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AnchorDesk

David Coursey
When a 'value' PC is good enough

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Monday, Jan. 26, 2004
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Have you ever wondered what a famous computer columnist does when it's time for him to buy a computer? I didn't think so, but I'm going to tell you anyway. The story may sound familiar.

eMachines reviewed
Our editors haven't tested the T3265 yet. But they have looked at eMachines' other, recent desktops and notebooks. Here's what they thought.
RECENTLY, I had to purchase a machine for my new assistant, Rachel. She already has a very decent iMac. But for the past few days I've needed her to do a lot of scheduling for me. That means she needs to see my Outlook calendar, something that's not possible (as best I can tell) using Entourage (which is to the Mac what Outlook is to the PC, only less). We're also using Microsoft SharePoint and Office 2003, so Steve Jobs will just have to understand.

Thursday night, after an Outlook mix-up led to someone calling for a phone meeting I wasn't expecting, I decided it was time to get Rachel a PC, so she'd have full access to Outlook and we'd always be in sync. Having decided that, the next decision was how, where, and what to buy.

I'd like to say I did an exhaustive search for the perfect machine for the task at hand. But any Windows XP machine should be able to run Microsoft Office nicely. And this wasn't supposed to be a "big" computer (I have the Media Center for that), just a box for Rachel to use for office work.

But I did want a big hard drive, and 512MB RAM would be nice, even though I will probably run it up to a gig eventually.

I thought about driving 45 miles to the nearest Fry's Electronics, but decided my needs weren't special enough to warrant the trip. Besides, by the time I decided to go, I'd have arrived about 30 minutes before Fry's closed.

I also considered driving over to my local Costco, where I've bought computers before. But they don't like to sell standalone CPUs, and that's all I needed. I already had a very nice Sony monitor sitting around doing nothing and didn't want to invest in a 17-inch panel.

THE ONE THING I don't like about the city of 67,000 I moved to two years ago--OK, one of the things--is that we don't have anything like a "real" computer store out here. What we do have is a BestBuy. While it's not a CompUSA or Fry's, I've actually been quite impressed. So that's where I ended up at about eight o' clock Thursday night.

I'd been in the BestBuy store often enough that the computer guys recognize me--not just as a shopper but as someone who does something in the industry. Todd, who sold me Rachel's new machine, works at the store evenings and weekends; during the day, he's a support tech at Visioneer, the PC fax company. I don't know what the other computer department guys do, but they're all helpful and I've never caught them making stuff up when I asked a question.

I considered one of the many sub-$500 CPUs in the store. But I wanted the memory and the big drive and realized that one of these multislot memory card reader/writers would be nice, too. I also wanted to get the best value for my money.

That led me past all the HPs and the Compaqs and plopped me down right in front of four or five eMachines models, which started below $500 and topped out at over $1,000 for a 64-bit model.

I'VE TESTED eMachines models before and have heard good things about them from friends. I also get all their press releases, so I know they are now claiming to be the No. 3 best-selling PC brand in the U.S. Todd says that they're the best value machine he sells.

Today's low-priced computers are a far cry from the Packard Bell machines of a decade ago. The eMachine I ended up buying--the new-at-CES T3265--is well-built. Even the stuff that's easy to skimp on, like the mouse and keyboard, are decent. (While I could live with both of the latter, I'll be replacing them with wireless sets from Microsoft or Logitech.)

The T3265 costs $749, uses an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ processor, and includes the "8-in-1" Media Reader, 512MB RAM and a bonus-sized 160GB hard drive. I feel like I got a lot for my money.

All I've done so far is set the machine up on my network, which required replacing the stock XP Home with XP Pro, adding Office 2003, and connecting the machine to the Small Business Server and Exchange, made easier by a set-up wizard on the server.

I haven't tested the "advanced multimedia performance" touted in its promotional material, but the machine is sorta stylish and the media reader does provide many options for my various cameras, music players, phones, and GPS devices that use removable memory cards.

Rachel hasn't seen the new machine as I write this, but it's all set up for her, including a view of my Exchange calendar and her My Documents folder safely pointing to the server's hard drive.

At this juncture, I really like my new eMachine, but time will tell and I'm sure it will be mentioned for good or bad as we gain some experience with it. But right now the moral of the story is that there really does seem to be value in value machines and, oh yes, the BestBuy in Tracy, Calif., is a fine place to find it.

What do you think? Have you bought a value PC lately? Were you pleased or not? TalkBack to me! 

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