emachine computers

  • Thread starter Thread starter cpc
  • Start date Start date

what do you think of emachine computers?

  • great bargain computers

    Votes: 9 24.3%

  • decent computer, decent bargain

    Votes: 4 10.8%

  • crap

    Votes: 24 64.9%
  • Total voters
    37
C

cpc

Member
i have an emachine computer i got from walmart almost 2 years ago (2.6 ghz, 80 gb hardrive, 256 mb ram) that i got for... 399$. it has worked fine since i got it, no crashes, breaks, or anything...and seems to work fine for computer recording.

my question is what are peoples opinions on these computers? they always have the highest specs for the time and always seem to be under 600$. are they great bargain computers, decent bargain stuff for bargain price...or crap.

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T6524
here's an example
amd athlon 2.2 ghz, 1gig ram, 200 gig hardrive for $600
 
I think it depends on who you are and what you want it to do....my mom just bought one...I said good going....nice machine..but...all she does is plays yahoo games on it and chats online....for myself....I would rather take $600 and build my own.
 
this is a bit off topic, not saying your mom does this, but it bugs me when i see naive people buy such high tech computers only to play games on. my mom got talked into a 3.2 ghz 200 mb hd 1 gig ram with a flatscreen for like 2,000 dollars just so she can play yahoo games and word processor. she could have bought a cheap new one , used one, or built her own for a couple hundred that would have been fine. hell, i could trade hers with mine and she wouldnt even know the difference and i'd have a better computer and i'd actually use its capabilities. damn salesmen
 
I don't have much personal experience with current e-machines, but I remember reading somewhere that they changed manufacturers a couple of years ago and have actually gotten better in quality.
 
i hope so. mine died after 2 weeks of use. I was so pissed i didnt even fix it. just got a dell
 
I understand they're being made by Gateway and are improved. Otherwise I'd advise staying away.
 
In the words of somebody else on this site "roll your own" its cheaper than even an e machine, and better.
 
i got an emachine about a year and a half ago and i haven't even had to format the thing. i figured i'd leave the factory installation for a few weeks and then start it fresh but i've never had to. the thing is a joy!
 
I've got an eMachines laptop that is the base of my home studio. No problems, no glitches. I do need to stick in some more RAM...get it up to a gig..but it works great.

They have been bought by Gateway as said earlier. I bought my laptop as a refurb from Tiger Direct for about $750. A comparable Dell was going to be more than double that. Of course, getting into the Sweetwater stuff, Alien stuff, MAC stuff, Carillion stuff and etc..the price continued out of the atmosphere.

If I were running a commercial studio, I'd go with something from Sweetwater or Carillion though.

6
 
These emachines sound pretty good. They're certainly cheap enough.

Rolling your own can be better if you take the time to find the right parts for recording and mixing audio. Hard drive performance, amount and quality of RAM, and CPU speed are very important for audio. If you go that route, do research first!
 
Update on previous post...perhaps my eMachine is a hunk of crap...got up to 12 tracks of audio and its starting to freeze...guess I jinxed myself.

6
 
emachine uses low end processors like celeron and AMD sempron. In most cases a PC crash is the user and not the PC itself. Emachines are budget PC.
 
Most eMachines I've seen come with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers.
So, it seems like a decent deal considering all the stuff you get for around $500 and such. Great for first-time PC buyers or as just another PC, but if you already have a nice PC, just spend $500 in upgrades and it'll last a bit longer. And you can play new PC games.....
 
altiris said:
emachine uses low end processors like celeron and AMD sempron. In most cases a PC crash is the user and not the PC itself. Emachines are budget PC.
Click to expand...

I have an emachines laptop. Came stock with an Athlon 64 3200+. If you're looking for a desktop I would build on a barebones system. If you're looking for a laptop eMachines has enough technology to support a lot of the new hardware/software out there. I don't know what eMachines track record has been like but the current products (mine the M6810) I give 5 stars.
 
I bought an e-machine (celeron) about two years ago--just for e-mail and such. At the time, I planned to build another computer from scratch because everyone said that you HAD to do that for good audio. I never built a custom audio computer, but I got a different soundcard. My e-machine has been running fine with a Delta 1010LT. I'm no expert and I suspect that a pro would say the thing is noisy, but it works well enough for my little home recordings.
 
i bought one and the processer burned out after less than a years worth of moderate use.

i recently bought a HP inthe same price range of $400, and it's been good to me and has fit all my needs for the past year or so.

i'm running cubase sx 2 along with 2 delta 1010lt's
 
I had an eMachines M5309 laptop for two years - not a single issue. I'd recommend them in a heartbeat.
 
I have an M5310 laptop. When I bought it, I didn't do any research, and didn't know that Emachines were typically crap.

My laptop has overheating issues. I need to take it apart every 2-3 weeks to clean it out, so that I can do regular chores. The video chip gets so hot that it melts the glue on the heatsink and everytime I open it, the heatsink is sitting somewhere else on the motherboard.

I was editing a video project and it kept shutting down. I had to put it on top of icepacks to get it finished.

I would love to use it for audio, but I don't think it could hack it. Maybe I can get away with a couple remote location tracks. I'd consider myself lucky.

That aside, its got a great big ass screen, other then the heat issue it has never given me a problem, its fast enough for pretty much anything. It's a shame them missed that one small design issue, or this would be a rocking bargin for a laptop.
 
Well, I worked for Best Buy for five years. Sold computers for a year and worked for Geek Squad for two years, so I'm pretty familiar with the eMachines.

When they first came out, they were junk. Really underpowered and really cheap. But after a while they started getting better, and now they're actually not bad. They were bought by Gateway about a year and a half ago. I didn't see any change in quality or anything due to that purchase. The only difference was it started getting loaded with advertisements on the PC itself.

eMachines today are a good computer. Not great, not bad, just good. I think they are probably the best value out there for complete systems. They were actually the first computer we carried with an Athlon 64 processor. They're trying, at least.

If you're doing audio work, build your own PC, or have someone build one for you. There is absolutely nothing worse than wasting your money on a desktop that you don't get a real copy of Windows, have poor driver support, and you have to format the thing and get a ghetto copy of OEM XP in order to remove the junk. Plus, you get control over what goes into the computer, which is a big plus.

If you're buying a complete package (monitor, printer, PC) for Mom or Grandma, go eMachine. I prefer them nowadays to Compaq and HP, although I had little experience with the "Insignia" stuff that Best Buy came out with (company-owned model). They are a great value and who cares what's in them.

And honestly, 99% of all issues are software related. I've fixed thousands of computers, and the vast majority of them (at least 75%) came up with the same exact work order: virus removal, spyware removal, system tuneup, windows updates (SP2), antivirus software+install, antispyware software+install.
 
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