eMachine computer a good bet?

eMachines Pcs are as cheap as they can possibly be. For less than ten
percent more you can get a whitebox PC built of good basic components.
Gateway's tech support and warranty reputation is so poor now that it's
about impossible to see Gateway surviving very long anyway.

wrote:
eMachines Pcs are as cheap as they can possibly be. For less than ten
percent more you can get a whitebox PC built of good basic components.
Gateway's tech support and warranty reputation is so poor now that it's
about impossible to see Gateway surviving very long anyway.

After 3 Gateways I have had my last 3 PCs built locally (white boxes) and have had no problems
with them. If I do have a problem it will be only a short ride (or local phone call) rather
than a phone call to India.

Hate to disagree with you folks on something like this, but...

GW has significantly improved its tech support and in all of the years I
have had to call, I have never spoken to someone with an accent anymore
removed from the States than Alabama. The same cannot be said of some of
GW's competitors.

As for build quality, I have been a tech analyst for a major manufacturer
for several years and I can attest that the parts they put in their machines
are the same as those from the corner PC vendor. This is true for all of
the large OEMs. Now please don't misunderstand, different boxes will bring
different parts and varying price points, but all in all if you are buying a
$500.00 PC you are going to get $500.00 PC parts. This is true no matter
what the machine costs. Furthermore the OEMs generally sell to the
beginning or novice PC buyer, or they are selling to a business; the
requirements are not the same as they are for the enthusiast or expert
purchaser.

Just by way of qualification I currently own 1 GW laptop, four GW PCs and 1
Dell laptop. They all perform perfectly. I also have built and sold many
PCs of my own in the past. For me, parts are parts; it's what you do with
them that counts.

TD
"Jim" wrote in message
...
wrote:
eMachines Pcs are as cheap as they can possibly be. For less than ten
percent more you can get a whitebox PC built of good basic components.
Gateway's tech support and warranty reputation is so poor now that it's
about impossible to see Gateway surviving very long anyway.

After 3 Gateways I have had my last 3 PCs built locally (white boxes) and
have had no problems with them. If I do have a problem it will be only a
short ride (or local phone call) rather than a phone call to India.

I have not peered at the innards of any Gateway PC assembled since the eMachine
merger, buyout or whatever the heck it was. Prior to then, I was impressed by
the construction and the selection of parts in MOST, but not all of the Gateway
boxes. I can't comment on the ones with Athlon CPUs in them, because I seem to
never run across many AMD CPU systems. No comment on Gateway notebooks, either.
Rarely do I see them.

The systems with Anigma or MSI motherboards are dogs. Woof! But the ones with
the Intel-made or -designed boards are/were all very decent indeed... Ben Myers

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:27:26 -0800, "TB" wrote:

Hate to disagree with you folks on something like this, but...

GW has significantly improved its tech support and in all of the years I
have had to call, I have never spoken to someone with an accent anymore
removed from the States than Alabama. The same cannot be said of some of
GW's competitors.

As for build quality, I have been a tech analyst for a major manufacturer
for several years and I can attest that the parts they put in their machines
are the same as those from the corner PC vendor. This is true for all of
the large OEMs. Now please don't misunderstand, different boxes will bring
different parts and varying price points, but all in all if you are buying a
$500.00 PC you are going to get $500.00 PC parts. This is true no matter
what the machine costs. Furthermore the OEMs generally sell to the
beginning or novice PC buyer, or they are selling to a business; the
requirements are not the same as they are for the enthusiast or expert
purchaser.

Just by way of qualification I currently own 1 GW laptop, four GW PCs and 1
Dell laptop. They all perform perfectly. I also have built and sold many
PCs of my own in the past. For me, parts are parts; it's what you do with
them that counts.

TD
"Jim" wrote in message
...
wrote:
eMachines Pcs are as cheap as they can possibly be. For less than ten
percent more you can get a whitebox PC built of good basic components.
Gateway's tech support and warranty reputation is so poor now that it's
about impossible to see Gateway surviving very long anyway.

After 3 Gateways I have had my last 3 PCs built locally (white boxes) and
have had no problems with them. If I do have a problem it will be only a
short ride (or local phone call) rather than a phone call to India.

I have not peered at the innards of any Gateway PC assembled since the eMachine
merger,

Has anyone looked at inside of eMachine box lately?

In specific the T5026?

see link

http://tinyurl.com/5wbq9

Last August I bought a C2825 AMD Athlon XP 2800+ / 512MB DDR / 120GB HDD /
CD-RW / DVD-ROM / Windows XP Home / Refurbished eMachine for my SO ($399
with $50 rebate). The case looks just like the one in your picture. I have
opened it up and was quite impressed with the accessbility of everything
inside. Very nicely put together and the case is very attractive from the
outside. Runs rings around my old Gateway PIII 450, of course. He only
uses it for email so far and I showed him how to burn CDs last week. If I
were buying myself a desktop now I would definitely get a similar machine,
but I use a laptop most of the time now and just use the old PC when I want
to print something or use my old scanner and to back up files from the
laptop.

In ,
stated
|| I have not peered at the innards of any Gateway PC assembled since
|| the eMachine merger,
|
| Has anyone looked at inside of eMachine box lately?
|
| In specific the T5026?
|
| see link
|
| http://tinyurl.com/5wbq9

TB/TD,

You'll have to forgive me for asking, but do you work for or sell
Gateway/eMachine computers?

