eMachines W2040

[Reid]

I had heard a lot of bad things about eMachines, but I needed to get another system set up and did not have the time or inclination to piece together yet another system.

Wal-Mart has the W2040 system, with 15" monitor for $448, so I decided to try it. System includes:

15-inch eView 15w2 monitor with 0.28 mm pixel pitch (13.7 inches viewable)
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor with QuantiSpeed architecture
128 MB DDR memory
40 GB hard drive
48x16x40x CD-RW drive
3.5-inch 1.44 MB floppy disk drive
56 Kbps v.92 modem
Built-in 10/100 MB Ethernet connection
Integrated S3 ProSavage8 graphics
AC '97 audio
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front)
Serial port
Parallel port
2 PS/2 ports
Available AGP slot
2 available PCI slots
Audio input and output
Microphone input
Headphone jack on front panel
2 available PCI slots
Multimedia keyboard
2-button wheel mouse
Amplified stereo speakers
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Additional pre-installed software includes Microsoft Works 6.0, Money 2002, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Media Player, Real Player, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator
**********
Sure, it needs more memory for big tasks, but has been fine so far for web surfing. It will not be used for games. The speakers are really bad, but I am very impressed with everything else. The system did have one configuration problem: the hard drive light was always on until I put the wires on the correct motherboard pins.

[mjc]

Heck it looks like you bought the software, OS and monitor and got the rest for free....

The nice thing is if you do get hit by upgrade limits the parts you can always scavange the CPU and drives to build another one.

[Reid]

Here is an inside view
http://home1.gte.net/res1azio/w2040inside.jpg
I did add a case fan because it felt a little warm while waiting for the home air conditioning to be fixed. It was running temps of:
System 40C, CPU 50C. With case fan is now: System 34C, CPU 45C.

Yes, I thought some of the parts would easily add up to the total price, if I ordered on the Internet and paid shipping for separate pieces.

[Budfred]

Emachines used to be a lot worse than they are now. They still tend to use cheap components, but they have worked to improve customer service which was their weakest point before. At least they are not using porprietary stuff as much as some of the biggies...

[classicsoftware]

Be prepared to replace the E-machines super cheap power supplies. They used to be 145 watt. Maybe their up to 200 by now.

Good luck....

[Reid]

Good point, Classic. I had not even checked the power supply. Anyway it is labeled 250W, but of course, quality is unknown. I do have a new 300W supply sitting around, but the individual amps and the 3.3V&5V total wattage are almost the same, with the only the 12V amp rating being higher on the 300W (30A vs 25A). A part number check shows it can be replaced with a standard ATX power supply.

[Lucias_Clay]

I am not 100% sure but it looks a lot like the system my niece has, I only spent a few minutes on it setting up her e-mail and a few settings. It seemed a little slow during setup and the couple of minutes I spent on line but seemed nice and smooth a few tweaks and it will be a nice little computer for her first.

[jabarnutcase]

As Budfred mentioned, emachines used to have a bad wrap but have improved their customer service and reliability quite a bit according to a few magazines like PC world.

Funny...My son's first ("cool! I Bought my own") computer was a 366i emachine. ( Didn't even know he was buying it or I might have had some input!) :(
ONLY problem he ever had with it? You guessed it Classic-I had to replace the power supply.

The other funny thing, is that he's had a few computers since, but the ol' emachine is still working fine.....Hehe- stuck in the "guest" room and never gets used, but still works great. ;)

I'll bet yours turns out to be fairly reliable. And you can't complain much about the price with all that stuff. Good luck!