emachines? buy or no buy?

[dpopiz]

I know emachines has a bad rep. but there are some good cheap ones on craigslist that are enticing

please share your emachines horror stories, good stories, and general opinions

 

[nweaver]

my Mom's emachine has been running for 3 years without a single problem (other then small drive/low memory)

 

[OmniShinzui]

I have an eMachines T2682, which I got from my grandpa for Xmas of 2003. It came with a 17" CRT eView montior with a canon i450 printer. Heres the prebuilt specs:

Celeron 2.6GHz Processor
Samsung 256mb PC2700 Ram (Machine runs at PC2100 tho)
80GB Maxtor Hard Drive
Intel Extreme Graphics 2 64bit Onboard Video (Only PCI port)
Realtek AC'97 Onboard Sound
Mid-Tower Case (that is really heavy)
200watt PSU

As far as horror goes, the tech support sucks (along with getting thier rebates). The Maxtor hard drive failed within 6 months (had Seagate 160GB Hard Drive not installed yet tho), and the PSU cant take full load (if I try and play a game like Quake3, it will restart for some reason after a few minutes). The CPU never gets above 35 degrees celcius, so thats nice. Oh, and take care of the reinstall disks (I got two with mine) dont get scratched, or you cant reinstall WinXP without paying $20 for new disks (uses norton ghost, and has drivers on second disk) which take forever to get them again. Or buy WinXP which is way more expensive... I upgraded the hard drive after the maxtor crashed, and I just put PQi 256mb ram in (making the max of 512mb).

Im upgrading to an AMD X2 4400+ system in a few weeks tho.

 

[Ausm]

Ever E-machine I ever had to work on was so cheaply made it was disturbing.


Ausm

 

[Ike0069]

Don't own one myself, but I have suggested one to several co-workers and have only ever heard of one complaint. One even uses his as a semi-gamer machine with zero problems.

If the price is good, I wouldn't hesitate to get one if I was in the market.

 

[dpopiz]

hmm well what do you mean about the PSU not handling full load?
this machine is for a client and will be used as a graphics workstation (illustrator and photoshop) and as a "central store" hard drive for the other computers on the LAN.

 

[HO]

emachines got a pretty good review of their hardware and scored a good customer satisfaction rating in a magazine article I read about a year ago. On a personal note, one of my cousins gave us an old emachine that he was done with. We used if for about 2 years without a problem. It's sitting downstairs waiting for a new home.

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

get a dell

 

[m1ldslide1]

I had an emachine for a while, and some family members have owned them as well. It is generally disturbing how cheaply they are assembled and usually lack any hardware upgrade path.

Barring that, all 3 machines I'm familiar with have been running great for 2+ years with no problems.

 

[acole1]

graphics workstation? central store? i would get something much better.... emachines a cheap for a reason - cheap parts.

if all it was for is checking email at home, i might suggest it, but def. not for those uses you described. you need something much better and more reliable like Dell.

just think of it as saving you the time and money of repairing it every 2 weeks.... unless you want one that needs work so you can get more buis.

 

[pkme2]

I have a PII eMachine with Ubuntu installed. The eMachine seems to like its environment. When it was an old Windows machine, it had its share of problems, but it seems that Linux has given it a new lease on life.
My other students new eMachines seem to be troublefree. The AMD64 systems sold at Costco w/ LCD upgrade seem to be very popular on Maui. For an off-the-shelf system, beginners have a pretty good system at a reasonable price.

 

[Arkane13131]

i have a t2482 for 6 years...everything works fine.

my parents werent wise in buying it...this comp tricks you with little things like..

only 4x agp slot (your lucky to get one at all in those days but 4x...there is no reason for that!) crummy amounts of ram ect.. the dvd and cd drives are slow..and choppy and give errors when running tests...but...it all works... 6 years later.... the psu is wacky with its readings...and... its ugly as sin...

but it works...so if your smart you might get a good deal..but you can build the system yourself and it will look nicer and still be cheaper if you are wise about it.

 

[shortylickens]

Well, their REPUTATION is bad.

BUT.......
My dads celeron 466 has been running grat for over 6 years.
My moms celeron 1Ghz has been running fine for 4 years (I think ?).
I recommend them to many of my friends that are scared to buy expensive computers. Those have all been running great for 1,2 and 3 years.

I dont buy computers or recommend them based on what the market thinks or what their Rep is. I do it based on personal experience.

(This next comment will likely start a flame war and maybe get me banned.)
eMachines may have a crummy rep, Dell may have a good rep, but honestly, they both make the SAME QUALITY SYSTEMS.
If I wanna buy a computer that I know has top-of-the-line components I'll get an Alienware, VooDoo or Falcon Northwest.

But I havent bought a complete system for myself since '99. DIY is the best if you know what you are doing.

 

[n7]

Modern eMachines do not have a bad rep.

In fact, they usually use just as good or better components as HP/Compaq, Gateway, Sony, etc.

