Bought an AMD64 machine today, worth it?

[rgreen83]

I didnt even know AMD64 machine were on store shelves yet, then I walked into my local computer store and saw one. It's an Emachine with 512 mb and a 9600 video card, only thing it dont have is a DVD burner. Think $1149 was a good buy? I priced out a compaq on hpshopping, and it was $1349. Before you go off on me about emachine look here with comparisons to dell. sony....

Can someone with an AMD 64 machine tell me what kind of performance to expect? I had a 2500+ machine before. Was this a good buy, or should I take it back?

 

[aZhE]

take it back

 

[9lives]

You don't know if it was a good buy but your still bought it? That's what I like your USA, 30 days warrenty, no such thing in my country.

 

[Gravity]

yep, take it back, build your own.

 

[wampa]

i agree, take it back and build the PC yourself with quality parts.

 

[Boonesmi]

if you dont build your own then its a pretty good deal

and the performace should be a good step above your xp2500+




my next system will be an athlon64

 

[NFactor]

I have an athlon 64 and my machine is blazing fast but you would be able to get a better deal and better components if you build it yourself.

 

[Corporate Thug]

emachies...ewww

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: shady06
emachies...ewww

I 2nd that statement

 

[myocardia]

Take it back, take it back, take it, well you get the idea. 1149 bucks for an e-machine is a horrible deal! Tigerdirect is selling a Sytemax (not a bad second-tier brand) Athlon64 3200 system with an 80GB 7200 rpm hd and a DVD burner for $1099 right here. If you hurry, you can get back to BestBuy before the return desk closes!

 

[mindwreck]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: shady06
emachies...ewww

I 2nd that statement

I 3rd that statement. They are so junky i almost threw my friends emachine out the window cause it refused to be fixed.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: mindwreck

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: shady06
emachies...ewww

I 2nd that statement

I 3rd that statement. They are so junky i almost threw my friends emachine out the window cause it refused to be fixed.

ANY computer can be fixed. You just need to buy a bigger hammer!

 

[SpeedFreak03]

yes take back that emachines!!!!!!

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: shady06
emachies...ewww

worst of the worst imho.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: shady06
emachies...ewww

worst of the worst imho.

No way, man! I'd rather have an eMachine anyday over a Compaq or an HP!

 

[rgreen83]

Took it back today, I think I just got it because I thought it was a better deal than it was. It was pretty fast though, I put in a friends 9800xt and it scored 18xxx in 3dm01se. I thought that was fast though, there isnt much info out there on this machine so I didnt know anything about the harddrive speed as it was just a generic oem label. The memory appeared to be micron, and was actual DDR400, unlike the hp's which use pc2700 for 800mhz fsb p4's.

 

[ShoNuff]

Originally posted by: aZhE
take it back

Gotta love that statement. Just simple and to the point...LOL

 

[zengeos]

Actually...

1149 isn't that bad a deal. It's very competitive with the Systemax price for several reasons

1. 9600 video card as opposed to 9200

2. PC3200 memory as opposed to PC2700

3. 160GB 7200 RPM drive w/ 8 megs cache compared to 80GB 7200 drive (unknown cache on that one.

The ONLY advantage the Systemax system has is the DVD burner opposed to the DVD/CDRW combo on the e-machines system, but I think the other advantages on the e-machine make up for that...unless a DVD burner is a necessity for you.

As for e-machines...I used to feel the same way until last February.. I bought a cheap celeron system, added some RAM and turned it into a small staging server..it ran constantly for over a year without a glitch...and I still use it, but as a system in my guest room. My main computer is a little Athlon 1800 I bought last June...also an E-machine. I upped the RAM and added a pretty good video card and it runs great...not a problem with it yet...and it also runs virtually all the time.

The specs for the e-machine are here:

eMachines desktop Athlon 64

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: zengeos
Actually...

1149 isn't that bad a deal. It's very competitive with the Systemax price for several reasons

1. 9600 video card as opposed to 9200

2. PC3200 memory as opposed to PC2700

3. 160GB 7200 RPM drive w/ 8 megs cache compared to 80GB 7200 drive (unknown cache on that one.

The ONLY advantage the Systemax system has is the DVD burner opposed to the DVD/CDRW combo on the e-machines system, but I think the other advantages on the e-machine make up for that...unless a DVD burner is a necessity for you.

As for e-machines...I used to feel the same way until last February.. I bought a cheap celeron system, added some RAM and turned it into a small staging server..it ran constantly for over a year without a glitch...and I still use it, but as a system in my guest room. My main computer is a little Athlon 1800 I bought last June...also an E-machine. I upped the RAM and added a pretty good video card and it runs great...not a problem with it yet...and it also runs virtually all the time.

The specs for the e-machine are here:

eMachines desktop Athlon 64

Aha! He didn't tell us that the e-Machine had PC3200 ram. But, an ATI 9600 still isn't nearly enough video card to keep up with that processor. He's still going to need at least a 9800np, or an FX5900np minimum! And, since you can get a 4x NEC multi (-R, +R, -RW, +RW) for $120, with the cables and DVD burning software, maybe it wasn't too bad. I had assumed that since he had just spent $1250 (with taxes), that he was wanting ultimate performance. That means that the cheapo ram that e-Machines put into it would need to be replaced too, since fast ram (tight 2-2-2-5 or 7 timings) is important for any AMD system, and quite a bit more so for an Athlon64 system. Plus, Systemax supposedly supports the systems they sell very well.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: zengeos
Actually...

