When I was off to university I decided I was going to need a computer but I needed one that would fit my budget of £400, had DVD playing facilities in it, had the capability to store all of my music on it from CD's and the stuff I had downloaded and still have a space and processing speed for a pcTV card because I wasn't going to take my stereo, TV or DVD player with me. I also need just a basic machine that would have Microsoft office on it and enough processor for basic study needs as well as the bits I just mentioned.
So off I trundled along the shopping aisles that are the World Wide Web and stumbled across my perfect PC. And that was eMachines 3210 with an 80gig hard drive, a 2.7 gHz processor, a 17 inchCRT monitor, and came complete with keyboard mouse and speakers. And you will never guess how much for?!?! £350!! I have to admit it was a reconditioned PC but that doesn't matter, what mattered is that it could hold all my music files and still have at least 50gig free!! And the processing speed was tremendous seen as I have no intention of playing pc games on it. It also has a DVD player on it, a CD rewriter, which is brilliant for writing coursework to CD's so you don't lose it, and a floppy disk drive for those computers who still use the old method of saving!
What I was also impressed with about this computer is it has 6 USB ports. What a USB port is for those who don't know is a port for most new pc connection such as your printer and mouse. Where as some older computers will have a scart lead connector for their printer, a USB port is much smaller and looks sleeker on the back of the computer. There are four USB ports at the back and two at the front. This makes it ideal for people who save their work to pen drives; it saves so much time because you don't have to fiddle around trying to find the right hole and the back of the machine! You simply slot it in at the front and away you go! The only thing I really didn't like about it, but is easily fixed, is the fact that it is only 256 Mb of RAM, which means the computer once gaining on full capacity will be really slow and certainly will struggle when playing high spec pc games like theme park or something similar (sorry not a game playing sort of person!).
But anyway.. let's get on with the review and let me tell you all about my shiny pc!
{-: Appearance :-}
Ok well the first thing I unpacked and saw was the monitor. Yes it is bulky. A CRT monitor means that it is quite heavy and big, not like these fancy LCD screens with their flatness! No no, the monitor is a chunky monkey! And very wide. A 17 inch screen means that it is bigger than normal screens that usual measure around 14-15 inches. I found this ideal because I would be watching TV and films on it and I don't know why but I have always found that staring at a small screen for an hour or so really begins to strain my eyes and give me headaches.
Around the sides and top of the screen is a dark grey plastic coating with air vents in long symmetrical stripes. This allows the monitor to cool down especially if has been on for a good while like mine usually is. When you are looking straight at the screen you can't actually see the top of sides because they sink inwards toward each other which gives the effective illusion that it is actually a flat screen, something I love in this monitor. Surrounding the actual screen is a lighter shade, almost silver looking plastic. The frame gives the screen a focus and boxes it in really nice and neatly.
The monitor stands on a blackish-grey small stand that has the ability to rotate up and down and from side to side. This is of great use when I have guests and visitors using the machine because they can rotate the screen freely in accordance to their preference which I rarely find on older machines. What I mean by that is on older computers, like the ones at uni, they are very stiff to manoeuvre where as this one is on roller balls that swivel around with ease. The base of the stand is really solid and has little suction caps which make sure the monitor does move around and out of place when you are moving the actual screen. They are however easy to get off with a little tug, just in case you decide to move it somewhere else, it isn't difficult at all.
There is only two buttons on the screen with really simple and symmetrical dials that surround it, giving the monitor another focal point below the actual screen. The biggest button to the right of the monitor is simply the on and off switch. And to the left of that is the secpnd button which is silver in colour and is surrounded by for little panel buttons that operate the screen adjustments such as the brightness and contrast. These panels are all curved to match the shape of the main button, again giving the monitor a sleek and symmetrical feel to it.
I love the look of this monitor because although it can be considered bulky, it stylish symmetry out weight the bulky problems to make it quite a good looking, modern and fashionable looking piece of equipment.
Now the main computer, the sexiest yum scrum thing ever (part from Dan of course)!! Anywho, as you can see from the picture, the front of the computer is silver with two long black stripes near the top and a smaller one just below them. These are the DVD drive (at the top), the CD rewriter drive (just below) and the smaller one if the floppy disk drive. What you can't see is the bottom where there is a 2 inch black panel. This panel, my favourite bit about the whole computer! Is an almost secret compartment!! At the bottom of this panel is a little silver lip that just looks like it belongs to the base of the computer but noo! If you gently lift this lip it opens up a secret little bit where there are two USB ports, a headphone socket and a microphone socket, all clearly labelled by small and quaint diagrams of headphones and microphones.
In the middle of the hard drive is a big circular button with the eMachines e logo emblazoned on it. When pressed, the computer loads up and the outer circle shines a lovely shade of apple green. Just below this button is a tiny whole through which an orange light beams and flickers. This light indicates that the computer is working and the more it flickers the more the computer is operating. Handy little tool!!
