Emachine computers Good Value or Junk?

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 29 May 2004 9:47 am

Just wondering, I don't know anyone personally who owns one. I understand they are now owned by the Gateway Co. and was curious if any of you have any feedback. Thanks

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 29 May 2004 11:37 am

Larry;
I have an eMachine laptop which I like a lot. I had heard to stay away from them, but after comparing features and pricing, I decided to give it a try. So far I'm really happy with it. I don't know about their desktop units.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 29 May 2004 4:54 pm

Larry,
My computer tech tells me that most all Dell,Emachine,etc, have the sound/video,modum,10/100 built into the mainboard. If you have problems,you may have to replace the board instead of just a card.Some have room to upgrade with better cards tho.

Bill

erik · Post by **erik** » 30 May 2004 2:25 am

I saw a complete computer system from Compaq for under $500 at Wal-Mart. It seemed to have all the basic important stuff including CD/RW burner. It'd be nice if they had the same thing sans monitor for even less I might buy it.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 30 May 2004 5:32 am

I have used e machines for several years and have yet to encounter a problem. Good bang for the buck.
Erv

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 30 May 2004 6:59 am

Erik;

My sister-in-law had a Compaq Presario and had nothing but problems with it.

Please be advised: If you have a Compaq computer - Don't under any circumstances download ANYTHING from Microsoft. (After reloading the whole thing, we decided to upgrade IE at the same time. We had to start all over again, including another tech support call.

They have their own versions of lots of programs. Which leads me to believe that they do things a little differently than the rest.

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My best,
Ernie

www.buddyemmons.com

Bill Carpenter · Post by **Bill Carpenter** » 30 May 2004 3:01 pm

Check to see what processor they are using in the e-machine. If it is a Celeron processor then avoid it like the plague. The Celeron is a junk processor that is not good for anything more than word processing.

I made the mistake of buying an e-machine with the Celeron processor because the price looked so inviting. Big mistake. I could not use it for any type of music or graphics application. After I pulled the hard drive out of it, I trashed the rest of the system as that is where it belonged to start with, in the trash.

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Mullen SD-10, Nashville 400, Peavey Profex II

Steelin' - The most fun a fella' can have, legally!!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 30 May 2004 4:48 pm

Specifically, what are the flaws in the Celeron chip?

Lyle Bradford · Post by **Lyle Bradford** » 30 May 2004 5:32 pm

I have used an EMachine for about 4 yrs now and it has not give me one bit of a problem. Just a few i caused by tinkering with it! LOL!

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 1 Jun 2004 9:55 am

"Specifically, what are the flaws in the Celeron chip?"

Celeron chips differ from Pentium 3/4 chips in their L2 cache size and bus speeds. L2 cache is a small amount of memory, built directly into the microprocessor. Because of the high level of integration with the microprocessor, this memory can be accessed with very little delay. Less L2 cache results in more frequently having to query your main memory (RAM DIMMS), which is seperate from the microprocessor and therefore takes a few clock cycles to get a response from.

The first version of the Celeron chips had no L2 cache. Their performance was pretty horrible. Since then a small amount of L2 cache has been added to Celeron chips, and the performance has greatly improved.

The current generation of Celerons are fine for word processing and surfing the web. However, I would avoid them if you are going to be doing audio/video editing or playing 3D video games.

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 1 Jun 2004 10:24 am

I'm on my second Emachine, and it works just fine. It did ship with the blaster worm, though, and that was a pain, but tech support was very helpful and I got rid of it easily with their help.

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Marrs D-10, Webb 6-14E

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 1 Jun 2004 10:59 am

Thanks for clearing that up, Will. Now, can you explain L3 cache?

Cal

Will Holtz · Post by **Will Holtz** » 1 Jun 2004 1:16 pm

Current PCs have L1, L2 and sometimes L3 cache, where "L" I believe refers to "level". All of these types of cache do basically the same thing -- provide fast access to data and instructions.

In designing computer memory, there are trade offs between data transfer speed, latency (delay), and cost. Ideally, all memory would be integrated into your microprocessor. This would have high data transfer rates and low latency, but would make microprocessor chips bigger. The cost of a computer chip is highly dependent on size, such that doubling the chip size more than doubles the cost (this is due to the low tolerence for defects). In order to balance the these trade offs, only a little bit of memory is placed on the microprocessor and additional memory is placed on other chips connected via the motherboard.

L1 cache is very small, runs at the same speed as the microprocessor core and is integrated directly into the microprocessor. L2 cache is larger, historically have run at a slower speed than the microprocessor core and is integrated directly into the microprocessor. L3 cache is even larger, runs sigfinicantly slower than the microprocessor core, and is not integrated into the microprocessor. In the newest microprocessors the line between L1 and L2 cache is bluring as L2 cache may sometimes run at the same speed as the microprocessor.

In a modern Pentium 4 processor L1 cache is about 8kB and L2 cache is about 512kB. L3 cache might be around 2MB, but this figure is a property of the motherboard, not the Pentium chip.

You can think of your main memory -- your RAM DIMMS -- as being one step further down this ladder as level 4 cache.

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 1 Jun 2004 4:17 pm

Thanks for all the responses. I did a little more research on the particular model Emachine that I was considering. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on that model was on the motherboard. I've dealt with that before and it's not something I would like to repeat. It seemed like a great deal from the ad but I don't think the initial savings would justify the long range headaches. There are plenty of deals out there and they seem to be getting cheaper all the time. I'm sure something good will turn up. As they say "patience is a virtue".
Thanks again for the help. Larry Clark

Gary Ulinskas · Post by **Gary Ulinskas** » 3 Jun 2004 6:26 pm

You can see my post about my XP (which is an e-machine) audio going mono. This may be a fault of the sound card, which I installed. Otherwise, I am very happy with the computer. Maybe all brands of XPs do this, but on my E-machine, I get regular updates from Microsoft with patches, etc, that are supposed to protect me from the various hackers out there. I bought mine at
Fry's for what a monitor used to cost 5 years ago. It has a Celeron processor.
Gary U

Ralph Riggs · Post by **Ralph Riggs** » 4 Jun 2004 8:58 am

I own a land surveying business (to finance my PSG hobby). We have 6 E-machines that are used daily. We update with new ones every 1-2 yrs. The first thing we do is whitewash all the junk that is installed on them and install the XP Professional operating system. We've never had a problem to date.

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 5 Jun 2004 6:19 am

I have E-Machine computers at my business and home and have no problems with them. They're very well constructed. I always buy the models with Intel chipsets, not AMD.
There's virtually no difference between XP home and XP pro unless you need the networking capabilities of XP pro. I use XP home to run very sophisticated CAD/CAM software at my shop with no problems at all. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Bosler on 05 June 2004 at 07:20 AM.]</p></FONT>

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 5 Jun 2004 6:42 am

There is a software company in a neighboring town and I think they must have at least 25 e-machines at present. That's all they use.
Erv