If you're after just a cheap sytem for browsing the web, checking your e-mail, writing the odd letter & doing your tax with, then there's nothing wrong with a E-Machine. Epecially as the've bundle MS Works 'n Money with its W98/IE5/Outlook Express operating System.
However if you plan to do anything that pushs the System a little, such as something graphics intensive &/or games related, you'll be pretty limited. As the system will definitly have embedded (on board) graphics, & Sound, & most probaby a embedded winmodem & ethernet controller, plus at the most (if your lucky) 2 expansion slots (some don't have any). All of which Which will tax your CPU cycles & system memory, & make your system virtually unupgradable (or is it nonupgradable, do such words exist?
). As someone suggested it might even have a propietry powersupply (even though it probably has a standard ATX plug, many of them come in non standard mini sizes, smaller than even 1/2 a normal ATX powersupply) which probably outputs no more than 145w.
If you don't feel up to knocking together a system yourself. For that price (Between US$500 & US$550), you should be able to get your local 'mom & pop' computer shop* to knock together a system, complete with standard OEM (upgradable) parts of your own choosing. I'd suggest s Intel i815 based motherboard (pending avaliability), cause even though it has embedded Graphics & sound (plus the spec 2 version has embedded modem & ethernet too), it still has an AGP slot & (except for the MicroATX version which has less than 4 PCI cards) arround 4 to 6 PCI slots. So there's plenty of room for upgrading in the future as needed & as finances permit. Also it supports PC133 SDRAM natively (unlike the i820/840 boards which need a system taxing translator). As there's no need to immediatly buy any cards (graphics, sound, modem, ethernet), you could even get them to install a DVD-ROM drive & still be within budget (probaby not the latest fastest ones though).
However its importent to make the right choice in the beginning as far as cases & monitors are concerned. Because if you do get those right at the beginning, the odds are you'll never need to upgrade them in the future. I suggest getting an Enlight 7237 case as it has a slide out mainboard & expansion slot tay, drive rails, four 5.25" drive bays & (the later ones) have good cooling pontential.
Now why does one need four 5inch drive bays? Well as you upgrade over time you can have a DVD Dive at the top, a CD burner underneath, & in the lower 2 drive bays you can have a pair of slide-out removable HDD caddies (the cheap plastic ones can be had for less than $15 each, or you could even get aluminium hardware hot swap caddies - there's a bit of cicutry at the back with a couple of chips in the wiring between the slide in Hard drive plug & the plug at the back that the IDE cable plugs into, plus you get a driver floppy - that have built in fans - & thats plural - that are graranteed to support 10000rev drives) for your 2 hard drives - As you upgrade, you'll probably want to buy a newer, faster, higher capacity hardrive. well if thats the case, you'll put your windows system on your new hard drive & use your old hard drive for storage (ie for you data & downloads, plus backups of your 'windows\application data' file & your 'windows\favorites' file)
If you can fit a descent graphics card in your budget. One of those new GeForce2MX cards, which can be had for I think $115 (I saw a link at
http://www.hardocp.com). These new OEM budget version of the GeForce 2 perform virtually as good a a GeForce 'classic' SDR, for a hell of a lot less money.
Now I'm no expert on monitors, so maybe someone else can suggest one. However many of those lower spec E-Machines (hows that for a but of repeditive tortology
) don't even come with a monitor, so maybe you already have one.
* Are there any 'mom 'n pop' shops left in the US? When I was last there virtually all the sops appeared to be franchises or chain stores - maybe that's a slight generalisation, but you know what I mean
. BTW (well from my experiance in Oz) the local little computer stores are often very competitive price wise (especially when you consider how uncompetitive Australian E-trader prices are like, they are just as expensive as the chain stores are in Oz). Plus its always good to support local small businesses.
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