Help me beat E-machines' $300 Black Friday deal

S

semisonic9

Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2005
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My friend sent me a link to an E-machines deal at CompUSA. She's on the market, and is feeling pressured to run out and buy it before the sale ends.

CompUSA's E-machines Deal

I'm looking to beat this deal from an online retailer in either parts I build myself, or a similar boxed deal for Black Friday. I'm thinking I'd have a really hard time assembling even basic components for $300.

Stats on the E-machine:
* Athlon II, 1.7ghz
* 2gb DDR3
* 160gb HD
* GE Force 9200

Her needs: She just needs a computer. It'll be used for desktop apps and surfing the internet. Spreadsheets, etc. Let's keep the graphics minimal, and focus on computing power/RAM. Would Intel's Atom architecture work here?

Also, is there any reason she should wait until X-mas? An upcoming Q4 price drop or something? She probably could hold out.

~S

PS- Just found the E-machines deal is also up on Newegg.
 
Yeah you're not gonna be able to beat that with a DIY build unless you already have the OS on hand.
 
If she's looking for a center piece to set on the end table, that's gonna be hard to beat. :D

Seriously,if it doesn't go beyond surfing and spreadsheet use, than it's actually not a bad deal. sufficient processor power, decent ram, Expandable to 4 gb, decent onboard graphics, sufficient hard drive space for the type of usage your describing. It would fit the bill, plus it takes up minimal real estate. and it's cheap enough to just toss it when time does come to upgrade.

It is surprising the OS is 64 bit though.
 
I don't see how they make a dollar.Must be digging in a trash bin some where.
 
DrDoU said:
I don't see how they make a dollar.Must be digging in a trash bin some where.
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e-machines are built and assembled completely in China. But all bargin system prices tend to make you wonder at the real markups on the front end don't they.
 
Basalt said:
it's cheap enough to just toss it when time does come to upgrade..
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emachine used to just used to use microATX towers. I built like 3 computers out of an old emachines tower.

1023001657.jpg


you can keep the tower, and depending on what they gave you, the psu, hdd, optical drives, just simple mobo/cpu swap doesn't the road if desperate.
 
SticKx911 said:
emachine used to just used to use microATX towers. I built like 3 computers out of an old emachines tower.

1023001657.jpg


you can keep the tower, and depending on what they gave you, the psu, hdd, optical drives, just simple mobo/cpu swap doesn't the road if desperate.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Gateway purchased them, and a lot of Gateway retail boxes were actually E-Machines branded Gateway. That was before Gateway in turn was bought by Acer.

The particular model listed by the OP is unfortunately quite limited to future upgrades if any.
 
ahh..oops, I didin't even click the link, just looked at specs. lol :facepalm:

no upgrading that.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yeah you're not gonna be able to beat that with a DIY build unless you already have the OS on hand.
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She might be able to get them through the College of Engineering.

She's a PhD student in our University's Modeling and Sim program. Up from an organizational psychology background, so pretty computer illiterate, but I believe that program is under the umbrella of the College of Engineering at our school.

If she does, what would you recommend?
 
semisonic9 said:
She might be able to get them through the College of Engineering.

She's a PhD student in our University's Modeling and Sim program. Up from an organizational psychology background, so pretty computer illiterate, but I believe that program is under the umbrella of the College of Engineering at our school.

If she does, what would you recommend?
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Depends, is it for free or not? Some colleges, even within the same university, have different implementations of the MSDNAA or MS OS programs. I know that while I got Windows 7 Pro for free through the College of Business, the engineering students with the College of Engineering had to pay $40.

Also do you live near a Microcenter?

Also an Intel atom setup would NOT be a better buy than that eMachines build.

Here's a prelim build any way:
$114 - AMD Athlon II X3 445 CPU + Biostar A880G+ AMD 880G HDMI mATX Motherboard Combo
$28 - G.Skill NS F3-10666CL9S-2GBNS 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$55 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU
$30 - Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
-----
Total: $277 plus tax and shipping
 
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Is that enough Ram for win7 64bit and onboard video? For that price, it sure couldn't hurt to add a second stick and run dual channel. Would hold the cost to $305 for a system that is unquestionably superior to the E-Machines build.
 
Basalt said:
Is that enough Ram for win7 64bit and onboard video? For that price, it sure couldn't hurt to add a second stick and run dual channel. Would hold the cost to $305 for a system that is unquestionably superior to the E-Machines build.
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Yeah 2GB of RAM is enough but more RAM can't hurt.
 
I forwarded her this thread earlier today. Thanks for your feedback!

Danny, you've been here for ages, man! You post a lot, too. I remember you helping me out with my posts for my first solo build, two years ago.

In case nobody else has said it recently, thank you for all the good advice over the years! It's really appreciated.

~S
 
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semisonic9 said:
I forwarded her this thread earlier today. Thanks for your feedback!

Danny, you've been here for ages, man! You post a lot, too. I remember you helping me out with my posts for my first solo build, two years ago.

In case nobody else has said it recently, thank you for all the good advice over the years! It's really appreciated.

~S
Click to expand...
LOL! Wow it has been a while.

You're welcome for the help. :D Nice to know it's appreciated.
 
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