emachine VS. HP,DELL,etc.. on cost and quality?

[Matt]

I am looking for a fairly good low-cost computer that won't die on me as soon as the warranty runs out. The emachines looked like the most inexpensive but I'm not sure about the quality. So far I haven't been able to find any other company out there that is selling a $500 PC.

Any suggestions?

[ixl]

I haven't used the eMachines much, but their pricing, feature set and marketing strike me as strictly "economy computing". HP is a respected name in a retail PC. Dell is of course a direct-marketing company, a different type of PC (what I call "configure to order").
If you can afford a Dell machine, it probably will be better for you if for no other reason than you can customize it somewhat, and it *should* hopefully use more standard parts (though that's not always the case any more...)

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Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[der King Mongo]

Purely anecdotal, but a friend of mine works in a repair shop, and he said he's got a whole shelf full of eMachines, with a problems running the gamut.

Also, where do you live? Depending on your area, you could buy brand-new parts and build a decent computer for $500.00 (without the monitor).

You might also check your local Circuit City or Good Guys. They have ****ty prices and older equipment, but I've seen some really good deals over in the "returned/refurbished" area, and those returns and such are still covered by the manufacturer's 1-year warranty.

Last, if you live in California, you can really screw these companys that offer the rebate if you purchase 1-3 years of internet access in advance when you buy your computer, because in California they cannot demand the return of the rebate if you cancel the contract (i.e., get the 3 years in advance and the $400.00 rebate, when the check comes, cancel the internet access).

This, of course, depends on how much you trust the SOBs to send you your rebate check.

[ReddDogg]

First of all consider what you will be doing with your PC. If you are going for internet, don't get EMachine, HP, or Compaq. Their modems are nothing but problems. EMachine is the worst computer in quality, I would never buy one.

Gateway is probably the best price vs. quality matchup, but if I get computer, I build myself or buy Dell, because Dell is high quality, but also costs a bit more. If you are planning on running lots of appliations, go ahead and get a Dell, you will thank yourself in the long run.

By the way, you wonder what qualifies my opinion of the modem, and the computer in general, I have worked internet tech support for almost a year, I have been building and repairing computers just as long.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[ixl]

I prefer Gateway over Dell myself... both are good machines however. Gateways for me provide generally better packages for the price, and I don't like some of Dell's politics. (Not Michael Dell personally, but the way his company seems to be on Intel's leash bothers me.)
Also, Gateways seem to use less proprietary hardware, but that may no longer be the case.

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Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[dale]

I can't say definitively that eMachines are o.k. or not o.k. I have had one for a while with no problems, a couple friends have them with no problems. Price is really hard to beat. Redd discussed a modem problem. I don't use the modem so can't speak to that. My kids (ab)use the eMachine and seems to have held up really good. Dell and HP will charge alot more for the same functionality and marginally better support. There might be alot more eMachines on the repair shelf simply because there are alot more of them out there than Dell and HP (which is likely the case).

If you buy from a reputable place, you can generally return it before 30 days is up and get your money back.

dale

[ReddDogg]

Dell is number one selling computer on the market, followed by Compaq and then HP and then Gateway last time I saw the stats. Emachine isn't even considered a major manufacturer by pc world. Statistics show them twice as likely to break down, and if you examine the technical support group you see alot of mysterious problems on emachines. I work internet tecch support, and we have permission to not do alot of things with an emachine because doing something simple like renameing winsock and wsock32 dll files and extracting new ones have been known to through computer into continuous startup loop causing need for reformat. Conextant modems are no doubt the worst modems on the market, and emachine is so nice as to not install anywhere close to new drivers when they ship their computers, which further compound the problem. I don't care how much they cost, when you buy emachine, you take a risk that it won't work, a larger risk than you take with any otehr computer. Obviously over half of their machines work right, or else they would be getting sued, but stats show, and the thousands of tech support calls i have taken confirm that emachines are lowest quality computer available to buy. I have talked to people who have gotten 3 emachines in a row that were junk, one guy had major problems last spring 4 times in a row, a bright.net user from central ohio, and he finally got a refund after 5 months and got a compaq, and had minor problems, but we helped him get those straightend out. That last one was a low quality hsp micro modem driver, which after updated from compaq's homepage, was good to go.

I might have been more apt to go for gateway's, but I had one catch on fire on me once, thought it wasn't really gateway's fault, it was a customer who lied to me about what had happened to computer, her daugher had spilt apple juice on computer and some leaked into the case. It flamed about a foot hight though, I had case cover off... it was an older gateway, a p90.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Paleo Pete]

Want a good one? Forget the off-the-shelf stuff, and build your own. You can buy parts and put exactly the hardware and software you want on it, and if you ever have trouble with it, you know exactly what's in it, you know it has no proprietary parts or software, and after building it you'll have a better idea how to fix it. And you can always ask us...

