emachine reviews

cusseta

I am in the market for a couple of PCs that I can use for a simple in-home lab. I found 2 Emachine T3516 Celeron D 3.2GHz PCs that I can afford, but I was wondering if anyone knew whether these highly affordable (and brand new ) PCs are worth purchasing. Any reviews, bad or good, are appreciated. Thanks.

Plantwiz

Though I've heard a lot of negative about e-Machines, I've salvadge many over the years and re-furbed them for a local computer store.

They are what they are. Nothing fancy. They function. They are low cost and basically considered disposable.

If you want it for a test box/e-mail basic web box...sure they are fine. If you want it for a mid-high end user...it would be a bad choice.

How 'affordable' are you finding them?

Slowhand

eMachines isn't a terrible brand, and they've gotten to be better with the years. My first packaged computer was an eMachine, and most of the components probably still work today. Over the years, eMachines quietly sold more and more computers, and even held on through the nasty fallout of the dotcom crash, and even got around to putting better quality parts in their boxes. It's not really saying much, I suppose, but they bought out Gateway and are currently selling Gateway machines as "low-end" in comparison to their own brand, much the same way that HP does with Compaq. If you find them for a good price, I'd say buy them.

TheShadow

Slowhand wrote:

. It's not really saying much, I suppose, but they bought out Gateway and are currently selling Gateway machines as "low-end" in comparison to their own brand, much the same way that HP does with Compaq. If you find them for a good price, I'd say buy them.

Actually you have it backwards, eMachanies was bought by Gateway to get their retail distribution chain and that is why the parts got better.

http://news.com.com/2100-1042_3-5172583.html

cusseta

How 'affordable' are you finding them?

Along with the Celeron D 3.2 GHz, they have 120 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, PCI-E slot, etc.., and they were $300 a piece . For the specs, I couldn't find a better deal. I had the money and said "What the hell" Hopefully, they'll last long enough for me to get my MCSE. If so, then they were well worth it in my opinion.

Plantwiz

Not a bad way to get a quick a couple systems for a lab without working with old hardware. Hopefully, they'll last for you

Biggest problem in the past was that the PS was undersized (or small) and it was a small form factor and difficult to find a replacement locally. The last few I have seen have a standard PS so, you sound like to did find a deal!

supertechCETma

Instead of buying a couple of, arguably disposable machines, why not do a little shopping and build a couple of machines yourself? You can find bare bones kits and parts for the same price and you might learn a little something along the way.

Plantwiz

supertechCETma wrote:

Instead of buying a couple of, arguably disposable machines, why not do a little shopping and build a couple of machines yourself? You can find bare bones kits and parts for the same price and you might learn a little something along the way.

Usually that is a good thought, but I've never come close to $300 when I build my own, then there is the 'oh, I could use 1GB of ram...sure lets get it today and"....there goes budget.

$300 each is pretty decent.

Unless you have a chassis on hand, it's pretty tough to get a CPU, RAM, MOBO, Drives for under that price (unless you buy used).