Emachines Yes or no, please read situation before replying :)

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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
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i'm gonna be teaching some courses for my clients. about 3 or 4 at a time. i need 4 PC's. I saw this at emachines Link.

can anyone think of any reason not to buy this machine? or can anyone think of a less expensive way to go? most of the refurbed systems i've looked at actually cost more. i'm not looking for stability or quality here. this systems will be reformated frequently.
 
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tornadobox

Platinum Member
Jun 3, 2001
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personally for your situation i'd throw together some FlexATX systems...a very cheap way to go.

that emachines is $519 without a monitor...too expensive for what you get in my opinion.

Check this, price includes shipping (you'd just have to throw in the CPU, RAM, and HD yourself):

Intel Celeron 1.1A GHz retail
256MB PC133 Crucial SDRAM
Maxtor 40GB 5400rpm HD
Gigabyte FlexATX barebones w/
52x CDROM
1.44mb floppy
Intel 810E2 chipset
onboard sound, LAN, + video

All this for roughly $423 shipped (less if you buy all from Newegg.com - you'll save some $$ on shipping)

also, if you downgrade to a 20GB hard drive you'll save yourself some $$, then you can go get some decent 17" monitors for under $200 each.

 
Eug

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,994
1,617
126
What is the power supply on this one?. One guy was saying they had lots of ones go belly up because they were using 140 Watt power supplies. Also that eMachines comes with only 128 MB RAM.
 
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bluemax

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2000
7,182
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If you do decide to get eMachines, pray. Pray harder than you ever have.... pray they never, ever flake out.
If they do, you're pooched. ZERO support from eMachines. You'd be better off building your own where you could at least RMA parts.

See if you can just find some nice, cheap systems like These (too bad they're sold out...)
small, stylish, cheap, get the job done. ;)
 
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Booster

Diamond Member
May 4, 2002
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<< See if you can just find some nice, cheap systems like These (too bad they're sold out...) >>



Sorry, but for $300+ you don't even get a hard drive! No RAM, no CPU. It's stylish, but, of course, nowhere close to cheap.

I think your best bet is to build the systems yourself.

Here are some estimated prices:

Case - generic ATX, $30
CPU - Duron X MHz (probably the cheapest you can get), $30
Mobo - ECS K7S5A, $50
RAM - 256MB PC2100 DDR, $55
Video - any generic, $30 videocard
HDD - you can get a decent HD for $60 nowadays
CDROM - $25
Keyboard+mouse - $15

$295 total for a complete system.

 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
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71
Booster

i think i agree with you. the only thing is i'd rather get celeron than duron. don't wanna have to deal with hs falling off type thing. i know it's rare but i dont' even want that rare chance. :)
 
BD231

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
K75sa's suck. The eMachines are great. I bought 2 1ghz machines, one for a secratary friend, and another for a church. They work great, have room for more mem, hd space and are plenty fast. The first eMchine I ever bought was a celeron 466, that was in 98 I think, and that computer has never once given me any problems, and it's still up and runing with an added cd-rw and extra 40 gig drive. You wont have any trouble with those computers.
 
BD231

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
Just a side note, the eMachine motherboards wont let you format hard drives.
 
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Computerfix

Banned
Mar 10, 2002
1,108
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0
I purchased an eMachines way back when - the 300K series. I used it for about a year, sold it to my mom who did accounting work on it, sold it back to me when she upgraded - gave it to my son to use, sold it to a friend of mine when I upgraded my son's computer (10 yrs old with a 700 mhz - SPOILED) and my friend still has it to this day. Heck he uses that 300 Mhz machine on DSL!! I have sold about 20 or so eMachines to clients that just want something to search the internet and so forth. I stand behind them. Yes you might get a bad one here and there but believe me (I worked for HP for 2 yrs) I've seen alot worse than eMachines. Just my 2 cents worth.

Russ
 
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ripthesystem

Senior member
Mar 11, 2002
571
0
0
Hey there!
My girlfriend has had an eMachine for a few years now (P3-500) and she has never had any trouble with it at all. She's into graphic design and standard school stuff so I've updated her video card and gotten her a zip drive. But it's never even burped. It's a good little computer that has served her well and even the monitor was better than I would've thought..

with that in mind you could get a better price overall.. but it will require the work of putting it together etc. which may/may not be worth the savings. Right now I'm building some systems for my brothers office and I've come up with this non-AMD solution:

----all prices include shipping and are off of pricewatch----
1.1ghz tualtin celeron $68
either---
-MSI 6368L MATX Motherboard,VIA chipset(onboard vid, sound, lan) $60
or
-Biostar M6VLQ Mobo, VIA chipset (onboard vid, sound, lan) $53
1X128MB PC133 non generic 40$ from crucial
52x CD-Rom $30
10gb Western Digital 7200rpm HD $60.00
MicroATX case with 180W-250W PSU $30

Total = $288 (w/MSI mobo) OR $281 (w/Biostar Mobo)

You could probably shave a little off and switch the HD for a 5400rpm version and I bet without much effort you could find some 15" monitors in the $100 or less range.

anyways just thought I'd throw out some ideas since you (like my brother's bosses) don't want to get involved with AMD chips...

hth
ripthesystem
 
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WarCon

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2001
3,920
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0
That price is pretty good for what your getting. My only beef with emachines is all the extra crap software they load. Wouldn't be surprised if its just full of spyware type software when it comes.

But if all you using them for is tutoring basic computer skills, then that stuff doesn't matter.

........................edit...............................

One thing most of you are missing is the OS and modems.

Those Terminator's look interesting though. Is that 150watt supply enough for an AMD?
 
Adul

Adul

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
32,999
44
91
danny.tangtam.com
ASUS is genral of good quality, so I would assume that it is. you can also go for the intel based one of if you want. I will be picking up a terminator today for a 650 mhz duron.
 
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WarCon

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2001
3,920
0
0
You know whats sad though. I went to google and tried to beat the Emachine price even using one of those Terminator's and couldn't. The OS puts it over.

Lowest I managed to get was $545.25 (1.1 Celeron, 20 gig Maxtor 7200, 128megs of PC133 and WinXP Home and 17" Samsung monitor plus that Terminator using the TUSC mobo)
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
warcon

the terminator is a little more than if you get barebones on minimums. like Rips list above.

i also don't need the os cause i have an action pack subscription that allows me 10 client licenses of win2k pro. i'm not sure if this will qualify, but the training could be construed as client demos. since it isn't used in a permanent machine it probably qualifiies.

 
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WarCon

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2001
3,920
0
0
I would be interested in the direction you decide to go.

I have built a client system with the Biostar M6VLQ and I was very happy with the way it ran. I am sure its no gaming system but it moved really well through XP. I usually like to use full size boards and non-integrated components because of later upgrades, but they talked me into building a cheap system for them.
 
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