Emachines eTower 566

Author's product rating:   

Speed
Design
Manufacturer Support
Ease of use
Value For Money

Advantages:	It was cheap
Disadvantages:	It feels cheap

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

As the title of my opinion suggests, this computer package is really, really cheap.

Not just in terms of how much my hard earned cash I had to part with to buy it, but in general build quality and specification.

Some years ago, when even my old 133Mhz computer was the best thing ever I got into a bit of trouble, lets just say I upset the wife by talking to too many strange women on the internet.

That was the final straw and I woke up to some really loud banging noises downstairs..........OH NO!!!!!!

My computer was completley wrecked, it was lying in bits and no tube of superglue was going to fix it this time :0(

But after several hours of difficult surgery I had it running again.

But that wasnt the end of it, it had to go, the wife was getting more and more annoyed with me and I had to sell it!!

So how come I am here now, writing this opinion and generaly surfing about on the net?

She gave in, after 2 weeks of seeing me depressed, and getting internet cold turkey she sent me off with the credit card to Currys to look at the Computers!

Silly woman!

After going into shock several times at some of the prices I was going to resign myself to just getting a second hand one, but the last Computer I looked at was the one that I am using now.

The price was a mere £599!

For that money I got the full package, a printer, a scanner and Windows ME software.

Not too bad I thought to myself, after all I was desperate to get myself back on line.

THE PRINTER.

Its a Lexmark z22, the cheapest and nastiest of the Lexmark bunch, the cartidges cost me £30 to buy new and its the noisiest thing I have ever had to sit next to (apart from my kids)
Print Quality is ok, but dont expect much in the way of Photo quality, most of the pictures I have reproduced on it are very good, but if you look closely they are very very grainy!

THE SCANNER.

Hewlett Packard, yes, I have heard about those before.
Its a Scanjet 2100c, yet again Currys have managed to palm me off with the cheapest scanner that they had selling at the time.
It works ok though, nothing flash, very noisey again and quite slow too.

THE COMPUTER ITSELF!!!!!

When I had got it all home and unpacked it all I wasnt dissapointed.
Although it only has a 14" monitor and tiny little speakers it all looked so much better than my old computer.

Then I turned it on!!!

I could have sworn I was sitting on a Jumbo Jet.

The fans were whirring so loudley I thought I had put the plugs in wrong somewhere, but no, this was how it was meant to be.

So whats the specification of my new computer??

I'm no techno geek, but I know that a 566Mhz processor is a lot better than the 133Mhz processor that I was using before.

It came with 32Mb of Ram, However things were really sticky and slow running Windows ME with this tiny amount, So I put 128Mb in instead and immedeatley noticed a massive difference.

It has a 48x CdRom, much better than the 4x one I did have, and it makes noises like a hovercraft when I put a disk in!

There are lots of different sockets on the back of this machine, but not as many as I would have liked.

Its got no seperate Graphics card, no seperate sound card and this was a major concern for me, so once again I had to upgrade with new ones that I easily installed to the motherboard ! and the speakers were so small the sound actually sounded like a clock radio, so they had to go!

The handy thing is though , its got 2 usb ports , these allow me to plug things in much easier and suposedly make things work faster.
I also have a games port on the front of the tower under a little pull down cover, very useful, all I need now are some games and a Joystick!!

Speaking of pluggy in bits, the keyboard is cheap and rattles an awful lot and the mouse was so cheap it fell to bits and I bought a decent one for just a few quid at a car boot sale instead!

To show you what I had purchased I have taken some of the details from the User manual and put them into this op, If it makes any sense to you then please feel free to read it, it was somewhat wasted on me as I havent got a clue what it says!!

Feature Specifications
Processor • Intel Coppermine FC-PGA processor
• 66/100 MHz bus speed
• The processor depends on the model of computer you purchased.
Memory Main Memory
• Two 168-pin 3.3 V DIMM sockets
• Supports up to 256 MB memory
• Unbuffered Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
Video Memory
• Use main memory (Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology)

As the system has sharing memory architecture using the main memory for video
memory, the usable main memory size is less than real size when the computer is
running.
Main Chipset Intel FW82810 Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH)
• Processor/Host bus support
• Integrated DRAM controller
• Integrated graphics/AC97 controller
• 3D graphics visual enhancements
• 2D graphics
• Arithmetic stretch blitter video
• Power management functions
Intel FW82801AA I/O Controller Hub (ICH)
• PCI bus interface
• Integrated IDE controller
• USB and DMA controller
• Supports ISA bus via external PCI-ISA bridge
• Firmware Hub (FWH) interface
• Power management logic
• Real-time clock
I/O Controller ITE IT8702F Super I/O Controller
• Floppy drive interface
• One multimode parallel port
• FIFO serial port
• Keyboard and mouse controller

Built-in Audio Integrated Audio Controller in Intel FW82801AA
Controller • AC ‘97 2.1 Compliant
• AC ‘97 Link for Audio CODEC
• Independent Bus Master Logic for PCM In, PCM Out, and Mic Input
• Separate Independent PCI Function for Audio
CS4299 CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Codec ’97
• AC’97 1.03 Compatible
• Industry Leading Mixed Signal Technology
• 18-bit stereo full-duplex Codec with fixed 48KHz sampling rate
• Four analog line-level stereo inputs for connection from LINE IN, CD, VIDEO
and AUX
• Two analog line-level mono inputs for speakerphone
• Mono microphone input switchable from two external sources
• High quality differential CD input
• Dual Stereo line level outputs
• Extensive power management support
• Meets or exceeds Microsoft’s PC ’98 and PC ’99 audio performance
requirements.
Three usable • Three PCI slots
expansion slots
Other features • Phoenix BIOS
• Plug and Play compatible
• Advanced Power Management (APM) and Advanced Configuration Power
Interface (ACPI)
Power Supply The power supply specifications are inscribed on the label that attached on
the power supply chassis in the system. To see the specifications of the power
suppy, refer to the label. If you want to see the label, you need to remove the
cover of your system.
Environmental • Temperature
Requirement - Operation : +5 o C to 35 o C
- Storage : -20 o C to 60 o C
• Humidity
- Operation : 20% to 80% (No condensation)
- Storage : 10% to 90%

So there you have it, it seems that its true about only getting what you pay for, I have learnt my lesson, the money I spent upgrading this machine would have been better spent adding to the price of this one and getting something better.

I have suffered a massive hard drive failure too in the few months that I have had it, but fortunatley it was covered as I have a 1 years on site warranty and they came out and put me a brand new 15 gb hard drive in.

So my advice to you would be to buy the best you can afford, and then buy a bit more than you can afford!
It makes all the difference