New eMachine Athlon 64 model worth consideration?

[me]

eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.

see link

http://tinyurl.com/68cjz

I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
money!

What's everyone think abt it?

 

[f/fgeorge]

eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.

see link

http://tinyurl.com/68cjz

I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
money!

What's everyone think abt it?

When I worked as a techie at Best Buy years ago, we thought of them as
similar to Packard Bell machines, little tanks but don't try to do too
much upgrading on them. Too many proprietary parts, but upgrading them
memory is okay, beyond that the power supplies seem to be JUST big
enough to do the job without much extra overhead.

 

[Derek Baker]

eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.

see link

http://tinyurl.com/68cjz

I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
money!

What's everyone think abt it?

No personal experience with eMachines, but the spec looks okay - assuming
you're not gaming.

 

[me]

Too many proprietary parts, but upgrading them

memory is okay, beyond that the power supplies seem to be JUST big
enough to do the job without much extra overhead.

Understood

But I'm starting to think that PCs are becoming
disposable anyway. Or that just buying a whole new
"box" instead of upgrading parts is the way to go now
days.

IOW... I wouldn't upgrade this machine.... just use it
a few years until new latest and greatest tech comes
out then buy a whole new box to replace it

Given that info..... do you agree or disagree?

My previous home PC was Dell 4100 with a 21" crt
monitor. The whole rig cost $2700 in 2000.

I just sold the above rig for $300 and was lucky to get
that! Ha

Anyway.... I'm really not wanting to take such a "loss"
like that anymore. Hence the idea of buying cheap and
just buying a whole new box every two years or so

Agree?

 

[me]

No personal experience with eMachines, but the spec looks okay - assuming

you're not gaming.

No gaming

But I might want to run voice r3ecognition software on
it so will need to add RAM to get it to 1 gig.

 

[f/fgeorge]

Understood

But I'm starting to think that PCs are becoming
disposable anyway. Or that just buying a whole new
"box" instead of upgrading parts is the way to go now
days.

IOW... I wouldn't upgrade this machine.... just use it
a few years until new latest and greatest tech comes
out then buy a whole new box to replace it

Given that info..... do you agree or disagree?

My previous home PC was Dell 4100 with a 21" crt
monitor. The whole rig cost $2700 in 2000.

I just sold the above rig for $300 and was lucky to get
that! Ha

Anyway.... I'm really not wanting to take such a "loss"
like that anymore. Hence the idea of buying cheap and
just buying a whole new box every two years or so

Agree?

As long as you keep your expectations low you will be fine with that
plan. BUT if you decide to do some high end graphics, gaming, etc, you
will be in trouble very quickly.
Remember with computers, the day you buy it is the last day for that
technology, tomorrow something new will be out!
While not technically true it does seem that way.

 

[Yadayada]

eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.

see link

http://tinyurl.com/68cjz

I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
money!

What's everyone think abt it?

Very nice machine for the price. Don't be afraid of the name either.
eMachines has improved greatly in the past 1.5-2 years. This is not the
eMachines of old.

I figured it was a socket 754 when I saw the price, but it must be a socket
939. It states the memroy as being dual channel. If you aren't going ot be
doing any serious gaming, go for it.

 

[me]

I figured it was a socket 754 when I saw the price, but it must be a socket

939. It states the memroy as being dual channel. If you aren't going ot be
doing any serious gaming, go for it.

yep it is socket 939

and dual channel ram

Id put more ram into it if I buy it

Where could I buy more ram for this PC guys?

 

[Timbertea]

According to the information I have...

It uses a modified (what did they leave off?) MSI MS-7093 motherboard.
The specs of the board indicate a socket 939, it should have a X16 PCI-E
graphics slot for an upgrade later.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS480M2-IL&class=mb

(You can't go 100% by those specs because Emachine probably had one
modified to leave off a few things to make it cheaper, but it is the
basic board. )

The areas of concern for me would be no infromation about the power
supply. I have a feeling it probably uses a Micro-ATX form power
supply, but without actually opening it up and looking I don't know for
certain. While these days Emachines tends to use power supplies that
can deliver what they are rated (and sometimes a bit more), I can't even
find a rating for the power supply it ships with. They used to use a lot
of Forton Source & Lian power supplies, so that might not be all bad,
but Emachines tends to ship ones on the wimpy side. (Just like most
other large prebuilt companies...)
It's impossible to say whether or not you will have major space
constraints installing a new power supply if you need it, I wouldn't bet
on having the space to install a full size ATX of your choice. Not a
show stopper, you can find decent mATX power supplies if you hunt hard.
It may or may not add hassle if you try to install a hot graphics card
later.

