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Are they any good?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 40.9%
  • No

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Are Emachines any good?

459 views 23 replies 17 participants last post by  nx96gt 
#1 ·
I my friend wants to get one for his brother's birthday.
They're pretty cheap, and sound pretty good on paper.
But is the qualityof them any good?
He wants to get him something he can play games on, He wanted an emachine seeing as how affordable they are, I suggested a T3065...

But I have no idea if they are any good. Someone give me some input on this. I don't want him to spend his money on "crap"
Here the link to the specs
 
#2 ·
I have 2 of them, One I've had for about a year or longer, AMD processor, no problems at all. Just got the other a month ago, Celeron processor, no problems so far either. I am happy with them, especially for the price. The Celeron one is 2.4 Ghz, 40 gig drive, CDR, 256 Megs RAM and had Windows XP home, I put Linux on it. Paid $350 for it, and it has a 1 year warranty. It's a T2642. The AMD is a T2200
 
#3 ·
I have had 2, I had the first one for 3 years and it worked great, sold it to buy a faster one, bought the 1gh about 2 years ago and this one is working great as well.. A buddy of mine who is into computer's said that e-machine's were garbage, but to each their own.. IMO, cant beat them esspecially for the price!
 
#6 ·
I wouldn't wish an emachine on my worst enemy. I've been using a computer for 23 years and been an IT professional for 7 years.

I'd rather have a lower end machine built from quality parts than have to deal with an emachine. I've rebuilt several for family members with new motherboards and cards.

Get a good board and ram and you should have a stable machine.
 
#7 ·
I've had one for five years and love it. Never had a problem with it. Its only 533 mHZ with a 14 gig hard drive so it is getting dated.

I've added a PCI video card and some more RAM, its the old PC133 shit and still no problems.

Still going strong.
 
#8 ·
Mine is a 1.4ghz and I've had it for almost 2 years. When I first got it it worked great, but now for some reason it seems to have trouble doing more than 1 or 2 things at a time. It's just really slow.

How do you clean out your computer? Maybe that's what it needs. I have 1,000's of MP3's on it.
 
#9 ·
This is from the Dec. 2003 issue of PCWorld

 
#10 ·
They work fine as long as you dont plan on upgrading, and you format and install a fresh copy of windows :)
 
#12 ·
I'm with the "wouldn't wish one on my worst enemy" crowd. I've been a PC user since '84 and an IT professional for the past 8 years.
 
#16 ·
My experience with them has been negative. Back when they first came out, at the company I worked for, I started ordering them for the company users since it was easier to buy these cheap machines than build all new machines for new employees. I grew to regret that decision as many of them started having hardware issues. That was back in 99. I'm out of the IT field now and at my last job, we never used them so I don't know if they've gotten better or not.
 
#17 ·
I don't think they're "bad" for what they cost. It was all I could afford though on my own so I bought one. The thing that pissed me off most was that I was supposed to get $350 in rebates, I filled everything out correctly and mailed it within a week of buying the computer. I think I only got back $125. I never followed through with the others.
 
#18 ·
They have gotten to be very reliable machines. Sure, they used to be nothing but crap but over the last couple of years they have really stepped up and are making a good product now and their CS is pretty good also. I would buy one over a Compac, HP, Gateway and freakin day. For the price you cant beat them.

And just because someone claims to have been using computers for 20 years doesn't make them an expert on everything regarding computers. I have been using computers for 17 years and been a computer progammer for 10. Whose opinion is the right one?
 
#19 ·
Moondog, since it's an opinion, there is no right or wrong. Until someone comes on here spouting facts such as customer compaint rates, it's all just what individuals have seen or been told.

MY experience was that the one I worked on was a piece of crap, but I can't say that they all are or that they haven't gotten better in the last couple years.
 
#20 ·
Same here. I've found you tend to get what you pay for in PCs. If you want more specifics I've been building my own pcs for over 10 years and working with servers up to the 50k price range.
In my time as a network admin I've found it better to get a reliable workstation with the onsite warranty so I don't have to mess with it. I preffer the Dell systems over most the others.

After also having to rebuild an emachine using some better parts for family members I have a bitter feel for those. I also hate any packard hell type equal.
 
#21 ·
I don't know the specs on mine nor am I a computer person but I love mine, granted I don't do much other than surf the internet but it works great for me :)
 
#22 ·
My comments were more towards poopnut2 for stating "I'm sure your standards...are a little higher then most of ours". I personally have very high standards when it comes to pc's. My personal one here at home was built by me although it may be time to upgrade again.

Now, I have owned one emachine in the past and didn't really have a problem with it although it didn't last very long, but that could have been my fault for not buying a more up to date system. The few people that I know that have them right now and have bought them within the last couple of years have not had a problem with them. I had read the article from PCWorld back in December and thought that it was very interesting that they had emachines up there with Dell although I would buy a Dell over an emachine anyday.

As far as Packard Bell, I wouldn't wish one of those on my worst enemy. :p
 
#23 ·
I wouldn't recommend them, unless you're going to do nothing but documents, and web surfing. Even the worst computers can pull that off.

Personally, I've had a number of opportunities to work with EMachines since they came on the market, up to about a year and a half ago. I can't recall any of them being good experiences.

I don't see light gaming being a problem with them, but if he wants to be able to play the latest and greatest current, and future games ... spend a little more cash, and get something that will be able to handle it... or build one.

Based on the link you sent, you could get a Dell for about $400 more, with the same or better specs... or you could build one with better specs for about $200 more. Better being 3ghz vs 2.1ghz, 1gig ram vs. 512mb, GeForce 4 5200+ or Radeon 9800xt vs. GeForce MX ... and most likely more, depending on what brands of other components they're using. Or you could build one with the same specs for the same or cheaper, and still get the higher quality / performance parts.

Now I'm not sure how they are in current years, as it's been a good 6 months since I've touched one, and it was a couple years old then. But in the past, ones that I've dealt with have been stuffed with not only cheap components, but also refurbished components. Which I assume is how they keep their prices so low.

The saying is true: You get what you pay for. If you pay for cheap parts, you get cheap parts, and don't expect them to hold up like their more expensive cousins.
 
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