Anybody use an eMachines desktop?

shack

I'm looking for a real basic desktop to replace my mom's old HP that just crashed. All she does is some word processing, a little graphic stuff and photo downloads from her camera. She doesn't even use the internet...says she doesn't want to waste time surfing like her son :rolleyes:.

I've found a eMachine for > $400 with a 19" monitor that will do everything she needs. Speed, memory, etc, etc, are not really issues based on her usage. I am mainly wondering about basic reliabiltiy. Any expericence with this company?

bobman1235

eMachines have certainly had hardware reliability problems in the past, though I can't say I've seen a "new" one in at least 2-3 years. My brother has gone through two fo them (apparently didn't learn his lesson) and they both had sporadic motherboard-level failures (IE things that you can't just replace easily, like hard drives). So... tread lightly. PCs are damned cheap these days if you shop around.

Knucklehead

I think the quality for a basic desktop is good with e machines, I have a 6 year old T4511, still running its butt off, zero problems.

Knucklehead

I must say however my e machines was built when the company was still a 50 employee outfit, since then they have merged, so the current quality may not be as good.

Retro152

Shack, I have been using a 3 yr old W3107 and so far so good. No problems at all. (knock on wood!):rolleyes:


Pat.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Granted I haven't done market research to determine what % of PC owners used eMachines, but up until recently 2 of every 5 PCs that I worked on were emachines. I don't see as many any more because it's really hard to even find one in a local best buy these days.

Systems

Its just a roll of the dice on whatever computer you purchase, they'll either run for a long time, or you'll have issues.......

Its not the brand or the company that makes a difference its whatever hardware they'll shove in them at the time....

bobman1235

Lorthos wrote: »

Its just a roll of the dice on whatever computer you purchase, they'll either run for a long time, or you'll have issues.......

Its not the brand or the company that makes a difference its whatever hardware they'll shove in them at the time....

WHAT? Where do you come up with this crap?

What do you think, computer manufacturers are all just driving out to some old warehouse, grabbing random parts and throwing them into computers? Each company and model is going to use consistent parts, and some of those parts are good, and some are bad.

heiney9

I've had 2 friends with eMachines in the past (2yrs or so) and both bit the dust. Get a Dell, look in the refurb area and you'll get a great deal w/full warranty. They put refurbs, sold as new, scratch and dent up about every couple minutes. I usually put in the search fields what I'm looking for and then arrange by $$$ and keep refreshing.

Late evening and early mornings seem to have the best run of deals. I just bought a Mini 9 netbook (refurb) for $229 vs. $319 or more new.

Just another suggestion for you to think about. I believe many of them ship for free or very cheaply too.

Good luck

H9

shadowofnight

Friends dont let friends buy eMachines.

I used to see crooked surface mounted devices , discrete and integrated....the ball grid array type integrated chips ( Northbridge...southbridge...audio...video..sometimes even cpu on the really low end boards ) pin density is so tight that having skewed/poor contacts can work fine at room temperature...but as soon as the person lets that pc stay on for a long period of time or the power/case fans get a little clogged with dirt or pet hair and it heats up a bit the contact becomes compromised and it peters out.

Usually if this is a video or audio chip you just disable it in the bios and throw a card in an expansion slot...done deal, but the emachines rarely had an expansion agp slot so you were forced to go to a pci video card...stuff like that.

There were just more of those types of failures with the emachines...it wasnt like they all were like that, actually I worked on quite a few that lasted for years and years. Actually Dells cheapest type pentium 4's ...the ones comparable to an emachine with no agp slot...only 2 dimm slots....etc at the same timeframe as those emachines were probably made by the same OEM vendor in China...had poor motherboard assy and had a higher failure rate as well. That was for only maybe a 1 to 2 year period for the dells...then even their lowend desktops became really reliable as they are now.

I dont know if the emachines ever got away from the poor parts/ poor assy cheap OEM china vendor they used a while back....I know dell did.