I would expect you would eventually want to add another drive and better
graphics at some point.

The only other area of concern is the curved front panel on the case. If
you ever add another DVD-burner or have to replace the one it came with,
you'll have to find one that the buttons line up exactly. This just
means a trip to your local computer store to actually look at the drive
you intend to install. Don't make assumptions that what you buy will
fit, actually verify it will. Restocking fees aren't fun.


That being said, I don't think it's a bad deal for what you get, but I
would try get them to let you open up the case & poke around at the
store before you buy. Check that power supply and find out what it is
before you put your money on the table. Best Buy probably wont let you
do it, but at Circuit City (and probably even CompUSA) it's a fair bet
they will as long as they have a display model up and running. If it
uses a full size ATX, walk out the door with it. You can always add a
better power supply later when you upgrade graphics and do it
reasonably, if it's MicroATX you might want to think about it a bit and
shop for a replacement power supply of a higher rating and add that to
your cost. It's just harder to find ones that meet the power
requirements of decent graphics cards + that system + some more add ons.

-Timbertea

 

[me]

If it

uses a full size ATX, walk out the door with it. You can always add a
better power supply later

Thanks!!

Excellent info!!! Much appreciated!

 

[f/fgeorge]

yep it is socket 939

and dual channel ram

Id put more ram into it if I buy it

Where could I buy more ram for this PC guys?

I buy mine from www.crucial.com lately, prompt service and shipping is
free or negligable. AND you can pick your EXACT machine or MB and they
will show you what will work.

 

[me]

Where could I buy more ram for this PC guys?

I buy mine from www.crucial.com lately, prompt service and shipping is
free or negligable. AND you can pick your EXACT machine or MB and they
will show you what will work.

I checked crucial an they don't have the eMachine T6212
listed

I guess its too new

 

[huh...]

eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.

see link

http://tinyurl.com/68cjz

I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
money!

What's everyone think abt it?

I wouldn't waste money on an Emachine. If you want a blisterpack
computer, just get a good laptop.

When you realize you'd prefer a real machine, you'll at least have a
serviceable laptop for carry.

 

[Johnnie Cochran in HELL]

| eMachine has a new Athlon64 based machine out.
|
| see link
|
| http://tinyurl.com/68cjz
|
| I've always bought Dells in the past but this Athlon
| based machine appears to pack a lot of power for the
| money!
|
| What's everyone think abt it?

Looks like they've stopped selling A64 laptops.

 

[Al Dykes]

No personal experience with eMachines, but the spec looks okay - assuming
you're not gaming.

My experience with older eMachines is that they were "just good
enough". I think they've gotten better and ISTR that they have a
laptop that gets OK reviews.

I'd wait for it to ship with XP64 and/or wait to the Linux crowd
to bless the system.

Does anyone know the make and model of the mobo ?

 

[Al Dykes]

I checked crucial an they don't have the eMachine T6212
listed

I guess its too new

Ask eMachine how much they charge for additional memory. If you don;t
buy additional memory from them make sure they leave a slot open for
you.

 

[me]

Looks like they've stopped selling A64 laptops.

yeah I saw that as well

At least no mention of laptops on their web page
anymore

strange

 

[Yadayada]

yeah I saw that as well

At least no mention of laptops on their web page
anymore

strange

They just stopped selling making them under the emachines name. The previous
A^$ notebook (m6805, m6807, m6809, m6810, m6811) have been rebranded to the
gateway 742x series (7405GX, 7410GX, 7415GX, 7422GX, and the soon to be
released 7426GX). the notebooks are made by the same ODM, with the only
difference being the color of the lid. The emachines were black and grey.
The gateway series is solid grey. They also transitioned the LCD to the
glossy screens.

 

[Yadayada]

Does anyone know the make and model of the mobo ?

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS480M2-IL&class=mb
without the s-video and composite outputs.

 

[Debbie the Dogged]

I checked crucial an they don't have the eMachine T6212
listed

I guess its too new

Use their live chat at http://www.crucial.com/company/contacts.asp, and
they'll tell you. I have an HP a850e (Athlon 64 3400) and although it
didn't show up on their list, I asked them through the chat and they
looked it up and told me. I ordered, the memory came quickly and works
flawlessly.