This sounds like a great deal. Does anyone have opinions on the E-Machines brand. Are they total crap? For $800 the specs seem pretty impressive. However, I have not been able to find any reviews on this particular model:
T4155
Pentium IV 1.5ghz
265 MB Mem
60 GB HD
12x CD R/WR
12x DVD
GE force Card with 32 MB
56KB modem
Sterio Sound and Speakers
Ethernet card
Windows XP

What do you guys (and gals) think?

BTT. Come on. I know there have to be some computer gurus out there on Friday night.

I've never seen a E-machine that I liked.  The old ones I actually worked with were crap, and I doubt they've changed since then.  For that price, you can get a good Dell.

God Bless Texas

E-machines are notorious for dying exactly 24 hours after the warranty period expires.

Always check with http://www.pricewatch.com and compare what the bottom dollar is. (Make sure to add the shipping in any consideration).

                    -JmE-

If I were you, I would check [url]www.cnet.com[/url] and [url]www.epinions.com[/url] for reviews on eMachines, but I do know that some of the older models had problems and I think they are all proprietary (not confirmed, just heard this), this means they are hard/expensive to upgrade. I would recommend a Dell, like that goofy guy on the commercials does.:) "Dude, your getting a Dell"  (plus it's an American company for the most part). Good Luck

according to my wife the Retail Sales manager at a Computer Superstore owned by Mexicans but with a "USA" name, the E machines are "the new wave equivalent of the Packard Bell, but without as good of a warranty"... and I know from experience fixing E-machines when I worked at same store, the ones they made then (over a year ago) were utter crap.

YMMV.

No_Expert

I've seen about 6 or 7 E-Machines here in our company and among friends and they are crap.  They have piss poor parts and they cost an arm and a leg if you need/want to upgrade later.  Oh yeah, some units won't operate with some softwares.  Over all... POS!    

I purchased an E-machine a couple of months ago. it was something like $530ish after rebates. after one week i had to return the original one back becasue the CD driver burnt up.

i tried to return it to "Worst Buy", but they told me i would have to pay all of the Rebates wich were somewhere around $400 bucks. i could not pay up front for either the 'puter or the rebates (on payment plan) so now im stuck with it.

never buy from "Worst Buy" about half their stock uses Rebates. their staff does'nt know crap about what they sell. only one of two technicians knew how to "repair" something. (lynchburg VA)

i plan on either rebuilding a new computer in two years with better parts and salvaging from this computer what is good or trading it in on a better computer. (my older brother is a computer nerd, to bad i did'nt get his advice before i bought one)

live and learn lib

Anything associated with Packard Bell should be a [red] Red [/red] light to not bother with it.[peep]

How good a particular computer is depends on what you want to do with it.  It also depends on how much you want someone to hold your hand (warranty, tech support, etc.) or how much you want to or are able to build/upgrade/maintain yourself.

If you know a little about computers or want to learn, the best way is to build it yourself from components (just like with an AR15).  You will get exactly what you want at the best price, plus you will know how it is put together.  But if you're not willing/able to do that, I've found Dell generally has good stuff.

My opinion on the specific system is that some of the components are overkill (60 GB hard drive, probably the DVD-ROM drive) and some are likely pretty crappy (modem, speakers).  But that all really depends on what you want to use it for.

A frien of mine bought one. Within a week the hard drive shit the bed, but Staples did an exchange no questions asked.

MrP
I have an appraiser that uses a E-Machines and it has been a very good computer. Whats nice is it is a clone type so replacement parts & hardware are generic.
I also bought my son one. for the money they are a very good deal.
Only down side is there is a rumor the company is in financial trouble but you know how rumors are I still bought one due to the generic make up. Dell tweaks with the windows program to make it specific for their computers and if you have a program problem everyone point fingers at each other.
Hope this helps
Blackgun

MrP
I have an appraiser that uses a E-Machines and it has been a very good computer. Whats nice is it is a clone type so replacement parts & hardware are generic.
I also bought my son one. for the money they are a very good deal.
Only down side is there is a rumor the company is in financial trouble but you know how rumors are I still bought one due to the generic make up. Dell tweaks with the windows program to make it specific for their computers and if you have a program problem everyone point fingers at each other.
If you want real Crap Buy Compaq
Hope this helps
Blackgun

Well, I'll find out shortly.  I ordered one direct from emachines.com Saturday night.  They shipped it Tuesday AM & I'm hoping to get it tomorrow.  The mainboard, CPU, memory, and drives are all brand name parts.  It seems to be as generic as can be.  Keyboard & speakers, who cares.  I'm using a cable modem that will plug into the mainboard ethernet port.  I didn't buy it for their software package.  If they "integrated" everything so it only works with their stuff, I'll wipe it & install my old Win98SE.

