emachines laptop?

dunworth1

I am in the market for a new laptop but am on a tight budget
and am looking at the emachines e640 in argos
Link

i havent heard much about emachines does anyone have any experence with
them are they of good build quality etc.

thanks in advance

Alanstrainor

From what i've read on these boards emachines are muck. I'd buy this over it tbh Acer...Argos...

x in the city

dunworth1 wrote: »

I am in the market for a new laptop but am on a tight budget
and am looking at the emachines e640 in argos
Link

i havent heard much about emachines does anyone have any experence with
them are they of good build quality etc.

thanks in advance

wayy too much money for a glorified n series...!

dunworth1

Alanstrainor wrote: »

From what i've read on these boards emachines are muck. I'd buy this over it tbh Acer...Argos...

i was looking at the acer but it was the triple core and ati graphics that caught my eye

x in the city wrote: »

wayy too much money for a glorified n series...!

i dont know what you mean the specs are execellent for the price

GarRo247

dunworth1 wrote: »

i was looking at the acer but it was the triple core and ati graphics that caught my eye

Triple core processors are bad news, if you know much about computers you would know everything has to be in a pair, and there is no such thing as a triple core processor, it is a quad core processor with one of the cores blocked off. They are usually blocked because of a heating or power consumption issue when all four cores are active. So I would worry about why it was blocked off. Also having more cores is no good if you don't have applications that can use all cores and no application will be set up to use three cores, any piece of software will use 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cores. Therefore the third core will never be used, you would be better off getting a dual core with a higher clock speed than the tri core. The only thing tri core processors are good for is overclocking, because the 4th core can be easily unblocked, but without proper power management and cooling that will cause big problems. The build quality of EMachines is sh*! there made from cheep plastic. youd be better off going for Acer, Dell or Toshiba. The graphics card in that laptop is very bad it is a low level HD card, with only 256mb of ram, the graphics ram will be too low and will not be able to deal with enough of the things it needs to, when working with a HD card and it will become very slow because of this, so even if you have an ok processor the bad graphics processor will slow it down. For HD you would want at least 512mb of graphics memory, or get a laptop with at least 256mb with a non HD card.

alwaysadub

I got an emachine laptop a few years back. It's rubbish to be honest and i can't wait to get rid of it. It's really really slow and the battery life is non existant.

x in the city

dunworth1 wrote: »

i was looking at the acer but it was the triple core and ati graphics that caught my eye




i dont know what you mean the specs are execellent for the price

that yoke is brutal, would take a few years to boot up and open up a web browser and 20 tabs


if i had 600 quid i would get a proper laptop

dunworth1

GarRo247 wrote: »

Triple core processors are bad news, if you know much about computers you would know everything has to be in a pair, and there is no such thing as a triple core processor, it is a quad core processor with one of the cores blocked off. They are usually blocked because of a heating or power consumption issue when all four cores are active. So I would worry about why it was blocked off. Also having more cores is no good if you don't have applications that can use all cores and no application will be set up to use three cores, any piece of software will use 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cores. Therefore the third core will never be used, you would be better off getting a dual core with a higher clock speed than the tri core. The only thing tri core processors are good for is overclocking, because the 4th core can be easily unblocked, but without proper power management and cooling that will cause big problems. The build quality of EMachines is sh*! there made from cheep plastic. youd be better off going for Acer, Dell or Toshiba. The graphics card in that laptop is very bad it is a low level HD card, with only 256mb of ram, the graphics ram will be too low and will not be able to deal with enough of the things it needs to, when working with a HD card and it will become very slow because of this, so even if you have an ok processor the bad graphics processor will slow it down. For HD you would want at least 512mb of graphics memory, or get a laptop with at least 256mb with a non HD card.

thanks for the info i wont be buying it

x in the city

buy a second hand laptop with an i core cpu or a core 2 duo

and some decent graphics

600e would easily get a good laptop

the main things are the cpu and the graphics

the memory and hdd can be upgraded

60%+ of laptops out there have crap graphics, which is a bottlekneck for a lot of things, performance wise

AlmightyCushion

GarRo247 wrote: »

Triple core processors are bad news, if you know much about computers you would know everything has to be in a pair, and there is no such thing as a triple core processor, it is a quad core processor with one of the cores blocked off. They are usually blocked because of a heating or power consumption issue when all four cores are active. So I would worry about why it was blocked off. Also having more cores is no good if you don't have applications that can use all cores and no application will be set up to use three cores, any piece of software will use 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cores. Therefore the third core will never be used, you would be better off getting a dual core with a higher clock speed than the tri core. The only thing tri core processors are good for is overclocking, because the 4th core can be easily unblocked, but without proper power management and cooling that will cause big problems. The build quality of EMachines is sh*! there made from cheep plastic. youd be better off going for Acer, Dell or Toshiba. The graphics card in that laptop is very bad it is a low level HD card, with only 256mb of ram, the graphics ram will be too low and will not be able to deal with enough of the things it needs to, when working with a HD card and it will become very slow because of this, so even if you have an ok processor the bad graphics processor will slow it down. For HD you would want at least 512mb of graphics memory, or get a laptop with at least 256mb with a non HD card.

