eMachines - Anyone Using One?

[leeave96]

eMachines - Anyone Using One?

Anyone using eMachine PC's and Alibre? Opinions?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[bscott.arc-tech.com]

Eeek. I dunno that I would trust an eMachine to running any CAD program. Admittedly, it has been a few years since I last looked inside the guts of an eMachine, but in 2004, they were made from the absoultely cheapest parts on the market, lots of no-name stuff, no expansion capability and very under-powered. Their target market is the customer who has very mild demands -- browsing the web and reading email. That's a large market, and they do well in it, but CAD that ain't.

"If you think it costs a lot to do it right, wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong." -- me

 

[jwknecht]

Re: eMachines - Anyone Using One?

Anyone using eMachine PC's and Alibre? Opinions?

Thanks,
Bill

I have 2 emachines (embarressed? Not really). The notebook that I have kicks. It is not made by emachines, but was sold by them. The maker is somewhere in China just like most others. It has an AMD 64 3000+ processor with 1MB L2 Cache, 512 MB DDR, ATI 9600 Mobility with dedicated 64 MB Video RAM, Widescreen, cardreader, etc. etc. etc. I love it. It is a model M6805 but this is quite old now. Now, the same family is sold under the Gateway name. I do run Alibre on it, not a problem. I should expand the RAM to do larger assys and drawings but I have not yet. I use this as a backup and also when working wireless in the house or on the road. This Laptop and the one's in the same family are popular with gamers.


I purchased another emachines desktop for my kids. It is not very expandable, but it does very well. I have Alibre Xpress on it for my son. It runs it fine. It is a T6410 (Consumer reports best buy, I saw in the last edition). AMD 64 processor, DVD burner, etc. Does great for the kids games, photos, burning CDs/DVDs. I added RAM to kick it to 1GB, but it could use a dedicated video card to help with gaming. Not very expandable, but cheap (approx $500 bundled)!

Would I recommend emachines for CAD? Of course not, but that depends on your budget and what you have now and what you want to spend now. It can run Alibre, that is not a problem.

 

[cgriffin]

I am writing this on an emachine, with Alibre installed on it, at home. I've bought quite a few, between my office and helping friends, and never had any problems that any other brand wouldn't have had. My Dad has had to replace his fan three times in five years, but he keeps it in a dusty place. The only reason my last three PC's haven't ben em's is because I wanted something a little more than bottom of the line, and got good deals on a Sony and two HP's.

The bottom line is that even though the vid card is generic, the system does work. The current cheap emachines are better than expensive pc's from just a couple years ago. If you want it faster, buy a game vid card, and load up the RAM. My PC's are usually replaced every 2-3 years, so I rarely wear one out. I actually had my first real problem with one last month (mainboard was replaced by a local shop), but that one was over 3 years old and due for an upgrade anyway.

I buy my RAM at http://www.crucial.com and use 1G as a minimum. The more you got, the happier you'll be.