Knucklehead

And of course it all depends on what your going to do with it, i mostly just surf the web with mine, burn a few DVD's & CD's, its not a workhorse by any means. With that being said, we use DELL Latitude laptops at work and in my opinion they are only fair at best. Just have someone build you a nice desktop.

Systems

bobman1235 wrote: »

WHAT? Where do you come up with this crap?

What do you think, computer manufacturers are all just driving out to some old warehouse, grabbing random parts and throwing them into computers? Each company and model is going to use consistent parts, and some of those parts are good, and some are bad.

Yes, thats exactly what I think:) You know me so well Bobby, its eerie:)

Read shadowofnights post, he gets it....

renowilliams

shack wrote: »

I'm looking for a real basic desktop to replace my mom's old HP that just crashed. All she does is some word processing, a little graphic stuff and photo downloads from her camera. She doesn't even use the internet...says she doesn't want to waste time surfing like her son :rolleyes:.

I've found a eMachine for > $400 with a 19" monitor that will do everything she needs. Speed, memory, etc, etc, are not really issues based on her usage. I am mainly wondering about basic reliabiltiy. Any expericence with this company?

My big problem with pre-built systems like e-machines, HP, Acer etc..., is that they come with pre software loaded configuation. And Now when you buy new it is Vista that is loaded. I personally have little use for Vista as it is a huge resource hog and likes ram and it drives you nuts every time you want to do something or load software (pops up a are you sure you want to do this window). Typically they never give you enough ram on one of these systems. Also, they will put crappy anti-virus that will run out in 90 days same with Office suite that comes with it.


It will cost you more but I advise to have a computer built for you at a shop. You have much more control over the parts put in it and the software loaded.

That being said, the e-machine will likely do what is needed bases on your post.

Good luck

Knucklehead

Reno is exactly right, stay away from Vista if at all possible. LOL. XP blows it away.

bobman1235

Lorthos wrote: »

Yes, thats exactly what I think:) You know me so well Bobby, its eerie:)

Read shadowofnights post, he gets it....

He does get it, he said the opposite of what you did.

Polk user

I constantly get emails from Dell for a Vostro 220 Mini tower:


VOSTRO™ 220 MINI TOWER

• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor
• 2GB Memory*, 160GB* Hard Drive & DVD Burner
• 19" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

$399 expired 3/4/09

Should be another one like that next week.

shack

Thanks for all the replys.

What I like about the eMachine in question is that it is cheap, will probably do what she needs it to do, comes with XP home (not Vista) and comes with a nice 19" monitor.

What gives me pause is some of the reliability issues mentioned here...but...I've tempered that somewhat with some research on the net which says the reliabilty of this brand is only slightly below the likes of Dell, HP and others. It appears eMachines is now part of Gateway and Acer. It's no powerhouse, but she's not a gamer or multi-tasker either. Also I am aware of all the "add on" crap and were talking 30 min to an hour to trash all of it so that's no big deal. It doesn't have Word (which she knows) but I guess she can use Works for what she needs. I read somewhere that there aren't any XP recovery discs in the box, but again its easy to make a backup

NO WAY I am going to have one built for her as that would be a total waste of resources and effort given what she needs.

As I go throught the pros and cons I may go ahead and jump on this one for $400. If the box goes out after a year or two no big deal and she still has a decent monitor.

Thanks for all the input.

shack

Polk user wrote: »

I constantly get emails from Dell for a Vostro 220 Mini tower:


VOSTRO™ 220 MINI TOWER

• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor
• 2GB Memory*, 160GB* Hard Drive & DVD Burner
• 19" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

$399 expired 3/4/09

Should be another one like that next week.

Thanks, that may be a good alternative...however theres that shipping which adds another $40.

tcrossma

+1 on the Dell. Over the past couple years I've bought several on-sale $400-500 low-end Dell's and I've never had any trouble with them.

