Been a solid platform for 2 years
Written: Jul 16 '04
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Pros: Cheap, basic, good upgrade platform for home use
Cons: CDROM advertised much faster than reality
The Bottom Line: Great basic machine that would meet the needs of most users right out of the box, but is also easy to upgrade as needs dictate.
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| Wisdom's Full Review: eMachines T1842 PC Desktop |
I bought the T1842 about 2 years ago as a replacement for an aging home computer. When I bought it, it cost about $400 after rebates from Circuit City, including Monitor and a Lexmark Z25 Printer, a real bargain.
Because I already owned a fair amount of hardware (such as a CDRW drive), I really bought this system with the intent to upgrade it myself as budget and time permitted. When I first bought it I also bought 256 MB of DDR RAM to upgrade it out-of-the box to 384 MB of RAM. I also dropped my old TEAC CDRW drive in it right away.
What I soon discovered is that the 40x speed that is advertised by eMachines for the stock CDROM is bogus. Don't expect to capture data at any speed faster than 8x with this drive. I called eMachines about this and was told that since the drivespeed could not be measured with any of the stock software, they were not responsible for the results of my own testing, which was irritating.
However, in other regards, eMachines support has been very helpful. After the first few months I started having some shutdown troubles, and phone-in support identified a problem with the Power Supply. eMachines offered me the option of either self-installing a new Power Supply or to send the box back and they would do the swap. I chose to do it myself and their directions were helpful. All in all a convenient solution.
On another occasion I called eMachines support with a USB problem with one of the front ports. They explained that the front USB ports are unpowered (unlike those on the back of the box), quickly solving my problem.
Since purchase, I've had 3 different CDRW drives in it and most recently upgraded to a DVD /-RW. The chassis has enough space to accomodate 2 CD drives, 2 Hard Drives & a Floppy Drive (or another HDD).
I recently added an 80GB hard drive to the system and the install went very smoothly. I've also added wireless networking to the machine as well as a card reader, digital camera and scanner. All of these installs have gone very smoothly and the system has performed very well.
All in all, the T1842 has been a great machine for me - sufficiently upgradeable to perform like a much more expensive machine without spending much money. I have no complaints other than eMachines unwillingness to back the advertised speed of their CDRom drive. I would buy another eMachine.
Specifications:
-Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
-Intel® Celeron® Processor 1.80 GHz (w/128KB L2 cache & 400MHz FSB)
-Intel 845GL Chipset
-7.25"w x 14.125"h x 16"d
-40 GB HDD
-128 MB DDR (PC2100)
-56K* ITU v.92 ready Fax/Modem
-10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
-48x Max. CD-Rom Drive; 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
-Multimedia Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Stereo Speakers
-6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front), 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, -Microphone-In & Head Phone jack on front, Audio-In & Out, 3 -PCI slots (2 available)
-AC '97 Audio
-Intel Extreme Graphics 3D (845GL shared)
See http://downloads.emachines.com/ug/desktop/en/Desktop_UG_Nexgen2_3.pdf for the eMachines User Guide for the T1842
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 400
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
Wisdom
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Member: James Wisdom
Location: West Chester, PA
Reviews written: 43
Trusted by: 15 members
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