eMachines?

[mindido]

heyheyhey,

Believe me when I say that once you build your first PC, you'll wonder why you didn't do this earlier (especially today). As far as the wires are concerned, don't worry about it. Each component has a specific type of connector which won't allow it to be connected to the wrong connector. The only area which is still somewhat confusing is the wiring of the floppy and optical drives but I've reversed the polarity on these several times and never had one blow. You'll know its off almost immediately so you just shut the machine down and reverse the polarity. No big deal.

Online resources? Just go to Google and type in:

"building a computer"

There are a ton. Here are two that I briefly checked out and seem OK:

http://www.daileyint.com/build/

http://www.mysuperpc.com/

This was discussed in one of the articles but I'll elaborate. I would recommend that you at least buy the case locally. Make sure its good and sturdy (it'll probably be the last one you ever buy). And see if you can find some small locally owned shop that sells parts and makes their own computers and get to know them; buy some of your parts from them. They'll be a bit more expensive than the local Best Buy or CompUSA (or whatever) but they will probably be invaluable in assisting you with advice. I wouldn't rely on the superstore people as they usually don't know squat. By the time your done with this, you'll know more than most of their people.

That should get you started.

 

[Preferred User]

5 years ago, I bought a dell, and though yes, everybody says they suck, it has rarely had problems, but when they have come up, customer service has been able to help, I have gotten some people who know their shit.

And 5 years ago...even 3 years ago that was true. I used to talk to a lot of Dell guys who knew their stuff and spoke my language. That's long gone hey. Now you talk to sleepy guys at 3:00 AM New Dehli time who are reading from a script. Dell figured out that people buy price, so they trimmed their costs to meet what buyers wanted.

 

[mindido]

Preferred,

Absolutely correct. Forgot to mention that. And its the same with all of the other major manufacturers. Shoot, IBM just recently sold their entire PC line to the Chinese.

 

[Cman]

The reason american companies have foreign call centres isn't always because its cheapers. It also has to do with the fact that many americans are assholes.

Here in Halifax we have an AT&T Wireless call centre. The ACTUAL TRUE reason why they chose to put it here instead of in the US is because they felt, Canadians by nature, are more friendly and would be better from the customer service point of view. I think thats pretty funny.

The only bad part for us is having to talk to / help pissed off americans all day long :lol:

 

[Cman]

durka durka allah jihad guys...

hahahaha awesome :lol:

AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!

 

[mindido]

CMan,

"The reason american companies have foreign call centres isn't always because its cheapers. It also has to do with the fact that many americans are assholes."

Hadn't thought of that but it does make sense. There used to be a big call center training facility here but it failed about 3 or 4 years ago. Its graduates were often a bit unruly so you may be correct.

 

[lawabider]

what in the world are emachines? :O

 

[Cman]

what in the world are emachines? :O

its a small, unimportant brand name. like gateway or dell, only a lot smaller.

 

[cyberhypnotic]

I had an e-machines once.... ONCE. I'll never do it again. I figured, "Hey why not go with this, it's cheap and let's me do what I need to do!" No, it had to always lock up on me to the point I had to restart it multiple times before it would function right.

I had it for maybe less than 6 months and replaced it with an HP Pavilion. It's not a super computer or anything, but it gets the job done so far. I've added a CD burner and an extra 160GB hard drive. I want to install more memory, but I'm told anything over 512MHz is pointless.

After I got the HP, I sold the queer-machine to my cousin, who then decided she didn't need certain programs in it because she wasn't going to use them. From there she had even more problems and asked ME what I did to it! I asked her what she did to it since she had it and she replied with removing programs that she did not think she was going to use. Turned out that she deleted a system file in the process and had to re-install the OS on it. She still has it, but I don't think she knows the difference enough to know that the computer she is using is a piece of shit.

 

[mindido]

cyber,

"but I'm told anything over 512MHz is pointless."

That depends on what you do with the computer. If your just doing normal internet, e-mail, wp, etc., your correct. But if you use apps such as Photoshop, AutoCAD or some of the other graphics apps, then the more RAM you have the better off you are.

 

[staybright]

"but I'm told anything over 512MHz is pointless.

That depends on what you do with the computer. If your just doing normal internet, e-mail, wp, etc., your correct. But if you use apps such as Photoshop, AutoCAD or some of the other graphics apps, then the more RAM you have the better off you are."


There is a definite improvement by going to at least a gig of ram.

There are times when I can start doing some serious multi-tasking and can have several programs open at once. At 512 my computer would finally just bog ndown miserably. Upgrading the ram to 1 gig got me flying again.

On the subject of building your own computer, I totally agree. Easy to do and by the time you get done you know your computer better han one you have bought pre-built. Also provides awesome confidence when working with our machine.

 

[heyheyhey]

On the subject of building your own computer, I totally agree. Easy to do and by the time you get done you know your computer better han one you have bought pre-built. Also provides awesome confidence when working with our machine.

yeah, I have been looking into it, and it doesnt seem that hard. Also, recently I was raiding a very old computer for parts for a slightly newer one, and it reminded me of how easy most of the stuff inside a computer is to put together.

 

[Cman]

That depends on what you do with the computer. If your just doing normal internet, e-mail, wp, etc., your correct. But if you use apps such as Photoshop, AutoCAD or some of the other graphics apps, then the more RAM you have the better off you are.

quoted for truth. its entirely dependant on what you want to do with it.

don't try playing DOOM 3 with low RAM lol

 

[Mooseknuckle]

www.ibuypower.com/ or cyberpower ( forgot site address, but are the same site really) have been good systems for me.

 

[Epc525]

I work at Circuit City. Every 5 emachines we sell 2 come back with defective parts. Its just bad. I now never even offer the emachine. I just step right up to the Hp computers.

 

[Preferred User]

I have a client who bought some over a year ago. Absolute joke. The first thing their tech support does is blame the user. They will send nothing out to you. They want you to package it up and send it back to them. Then you get it back with trim pieces missing, they want you to send it back again to put those back on.

The only reason eMachines is still breathing is because people buy price. If they did any research at all, or read this thread, eMachines would be in the ditch where they belong.

 

[mindido]

I work at Circuit City. Every 5 emachines we sell 2 come back with defective parts. Its just bad. I now never even offer the emachine. I just step right up to the Hp computers.

Two out of five defective? Holy cow! I knew they were bad, but not that bad.