Don't know about Gateway or Dell, but Compaq is the computer user's worst enemy. The hardware AND software are both proprietary, and after fighting their tech support over an extended warranty for 2 months, I'll never go in the same room with another Compaq. (Never did get the problem fixed, until the 6th format/reinstall, and it still had a bad monitor and CD ROM they refused to replace.) Part of the BIOS is stored in a separate partition on the hard drive, so if you try to fdisk/format and install any other version of windows, you lose part of the BIOS. Windows has to come from the restore disk, which has lots of unused and unnecessary software on it, and takes up 1GB of disk space for the second partition, which is the disk image and installation files. (1GB totally wasted space.) Most of the hardware is cheap and proprietary.

Gateway and Dell both put all sorts of garbage on the hard drive you'll never need, and usually try to get you to use AOhelL to boot. Many companies put Netscape on their computers, and no matter what anyone says, I've seen WAY too many problems with Netscape and IE fighting to gain default status, and Netscape also makes about 200 changes to the registry, which it doesn't undo if you uninstall it. Netscape also Phones Home (http://www.interhack.net/pubs/whatsrelated/) to tell Netscape where you've been on the net.

AOhelL isn't much better, I've seen systems that had to be formatted and reinstalled to clear up problems created by installing AOL software.

If you do buy a system, don't get taken in by the $400 off if you sign up for 3 years of whatever internet service. I just talked to a lady who had MSN cancelled after 2 weeks of trying and getting online twice. The company is fighting them over the $400, and a $20 something charge for a month of "Internet Service" of which they actually used 3 or 4 hours.

I've seen at least 30 brand new Gateway, HP, Acer and Compaq machines having trouble in less than a month. Several refused to shut down the very first time they were turned on! All this and I don't even work tech support, just keep up with what's happening with computers through friends and relatives. As a side note, no horror stories about Dells, and only one bad report on a Gateway. (Gotta be fair, the Gateways seem to be good except for the software I'd demand they keep in the boxes, and nowhere near my machine.)

All in all if you want a good computer, build your own. The major manufacturers are interested only in making money. That means mass producing computers as cheap as possible, rather than using the best parts they can find and building quality products one at a time. If they used the best parts around, your average $1500 computer would cost twice that much. You can build one for the same money, and know it's built right, and have complete control over what software and hardware goes into it.
I haven't seen a store bought computer yet that can match my old home built P-200 for reliability and endurance. It's been running for 3 years, and formatted/reinstalled twice in that time. Once was my mistake, I deleted the wrong file. The other was when I had to replace a lightning-damaged motherboard and modem.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[bassvax]

Just another opinion, but I would stay away from Compaqs and E-machines (either as a brand or a type). With those rock-bottomed priced systems you end up with usless legacy equipment and very little room for upgrading. Building your own system is the way to go...yes it will cost a bit more, but well worth the exp and knowledge. I personally don't like AOl due to it's invasive and restrictive behavior. I'm not much on Gateway brands either, but as Charles pointed out Intel fans sway towards Dell (not that there is anything wrong with Athlon). It all boils down to wht your primary concerns involve...lord knows there's enough info on the subject available

[Radish]

Well, here's another two cents:

I'm an Information Systems Director for a 250-person plus Medical Institute. We have used a variety of equipment over the past thirty years, starting with a cash register and the old 10-key adding machine. We use AIX on RS/6000 for Medic, our main scheduling and billing app. We have had Compaq servers for Novell and NT, Dell servers for NT and Exchange, and DecServer 3300's for NT and Exchange. We use Dell exclusively for the desktop.

I personally also used Dell machines for 6 & 1/2 years at a previous job, in Telecom Billing, Fraud & Abuse Management. Other than occasional quality control slips as the organization grew, I have found the equipment to be highly reliable. We have about 30 servers and 200 to 250 workstations at any one time. I have never had a system arrive dead. We've had a couple of hard drives or CDROMs that refused to work, and Dell overnighted the replacements without making us send in the bad ones first. They've even sent a replacement hard drive that was larger, because they were no longer buying the smaller size. I personally can find nothing bad to say about Dell. It may be a bit tougher for an individual than a company, because you have no one to share the frustrations with. But, believe me, I have had fewer frustrations with Dell than with other manufacturers.

I used to swear by H-P equipment, but their PCs turned out not to have the same legendary reliability as their other product lines. Later, my favorite computers for reliability became ALR (Advanced Logic Research), until Gateway bought them. I don't know what Gateway did with ALR after buying them, but they sure didn't absorb ALR's quality control! After that, I used a combination of Dell and DEC DecServers, but Compaq bought DEC and ruined the Alpha processor product lines. I am now operating using all Dell servers except for one DecServer 3300 running Exchange 5.5.

If you want high reliability, pick a Dell computer that fits your needs and price range, and have them load the OS you want (Win98, Win ME, NT, W2K). If you then load the applications you need, you should have a reliable machine.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey J. Rarick

[Randy_tx]

Of all the "broken" new machines I see each week, the MOST common brands are in this order: 1. emachine 2. Compaq 3. HP (they make good printers/NOT good puters).
You can't get a Dell or Gateway ( I also like IBM's) for $500 new......so it seems to me the best way to go would be to look for a 1 or 2 year old (Dell or Gateway) Pentium II machine in good condition. You can get the cpu box & monitor for under $500 if you shop around.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT