E Machines in general and anything else that comes to mind.
I have an eMachines computer that I got a little over a year ago. This past January, the monitor’s power button went out, and I had to send it back to get a replacement. Later, i found out that eMachines monitors are bad about that. The power button will work fine, then all of a sudden, one morning you press it and nothing happens. My neighbor said she saw it in the recalls book they have at Wal-Mart, that they were considering recalling the whole line of them.
E Machines are good computers for the right type of person. If you never want to upgrade your machine or play the high end games then an one might be right for you. I’ve recommended them for friends in the “email and surf the web crowd” and they’ve worked flawlessly for years.
If you buy one at Best Buy, make them take it out of the box and fire it up for you. Bring a blank disk and burn something on it right there in the store. They used to have a relatively high rate of DOA machines but fifteen minutes up front can save a lot of hassles later.
E-machines loads their boxes with ad and crapware to subsidize the cost of the machine. If you can get that dreck off the hard drive and add some memory, you should have an OK (but not great) PC.
I haven’t had to add any memory yet, I don’t do much, but I did have to get rid of a SHITLOAD of AOL crap and factory installed junk, and I have to do it all again every time I use the restore CDs.
I’ve heard terrible things about eMachines (but have never had one myself). I also shy away from anything that says “Celeron.” IMO they are crap processors.
If you’re in the “email and surf-the-web” crowd, have you considered a Mac? I don’t want to start a Mac/PC war, but it’s worth considering, and a mini would be about the same price as the machine you’re considering.
Have you looked at Dell or others? They tend to have base models that are around the same specs as the one you’re looking at for similar prices. Plus Dell is a bit more reputable than emachines, although I’ve never owned a Dell so I can’t really speak from experience.
For instance, I looked at a Dell Dimension 3000 Celeron. Base is $499, with flat screen monitor (15"). After bumping the ram and harddrive to the same specs as the eMachine, the total is $529. It doesn’t have the DVD-R/W, but you can buy those pretty cheap these days if you want one, probably for no more than $50 or so. That’s really not a bad deal, and you don’t have to contend with the problems mentioned above.
This machine’s data sheet states “Available expansion bays: 2 3.25” and 1 5.25"" I have heard that older E Machines couldn’t be upgraded but it looks as if I could install a second hard drive, a floppy drive and something else, if I were so inclined. While I was in the store, I watched and listened as another customer bought this machine and arranged for the RAM to be increased to 1.0GB. For whatever that is worth.
I should add that I am not a gamer—anthing more complex than Solitaire and Freecell are beyond me. I would like to have some sort of pool game, though. I should probably have said that the DVD-RW drive is a “double layer multiformat drive” even though I have no idea what that means or even if I need it / want it.
The DVD-R/W sounds like it can use the double layer DVD discs. Non double layer DVD burners burn non double layer discs, so the max capacity is about 4.7 GB. For comparison, most DVDs you can buy at the store come out to around 7-8 GB. A double layer disc, on the other hand, can burn around 8 GB or so. Basically, the double layer just burns higher capacity discs than a normal single layer does.
The power supply may not be up to the task of running the system with the expansion bays filled. They do tend to use the cheapest parts they can get away with.
I don’t share iamthewalrus’s dislike of the Celeron processor. They’ve traditionally been the older chip in the Intel line when the new one’s come out. The first Celeron was a Pentium II chip without the cache, this made it so slow the added the cache back making it a cheaper version of their flagship processor. (at the time) When the P3’s came out the Celeron name stayed on the P2 architecture for a while then was moved to the slower P3’s.
I haven’t followed the Celeron progression as closely over the last few years, my job doesn’t require it now, but since the clock speeds are now higher than the P3’s ever ran I’m guessing that they’re just older model P4’s.
I haven’t and wouldn’t have considered the power supply as a factor in expansion. I appreciate being told this; my ignorance of computer technology is absymal.
I’d keep looking. I don’t know if EMachines suck or not, never had one. But I got a Medion 3.2 gigahertz P4 Windows XP machine with 512 meg ‘o’ ram, a good 128 meg video card, decent sound card, DVD-RW, CD-RW, 200 gig HD, speakers, 17 inch flat screen monitor(not flat panel), nice speakers, keyboard and mouse for ~$580 after rebates. I got it at Best Buy.
I took it apart when I got it to put in my wireless network card and it is solidly built and easily expandable.
After a terrible experience with their customer support involving what should’ve been a simple video-card upgrade, I returned the sole e-machine I’ve ever bought to the store and got a HP instead. Comparable prices, and for the most part sanely made.
Don’t buy an eMachine. I’ve heard nothing but negative stories about them, both in terms of quality and service. I’d recommend Dell, particularly their outlet store. You can get some very good deals if you watch the site for a few days.
I’ve owned an eMachine. Piece of crap, that was. It does come loaded with crapware, lots of AOL garbage. I bought it when I was younger, though, showed it to my Dad, and he immediately formatted it and gave me Windows XP, and it was all right for web surfing and chatting. It could only handle one (at the time high end) game, and that was EQI, and just barely. EQII would crush it. I tried installing some PC games like Black and White and the Sims, and it just couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t so much a memory problem, I added more, but the memory slots are weird, too, if I recall correctly - instead of four slots there were only two. And that Celeron processor was just shite.
It should be noted that DVD-RW drives (which also burn CDs) are very cheap these days – I’ve seen them for $50 or less. They’re very easy to add to a computer, so don’t base a buying decision on whether or not it has something like that. Ditto the monitor – you can always get a computer without a monitor and buy a monitor separately.
I’ve had two emachines. I’m currently on the second. I’ve never ever had a serious problem with any of them. However, I don’t play any high end games. I have a playstation 2 for gaming. This is my internet/schoolwork/starcraft machine. I also paid about 400 bucks for the thing.
