On 12/23/2010 6:44 PM, Rich wrote:
"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.
It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.
Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine?
All she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.
This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.
Thanks
From the usage I have had so far, 2GB should be fine for normal
run-of-the-mill use as you described. Only the Netflix video may tax
the memory. Not sure. I do not use Netflix.
I am less than thrilled with eMachines, which often use a crappy power
supply (same as HP Pavilions and Compaq Presarios). When the power
supply goes, it takes the motherboard with it, because it does not
have protective circuitry built in. The world is littered with dead
eMachines systems. I have tossed out a number of perfectly good
eMachines cases, after stripping the boards for the local electronic
recycler. A shame, too. The cases are generally well made out of
sturdy sheet metal without sharp edges to slice you up... Ben Myers
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Ben,
I have heard of this power supply/motherboard issue with eMachines. I
currently own 3 eMachines; a T3306 & 2 T5243's. The worst problem I have
had was the DVD burner self-destructed after a year on the T3306 which
is almost 5 years old now. However, I have just purchased a docking
station for my daughter's Dell laptop & took over her T5243 (you don't
want to know the age of the Dell XPS it is replacing). It was
dual-booting Vista & 7 but I downgraded to XP & 7. Now I am concerned
about the power supply. Is it a standard PSU? Would a preemptive
replacement with a new PSU prevent any issues?
Also, on an off-topic note, I contacted eMachine by e-mail to ask what
the fastest processor this motherboard would support (MCP61PM-AM). They
wanted pay-per-call tech support to call me the answer. It currently has
an AMD Athlon 4000+ (2.1Ghz). I have figured out that this is a Brisbane
core running it at 65W. I think the 5600+ is the fastest at 65W but
there are 95W processors running up to 6000+. Would you know what the
fastest processor would be that would run natively on this board?
Any help appreciated.....Thanks.
Rich
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The T5243 probably uses a standard-sized ATX12v power supply, but I
cannot say for sure. All of the eMachines I have seen since their move
to the black case with silver front were standard microATX cases.
Either measure the dimensions of the power supply or take a photo of the
back of the case and send it to me off-line. The hole pattern for the
mounting screws is important, too.
eMachines along with HP/Compaq have used the trashy Bestec tower
supplies known for taking out motherboards when they failed. I have
scrapped dozens of eMachines boxes with perfectly good cases, bad power
supplies and fried motherboards. For a long time, there was a hot and
expensive market for replacement eMachines motherboards.
Under the new Acer ownership, eMachines computers may have better power
supplies. I do not know for sure, because the last eMachines box I
handled was either a pre-LGA775 P4 or an older AMD box. I would be
curious to know the brand of power supply in each of your eMachines
computers.
I have miniscule expertise with AMD CPUs, so I can't advise as to which
CPU upgrade would work. Beyond the CPU wattage are considerations of
BIOS support for various CPU speeds. Also note that CPU wattage
consumption generally increases as CPU clock speed increases. I am
skeptical that all AMD Brisbanes consume 65w. But, again, I have not
really read any of the specs on AMD CPUs.
eMachines is like any other compnay wanting to charge for tech support
these days, especially when the topic is CPU upgrades, something in
which they cannot make any money.
Your best bet would be to determine the make/model of the T5243
motherboard and to obtain detailed motherboard specs for the same or
similar motherboards from the board manufacturer. For the most part,
OEM boards for eMachines and HP/Compaq are "specials", not standard off
the shelf generic models. The special OEM boards are often crippled
versions of standard boards. The exception is when Intel supplies the
board, and it is often a standard model... Ben Myers