Currently, a big name electronics store is running a special on eMachines computers, one for $399 and one for $779 (after rebates of course). I don’t know how good a brand eMachines is, so I’d appreciate any experiences anyone has. Thanks in advance.
Do NOT buy one of these computers. Emachines is quite possibly the worst brand of computers out there. They had a problem for about their first year where they used defective power supplies in half of the machines. If yours failed, and you sent it back for service, they’d replace it with another power supply that had a 50% shot of being bad.
They do not care about their customers, and pretty much just abuse you if you call. They use inferior components, and are generally pieces of shit. I wouldn’t touch one with a 10 foot clown pole.
For more info, http://www.emachinessuck.com
I have one. The power supply did go out, but it (eventually) was fixed under warranty (nice people, just slow 
). Other than that, it’s worked pretty well for almost 2 years.
“Emachines is quite possibly the worst brand of computers”
True, said Consumer Reports reader survey.
Don’t ever buy a computer based on price alone.
Those Ecomputers are slow!. Don’t buy a computer based on the processor speed either.
Try reading around a new web site in the bay area that has some fun stuff: http://www.softwareandstuff.com/
& fun prices.
Two of my friends have eMachines. One has no problems with hers execpt for the fact that it will not play her Alanis Morisette CD (it’ll play all other CDs fine - it’s just a critic), and the other is fine with it except for the fact that the modem didn’t work (modem’s, fortunately, can be found for $15 if you look hard enough).
I also installed a CD-R into the last one, using up the last available IDE spot in the process. It evidently has only one IDE chain, for a max of two IDE devices. This meant I had to slave the CD-R to the hard drive, which isn’t the best performance option, but since my friend is far from a “power user” I doubt she noticed the difference, if any.
FTR, let’s pretend I put modems.
Also, I’m not sure what speed eMachines you’re looking at, but I think you might find better prices for them on buy.com. On another note, Dell has been putting out a whole lot of machines for roughly the same prices as the eMachines. I believe you can get a 1GHz machine for about $770, IIRC.
C’mon, folks, what’d you expect from a company whose most reknown selling point was, “We’ve got an ugly and uninspired iMac rip-off for sale”? 
I installed a modem into one a while back. Didn’t look too closely but the components seemed decidedly inferior. The hard drive was also poorly mounted resulting in a constant grinding noise. Not a pretty sight.
If you want a cheap computer, try e-bay.
Do NOT buy an eMachine! I posted my (lengthy) experience in the Pit a few weeks ago in this thread. It doesn’t go into all the nasty details (I know it’s long, but I really did leave out a lot). It was a nightmare, and I will forever be grateful that it’s over. (Also, that computer was the reason I was absent from the SDMB for so long, so it was pretty sad).
One time I went to the store. There were three computers all about the same speed. So I clicked on a program on the Eputer, the clicked on the same one on the Compaq, then the next computer, both loaded, then I went back & saw the Emachine was still trying to load the program
The only important thing to buy in person is the monitor so you can get one thats right for your eyes.