[Solved] (eMachines ET1331G-03W) would this be a good start for a gaming pc

no its $400 i researched the psu and found them cheap for upgrading the video card .... but for 400 bucks 6gb ram 750gb hard drive ... wouldn't it be worth it to up geade yhe video card and psu instead of building

Is that computer a good start for gaming... Absolutely NOT.

Is it decent for the money... eh, sort of.

I am pricing out an AMD X3 build with 4GB of memory and it's coming out to about $450 and that's with good quality parts such as Corsair 550 power supply, Corsair memory, ASUS motherboard, Antec case... etc.

Total Bullshit.
I own the E Machines you speak of
Would you be at all interested to know that the HDD is a 32MB cache unit?
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index. [...] cale=en-US
That the Athlon IIx2 235e really puts out?
Let them talk this thing down all they want because everyone at this forum to some extent is an affecionado of sorts and will never think an E-Machines is anything more than crap.
With 6 gigs of ram and a 750 GB 32mb cache HDD paired with SATA drivespeed
on top of an Athlon IIx2..
all you need is a better PSU and Videocard and whattaya know, a gaming PC for you that costs well under $700.
My advice is this..grab the PC, buy a thermaltake PSU 550 for $85 an Nvidia GTS 250 for around $125 and pack it all in.
Performance index on my PC sits at 7.1 besides the HDD, which for some reason will only hit 5.9 but they say that's normal.
It is one of the best and cheapest upgradeable PC 's on the market at the moment..
http://www.emachines.com/products/ [...] T1331G-03w

Go on and build this spec at Cyberpower PC and see how much it comes out to be.

CPU1 : AMD Athlon™ II X2 dual-core processor 235e
(2.7GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
Operating System2 : Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Chipset : NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150 SE
Memory3 : 6144MB DDR2 dual-channel (2 × 1024MB + 2 × 2048MB)
Expandable to 8GB
4 DDR2 slots (total), 0 DDR2 slot (available)
Hard Drive4 : 750GB 7200rpm SATA
Optical Drive : 16x DVD±R/RW Supermulti drive
Write max: 16x DVD±R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 8x DVD±R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 48x CD-R, 32x CD-RW
Read max: 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-ROM
Media Reader5 : Multi-in-one digital media card reader
CompactFlash® I & II, CF+ Microdrive, Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, miniSD™ Card, MultiMediaCard™ (MMC), MMCmobile™, MMCmicro™, Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard™ (RS-MMC), xD-Picture Card™, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick PRO™, Memory Stick Duo™, Memory Stick PRO Duo™, Memory Stick Micro™
Video : Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150 SE graphics
Audio : 8-channel (7.1) high-definition audio
USB Speakers
Communications : 10/100 Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
Peripherals : eMachines® PS/2 keyboard and optical mouse
Ports/Other : 6 - USB 2.0 (2 front, 4 rear)
2 - PS/2 (keyboard and mouse)
1 - VGA
6 - Audio jacks
1 - Headphone jack
1 - Microphone jack
1 - RJ-45 Ethernet
Dimensions : 14.2" H x 7.1" W x 16.2" D
Weight : 18 lbs. (system unit only)
Warranty6 : 1-year parts and labor limited warranty with toll-free tech support
Software : Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Adobe® Flash® Player
Adobe® Reader®
eMachines® Recovery Management
Google Toolbar™
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day complimentary trial period)7
Microsoft Works® 9.0
Nero® 9 Essentials
Norton Internet Security™ 20098
WildTangent® demo games
Price : $398.00

Agreed. I have a 700W Raidmax Aurora PSU and a double-slot rear fan exhaust Diamond ATI HD4870 512mb card left over from upgrading my wife's computer. Magneezo, I would like to know, the GTS250 you have, is it a long card? Does it have a big ol' fan on it? Did it fit easily in the ET1331G's case? Here is the card I have, you think it'll fit in there?



The power plugs, (2 6-pin, this PSU I have has them) they are the black plugs top right in this picture. Think it'll squeeze in?

I'd love to pick up either a new one ($398) or a refurb from Tiger ($349 at the moment) and rock it. I can give the speakers/kb/mouse to my kids since their mouse is junk and the spacebar on their keyboard has seen too much Kool-Aid.

