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Looking for Opinions on eMachines T6524

Z

Zadillo

Member
Hi all,

I'm sort of in the market for a new PC, or at least thinking about it (I'm currently running a PC I built myself last year, but I'm having some software difficulty, and I think I'm not totally cut out to build another PC myself; I got really stressed out with installing the CPU, getting the right amount of thermal compound, etc. but that's another story).

Anyway, I was shopping around and reading reviews, and found some generally positive comments of one of the new eMachines systems, the T6524, which is basically a socket 939 system (supposedly some sort of modified entry-level MSI motherboard) with an Athlon 64 3500+, 200GB SATA HD, 1GB PC3200 DDR memory, a dual-layer 16x drive (I believe a LiteOn) and a second CD-ROM drive. It seems to be an ATI Xpress 200 system, but it has PCI Express. It seems to have a 300w PSU.

I was wondering what opinions would be on a system like this (I only know bad things about eMachines, but from the comments I've read, they've apparently gotten a lot better). If I were to get it, I would most likely upgrade the PSU, and put in a PCI Express video card (I'm kind of curious if it is best to put something like an X800GTO in this, or if you could go ahead and stick an NVidia card in it,even though it's an ATI Xpress 200 motherboard).

The reason I'm sort of tempted is that it does look like a nice little machine, and I kind of like the smaller form factor, and it would only be $600 after rebates.

But I have no idea of this would really be a good idea or not. I don't have huge demands when it comes to gaming; if it could handle WoW, BF2 and Half-Life 2, I'd probably be pretty happy with it.

I think my other option would be to probably try again and build a PC, but I'm just nervous because I don't think I did a great job building my current PC (it works well enough, but I don't think I've done everything right).

The other thing I'm considering is a custom built PC from someone like Velocity Micro (something like their $1500 system).

Anyway, if anyone has any opinions on this, please let me know.

Thanks!

-Zadillo
 
One of my associates just picked an eMachine x64 from Costco for his wife, and I'm surprised with its performance. For entry level, this looks AOK for surfing and emailing. It can workup to intermediate applications and seems to be doing ok for her.

Your eMachine may need a higher wattage PS, but otherwise you got a great buy at $600.
You know you'll get a better machine for $1500, your choice.
 
Yeah. I'm not trying to have any illusions about it, I'm positive that a custom built $1500-2000 system would be better. But it seems like I could get a pretty nice bang for the buck (I actually have a NeoPower 480w PSU I could slap in there, so I think the main thing I'd need to do is spend another $200 maybe on an X800GTO or something like that).
 
Be careful with that, just because the motherboard SUPPORTS PCI-Express doesn't mean emachines bothered to solder a slot on (I've seen quite a few OEM boards like that).
 
I did have a look at it in the store, there's definitely a PCI Express slot available (although, as noted, would need to upgrade from the stock 300w PSU)..... they actually even advertise that as a feature of the system (future expandability for gaming with a PCI Express graphics card).

I don't know, I'm still thinking back and forth......... might save up a bit more and keep going with what I have for the time being.
 
This emachines system is fairly decent I have a neighbor who has one, it uses the SB400 southbridge so had horrible usb and sub par ide performance but otherwise its a good solid unit, as noted you'll need to replace the PSU and stick a gaming card in there but other than that it should be fine, it uses a stock msi RS480 board w/ an emachines bios (you can flash to the msi one but its not much better) its a S939 system aswell so it is upgradeable.
 
Thanks arcanedeath; do you mean the USB performance is horrible just along the lines of things like USB HD's, or do you mean it actually has other problems (i.e. USB devices acting flakey, etc.)? Re: IDE performance, I could probably live with that, especially if I can just pop another SATA HD in there (I assume the optical drives are on IDE).
 
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