COMPUTERS: Advice needed about Emachines

Hi i just purchased an Emachine from computerworld in central London. It is an Emachine 3250 with Intel Celleron D processor 335.

What i wanted to know is, is this the equivalent of an INTEL PENTIUM 4 ?

Is intel celeron better or equal to Intel pentium ?

I got the emachine with a 17 inch monitor for £310 (one year warranty ) which i though that was a good deal.

Anyone with experience using this brand computer, i would love to hear from you.

cheeers
Zufan
PS i dont have it hooked up yet cause i dont have a provider as of yet .

Celeron is not better than a Pentium 4. Celeron is Intel's cheapest processor which is why your machine didn't cost that much. If you're just doing regular everyday tasks on your machine - surfing the Internet, email, word processing, etc. the difference between the processors won't matter to you.

As for eMachines, I stay away from them as a rule. I've had family and friends who bought them in the States (there's always a ton of them at Best Buy with lots of rebates) and all had huge headaches and extremely poor customer service from eMachines when they tried to get them fixed while under warranty.

I bought an eMachine when I first graduated from college -- I needed something to do my lesson planning on and, of course, a way to continue to stay in touch with DH (then fiance).  I had no problems with it at all and it certainly served my purposes -- mostly word processing and web research with the occasional download.  I think I paid about $700 and feel like I got my money's worth.  When I moved, I gave it to my parents and they use it daily and haven't had any problems at all (and there's a teenage boy in that house, so it gets pretty heavy use!).

My last 3 pc's and now my laptop are Emachines. I find them to be one of the best out there. Not many realise that Dell owns them (I think) and they are just as good. I have never had a problem with any of them and that includes customer service. I had a Sony Vaio and that was the worst nightmare ever and I am still dealing with it. I find Emachines a less expensive alternative and they have higher quality than the Compaqs and HP out there. You made a wise decision in my book and you got a GREAT deal for the UK's standard in costs.

Never had one myself,but my computer repair/upgrade chap reckons they're the best value for money machines you can get.

Dave

eMachines make a very solid computer that should serve you well for many years to come as long as you don't need it for anything more than email, internet, and office applications.  They are actually owned by Gateway and my parents have not had any problems with the exact model you bought (they bought it last summer).  That price was quite good for the UK as well because it costs about $500 here.

As an aside, if you are hooking it up to broadband and have security questions, feel free to ask.  Nobody should have a computer directly connected to broadband without a firewall for protection.  You also will have to be very vigillent with downloading and applying the latest Microsoft patches (or set it to do it for you).

I switched to a Mac last year. Might want to consider it for future purchase. I have never worried about patches or the latest download or hooking up new equipment. Just a suggestion.

Without getting into an overly complex discussion, Macs and the applications they run have similar vulnerabilities and also should be patched and protected behind a firewall for Internet use.

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=1798

Thank you for the information. I regularly update the security fixes, it's quite automatic. I will look into getting a firewall, but every other person I know that has or uses a firewall (on PC's) has major problems with them such as slower systems, problems with the internet etc... 

Thank you for the information. I regularly update the security fixes, it's quite automatic. I will look into getting a firewall, but every other person I know that has or uses a firewall (on PC's) has major problems with them such as slower systems, problems with the internet etc... 

That's off-topic but here's something that should make you consider firewalls despite the hassle (some probs might get solved by customizing the security settings): I was on ADSL for 2 years and have been using ZoneAlarm all the time. Then, about 6 weeks ago, I switched to NTL cable and ... oh my, I get about 10 security alerts per day (I know that most of them are hoaxes but anyway) whereas in the 2 years before, I never had one alert! Well, at least I know now for sure that the firewall actually works!

Actually, I personally haven't noticed any slowing down of system performance (though I know from reading that the Norton products seem to be notorious for that) or internet speeds but I recently disconnected my home network that was running through a Linksys router and presto! ... all previous time-out issues were gone!

thanks for all the advice you guys...most of the feedback about the Emachine ha been postive, which is great cause i've ended up purchasing it

Warm regards
Zu.