A businessman's review
Written: Nov 03 '01
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Pros: Easy set up, operation and installation of hardware. Good compatibility
Cons: A little slow under certain applications.
The Bottom Line: For small business and home use, it is hard to beat this little company's line of desktops. Current pricing at $350 is a steal!
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| snowhipb's Full Review: eMachines etower 533id PC Desktop |
The computer is driven by a Celeron 533 processor, while not the microwave speed demons everyone else is using these days, it is a good bargain for the money. The machine came equipped with a dvd/cdrom drive, 15 gb hard drive, 64 mb of sync dram, 128 kb cache, 3d agp graphics package, 5.25 floppy, 56k modem, with a deal at the sales office an iomega cdzip drive, and internet ready audio system.
Set up out of the box was easy and efficient. Everything started right up and all drivers worked perfectly. The software operates around the Windows '98 operating system and there are no issues with installing older software packages from your recently discarded machine.
Although the machine uses the Celeron 533 processor, I really feel like I am working with a much faster machine. Software loads quickly, and run times are virtually undetectable. Running apps like Quickbooks, Netscape, IE, CAD, Excel, and Powerpoint are relatively trouble free. I say relatively because if you are online when running other applications, there are ground fault errors from time to time and the machine can and does run sluggishly. I have yet to use a machine that is devoid of all crashes from these same situations. In the end, the e Tower is no worse for ware.
I recently replaced my cdZip drive, as the other turned out to be a refurbished unit and failed a year after the warranty. Not bad I guess, a little annoying though. My new iomega cdZip installed very easy, and the software detected the new device, installed the driver and everything worked wonderfully. I haven't had to upgrade yet although, the memory can be boosted to a respectable 256 mb.
The graphics work brilliantly. CAD applications are appropriate for a home/small office computer. Adjusting the screen dimensions are a snap (no pun intended), and the graphics hardware handles color and animation sequences adequately.
For a mom shopping online at home to a small company just getting off the ground, I would highly recommend buying this machine. I use the e Tower everyday and have had very few problems with it. The problems encountered by other users will probably be a function of how much you use the machine and how many software applications you attempt to run at the same time. Errors and crashes can probably be kept to a minimum by spending the extra cash to upgrade your computer's memory.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $750
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
snowhipb
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Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Owner of SME Research
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