That's a beautiful fit! I'll do just that with the SATA cables. And if there's not a flat/angled one in there, I'll find one. And now that I've seen inside the case I know that 700W PSU will fit easily, too. I like the red tape on the power cable, looks real good!

I'm glad to find someone who owns it. I just bought a refurbished unit and am doing some research about the mobo while I await delivery.

Can you direct me to a page of mobo specs? I've searched the emachine site and without a part number I can't find it at gateway support. I'd like to know memory and cpu upgrade info.

I have an AOpen GeForce 7300LE 256MB PCI Express PCIe DVI/VGA Video Card and 480 watt psu to upgrade with. See any issues with these? I'm not a gamer, but want to make it a better machine.

thanks

Every little clue helps in my search for answers. ECS site WAS worthless. I was hoping for the mobo part #.

I was trying to save money and use what I already have. Turns out the PSU, while 'new', won't work on this mobo. I got a deal recently on the 7300LE and it DOES have more connectors than just the standard VGA port this computer comes with.

I found this on Ebay - good pics of mobo and specs, but sez it's Asus in one spot and ECS in another:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dl [...] 0417523899

May be putting the cart before the horse, so I'll wait to see what I get - pray that it actually works - then look to upgrade. I'm sure I'll be busy spending time setting it up, making recovery disks, removing crapware, etc.

I will have to add my wife's old Blu-Ray drive to it as well then. It doesn't work worth a darn, can't burn anything, but it'll give me a way to "hold up" the video card with the single straight SATA plug. That is such a perfect fit it astounds me. And Tiger now has these things for $339 refurb'd. I wonder if in a month when I'm actually ready to drop the hammer, it might be down to $299 or so?!!

Yeah and they're charging the same $398 for it. What a turd!

The new 235e/400e/405e/600e/605e processors sure work hard on low wattage. I'm not sure why AMD named it a 250u, it should be about a 60. Even a single core Celeron 900 gives it a run for its money. And I tossed that in favor of a T4300 in my $249 POS bargain bin laptop. Huge difference.

I'm also considering building my own, but when you factor in case, hard drive, OS, CPU, motherboard, DDR3 memory, an optical burner, and all that, it gets pretty expensive compared to an OEM system like this. Windows 7 OEM is $100 or so. A 785 series motherboard is another $60. $100 for an X4 620. $90 only gets me 4GB of DDR3 memory. A 750GB HD will pull down another $70. I haven't even got a DVD burner, cables, thermal paste, keyboard, mouse, speakers, or case yet and I've already hit $340. And if I didn't already have a healthy PSU and a solid video card, I'd be WAY over that.

*THAT* is where eMachines has their market niche. And this particular model just has gravy written all over it with its speed, memory/HD inclusion, and upgradability.

If I build my own I better have $700 or so available so I can make it an H55-H57/Core i5-661 based machine.

Where do you get memory? I've had good luck lately with www.oempcworld.com - the prices are good and shipping is free. They made on mistake on an order and corrected it immediately before I sent back the wrong item. First class mail - I got the memory in a couple days max. There is a configurator there - just plug in your machine model or let it check for you.

Here it is at oempcworld.com (when inputting ET1331G-03):
2GB PC2-6400 (800Mhz) 240 pin DDR2 DIMM (CCK)
Description:
2GB 240pin DDR2 DIMM 256Mx64 non ECC gold leads unbuffered 1.8 volts PC2-6400 DDR2-800 spec 800Mhz with SPD CAS 6 latency CL6 max 1.25 inches tall
Code: 2.0G-PC2-6400
Discount Price: $44.00

I've gone over so many different setups on NewEgg and Tiger and ZipZoomFly and even looked at other brands of refurbished or new computers, and for the money, this ET1331G-03w just screams value. $369 at Tiger at the moment, grab a better power supply ($80 or so) and a strong video card ($80-$120) and at the $600 price point there is no comparison. Throw in a II X4 630 or 635 and it would take a $900 system to beat it. It's just smart to upgrade a cheap generic computer. Try building a box equipped like this one stock, and you'll spend $500-$550 even with cheap no-name parts. It's silly to try.

Sadly the current model of this computer is saddled with a 250u version of the Athlon II X2 and it's a pig. But that's not saying you can't swap it for something better.

Well I got my machine from TigerDirect and it's a nice looking shiny black sleek case. The included mouse and keyboard ARE crap as already mentioned in this thread.

