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| Home > Computers & Internet > PC Desktops > E-Machines eMachines eMachines W4065 Intel Celeron 2.40GHz, 256MB DDRAM, 60GB Hard Drive, 16x DVD-Drive, 40x CDRW Drive, 10/100 NIC, 56K Modem, Microsoft® Windows® PC Desktop |
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E-Machines eMachines eMachines W4065 Intel Celeron 2.40GHz, 256MB DDRAM, 60GB Hard Drive, 16x DVD-Drive, 40x CDRW Drive, 10/100 NIC, 56K Modem, Microsoft® Windows® PC Desktop |
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About the Author |
My First Windows Machine....
Written: Jun 07 '04
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Pros: excellent value
Cons: Windows.....hmmmm
The Bottom Line: excellent value, under $500, makes a great machine for a student, suits all my needs
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| shanna's Full Review: E-Machines eMachines eMachines W4065 Intel Celeron... |
If one were to read back in history or if you knew anything about me you'd know bet that the odds of me ever purchasing a PC are about as good as the odds of Chuck E Cheese showing up to fill in for Mickey Mouse on a sick day. But if you're into the odds, and bet against them... today would be your long shot money day. I'm a Mac person at heart, forever and always, but sometimes there comes a time when you just need a PC and not because they can do anything a Mac cannot do, but because you just have to have one. I never believed that but as I prepare to enter law school in the fall I found that I don't really get a choice and I had to break down and buy one. Grrrrr….. (note to self… once in school see if it’s legal to make me use a certain platform….)
My home is comfortably situated with several fine Apple machines and the only PC’s I’d come into contact with were during my tenure with Kinko’s and at school. I used them because I had to, not because I like to and I didn’t got into this venture with a smile on my face or good mind set. I hate being forced to do anything. I decided I wanted a brand new machine since it would get me all the way through school and perhaps an older model might not and I didn’t want to deal with problems not of my making. I also decided I would need not only the required laptop but a desktop as well in order to transfer files, and just make life generally easier. So knowing that some PC manufacturer was going to get a good chunk of my change I did a little research, read a whole lotta epinions and went out and took the plunge.
My first purchase was an eMachines W4065 desktop model. I bought it at Wal-Mart for around $449 before tax. This model did not come with a monitor so I also purchased a KDS radius flat screen monitor to go with it, but that’s a whole different article.
Out of the Box
W4065 eMachine
Preinstalled version of Windows XP
2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
60 GB Hard Drive
16x DVD
40x CD-RW
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
256 MB Ram
6 USB ports (2 in front and 4 in rear)
The machine came with a nice keyboard and mouse that is very quiet and has all the cool internet buttons one could desire. There is a media control strip for play, pause, FF, rewind and mute. A quick key for all of the following: cut, paste, copy, sleep, calculator, e-mail, search, backward, forward, and favorite. Both the key board and the CPU are dark gray and silver and both have a nice sleek, non-beige appearance. Non-beige is a very important feature to me, I hate beige boxes….that’s another story too. I soon abandoned the mouse for a Logitech Cordless Wireless model but not due to any deficiency in the eMachine model, I just wanted cordless. The system also comes compete with little speakers that have a nice sound, no they’re not Bose, but they’re not bad either, and I’ve yet to blow them out.
What I like….
Well here I go embarking on a full serving of humble pie for all the PC jokes I’ve made. I love this eMachine. It’s very fast and isn’t at all the nightmare I expected.
Since Win XP was already preinstalled all I basically had to do to get up and running was take it out of the box, hook up the color coded cables and turn the puppy on. I was up and running in about 30 minutes from start to finish and that includes the wizards that set up the machine itself and the internet. I figured every 3rd party add-on I purchased would be a pain in the behind, but it hasn’t been. My optical mouse installed easy, my cable modem went on without a hitch and I’ve had very few problems since day one.
The 2.4 Ghz P4 processor does every thing I need it to do very quickly and the upside is that now I have a much broader selection of games I can play. I am very impressed with how the machine handles large games like the Sims (with all expansion packs) and other very large games. I can run many applications simultaneously because the machine came with 256 MB of ram. I frequently have Photoshop, Quark, Word and either IE or Netscape open at the same time. I find that the unit rarely crashes while I’m actually working with all these programs open but if I take a break of 15 minutes or more and return usually one application has crashed on me. That’s probably my only real complaint and that’s probably more due to Windows than it is the eMachine itself, but I am a Mac person, so it’s hard for me to separate my hardware and software.
The W4065 comes with a DVD and CD-RW. I’ve had no problems in this area either. The CD-RW runs seamlessly with burning accomplished in no time. I use iTunes to burn music CD’s and the preinstalled software for data CD’s. Unlike many other burners I’ve had in the past this on is far less picky about the media I use to burn. My Iomega’s were very finicky about the CD’s I used to burn on but this machines never gives me errors. The DVD player is also nice and the machine comes with a DVD operating program. I don’t particularly care for it for any special reason but decided to install DiVx and love that program. The hardware for both drives is made by Samsung, the CD-RW is a Samsung SW-240B and the DVD is the SD-616T model. I like both.
Graphics
The eMachine comes with a Intel Extreme Graphics AGP video card. I’ve only purchased one game (the Cat in the Hat) that didn’t work on this machine and that’s my fault for not better reading the requirements. Other than that I’ve had no problems in this department too and very satisfied.
Modem & Ethernet
The W4065 comes with a 56k modem and 10/100Mbps Ethernet card. The modem has fax capabilities and I have used it for standard dial-up internet connections a few times. I use cable to connect to the internet so I haven’t used the modem very much. I have used it more for sending and receiving faxes (works great) than for dial-up use.
Hard Drive
The machine came with a 60GB hard drive which I have yet to fill up. I have several graphic intensive games and large graphic design programs installed and still have 20GB free.
Summary
To wrap things up for under $500, I can’t find a thing to complain about. The only complaints I honestly have have nothing to do with the hardware in this machine, they are Windows issues and the instability issues I have with the platform. I find that the OS crashes far more than any Mac I’ve ever used and this has taken some getting used to. All in all however, I find this to be an excellent deal for the money and would recommend it to anyone looking for an inexpensive PC.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 449
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: Don''t Know
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
shanna
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Member: Shanna
Location: Pensacola Beach
Reviews written: 231
Trusted by: 197 members
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