As to loading machines with useless software, if that's a concern it's easy enough to wipe and re-install. Also, many ISP's these days offer free Anti-Virus subscriptions.

bobman1235

Shack, for removing all the crap, I definitely recommend CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com). It even stands for crap cleaner!

John30_30

eMachines merged or were bought by Gateway a few years back, and then both were bought by Acer about a year ago.
eMachines had a deserved rep for putting cheap mainboards in their towers, which did not have a good life expectancy.
Their laptops were another story, as about 4 years ago, they pioneered a economical brute of a desktop replacement with dual AMD's, onboard video card, etc. for around $1K +-, that was the same machine as Alienware and some other rebrands were selling for twice that.
The laptops caught on big, even tho their desktops were losing $.

For your mom, a Gateway would probably do fine, or even a used Dell. You don't want to get the cheapest new machine out there, but I'm a big fan of refurbs.

hearingimpared

I'm on my third emachine. I've had no problems with them or this one. The only reason I got rid of the other two was they were old and I wanted a newer version. The only problem I see with them and this goes for most PCs is that they are sensitive to dirty power.

Disc Jockey

My wife was in the same situation a few years back and I thought e-machines might be ok since thay had been bought by Gateway. It lasted three years then the power supply went out. No biggie, just replace the power supply right? Nah, they used such a cheap ps that when it goes out it supplies a pretty massive overvoltage to the motherboard, also frying it. A little research confirmed I was not the only one that had this happen. Never again.

bruss

dell factory refurbs

dellauction.com

Airplay355

Our eMachine **** the bed completely. I think the HD died. It always was a POS. The slower VAIO we had which is now 9 years old still boots up and is fine. I'd look elsewhere, just from my experience though.

Motzart

My Buddy of 15yrs works on Computers and warned me long ago stay away from the eMachines.......junk!

I have had my Dell Dimension 4600 since 2004.....runs 24/7 and ZERO mechanical problems!
Just a dust cleaning now and then and it just keeps going.

Systems

Forget Emachines. Plain and simple..they are junk. I recently purchased a Compaq/HP desktop for a friend who has no idea of anything concerning computers. $298 without a monitor. Plenty of ram, a nice sized hard drive, dou core Intel processor. He was able to purchase a NEW 19" monitor for $89 and is now set. I used to consider Compaq to be Comcrap, but they have come a long ways since then. Just my 2 cents worth.

Motzart

187CAM wrote: »

Forget Emachines. Plain and simple..they are junk. I recently purchased a Compaq/HP desktop for a friend who has no idea of anything concerning computers. $298 without a monitor. Plenty of ram, a nice sized hard drive, dou core Intel processor. He was able to purchase a NEW 19" monitor for $89 and is now set. I used to consider Compaq to be Comcrap, but they have come a long ways since then. Just my 2 cents worth.

My last computer was a Compaq from before HP scarfed em up.
I used it for 5yrs....ran 24/7 and no problems with it either.
Finally dumped it cuz I could upgrade it no further.

obieone

E-machines sux, period. I had one that lasted 13 months and went poof, which also took out my psw303 at the time. The thing had major issues with everyhting I installed on it- wireless adaptor, Norton, everything. Will NEVER give them a 2nd glance now.

Knucklehead

preventive maintenance is the key, clean out the dust now and then, dont download a bunch of crap from the internet, use a good malware program with an antivirus and you should be good to go. my e machines has pretty much been running non stop for 6 years (aside from occasional maintenance or an upgrade) and its still kickin. guess im just lucky.

sophie

my brother bought an e-machine 3 or 4 years ago. it ran 24/7 folding (100% cpu load) untill about 2 months ago when i built him a new desktop. i think you should have someone throw something together for her. a cheep case with a $50 foxconn motherboard, amd processor, 2gb ram, and a 250gb hd. would only be a few hundred dollars. if she could find a monitor keyboard and mouse this would be the way to go.

Payton