Now we come to the back of the computer and thank god, eMachines have made it so simple that even I, non computer knowerer, can figure out which leads go where! Good old eMachines have colour coded the wires and the sockets that they go in! For example the mouse wire is purple. So I go along and I look for a purple socket! Easy! And to make it even simpler, just like they have with the secret panel, all sockets and ports have diagrams by them. Genius!
I love the look of my computer, especially the secret panel because it hides all those nasty looking ports and wholes and give the machine a much more sophisticated look of putting it all together and I love the little humming noise it makes, hardly offensive and is more soothing than overpoweringly loud.
The mouse, keyboard and speakers are pretty much standard. The match perfectly with one another and are colour matched with the actual computer. The mouse is silver with a small black scroll button in-between left and right clickers, the speakers are black and mounted on silver stands and the keyboard is almost ergonomic with its curves. It also black, the buttons are highlighted with white lettering and around the whole upper part and left side are silver buttons which control things like copy and paste, forwards, backwards, stop and play and can instantly bring up applications like calculator and your email account. It is really clever, with a touch of a button it saves you time searching for the correct thing to click with one simple touch of a button, something I use all the time, especially the cut, copy and paste buttons. I also like the fact that the accessories match the computer and I think you will find, as I have, that it can often be difficult to find accessories that match, ie, printers. But not with this computer! Because of its contemporary colour schemes I was able to find a webcam that matches; a Lexmark printer and even a lamp for the side of my desk!! And not only that but in argos I found a computer desk which fits in perfectly with the colours. Now I think that that is just ace!
{-: Working it :-}
Simple. Simple simple simple! When the computer is delivered to you (because you can't get this in stores, only online) you receive a pack all about how to set up your computer and it takes you step by step in computer language that anyone can understand. You have some really good options on the computer that make it more personalised for the user such as giving your computer a name (mine is called Molly!), setting up accounts so that you can be the administrator and your guests or children can be just users. This is a fab idea so that your children can't accidentally delete important files and programmes and can't download anything without your consent, avoiding worms and nasty computer viruses! And these of course can all by password protected so intruders can't get hold of your private documents and settings.
When it is all finally loaded up and ready to use you will find out have the basic options available to you such as internet explorer which you use to get on t'internet, it has all the Microsoft applications like Word and PowerPoint, and pretty much all the usual Windows things. Speaking of the internet, when you go into the favourites tab on the explorer screen there is a little folder that says "eMachines PC Support". When you click on that it will take you to the eMachines website where they can do a full diagnostic of your PC from their own servers and tell you if there are any updates you need to get or how to rectify any problems you are experiencing.
The DVD player is really easy to use, u simply put in your DVD and it usually automatically loads up in either windows media or real player, there are about 4 DVD playing applications that come with the computer and I can guarantee that one will load up for you. And like the CDRW drive, it will copy CD's for you but unfortunately not DVDs. I find this a really handy tool when copying from CD to CD because instead of convential methods of putting in the CD, copying it, taking it put, putting a new one in and then burning that one, with two drives you can copy and burn at the same time which I've timed saves you almost ten minutes of faf!!
{-: Anything Else? :-}
There isn't much else you need to know really. There are some specs I will tell you about such as the processor type is Intel Celeron, there is an inbuilt modem, an onboard sound card so no need to buy another separate one, the inbuilt graphics card is an Intel Extreme one so the graphics are pretty sharp, especially pictures from a digital camera, it weighs a healthy weight of 11kg, is 360mm tall, 185mm wide and 410m deep and it runs Windows XP Home edition. I am currently running on it a PC TV card as well and still it runs fast and the picture is crisp. Also, even though I have 20gig's worth of music, 15gig worth videos and 10gig worth of random stuff, I've still got 35gig free!!
{-: Downsides :-}
Surprisingly, there is only one downside to this whole machine package and that is the speakers. Now, Daniel being the computer expert told me that it might not be the speakers but the sound card that was making the horrible crackling noise when ever there was noise coming though them. So he checked the card and it still made the noise. We changed the speakers and it stopped concluding then that the speakers were pants! They are very small, which is aesthetically nice! But they are not able to produce to big a sound without it being interrupted by constant static noise. I am a bit gutted that my computer doesn't look as snazzy with Dan's big beefy white speakers but I need good sound quality, especially with my TV and everything coming through them. And that really is genuinely the only problem I have ever had with this PC!
{-: Overall opinion.. Recommended! :-}
All in all I would defiantly recommend this computer to anyone who wants a good looking, sleek and stylish, fast and full of space computer and for those who want a student computer for work. I don't think I could really recommend it to those who play really powerful games although I have played Theme Hospital on it and it worked perfectly fine. I really do like this machine. Although the monitor is a bit bulky it is hardly noticed when looking at it face on. It is a proper good runner and I really do recommend it.
I hope this review has covered everything you need to know, if there is anything else I might have missed, let me know and I will add it in.
Thanks, Sarah
***** JUST AN UPDATE!!! *****
Just wanted to let you know that I have just found this PC for just £334.99 from dixons online!!! BARGAIN!!!
More details
Reliability
Excellent
Memory / capacity
Excellent
Range of Extra Features
Satisfactory
Instruction manual
Very useful
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