11-28-2005, 03:13 PM
Whatever you do, do not buy a Dell PC.
As most of you know, I am a manager of a computer repair shop (Tech Services within CompUSA). Dell basically pays my paycheck and we have absolutely no affiliation with them. We are not an authorized dealer/reseller/service center. Yet, customers bring their computers to us and pay us $100.00 just to look at them because they don't want to deal with Dell's poor customer support. I'd say on average, we see 10-12 Dell PC's a week that are under manufacturer warranty.
Emachines have really stepped up their game in the last 2 years. They still need to shake the bad image but their machines have been pretty reliable lately.
On average, we see the most machines from HP/Compaq. Following that would be the Dell PC's in and out of warranty, Apple G5 series Imacs (power/logicboard issues), Toshiba notebooks, Gateway/Emachines Desktops, Sony Desktops, Custom Built PC's.
Out of the box, Emachines gives you a 1 year full parts and labor warranty. Thats pretty standard.
I would go with the Emachine over the Compaq. First and foremost because the Compaq has a Sempron Processor (only has 256k On Die Cache and is only 32 bit) and the Emachine has the Athlon 64 Processor (64 bit and 1MB Cache).
If you are going to spend any extra money on the machine, up the ram to 1GB or more. You will thank yourself in the long run.
As most of you know, I am a manager of a computer repair shop (Tech Services within CompUSA). Dell basically pays my paycheck and we have absolutely no affiliation with them. We are not an authorized dealer/reseller/service center. Yet, customers bring their computers to us and pay us $100.00 just to look at them because they don't want to deal with Dell's poor customer support. I'd say on average, we see 10-12 Dell PC's a week that are under manufacturer warranty.
Emachines have really stepped up their game in the last 2 years. They still need to shake the bad image but their machines have been pretty reliable lately.
On average, we see the most machines from HP/Compaq. Following that would be the Dell PC's in and out of warranty, Apple G5 series Imacs (power/logicboard issues), Toshiba notebooks, Gateway/Emachines Desktops, Sony Desktops, Custom Built PC's.
Out of the box, Emachines gives you a 1 year full parts and labor warranty. Thats pretty standard.
I would go with the Emachine over the Compaq. First and foremost because the Compaq has a Sempron Processor (only has 256k On Die Cache and is only 32 bit) and the Emachine has the Athlon 64 Processor (64 bit and 1MB Cache).
If you are going to spend any extra money on the machine, up the ram to 1GB or more. You will thank yourself in the long run.