I'll let you know how it works when it first fires up.  BTW, they changed the specs recently.  Now it only has 256 Meg of memory and includes a monitor.  Last week, when I bought it, it had 512 and no monitor.

it'll be "integrated" alright. you said it had integrated NIC on the sysbd, will probably have integrated video and sound too... anything happens to any of those and you look for a new sysbd and all the integrated components,(separately) the case will probably not take a generic ATX board, and most of the ones I dealt with a year ago had non-standard sized power supplies, smaller in size than any other ATX power supply I'd ever seen. got alot of machines that came in at 2-4 months out of warranty with dead power supplies... was close to a $200 repair for parts and labor...cause you can't fit a $15 standard ATX power supply in the case. they may have changed, good luck.

No_Expert

edited to add, if the machine was designed for use with XP, the hardware (NIC, sound, modem, etc) may not even have win98 drivers available.  

Our company had always used Dell without any problems.  They tried to save some money by buying eMachines... that was a disaster.  They quit after about a year.  We have 7-year old Dells still running.  I have built my own PCs and bought a Dell for myself.  One thing to note about Dell:  they have always had the highest rated Customer Service for years.  If you cannot afford a Dell, then try Gateway.

That seems to be the recommended way to play with E-machines. I picked up one 2 years ago and it was loaded with so much crap and extras, it would crash just looking at it. I Wiped the HD, installed Win 98SE, and what software I wanted, and the machine ran as good as Win 9x could. I threw Win2000 last year, and talk about stable. Reboot about once a month just for precautions, or unless I have installed new software.  Have done the same with a couple of friends machines with similar results.

I would wipe the drive and install WinXP if they give you an actual OS disc. Unfortunately, they will probably give you one of those "reset discs" that don't let you install just the OS. It installs everything all over, and you are back where you started at. There are ways around it, but it is a lot harder, and I have not seen the current "reset disc" so I couldn't give you directions. Sorry.

Jack

You have quite an imagination.  It is advertised to have seperate, brand name video & sound cards.  Standard ATX form sysboard.  Personally, I doubt it's economical to make up non-standard stuff anymore.

I'll pop the case when it gets here & post.  The FedEx site sez it's in Woodbridge NJ last midnight, so I should have it today.

If it's got the same restrictions as other E-machines I've seen (i.e. you aren't allowed to open the case to add hardware, etc.) then it's not as good a deal as it appears.

I know two people who got E-machines for next to nothing, but spent many hours hassling with tech support to get hardware working.  Both were using Windows ME, one of Microsoft's greatest abominations of all time.

I am on a E-Machine right now. my first computer. Have had it about 1.5 yrs without any problems other than not enough memory.

not an imagination....unless it specifically says separate devices, any manufacturers budget machines will have as much integrated to the sysbd as they can. Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, IBM, Toshiba, Monorail...whoever, I've worked on all of them..and the majority of those in warranty situations (all but Dell).  if it works for you good, I'll be genuinely happy for you...but when you ask for people's opinions (and experiences) that's what you get.  

No_Expert

It just came in the FedEx truck.  After opening all the little boxes, first thing I had to do was pop the case off.  Standard-looking ATX mainboard (VC-31, whatever that is), all the memory in one slot (one still open), an nvidia ge force2 video card in the AGP slot, a modem in a PCI slot (two open) with sound & NIC integrated to the main board.  Two USB in front & two in back.  The usual assortment of serial & parallel ports.  Mouse & keyboard & speakers, all cheapies as expected.  All this is exactly as described on their website.  All of the little paper books for each component is included, as well as emachines' own.  It has instructions on how to open the case & install additional cards, drives, etc.

Software is all on a set of 3 CDs.  Windows XP and all the drivers etc, with the warning that re-installing Windows will reformat the hard drive.  

I'll power it up after I get back from a Mrs. mandated trip to the grocery store.  Sorry to let this hang, but I'm getting the tapping foot routine right now.

No, I'm not ashamed.  Everything is exactly as described on the website, no more is integrated than I expected.  No nearly as proprietary as the nay-sayers say'd.  We'll see how it runs in an hour or so.

Back already.  Fired it up.  Painfully slow the first time.  Filled in all the registration info, etc.  It doesn't look all thet different from Win98 from the desktop.  Couldn't get it to recognize my external cable modem.  As I just typed "external" I'm thinking I may have hit the wrong check block.  I told it a cable modem and it may have assumed an internal.  Maybe if I tell it a LAN, it will go to the external modem.  We'll see.  The first reboot, it popped right up.  I've never seen a BIOS Flash go by so quick.  Mor later.

Well, we're up & running on the new machine.  Everything worked just ducky except the NIC wouldn't see the external cable modem.  Or so I thought.  Turned out to be the other way around.  I needed to "reset" the external modem by poking it in the rear with a paper clip. [:(]  Then a quick ipconfig & I'm in bidness.  

This T4155 is amazingly fast.  Web pages just pop up.  The emachines backgrounds & logos were easily changed to other backgrounds, etc.  It's got cute doors over the CD & floppy drives.  XP lets everybody have their own settings & favorites & historys.  Now the little darlings won't see my history of visited sites, from exploring BOTD et al.

So far, I like it.