The comment about them not being upgradeable is due to consumer idiocy.

I find eMachines, even the cheaper models, are generally better for upgrading, since at least they include AGP/PCI-e, whereas cheap HP/Compaqs often don't.

Sure, they have some non-upgradeable cheap models, but tell me what brand name budget machine manufacturer doesn't :roll:

Overall, i'd say they're quite fine.

 

[d3lt4]

I had one a few years ago and had to send it back in to Emachines to get it fixed (before I knew anything about computers), and we got another one last year and I have already had to replace the motherboard, (windows as well because of this) and a new HD. From now on I will just build my own.

 

[Beef Taco]

The machine i'm running right now is an eMachine T3265. All I did was add an X800XL, and it's a great gaming rig. It's been running rine for about 8 months, even on the stock PSU that comes with this thing! I wouldn't reccomend doing that, because this thing might give out at any moment, but it's a great rig.

 

[LiquidImpulse]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Well, their REPUTATION is bad.

BUT.......
My dads celeron 466 has been running grat for over 6 years.
My moms celeron 1Ghz has been running fine for 4 years (I think ?).
I recommend them to many of my friends that are scared to buy expensive computers. Those have all been running great for 1,2 and 3 years.

I dont buy computers or recommend them based on what the market thinks or what their Rep is. I do it based on personal experience.

(This next comment will likely start a flame war and maybe get me banned.)
eMachines may have a crummy rep, Dell may have a good rep, but honestly, they both make the SAME QUALITY SYSTEMS.
If I wanna buy a computer that I know has top-of-the-line components I'll get an Alienware, VooDoo or Falcon Northwest.

But I havent bought a complete system for myself since '99. DIY is the best if you know what you are doing.

the flame wars have begun:evil:

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: dpopiz
hmm well what do you mean about the PSU not handling full load?
this machine is for a client and will be used as a graphics workstation (illustrator and photoshop) and as a "central store" hard drive for the other computers on the LAN.

The I would NOT get them an e-machine. I'd look at a Dell XPS 400.

I did a comparison of a higher-end emachine vs a Dell XPS 400 in this thread...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1789186&enterthread=y

It's somewhere in the middle, and has pictures.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: dpopiz
hmm well what do you mean about the PSU not handling full load?
this machine is for a client and will be used as a graphics workstation (illustrator and photoshop) and as a "central store" hard drive for the other computers on the LAN.

The I would NOT get them an e-machine. I'd look at a Dell XPS 400.

[/b]I did[/b] a comparison of a higher-end emachine vs a Dell XPS 400 in this thread...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1789186&enterthread=y

It's somewhere in the middle, and has pictures.

Emachines packs a lot of computer in to a very affordable package. Performance to dollar ratio they are near the top. The only problem I can see with them is the parent compay Gateway is having some financial troubles and that could affect your warrenty.

 

[alimoalem]

how much are you paying? what specs?

 

[OmniShinzui]

I agree with alimoalem, it depends on specs and price. I saw this great AMD Notebook from eMachines a few months back for a great price ($1200 for 15", Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB Ram, dunno video).

Anyways, about the PSU. It seems to hate it when I do something very heavy like gaming (or adobe elements for example). It'll start fine, but after a few minutes of playing a game or heavy multi-tasking, it'll just restart (after formatting too, almost every game i've tried exept for 8fps GTA:SA and 5fps Halo lol). Im pretty sure its the PSU, but im not 100%. The ram is fine, so is the processor (tho it cant handle multi-tasking very well, it tries it hardest dangit), the hard drive keeps up perfectly (ATA/100). My only conclusion is the PSU.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: OmniShinzui
I agree with alimoalem, it depends on specs and price. I saw this great AMD Notebook from eMachines a few months back for a great price ($1200 for 15", Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB Ram, dunno video).

Anyways, about the PSU. It seems to hate it when I do something very heavy like gaming (or adobe elements for example). It'll start fine, but after a few minutes of playing a game or heavy multi-tasking, it'll just restart (after formatting too, almost every game i've tried exept for 8fps GTA:SA and 5fps Halo lol). Im pretty sure its the PSU, but im not 100%. The ram is fine, so is the processor (tho it cant handle multi-tasking very well, it tries it hardest dangit), the hard drive keeps up perfectly (ATA/100). My only conclusion is the PSU.

Get the PSU replaced FTW?

 

[Dumac]

I got a T6524 on sale for cheap, and it has been working fine. Came with a pci-e slot for upgrade, so I stuck a 7800GT in there (also upgraded the PSU) and it has been working fine. I am about to order some more RAM for it too. I have had no problems so far. Also, I found chatting with technical support pretty easy.

 

[wetcat007]

Emachines is at about the quality of your average HP/Compaq consumer level desktop so not real great, but it works.

 

[NYTRIDR]

emachines are total garbage for any price. the case is dangerous, the power supply worthless and the components are second rate.