eMachines at Costco vs. DIY

[unixzip]

I did some research and made my own PC based on MSI motherboard with an
AMD 64 CPU. Total Cost $750.

This week I saw in Costco some eMachines with the same specs (I'm
assuming they are not using MSI boards though) for under $500!!

I know eMachines sucked before Gateway bought them. Are they any better
now? I just need something for my kids to play violent games on and do
their homework.

Thanks
RW

 

[John]

I did some research and made my own PC based on MSI motherboard with an
AMD 64 CPU. Total Cost $750.

This week I saw in Costco some eMachines with the same specs (I'm
assuming they are not using MSI boards though) for under $500!!

I know eMachines sucked before Gateway bought them. Are they any better
now? I just need something for my kids to play violent games on and do
their homework.

Thanks
RW

I think they are about the same. If you like them then you like them.
If you dont like the various aspects that you didnt before then you
probably wont like them now.

They tend to use cheapo PSes. The cases are small and cramped and the
motherboards tend to be the built in video microatx boards with 3 pci
slots , not the greatest. Other than that its a pretty cheap deal and
it would probably be more than OK for a person with modest needs. The
big problem is it has really wimpy video. If you want to play games
you really need to get a halfway decent video card which adds
substantially to the cost.

Ive seen some $130 or so prices recently for the Ati 9800.
The other one is the nvdia 6600gt which Ive seen $159 prices recently
for.

If you built it yourself it would probably run 100-200 more.

 

[/\\/\\UF/-\\S/-\\]

They still get an "E" for effort...

 

[kony]

They still get an "E" for effort...

The cheap systems they weren't all that bad... the typical
limits in upgradability and most notibly the power supply.
If one came with suitable PS2-sized PSU and had an AGP slot,
maybe upgraded memory too, it'd be adequate for a child's
gaming system.

 

[/\\/\\UF/-\\S/-\\]

Agreed

--

/\/\UF/-\S/-\

The cheap systems they weren't all that bad... the typical
limits in upgradability and most notibly the power supply.
If one came with suitable PS2-sized PSU and had an AGP slot,
maybe upgraded memory too, it'd be adequate for a child's
gaming system.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> kony

The cheap systems they weren't all that bad... the typical
limits in upgradability and most notibly the power supply.
If one came with suitable PS2-sized PSU and had an AGP slot,
maybe upgraded memory too, it'd be adequate for a child's
gaming system.

Given that the vast majority of home users never upgrade anything, or if
they do, it's just the hard drive or possibly the optical drive, I'm not
seeing the problem.

It can still handle USB devices, which is what the vast majority of home
users add to their systems (digital cameras are cheap, MP3 players are
given away free all the time)

For an even modest power user or gamer, there's no point, but for
webbrowing, email, chatting, 2D games (Think Flash games), Word
Processing (and even light SOHO work), the machine is overpowered.