eMachines PC?

I am not in a rush but sooner or later I will want (or need) to buy a new PC. Somehow the eMachines PC seem to be inexpensive brand. Anyone got any good or bad things to say about their stuff?

Comments

I'm not sure about eMachines, but you might want to take a look at Lindows PC. Their current lowest priced model is $199 at WalMart.com.

If you're using it as an internet terminal / word processor I don't think you can go wrong. Unless you're big into games and graphics I wouldn't think you'd need anything much faster.

Also, it doesn't come with a monitor, but if you really need one I got a Compaq 17" I've been wanting to get rid of for ages.

I've set up a few eMachines, actually. As long as you're not planning to be especially rough on your computer (or know enough about one to, say, swap out a PCI card), they're perfectly reasonable, functional, and of course affordable machines.

I almost got one as a second machine, and I'd get one for a kid (albeit one old enough to know not to sit on it or put toast in the CD-ROM drive). But if you're used to Dells or Sonys or HPs, they will feel cheap and clunky to you.

The Lindows PC is an interesting idea... but I don't think the Lindows interface is quite mature enough to be really useful. You might as well run straight Linux with WINE on any hardware you might already have lying around (or on the eMachines box... who knows?).

After Windows 98 came out, an old 333MHz first-generation Compaq I had seemed overwhelmed and would have been thrown out. But then I found Linux ran quite comfortably, and set it up with basic word processing and web browsing and donated it to a library.

I have had several emachines, and have been very happy with them. I would not recommend them if you are planning on playing lots of games, as the video card bites, and it's built into the motherboard. However, they seem to work well for most of my needs.

Helen,

You need to look into saving up for a Mac running OS X.

You need UNIX in your life.

Chuy

eMachines are great little low-end PCs. I have had two and neither has given me major headaches. You should remember, though, that they are not designed with expansion in mind. So if you plan to soup up your PC in the future, an eMachine probably isn't your best choice. Buy it for what it is: a basic no-frills PC.

I am a consultant and while folks drool over getting a Dell, and end up spending $1k+ after you 'feature-creep' their customization ordering pages, the emachine is a worthy machine for the general user. For a general home or business machine, it is a excellent value (so long as you're not going to do anything extraordinary - CAD, 3D gaming, SCSI cards, etc.). I am responsible for recommending, installing, maintaining 250+ emachines over the last 3 years here in Honolulu and probably 20+ etowers have had problems (power supply, modem, hard drive - etower 500is and prior models). But i have not seen a failure in the last year, so the new black and silver ones seem to be quite reliable. Costco and Sam's have excellent deals on them for the $600 range including a monitor. I would go to Circuit City or CompUSA only if these warehouses are sold out and you can't wait for another shipment in a month or two. Office Depot used to carry them but seems to be pretty sparse. Emachine monitors are lousy tho. The failure rate after about a year is about 30+% of the monitors out there...
I like the KDS monitors with 3 year overnight replace warranty (better than sony) and you can find them at office depot, sam's, costco.
Remember, computers are not like cars, so dont overpay and overbuy thinking you'll be keeping it for 3+ years cuz you probably won't. Its better to buy a $600+ unit now and then buy another $600 one in a year or two, and you will have 2 computers and the new one will be bigger and faster than the $2k Dell you bought this year and you would have spent less... :)
Aloha!

My eMonster Cow has been running for the past four years. While she is dependable it should be noted that I am not a gamer. I play old-school Tetris and Solitaire. I've upgraded the RAM and added a CD burner that wasn't available at the time. The monitor wigged out about a year ago but my boyfriend reclaimed his 17" so I dragged the old one out of the closet and guess what? The monitor still works. Not bad for a $1000 investment.
Interestingly I just learned that my administrators paid $20K to upgrade our point of sale system at work. We have five stores outfitted with one Dell pc per and a non-terabyte server at admin. I think they got ripped off but they seem to believe they paid a fair price.

After four years, the ball bearings on my eTower's CPU fan started to go south and were making a terrible racket. I replaced the whole fan-and-heat-sink assembly and now the machine runs quieter than when it was new. Added some RAM, and it's even zippy!

emachine had some problems a few years back with power supply and cpu fans but the new t series are great i got a t1842 for 399 and was realy surprised at the componets in side its got a bestec 250w power supply very good found in hp compac ect. samsung mem. samsung cd seagate hard drive everthing is top qality i added a samsung cdrw for 59.00 128 meg mem. for 19.00 and a case fan for 10.00 and have a computer for less than 500.00 that i think ranks amoung the best this month i'll add another hard drive and in futher plan to add a video and sound card it's got two pci slots open for them and 6 usb ports this computer is all you could hope fore its great

Emachines are the BEST

I bought my initial Emachine 3 yrs ago a 600MHz 32Mb Ram, I have been trying to upgrade the memory, it says it can upgrade to 256Mb but it won't take anything I've tried to upgrade, ie i have tried 128MB 100Mhz RAM and 256MB 133Mhz Ram, but alas it still will not upgrade, Anyone got any ieas. I have in fact bought a new 2.20Ghz 256Ram new machine, but I really want the other one upgraded, the new one hasd been back to the shop 5 times now with various hard disk problems and is now working, but this has caused a lot of stress.

Well...
I've been running my emachines t1096 for two years and i have to admit that they are pretty cool machines (I acttally managed to duplicate the factory ram and added a nvidia tnt2 card to boost the video memory, then the DVD rom and all the other gadgets I've installed) However it's now that i'm having HD problems but i can fix them

The factory modem is a piece of crap but i don't use it anyway

I have a emachines pc, i think it is good, yes games stink on it but otherwise its excellent. I upgraded the 128mb ddr ram to a 512 mb ddr ram. You can upgrade them somewhat, up to 1024mb ram per slot wich has 2 slots. I have a 2.0 gig athlon 2400+ cpu, a 40 gig HD, wich is going to be upgraded to a 120 gig, but i have one question, can i add a second processor? if not, can i buy a new tower and put this one inside it along with more upgrades, such as a new video card, sound card?

emachines is kool and i have a emachines 820 and it is a brillint games machine dont listen to them dicks emcahins is better than dell or compac

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