1149 isn't that bad a deal. It's very competitive with the Systemax price for several reasons

1. 9600 video card as opposed to 9200

2. PC3200 memory as opposed to PC2700

3. 160GB 7200 RPM drive w/ 8 megs cache compared to 80GB 7200 drive (unknown cache on that one.

The ONLY advantage the Systemax system has is the DVD burner opposed to the DVD/CDRW combo on the e-machines system, but I think the other advantages on the e-machine make up for that...unless a DVD burner is a necessity for you.

As for e-machines...I used to feel the same way until last February.. I bought a cheap celeron system, added some RAM and turned it into a small staging server..it ran constantly for over a year without a glitch...and I still use it, but as a system in my guest room. My main computer is a little Athlon 1800 I bought last June...also an E-machine. I upped the RAM and added a pretty good video card and it runs great...not a problem with it yet...and it also runs virtually all the time.

The specs for the e-machine are here:

eMachines desktop Athlon 64

Aha! He didn't tell us that the e-Machine had PC3200 ram. But, an ATI 9600 still isn't nearly enough video card to keep up with that processor. He's still going to need at least a 9800np, or an FX5900np minimum! And, since you can get a 4x NEC multi (-R, +R, -RW, +RW) for $120, with the cables and DVD burning software, maybe it wasn't too bad. I had assumed that since he had just spent $1250 (with taxes), that he was wanting ultimate performance. That means that the cheapo ram that e-Machines put into it would need to be replaced too, since fast ram (tight 2-2-2-5 or 7 timings) is important for any AMD system, and quite a bit more so for an Athlon64 system. Plus, Systemax supposedly supports the systems they sell very well.

"But, an ATI 9600 still isn't nearly enough video card to keep up with that processor" thats just a plain silly statement

if you are not a gamer then an ati 9600 is more then enough, WAYYY more then enough. (yes there are actually people out there who need a fast cpu and dont play games )

its also a silly statement because no matter what video card you have, if its in a faster system it plays games faster (obviously the video card isnt any faster, but system speed also plays a factor in game performance)

 

[DuronBoy]

Do we really think this guy should build his own? His signature says, "Man I hate computers" and he bought an emachine...

No offense dude, but you should get a dell.

 

[justly]

It is actually a good deal. If you look at what it comes with it is hard to say you could make it much cheaper without using old hardware/software. The only thing that would make a DIY Athlon 64 system better would be that you could tailor it to your specific needs, but if it fits your needs the way it is configured it really is a deal that would be hard to pass up.

 

[DuronBoy]

rgreen83, since when was PC World a reliable source for information?

And yes, justly, if he could put it together(i'm not sure about that), a DIY system would be a much better deal. Pricewatch is your friend.

390 - A64/3200
130 - Mobo
70 - 512MB PC3200
192 - GeforceFX 5900np 128MB
65 - Enermax case and PSU
113 - LG DVD-R\+R\RAM
80 - 120GB 7200 2MB
40 - Various fans
60 - xp home(if you dont' already have it)

1140 total

it's all on pricewatch


-edit: his profile shows a decent rig, he must have been drunk when he bought the emachine...

 

[Jeff7181]

"But, an ATI 9600 still isn't nearly enough video card to keep up with that processor" thats just a plain silly statement

That's a silly statement too... a 9600 WILL be the limiting factor in games with that processor. Whether he plays games or not, a 9600 would still limit the gaming potential.

its also a silly statement because no matter what video card you have, if its in a faster system it plays games faster (obviously the video card isnt any faster, but system speed also plays a factor in game performance)

I bet my Voodoo3 2000 PCI won't play Halo any faster in an Athlon-64 system than it will in an XP3200 system.

 

[justly]

Nice price there DuronBoy the only problem is you took my statment out of context. I said "if it fits your needs the way it is configured" and "it is hard to say you could make it much cheaper without using old hardware/software" so where are the speakers, keyboard, mouse, floppy drive and the other 40GB of hard drive space and 6MB of cache, not to mention the labor and waranty.

I also said "The only thing that would make a DIY Athlon 64 system better would be that you could tailor it to your specific needs" and you did just that when you substituted the hard drive, video card, case, optical drives, added fans and left off parts you didn't need.

For me, yes I could canabalize my old system and save a few bucks but that leaves me with parts instead of a whole system and some of the parts in my current system though functional are getting old enough that I probably wouldn't mind upgradeing them anyway. In my situation Boonesmi hit the nail right on th head with his comment "if you are not a gamer then an ati 9600 is more then enough, WAYYY more then enough. (yes there are actually people out there who need a fast cpu and dont play games)" nor do I need a DVD-R\+R\RAM. In fact the only things about it that I would want to change are so trivial that it really wouldn't matter.