Emachines 700irx--everything I wanted!
Written: Mar 12 '01 (Updated Mar 13 '01)
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Pros: Great price, great performance!
Cons: Crappy speakers, but I don't use them anyway!
The Bottom Line: I am so glad that I bought this computer...it is perfect for me.
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| designgirl's Full Review: eMachines etower 700irx PC Desktop |
I didn't need a new computer and I have enough money to buy almost anything I could want, so why buy the Etower 700irx? Just because you have plenty of money is no reason to buy things you don't want or don't need, is it? Until a couple of weeks ago, I was using and Emachines etower 333cs and was completely happy with it. The thing is, I bought this 19-inch monitor and someone said "You should be watching movies on that thing!" My husband was looking for a used computer for his employees, so we decided to get a new etower 700irx because it had a DVD player and a headphone jack on the front for me, and we let the "kids" have the other.
Some local software people where I live have had bad things to say about Emachines, but I don't understand why. I never had to call tech support during the years that I used the 333cs, so I have no experience there. A friend of mine bought an HP and was always calling tech support about something. Her computer would shut down because the room was too warm. I never had problems like that with Emachines. Never had to send anything back or ask for help in any way. The only time I ever cracked the case on that one was to upgrade!
My etower 700irx has everything I would want on a computer. I am not into playing video games, so I don't care if the speakers are lousy. My speakers are in my box of "things I don't need but haven't thrown away yet". Besides, I have a wonderful set of headphones and I don't really like hearing all those default sounds in Windows anyway.
The 700irx is great for people who like to do photo editing and write webpages. It comes with 64MB RAM and a second DIMM slot for adding more (will support up to 256MB). I upgraded with a 128MB memory card from Crucial for less than $50!!! The 700irx comes with Windows ME which is great after I learned how to use it. I like the extras in ME, but some software won't work in ME.
Every day I discover something else new hidden in my computer. I like to try out new things even if I don't need them, so I decided to download the XDrive 100MB free storage which comes with the bundle. Ran into a glitch there which really made me angry. After trying to install XDrive three times, I realized (duh!) that XDrive does not work with Windows ME. So, if you decide to buy a 700irx, just say "no" to XDrive. You don't need some kinky software when you have a fast CD writer and a 20gig hard drive!!! XDrive asks for personal info and they send you a string of annoying emails and you get nothing from them but aggravation. I was a bit annoyed with Emachines for including the XDrive offer with an operating system that won't run the app.
So, the bottom line here is that the only things I can say against the 700irx is that the speakers are sorry and a least one software app is incompatible.
The things I love about the 700irx cancel out the 2 minor things that I don't like. I am having a great time using the 700Mhz processor and the DVD is awesome (this is my first DVD so I would say that anyway). The CD writer comes with Adaptec Direct CD, but I installed Nero Burning ROM instead since I was already familiar with that. Nero is very powerful and works great in the 700irx.
Most of the bundled software that comes with this computer is great, and I love having a usb port on the front of the tower along with jacks for your headphones and mike. I don't use the game port, but there is one of them right up front, too. Oh, and the keyboard is pretty cool! It has more than a dozen internet shortcut keys plus some other handy buttons that I will have to try to remember to use.
I am an interior designer, so I can really appreciate the sleek, clean look of the tower. It looks very nice sitting on my office desk.
Oh, and the DVD-CDRW combo and the floppy drive are hidden inside a neat little door on the front and there is another door which hides the extra usb (two of them, one in front, one in back) and game ports. The climate is very dry and dusty where I live and it helps to hide things behind doors here. If you are a neat-freak, you will love the clean lines of the tower (once you peel off the ugly stickers).
I think that the etower 700irx is a great machine for the money. There was a comparable Compaq sitting right next to the computer that I bought. It costs $100 more and did not have a DVD ROM. I have heard that Compaq is a great machine, but I am happy with my Emachine and am tired of seeing it get a bad rap from the Yahoo techies (I can respect their opinions without agreeing with them, can't I?). Hey, I could drive a Jaguar, but a Pathfinder is all I really need!! Save that extra money for the kids to fight over when I'm gone!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $700
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 601-700
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
designgirl
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Location: Aspen, Colorado
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Interior Designer,
Webmaster Wannabe
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