New eMachines have cheap charm

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials

Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings

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Dan Ackerman

April 5, 2006 3:14 p.m. PT

While it's hard to get enthused about budget PCs most of the time, we have a long-standing appreciation for eMachines, the retail-only sibling of computer giant Gateway. The highest-priced PC in its ever-changing lineup is usually less than $599 and offers enough firepower (1GB of RAM, open PCIe slot, and so on) to make it our budget system of choice.

On the other hand, the company seems to run through model numbers like crazy, and we'll never understand the up-and-down naming system--the T6524 was followed by the T6420, which was followed by the T6532.

Today, Gateway has announced four new eMachines systems, replacing the four current ones. The only one worth looking at is the top-of-the-line T6532, which redefines top-of-the-line by clocking in at $529 after a $50 rebate. For $500 and change, you get an AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB of RAM, a DVD burner, and a generous 200GB hard drive.

Sure the onboard graphics are lame, but with an empty x16 PCIe slot, you can save up and throw a decent video card in later on. Not too shabby for less than dinner for two at Per Se.

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