Well, I think I am now leaning against the E Machines—some of the Dell machines can be configured comparably and for about the same price. I’ve had very good luck with Dell. A big strike against the EMachine is all the things I’m hearing re crapware that is preinstalled: Who needs that grief? I guess I’ll forget the thing and just buy another Dell when the time comes. Thanks for all the advice; I do appreciate it.
Dell makes a good machine, you should be satisfied with a computer from them. You won’t be entirely free of the crapware though, especially if you buy the “home” systems rather than the “small business” models.
You’re welcome for the advice, you found a topic a lot of us like to talk about.
I have an Emachine, for four years and it’s never given me a hint of trouble. I only surf the web and email, and my kids play some games online. I have DSL, so it’s fast- I don’t experience the slowdown with the boards much that others complain of. Seems like you should be able to find one cheaper than that, and if you can get a Dell for that much, then you probably should. The rebates came pretty quickly, by the way.
And may I recommend Cool Pool?
I got an eMachines box for my dad and his wife, who do nothing but word processing, card games, and the like. It’s been fine for them.
The rebate came quickly, but BEWARE – if you buy a package deal, Best Buy will give you a slew of paperwork for the rebates, and the eMachines rebates must be submitted earlier than the Best Buy rebates. If you are a day late, you’re screwed. They will not work with you.
Actually, if you look at this page, you can get a Dimension 3000 with a Pentium IV 2.8GHz processor, flat-panel monitor, 40Gig HDD, 256meg RAM, and CD-RW for $499.
Definitely go for a Pentium or Athlon rather than a Celeron processor, if you have a choice that’s within your price range.
I’m wary of Celerons. Some years ago at work we were having various problems with some of our machines and it was always the Celeron machines. That said, I’ve got a dual Celeron machine running my server.
But right now is not the time to be buying an Intel CPU. Microsoft are about to release 64-bit Windows XP. Intel are switching their CPUs to 64-bit and the results have yet to be seen. AMD have been 64-bit for some time.
Right now, checking out HP’s website, you can get one of their a850e model computers, with an Athlon 64 3000+, 512 MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, DVD burner, and a 17" CRT for $684. And trust me, an Athlon 64 3000+ is much faster than any Celeron.
You are right, I guess it depends on what you use it for. I bought the D2046 and then splurged with an upgraded flat screen monitor. Definitely worth the upgrade. I spent about $800 on my e-machine and monitor 3 years ago. Not a bad investment.
I use it for surfing the Internet, Word processing, uploading my digital pics, and e-mail.
To date, I have not had any problems with it. Would probably buy again.
I’m running an eMachinesT2858 refurbished from Tiger Direct. I’ve only had it for 3 months but the only problem I’ve had is with spyware. Though it is quite early.
I’ll agree with other posters. I bought this machine because it was inexpensive. While it performs as expected but I still don’t get the feel of a high end computer. It has some sluggish moments but I can still run Half Life 2 on it without problems.
Basically if you’re looking to go cheap and reliable I’ve heard good things about Dell. If you’re looking for performance and reliable get refered to a private manufacturer. My other system was privately built and in the 4 years we’ve used it I don’t think their has been a single major problem.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about this. My Dell offered to give me a “tour” of the system, and it had a couple of other minor inoffensive programs. (There was some kind of service code that was supposed to aid tech support, but I never needed it.) My Dell served me well for years. I’ve since built a new system, but I’d buy a new Dell again.
I agree, I’d buy from Dell again (and I’ve recomended them) but there was over a Gig of crap that I didn’t want/need on my computer when I last bought one from them.