eMachines Desktop PC with Intel? Celeron? Processor 2.6GHz (T2682)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Good for the novice or computer-savy
Review: I recently purchased an eMachine and let me tell you I am nothing less than pleasantly pleased. Unfortunately, there's some drama involved and a two-month hiatus without a machine which was absolute torture for a "mouse potato" such as myself. Let me illustrate.

I'm a graphic designer professionally and with new programs I had purchased I needed to update my processor and RAM something fierce; I didn't even make the basic requirements on my old system for most of the programs I bought. So, since my old system was a Compaq and was very reliable in the past I decided to go ahead and get another one -- this time customized and top of the line.

Was this a huge mistake! I had bought it through Best Buy and after waiting three weeks for it to originally come in I had problems from the very start. I got the dreaded blue screen of death and after going back to Best Buy after only THREE DAYS and countless hours attempting to fix it they estimated that it was a hardware problem and returned it to their warehouse.

What happened after that was absolutely ridiculous. Best Buy held onto it for two weeks, estimated that they couldn't fix it and returned it to Compaq who sent it back to me after 2 1/2 weeks. When I finally got it back (albeit two months after I originally ordered it) it no longer had the blue screen -- this time it simply restarted randomly. After doing a diagnostics check it was -- yup, you guessed it -- the CPU was bad and said "Return to Vendor." For those of you who don't know much about systems, if the CPU is bad, you have to return the whole system; You can't just update a piece. I had enough.

After returning it to Best Buy absolutely disgusted, one of the techies (the ones in-store were good, their "warehouse" guys were awful) who had been working on computers since the '70s, recommended an eMachine. He showed me a good model for what I was working on and said it would definitely hold up to its performance.

He said eMachines are a "dirty little secret" right now. They haven't been reliable in the past, but now are leading in quality products, processors and parts. Plus it was at least $500 less than the Compaq I had bought (let alone an estimated $1,000 less than the Dell I priced -- both of which had the same amount of power as the eMachine.) I had a feeling that I was making the right decision as they opened it up to install my secondary drive and all the techies in the department came over to drool and comment on my system. Good sign. They also all commented that out of all the machines that come back for repair, they hardly ever see eMachines -- but plenty of Compaqs and Dells.

How has it been? Perfect. Absolutely no problems. They come through on their system and it shows. It has features that are outstanding. If you're online and have any kind of problem, you can instant message one of their techs and they'll help you on the spot.

This is a great machine and well worth the price. Mine was more than the price listed, but I had it customized. Never again will I buy a Compaq after the problems and absolute neglect they gave me as a new customer as well as not fixing the problem but making me wait three weeks only to give back a broken machine.

I HIGHLY recommend this machine to anyone out there looking for a quality product. I have been very, very happy with this system. Their processor is amazingly fast -- lightning speed for everything I've done and I haven't had a single error or anything even close since I bought it. Check it out, read up on it and you'll see what I mean. Don't fall for the overhyped commercials of Dell or Compaq. Just because they advertise doesn't mean they're quality. You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Good for the novice or computer-savy
Review: I recently purchased an eMachine and let me tell you I am nothing less than pleasantly pleased. Unfortunately, there's some drama involved and a two-month hiatus without a machine which was absolute torture for a "mouse potato" such as myself. Let me illustrate.

I'm a graphic designer professionally and with new programs I had purchased I needed to update my processor and RAM something fierce; I didn't even make the basic requirements on my old system for most of the programs I bought. So, since my old system was a Compaq and was very reliable in the past I decided to go ahead and get another one -- this time customized and top of the line.

Was this a huge mistake! I had bought it through Best Buy and after waiting three weeks for it to originally come in I had problems from the very start. I got the dreaded blue screen of death and after going back to Best Buy after only THREE DAYS and countless hours attempting to fix it they estimated that it was a hardware problem and returned it to their warehouse.

What happened after that was absolutely ridiculous. Best Buy held onto it for two weeks, estimated that they couldn't fix it and returned it to Compaq who sent it back to me after 2 1/2 weeks. When I finally got it back (albeit two months after I originally ordered it) it no longer had the blue screen -- this time it simply restarted randomly. After doing a diagnostics check it was -- yup, you guessed it -- the CPU was bad and said "Return to Vendor." For those of you who don't know much about systems, if the CPU is bad, you have to return the whole system; You can't just update a piece. I had enough.

After returning it to Best Buy absolutely disgusted, one of the techies (the ones in-store were good, their "warehouse" guys were awful) who had been working on computers since the '70s, recommended an eMachine. He showed me a good model for what I was working on and said it would definitely hold up to its performance.

He said eMachines are a "dirty little secret" right now. They haven't been reliable in the past, but now are leading in quality products, processors and parts. Plus it was at least $500 less than the Compaq I had bought (let alone an estimated $1,000 less than the Dell I priced -- both of which had the same amount of power as the eMachine.) I had a feeling that I was making the right decision as they opened it up to install my secondary drive and all the techies in the department came over to drool and comment on my system. Good sign. They also all commented that out of all the machines that come back for repair, they hardly ever see eMachines -- but plenty of Compaqs and Dells.

How has it been? Perfect. Absolutely no problems. They come through on their system and it shows. It has features that are outstanding. If you're online and have any kind of problem, you can instant message one of their techs and they'll help you on the spot.

This is a great machine and well worth the price. Mine was more than the price listed, but I had it customized. Never again will I buy a Compaq after the problems and absolute neglect they gave me as a new customer as well as not fixing the problem but making me wait three weeks only to give back a broken machine.

I HIGHLY recommend this machine to anyone out there looking for a quality product. I have been very, very happy with this system. Their processor is amazingly fast -- lightning speed for everything I've done and I haven't had a single error or anything even close since I bought it. Check it out, read up on it and you'll see what I mean. Don't fall for the overhyped commercials of Dell or Compaq. Just because they advertise doesn't mean they're quality. You won't be disappointed.