New computer!!!1one!!!

If you came here expecting to hear about my 7,000 dollar computer, too bad, this is my first computer, and it's cheap, I plan to upgrade it though.

eMachines: W3115

Op system(s): I have Damn Small Linux operating inside of WinXP Media Center Edition

Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM

Processor: AMD Sempron Processor 3100+ 1.8(0) GHz 1600 MHz System Bus, 256 KB L2 Cache

HDD: 120 GB stock, haven't decided if I have the testicles to try and use the 400 from my XBOX on it yet though...

Monitor: 18" Monitor, 17" viewable

Vid/GFX card: nVIDIA GeForce 6100 PCI express slot

Drive: DVD +/- RW ulti-format 16x double-layer

And of course the essential 9-in-1 card reader.

I don't know if the card reader hs PCMCIA though, I doubt it....

If you haven't noticed yet, I am a nub about computers.... any tips or things I should do? (seriously, don't just tell me to toss it out the window...) I've already removed the retarded stuff like AOL and McAfee and 'cracked' Norton 07 so I could use it instead.

Cedric wrote: Why in the world would you get an emachine? I can't stand those computers. But anyway, upgrade the ram to 1 gig, if you're going to use linux, get ubuntu, and a better graphics card somewhere down the raod.

Why does anyone? Cheap and they are stupid, apparently...

I'd take an emachine over Dell. That's how much I hate Dell.

Benjichang wrote: I'd take an emachine over Dell. That's how much I hate Dell.

ide take a dell over anything, thats how much i love dell.

Benjichang wrote: I'd take an emachine over Dell. That's how much I hate Dell.

WERD

cedric hit the mark, mainly upgrade ram, you might want 2 GB eventually.
as for the graphics card, you may want to wait for prices to fall on some of these higher level cards, and you will probably need to upgrade your psu when you get the card.

alienware is overpriced. i can build the same myself for less.

eMachines can be good if you plan on upgrading them. You can get a pretty cheap system with a good proccessor.

E machines are better than dells in most cases, at least from a repair and upgrade point of view. Dell loves to throw in little propriteray things to make upgrades imposible, making you buy a whole new system from Dell. And for an emachine to die after two years, that's not as bad as ordering a comp from Dell, getting one with a dead motherboard, sending it back, and getting another dead one. And if it was a Dell that had the PS and mobo die, it could have wound up being propriteray crap that would have cost twice as much as it was worth. Not always but it happens. After working in a computer repair shop for six months, you start to hate just about every pre-built system on the planet, but Dells and HPs are at the top of the heap.

As for the comp in this thread, since it's a sempron 3100, It's probly a socket 754 mobo, and upgrades for that are somewhat limited. As long as you aren't going to do much in the way of gaming, that CPU should be fine. If you do wanna game on it, you could upgrade to a athlon 3400 for $145, but for the price it probly wouldn't be worth it.

The GeForce 6100 is an intrgrated graphics chip, but it's better than your average onboard video. It's nice that you have a PCIe slot, so if you do decide to game on it you can get a decent card, instead of having to try to find a good AGP card. If you're going to game on it, I would suggest a 7600GT for around $170

The RAM, 512MB isn't too bad, if you wanna game though, bump that up to at least 1GB, 2GB if you can.

I have never seen a card reader that can read PCMCIA cards, except for dedicated card readers. I'm not saying it's imposible, but I've never seen an all in one that could read PCMCIA.

Overall, if this is just a comp for internet and homework/business, it's about perfect, but for gaming and such it would need much improvement. You might want to dump nortan and get AVG though, it's free and uses less resorces than nortan. In my experiance it works better too. Just do a google search for AVG Free Edition