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General discussion

big vs small

Sep 10, 2004 3:00AM PDT

The smaller guys some times come up w/ good prices - like emachine or acer compared to for e.g Dell (who'd list one price and as soon as you click on 'customize' you'd be looking at a higher "starting at" price). CNET doesn't give any editor's review on emachines either. If I need more hardware than customer service, does the brand name make a big difference? Or would I be able to sleep as well at night w/ the less-known laptops @ better prices?

Discussion is locked

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Re: big vs small
Sep 10, 2004 3:25AM PDT

E-machines has merged with Gateway. Believe it or not, E-machines came out #2 to IBM in desktops and Gateway was #2 in notebooks (above Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba and Sony at the bottom) in the recent PC magazine survey.

E-machines does not have many notebooks compared to desktops but I have had no problems with 2 desktops I have owned from them.

I assume you are looking at the Athlon 64 64bit cpu e-machines notebook. That is a good option for the future as the operating system (Microsoft Longhorn) will go 64bit in 2006-07.

The only other mainstream alternative to an Athlon 64 cpu notebook is one from Compaq and 1 from HP (same system, different appearance).Note that hpshopping.com has a $100 custom rebate, and other discounts like a 6% student discount (APP), etc if you are qualified. They also have 1 year no interest.

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Re: big vs small
Sep 10, 2004 5:47AM PDT

So if i'm comparing Athlon 64 3200 (compaq R3000 series) vs. Pent M 735 1.7mhz (hp zt3000), which one is faster provided everything else is the same?

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Re: big vs small
Sep 10, 2004 7:09AM PDT

I found an ans to that. But i don't understand why ppl don't get emachines though. I priced a total package (hve been pulling my hair off around the millions of decision u gotta make) - athlon 64 3200, 512MB, 60 GB, CD RW/DVD combo, built in wireless, ATI radeon 64MB video RAM for $1,400 - which no one else was able to give w/ rebates etc - dell, hp, compaq, acer...

STill have a question though - is $200 worth if it comes w/ 20GB extra hard drive, DVD R.RW, and Athlon 64 3400 instead of 3200?

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Re: big vs small
Sep 10, 2004 7:21AM PDT

About the faster CPU. It's worth 200 bucks since you can never ever upgrade it. It will be what it is forever.

The DVD recorder is a nice model with all format capability, but is just a 2X recorder. That's over an hour for one DVDR... My prefence is to use my 8X USB 2.0 drive for recording to drop the time down.

Bob

PS. Disregard my litter red "m". So far, the emachine Athlon 64 is the top contender if I replace my laptop.

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Re: big vs small
Sep 11, 2004 1:54AM PDT

Bob,
Thanks for the tips. I'm going w/ your advice of getting an external 8x DVD R. Plus, when I went to purchase the sucker, I found out that Best Buy had an addtional 150 bucks rebate on top of the 100 bucks. So I'm getting that machine for $1,250! - Haven't seen anything like this in my month long research period Happy

I wish I could find out the Intel Equivalent of Athlong 64, 3200 so that I could brag about it to my cuz who just got a Dell 5500 for the same price - but half the mem, half the HD, no dedicated video card, and no 15.4" monitor..

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It may be time...
Sep 11, 2004 2:27AM PDT

That's a nice price. I've done simple "boot time" tests and all the units booted XP very quickly. I'll go to Best Buy today to have a look see again.

Bob