Posted: 8/28/2006 1:18:04 PM EDT
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I found one of these at Wal-Mart, it has all the requirements I need AFA Processor, memory etc; and for a good price, but I am not familiar with the brand. Any info is appreciated |
| They started out as a very cheap PC company. They were always the cheapest PC around. They never made any upper end PCs. They did get some bad raps on quality. Hey, you get what you pay for. Best Buy used to sell them, but I'm not sure if they still do. They eventually merged with Gateway. I considered buying one of their PCs once, but never did. |
If you need a cheap PC for the kids, just to browse the web, or write documents, an E-machine will fill the bill. The build quality is ok, but they run as long as most any other pre-built brand out there. |
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E machines have their ups and downs. They're dirt cheap. They also don't have a reputation for reliability. That being said, you get what you pay for, to a certain extent. Like TV's, ATV's, and many other things, sometimes its best to buy a name you've at least heard of before. |
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the newer emachines i've seen are using almost all standard parts. powersupplies AND motherboard's the only thing i've seen fishy are their cd rom drives. alot of times you have to drill to install a replacement cd rom drive. anyways they have gotten ALOT better than what they were IMO |
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I'm seeing a lot of threads about electronics today, lol. I tend to build my computers from parts that I choose, but sometimes I run across a really great deal on an off-the-shelf computer that would work well for a build-up and I buy it. I worked in electronics sales for a number of years and I honestly saw less Emachines returned than I did other bigger name brands. In the past Emachines had poor quality parts, but for the last 5 years or so I would say they are just as good if not better than HP/Compaq, Dell, etc. Most off-the-shelf computers are built with a similar mix of different brands of parts. There does seem to be more of a range of quality when it comes to laptops however. Toshiba and Sony shine above all else in this field. You wouldn't believe how many complaints I heard about how terrible Dell's customer service was, despite the fact that Dell brags about their great 24 hour customer support. |
I had one given to me recently, I figured it had to be better than my 10yr old Packard Bell (200 Pentium Pro ), but I have not been able to make it work. I've reloaded several different versions of Windows (XP, 2000, 98) just trying to make it run. I gave up.Time for a laptop anyways. |
| I bought one of these cheapie things for my sister since her kids were going to futz it all up downloading every crap spyware program on earth. I think the motherboard crapped out not long after I got it for her, but it was replaced under warranty and has been fine since then. Definitely not something I would buy for the office though. |
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Toyotas used to have a bad reputation too, now look at them. Since we're asked to look at broken stuff, our experience has been with broken eMachines, not working ones. In all fairness, it has been a while since we've seen any, but then again we pretty much thought they went out. Just be careful, don't drop the box when the door nazi grabs your receipt. |
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Made by gateway... Nothing wrong with them at all. Known more than a few people that bought them. They're just budget PC's. Nothing more, nothing less. If it's what you need, at your price. I'd say get one. I'd just remember you probably wont get much in the way of service FROM wal-mart, after the sale, if you need it. |
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Last year, PC World gave them top reliability and service ratings. This year they slipped to the low side of average. PC World article I compared some to Dell and you can get about the same specs from Dell for a price in the same ball park. |
| I have had 2 Emachines in the past 6-7 years. The first one I purchased 6-7 years ago finally quit about 4 months ago, I had given it to my mother after purchasing a newer model about 3 years ago. Actually, I don't know if it finally quit, the modem had been fried by a lightning storm a few years ago, and she loaded AOL on it about 17 times in a row, then did a complete restore after she could not get it to work and I'm sure the restore CD did not have the correct drivers for the new modem, and I could not tell her over the phone how to load them. Anyway, while I use my laptop for everything now, I still have an Emachines PC sitting in the kids room that works great. I have never really pushed either system, they each got rare use, but both have worked very well for my intended uses. |
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Myself and three other guys bought one each from Best Buy the night before deploying to Iraq in Febuary of 2004. I have spent 22 months there with it in the heat and sand and not had any problems. All of us beat them to hell carrying them around and using them in that enviroment and we are all still using them. The guys with the Toshiba's were the ones that had to pay $150 to fed ex thier laptops back to the states to get warrenty work done on them after they took a dump. YMMV |
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Myself and three other guys bought one each from Best Buy the night before deploying to Iraq in Febuary of 2004. I have spent 22 months there with it in the heat and sand and not had any problems. All of us beat them to hell carrying them around and using them in that enviroment and we are all still using them. The guys with the Toshiba's were the ones that had to pay $150 to fed ex thier laptops back to the states to get warrenty work done on them after they took a dump. YMMV |
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Jeez, now the computer snobs come out of the woodwork. They are budget computers without frills and thrills. The first ones did have problems with the power supplies. I have a emachine 300 that was purchased in 1998 and it is still running today. I did have to replace the power supply after having it 3 years. The new power supply cost me $25 and about 10 minutes time to install it. Right now I am on my emachine 3080 that is 3 years old and running strong. 
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. So far so good. 
The problem isn't whether YOUR machine continues to run. I had an eMachines M5312 laptop. A screw came loose internally from the the mounting bracket for the touchpad and fell directly onto the board. ZZap. Dead right there. It was 2 years old. I have seen plenty of eMachines desktops in my line of work, and they operate by providing the cheapest components that are avaialble. The cases suck, the cables suck, the boards suck, I could go on, but... The painfully sad fact of the matter is they're not even cheaper anymore. You can get some pretty decent stuff for dirt cheap from a solid manufacturer. There's really no reason to get one. It's the WASR10 of computers. Sure, you might get one that works great, or you might not, but the fact of the matter is, it still sucks. |
that pretty much sums it up right there. MOST of the budget low end pc's are built with junk parts. That included dell,hp,compaq and eveyone else. E machine is the BOTTOM of the quality barrell. you can spend the same or just a fraction more <usually under 50.00> and actually get a somewhat decent machine with MUCH better quality control and parts. with ALL budget machines it's not a matter of IF but WHEN it will fail. It may be 3 days out of the box or 2 years. When it fails they are generally not worth the cost to repair. |