I got an e machine. It works well for me. Yeah, the power supply is a bit on the weak side -- mine is only 300 watts-- but it does the job. In fact it is the minimum watts for my 9800 pro. Here'* my specs:

E-Machine T-6000(with upgrades)
AMD 64 (754) 3200+ 1MB cache
1024 MB Corsair 3200 DDR 400 RAM(2X512)
120 GB HDD @7200RPM
16X DVD-ROM
48X CDRW
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/128 MB

For the vote, i voted that it is getting out of date. Sure it will run everything out there, but not at real high settings. I speak as an avid gamer ,so high res gaming is important to me. Of course if he overclocks then it can really go for a while longer. I think you could upgrade the vid card to a 9600. This card doesn't require a direct hook up to the power supply. Not sure of the 9700. I'm not too sure how far it can go with the Nvidia. I had a g-force 4 440 w/64mb on my old computer, but my new one came with an ATI so now I'm more in the know on them.

I also agree that 1 gig of ram is a good move too, to go with the better graphics card.

Our family has always been Compaq advocates. We have 4 of them. Mine, dads, my brothers and my sisters. The other is a IBM thinkpad...and my Playstation 2 running Linux.

My friend has an emachine and he hates it..but that'* just because it'* from 98' and he hasn't realized it'* not gonna upgrade it'* self.

James

Here'* the thing.. having x company build your PC with x processor speed, isn't going to be as good, as you building that PC under the same specs, with quality hardware. It'* just not going to happen, no matter how hard you try, garunteed. If kevo were to build his own system, with that [awesome] AMD 64 processor, in an Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Chaintech, XFX, or any other name brand motherboard, he would see better performance, especially with the nvidia based chipset [trust me, BIIIIG difference between VIA, SiS and nVidia]. Along with a SATA hdd [betcha any money you have IDE].

Also, kevo mentioned overclocking.. my suggestion, go for it [but with a different motherboard]. I have an AMD XP 2600+ processor, that out of the box, has a 2ghz clock speed [comparable to 2.6ghz from intel]. Well, I increased the FSB to 360mhz [333mhz FSB on CPU] to help increase the throughput of the RAM, and other data transfer, but not pushing anything too far. That gave me just under 2.2ghz clock speed. Then, I got the "speed strip" which is a little unlocker for the Barton Core CPU'*.. which allows the FSB for the CPU to be increased stand alone [without overclocking the whole systemwide FSB]. I just kept bumping up the speed, until I reached 2.6 ghz, and after that, I had some overheating problems, and always had to turn my fan up really high, and I didn't like the extra noise. Now, I betcha any money, that my AMD CPU is probably about as fast, or faster than any NON Hyper Threading P4 [32bit] out of the box. So, just keep that in mind, too.

BonnevilleSEman: you put linux on a PS2?? wow dude, I think we need to hang out sometime! How'd you put a hard drive on there? I may not own a PS2, but I love mods, especially ones concerning linux


-justin

Upgrade the cooling at all?

stock cooler

upgraded cooler

I have one similar to the upgraded heatsink.. but not quite that heavy duty. It would cool it just fine, but the fan is loud, and it would need to be cranked up higher than quiet.. and I can sacrifice 100-200mhz for a quieter system. Not to mention the risk of unstability [which I have yet to encounter, except when overclocking the FSB {system wide} to 400mhz]. I think it would be badass to get water cooling for my system.. however my money could go to better areas of interest *coughcarcough*


-justin

yeah...liquid cooling would be great but it is too expensive and for my current set up...not even worth it. What about that Liquid Nitrogen stuff....seen it poured in a pipe directly on the processor...3.4 ghz p4 to like as high as the board would let it go. the FSB was like 1600 when he was done. maybe higher. But again..not really worth it, and i dont' even think you can just buy it.


James

Amd was good until the 2ghz barrier, and are strong after the 3ghz IMO.

The only thing a home built machine has over a pre built one is an opened up mobo. My Dell has all top brand drives (Lite-On, western digital, etc), pci cards, (had an Nvidia as well) Monsoon planar speakers, dell digital flat panel, intel 850e chipset.

Only things that aren't standard are the Motherboard power hookup, and the locked down BIOS, I do like the wind tunnel technology Dell uses, 1 92MM fan and it'* quieter and colder then most multi fan setups.

Next summer i may buy a real case, mobo, proc and ram though.

I can't argue with a thing you said, except I'm kinda hooked on the ATI'* cards now. Granted the 9800 pro isn't the best, but I don't dare going any higher with my stock wattage. lol I'd fry my powersupply if I went higher.

I agree that a store bought system will tend to be sub par in comparison to a rig made from scratch. Unless you get one made for you at a specialty store, which some folks do. I will probably build my next system myself.

Another downfall is that since my system is under warranty, I rather not OC lest I fry something. After the warranty I will OC. I may go with the 3700+ next year when the prices drop below 200 bucks and OC it and go with it a while before I go to the next platform. My problem is I got the 754 which while having 1 meg of L2 is single channel memory. The 939 has half the cache, but the dual memory controler. At first the difference is insignificant since the larger cache makes up for the lack of dual channel memory, but since they 3700+ is the highest the 754 will go, I'll be left behind soon enough. Also, it is easier and better OCing on the 939. However, my rig will live for a good while so I'm not dissatisfied at all with it.

I love my ATI 9200. I know, it'* old, and I only paid $20 for it, however it has 128mb ram, and 8x AGP.. so it works out pretty good. I have a 3dfx Voodoo3 card, that has about 400,000,000 hours of use, that apparently refuses to die.. and I can crank the resolution up to 1280x1024 with 16bit colour, with no problems [24 is pushing it, however it does work, just not well].. but gaming.. forget it.


-justin