eMonster! You gotta love it!
Written: Jan 11 '00
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Pros: Price, ease of use,
Cons: Worthless speakers
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| rpllingrock's Full Review: eMachines eMonster |
The model I'll be reviewing here is the eMonster 500a from eMachines.
Pentium III @ 500Mhz, 64MB ram, 13.5 gig hard drive, ATI Rage Xpert video with 16 MB ram, DVD drive @ 8X, 56K v90 Lucent chip based modem, built-in audio card and speakers, 17" eView monitor.
Software
Windows 98, Star Office from Sun Microsystems.
Total cost $997.
Purchased as Costco Wholesale.
Setup and Installation
Out of the box it is about the easiest to setup and get running in about 5 minutes or a good sized jelly donut. All the connecting devices ie. mouse, speakers are color coded for ease of installation. Of all the included components the speakers are not even worth hooking up. Do yourself a favor and spend $30 or $40 from the hundreds you saved and get a good set of speakers before checking out.
DVD
The first thing I did after booting the computer was watch Private Ryan on DVD using the included ATI DVD player, which looked outstanding on the monitor. The sound was crisp and clear. No jitter or artifacts.
Monitor
Screen is crisp and clear. On screen menu for adjustments.
Adjusting the monitor settings were a snap using the built-in ATI interface off the Windows Control Panel.
Modem
Connect to my ISP @ 48 to 50k was unstable at times since I feel the modem was too aggressive in connecting at a higher speed and would fall back to a more normal 44-45k at my location. Overall a good performing modem.
Sound
Your basic 16 bit soundcard built onboard. Line-in, Mic-in and speaker out connections. Sound quality and features of basic SoundBlaster.
Video
I had no way of fully testing the ATI video since I'm not a gamer. But I did install the game included with the ATI disk. Graphics were Hi-res, smooth with no slowdown. Running Micrografx Picture Publisher and found picture editing a breeze with this machine.
Tech Support
Well this is my second eMachine and have found that over the past few months the support at eMachines has improved 10 fold.
Overview
If you want an inexpensive machine and don't want to spend $1500 or more for the same features, then GET this eMachine. In another 3 years you'll be out looking to upgrade this or any other machine. So why pay hundreds more?? I have 2 eMachines networked in my home and can't be happier!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 997
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 401-500
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 12
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