The reason I ask is because it appears that this is your one and only
post to the usenet with your stated address. Your identification is
inconsistent, almost as if you are confused about your own initials. You
also express odd opinions such as "tech support has improved" and "parts
are parts" when the facts are clearly not in evidence. What kind of
tech analyst fills his house with off-the-shelf computers? If "parts
are parts," what "tech" are you analyzing?

Blip on the screen


TB wrote:

Hate to disagree with you folks on something like this, but...

GW has significantly improved its tech support and in all of the years I
have had to call, I have never spoken to someone with an accent anymore
removed from the States than Alabama. The same cannot be said of some of
GW's competitors.

As for build quality, I have been a tech analyst for a major manufacturer
for several years and I can attest that the parts they put in their machines
are the same as those from the corner PC vendor. This is true for all of
the large OEMs. Now please don't misunderstand, different boxes will bring
different parts and varying price points, but all in all if you are buying a
$500.00 PC you are going to get $500.00 PC parts. This is true no matter
what the machine costs. Furthermore the OEMs generally sell to the
beginning or novice PC buyer, or they are selling to a business; the
requirements are not the same as they are for the enthusiast or expert
purchaser.

Just by way of qualification I currently own 1 GW laptop, four GW PCs and 1
Dell laptop. They all perform perfectly. I also have built and sold many
PCs of my own in the past. For me, parts are parts; it's what you do with
them that counts.

TD
"Jim" wrote in message
...

wrote:

eMachines Pcs are as cheap as they can possibly be. For less than ten
percent more you can get a whitebox PC built of good basic components.
Gateway's tech support and warranty reputation is so poor now that it's
about impossible to see Gateway surviving very long anyway.


After 3 Gateways I have had my last 3 PCs built locally (white boxes) and
have had no problems with them. If I do have a problem it will be only a
short ride (or local phone call) rather than a phone call to India.

If I
were buying myself a desktop now I would definitely get a similar machine,
but I use a laptop most of the time now

What brand/model laptop you have?

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:27:26 -0800, "TB"
wrote:

GW has significantly improved its tech support and in all of the years I
have had to call, I have never spoken to someone with an accent anymore
removed from the States than Alabama.

Up until my last home desktop ran out of warranty I can say that
everyone I talked to at GW TS Between 2002 and 2004 had a distinct
South Asian (Indian) accent and knew nothing about computers except
what was printed on their terminal to say. Before 2002, they were
locals and I can truthfully say that half of them didn't have any more
of a clue than the Indians that took over their jobs. However, I can
say that I only came across attitude from American GW Techs on more
than one occasion while the Indians, if not having a clue, were always
courteous.

Even though I still have a GW laptop under Business Level Warranty
which always goes to a North American Techie that usually has a clue,
after dealing with GW support from 1996 till 2002 on home desktops, I
finally threw up my hands and gave a reputable local builder a try. I
have yet to regret my decision. Two home desktops in 2 1/2 years from
him and have had only one problem which was taken care of locally by
someone that actually built computers and wasn't reading canned
replies odd a terminal and which I was dealing with Face To Face.

Yes, it is true that [Most] all the parts come from the same place.
That isn't what is in question here. It is how those parts are put
together to make a final product and how that product is supported
that matters. All the spinning can not hide the fact that GW lost its
place in the market due to loosing the bulk of its customer retention
(returning customers) on their high end models. The joke going around
now is about some bumper sticker (I have not seen) that says something
to the effect "I bought a GW once". They now rely on those beginner
$399 boxes with training wheels and wide screen TV's to keep their
nose above water.

My two local builds came with the same warranties offered by GW. The
difference is that the Techie is 1 mile down the road and he probably
had a lot to do with the hands on building of my specific computers.
He doesn't read canned responses off the screen because he has a clue
and he's not only from my side of the world, he's from my home town.
And that's if I get the owners Techie. Usually its the owner I end up
speaking to. Also, I don't think I overly paid for my two local
builds. They are both AMD Athlon Performance machines in the $650 to
$750 range. And if I had chosen to use their integrated sound and
graphics instead, they would have been less.

BTW, I think he does offer a $499 beginner box like a lot of the
out-sourced-loving conglomerates do. The big difference is.... real
local support by a person that has a clue.

In closing, I don't know if this is true or not but on a few of the
Techie sites a while back, they were posting that GW had to pull its
ads where it showed GW boxes being assembled in America.... because
they got caught with the fact that they weren't. Now they are showing
ads of a herd of people running across a field delivering the
computers because they purchase complete assembled boxes out of
Taiwan with the GW name stamped on them. I don't know if this is true
but I do know that the ads showing a N. AM. assembly line have not
been shown since the new ad showing GW delivery herds running across a
field showed up on TV.

If nothing else, even though the parts are made in GW's beloved
Taiwan, lets at least keep our assembly and support money locally...
Buy a Local Build and keep your money flowing in your own community.
I have had no regrets since deciding to quit GW and support America,
as much as one can in a computer, once again.

TR

Gateway 450x purchased 12/03.

In ,
stated
|| If I
|| were buying myself a desktop now I would definitely get a similar
|| machine, but I use a laptop most of the time now
|
| What brand/model laptop you have?