Are E-Machines a good value??? Can you help me built a system?

[Maxfly]

EMACHINE
Powered by the Intel® Celeron? 500MHz(w/128KB L2 Cache) the etower 500ix packs a punch. It comes standard with a built-in 40x Max. CD-ROM, 10 GB hard drive, 64MB main memory, and an internal 56K Fax/Modem. The etower 500ix is Internet ready and comes loaded with Microsoft Windows® 98 Second Edition, Works 2000, and Money 2000 application software.
Total $528.00 @ buy.com

Is this a good value???

 

[RSI]

I wouldn't use an eMachines. Put together your own system. Can't? Let us help you.

One piece of advice - do not post things over and over like that, just a warning.

-RSI

 

[Windogg]

Cross posting in multiple sections also tends to tick people off.

 

[Maxfly]

Yes, RSI...It was not my intention to double post..I corrected it...My computer froze and I hit submit 3 times by mistake....I'm trying to buit something low cost...I have computer now that I can use the HD, floppy and cd for the new system...I need a mother board, case, processor (would like P3 500), usb ports and I think thats it...Whats the cheapest way to go??? I forgot memory.

 

[Byrd2a]

My mother recently had me buy an e-machine system for her. It has been very reliable for about 4 months now, however, the only thing she uses it for is internet, email, minimal picture scanning, and simple games. I put some additional ram in her system and noticed how very cheap the guts of the machine are. The price is right, the reliability is good but ONLY if you don't want a power house system and you don't plan on upgrading much.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

yes, as long as they are used for the purpose they are intended for, basically, surfing the net, sending email, instant messaging programs like icq and useing word, excel, etc, they are fine.

don't think about playing any games however...

 

[Erasmus-X]

LOL! At Best Buy, we carry an eMachines Monster 600, which they call a POWER gaming machine. It has:

PIII 600E
64MB PC100 SDRAM
8MB NVIDIA Vanta AGP card
15GB or so hard drive

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....

I personally would recommend against buying an eMachines.

 

[cparker]

Friend of mine picked up an e-machine for 290 bucks at egghead auction that was something like a celeron 433, 32 megs ram and a DVD. Came of course with 56 K modem, and the usual stuff like keyboard/mouse/video/sound. She's been very happy with it. No way would she build her own machine. If I was going to spend 600 bucks or so I'd definitely build my own. You would learn a lot, be able to work on your machine and upgrade it as you saw fit, you would wind up with a much more focused machine, faster, elegant, and state of the art. I did this a little over 2 years ago and built my first pc. Was amazed that it worked. It still works. It's a k6 233, runs a bit slowly, but it's never died and has lots of neat additions such as a scsi card. Since then I've built several more, each one faster and more capable. Also was able to take apart some storebought older P-90s, turn them into servers and stay useful. I hope you get the message. If you want to learn you should build. It's also much more fun. If you need an appliance get a cheap e-machine through egghead perhaps. They go for 300 bucks and under.

 

[Ulysses]

An emachine is probably OK for simple stuff, but the companny's future looks a bit cloudy. On a limited budget I'd recommend a value-priced Dell or Gateway instead. They are known for good service and support, but they may cost a little more.

Don't try to build one with help from the forums. People mean well but it's too inefficient a way to learn, you'll get all kinds of conflicting advice, and you'll end up spending too much.

Any PC (plus web access) beats no PC, I always say.

 

[Ulysses]

P.S.

You might want to buy an emachine at a local retailer. They should carry the same models and you have somewhere to complain or return it. And there's no shipping charges, but maybe sales tax.

 

[TheBigZ]

Like anything else, E-Machines have their place. I often get refurb'd E-Machines from buy.com for my retired clients on fixed incomes who want to get on the net & email the grandkids. I'd imagine that for most of us here however, they are far from adequate.

 

[andrey]

eCrapmachine? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !

 

[Demon Bitch]

As far as expandability goes, you can't really add much to an e-machines box. The mobo only has 2 dimm slots, and since it has onboard video and sound, only 2 pci and 1 isa slots. The 10gb hard drive is an older 5400rpm model.

My sister bought one a while ago through an e-trade $400 rebate with microcenter. I brought it home, reformatted the hard drive and installed a new OS and some other software only to find out that the POS winmodem was busted. I called up microcenter asking if I could exchange the modem, and they said that for all warranty replacements, they would exchange the whole computer. By this time, I had already spent several hours working on it (which I didn't want to go through again) so I ended up buying a hardware modem instead.

The onboard video has really poor 2d picture quality. The onboard video can't handle a reasonable resolution (1024x768) at a decent refresh rate, so I also had to put in a pci video card. The monitor attached to this box is worth more than the rest of the system, so I HAD to get a better video card.



For that amount of money, you can put together this:
(based on prices I've seen recently on the for sale/trade forum)
bx mobo $55
celeron 566@800+ (w/ slocket and cooling) $120
128mb pc100 $110
winmodem $20
7200rpm 10gb hard drive $80
40x cd-rom $40
case $50
tnt2 ultra $85
sb live! value $45

total: $605

I know it doesn't come with software, but at least this setup will be more useable in the long run.

 

[Maxfly]

i'm getting a better idea

 

[hans007]

First off emachines is total trash. Secondly you could get a comparable HP branded one for the same price. I used to work at an HP factory and they do a good job building it and the parts are all standard (well except the case colors and stuff, but it is an atx case etc).

 

[HannibalX]

A girl at my school bought one, she had to have it cerviced a whole bunch becuase all the parts are mostly generic crap.

It had a Maxtor HD - which failed, and am Acer cd-rom, which failed as well. The monitor died (POS 14 incher) and a bunh of other crap like one of the buttons on the mouse stopped working, the speakers lose power for no reaspn, etc.

Don't buy one

 

[Maxfly]

Thanks all of you for the hel on his matter. I guess the E Machine is a no go. Well I have 500.00 to buy a computer. I will continue to search for options....

 

[T2T III]

Maxfly,

E-mail me on system board and CPU that I have available if you are considering building your own system: wjernst@pressroom.com