You don't know as much about computers as you like to think you do. The third core won't sit there doing nothing. If the software can make use of four threads then it will still use all three cores. If the software isn't multi-threaded then the OS will run different threads from different applications in different cores. e.g. web browser in core 1, email client in core 2, anti-virus scanner in core 3.

Also the graphics are poor for things like gaming and 3d heavy apps like cad. For most everyday tasks a good graphics cards aren't needed. The most taxing thing that will test an averages users graphics cards is playing HD videos and the 4250 will handle that fine. Unless the OP is gaming or using applications like cad he won't need anything more powerful and is just throwing away money on a powerful graphics card he will never use. Also, I don't see how the graphics card will slow the computer down unless like I say above for things like gaming or cad like applications.

x in the city wrote: »

that yoke is brutal, would take a few years to boot up and open up a web browser and 20 tabs


if i had 600 quid i would get a proper laptop

It's not brutal, it's actually decent spec-wise. Processor is better than some core 2 duos and close to an i3 performance wise. Plus it looks like he has €450 and not €600.

@Dunworth1 - Don't listen to these two, they don't know as much as they think they do. Specwise it's a decent, fast machine. For average home/college use it's more than enough. I don't know about build quality though but given alan said he heard they're muck I would be wary about it.

dunworth1

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

@Dunworth1 - Don't listen to these two, they don't know as much as they think they do. Specwise it's a decent, fast machine. For average home/college use it's more than enough. I don't know about build quality though but given alan said he heard they're muck I would be wary about it.

it does sound like a big risk alright and coming from argos i wont be able to try it first.

i will look elsewhere for a laptop thanks for all the help

AlmightyCushion

dunworth1 wrote: »

it does sound like a big risk alright and coming from argos i wont be able to try it first.

i will look elsewhere for a laptop thanks for all the help

When you find another you're looking at post it up here and we'll advise you.

dunworth1

cheers will do

For Forks Sake

GarRo247 wrote: »

The build quality of EMachines is sh*! there made from cheep plastic. youd be better off going for Acer

You do know who makes eMachines , right...... ?

GarRo247

For Forks Sake wrote: »

You do know who makes eMachines , right...... ?

No but I'm now guessing its Acer, that doesn't change the fact the Acers seem to be stronger, and last longer.

dunworth1

For Forks Sake wrote: »

You do know who makes eMachines , right...... ?

they could be using different materials for each

dunworth1

ok guys i havent gotten a chance to look around and doubht i will for at least two weeks

but i got a flyer in the door today with this packard bell model tk37 laptop for 479 euro in pc world
i looked on the site and i'm pretty sure this is the one
what do ye think

it dosent seem to be on the pcworld website and i have tryed searching but am having trouble find anyhing about it

all thats on the flyer is

4gb memory
intel celeron dual core processor
250gb hdd
webcam

Edit: i have asked in the pcworld forum for the full specs will update

dunworth1

manged to get out and about today for a look and spotted this one in currys
for 529.99 I'd be stretching but i think it would be worth it.

the graphics has a dedicated 512mb

what do ye guys think

Enjoy a great combination of portability and performance with the Pavilion dv6-3005sa laptop from Hewlett-Packard!
General Information Processor AMD Athlon II Dual-Core Processor P320
- 2.1 GHz
- 1.8 GHz HT
- 1 MB L2 Cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
RAM 3GB
Graphics card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Graphics
Screen type High-Definition LED HP BrightView Display
Screen resolution 1366 x 768
Screen size 15.6"
Hard drive 320GB
Optical disk drive LightScribe SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Memory card reader 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro or xD Picture cards
USB 4 USB 2.0 ports (4th shared with eSATA port)
Modem/Ethernet Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes
Video interface VGA, HDMI
Audio interface 1 stereo headphone-out
1 microphone-in
TV output VGA, HDMI
Sound Altec Lansing speakers
Webcam Yes
Keyboard & Mouse Full size island-style keyboard
HP Clickpad supporting Multi-Touch gestures with On/Off button
Battery 6-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery
5 hours battery life
Additional features eSATA port
Accessories included Battery, power adaptor, documentation

http://reviewsaver.co.uk/review/HP-Pavilion-dv6-3005sa-1284500458

GarRo247

dunworth1 wrote: »

what do ye guys think

Looks decent, you'll have no problems watching HD movies or most medium graphic intense games.

ED E

Emachines are shocking. Avoid.

dunworth1

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Emachines are shocking. Avoid.

yes we have established that and i'm now looking for advice on a hp

the_syco

Off-topicness...

For Forks Sake wrote: »

You do know who makes eMachines , right...... ?

eMachines were bought by Gateway, who have been bought by Acer.

As for who made them, the ODM for eMachines is most likely either Quanta or Arima.

dunworth1 wrote: »

the graphics has a dedicated 512mb

Where did you see this, for this laptop? Googled it, but couldn't find info on how much memory the graphics card had.

dunworth1

the_syco wrote: »

Where did you see this, for this laptop? Googled it, but couldn't find info on how much memory the graphics card had.

it said it on the card in the shop

GarRo247

512mb should be plenty for you to watch hd content without it being choppy, jumpy or whatever