I'm disappointed with the 235e processor. Since you mention the 620e I'm wondering how you know that the most up to date bios can handle a quad core processor on this mobo? What am I missing here?

Frankly, my head is spinning from researching cpus at AMD and I was confused about mobo specs that say it is an AM2 socket but is using an AM3 cpu UNTIL I found this article about AM3 backward compatibility with AM2/AM2+ mobos:
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/ne [...] boards.ars

Thought that info would be helpful to others who may be similarly behind in the processors wars.

OK. I did do some checking at Gateway with a gateway part # I found online for the board - I even let gateway check my machine but the info that came back was paltry which surprised me. I'll have to crack it open and do the serial # thing next.

What I meant was paltry was the information I got from a system check on gateway. I've opened the case, written down the serial # of the mobo and no amount of checking is getting me information I need for this motherboard. I want a dang manual!!

Even with the computer's serial number, gateway only identifies it as an emachine 1331g - then gives me zip, zero, nada for support docs, for drivers, etc. What is up with that? I can tell you, one thing I'm good at is digging for information on components and this dang motherboard is an elusive sucker. I was able to get some newer driver downloads from the emachines site before I even got the machine, but I simply cannot find the information you said in last post "did get the mobo serial and check it against what new Athlon II processors it was currently able to hold". Can you dig up and toss me a link to this information? I am afraid to spend $$ on a processor that won't work - I need to see the information with my own eyes.

This is supposed to be my newest machine that is easily upgradeable - moving on to something else is not something I can even entertain this early in the purchase!!

This was all very helpful. I came up with the same gateway page, however, when I saw it only took 4 gig memory I figured it's not the newest version of the board since mine takes 8gig. That ebay picture shows a Rev 2.1 on the mobo, not Rev 2.2 like mine, however it's good to see a slightly older mobo version being able to handle the quad core cpu. My mobo is not part number 4006254R - mine has a rather long number (mbnb)307001934008109100 - that doesn't appear to be a gateway part number.

Sorry to beat a dead horse. I appreciate you replying.

I too have purchased this machine from Tiger direct...349.00 plus shipping...Not a gamer but found that this was the BEST deal out there for a Windows 7 64bit PC...With 6 gb memory....No question...


PS thanks for the input on the Motherboard...I could not get any help from the support or the refurb company as to specs....GREAT to see others praise this machine because others are in the dark!!
But I was wondering what would be a good case fan...couldn't find the specs as to size so I could buy one...Any suggestions?

Hey Thanks!
I was wondering what is the size of the fan too. Tiger Direct sells a bunch for low price but they list them by milimeters. The Dynex you mention sounds good. But if you know the size that would be helpful.
Getting the true specs for this unit is sometimes a search and a 1/2....

E machines wont answer my questions because the supposrt has been assigned to the refurbisher (Revonate) or Seneca. I called them for some info and some of them are helpful but aren't sure about some of the specs like the motherboard. I wanted to find out what kind of hard drive it took. I opened the case took it out and found it was a Seagate 7200 but couldn't get an answer from the spec sheets so checked with seagate site and they matched 750gb 32mb cache! By the way thanks for the info you posted...It was very helpful.

Also, Whats the best way to punch out the metal tabs on back to put in expansion cards....I don't want to bend up the case...I am lible to ruin the mobo....any suggestions? Thanks again...

Hey Thanks again!..
Have to say this is the best computer I have owned!
Had a compaq, Dell in the past. Priced out those new with the same features and you are right...7-800.00 range....

Yes, before I bought this unit, I looked at walmart to see what a new one was going for and saw its no longer available...glad I bought the refurbished one......absolutely no problems and a great deal! Anyone who thinks otherwise must have money to burn! I don't. Glad I waited too!

The other office... easy button store offered a few units with same specs but less memory, smaller HD. So....long and short of it is...E machines is the best deal out there if you can find it now...Thanks for the help!!

It's a Thermaltake 550 watt. Easy install, just match the cable per cable and it's easy as pie.
I would honestly get a 600 watt PSU or better so you can handle a bigger video card if you need.
Get something that will have around 46a on the combined dual 12v+ rail.
You can probably find one online at a good price.
Best Buy charges out the wazoo for a PSU.

Why can't you get into the bios? I press 'delete' to enter setup. Under Advanced Chipset Features there is a setting called Memory Hole Remapping. Mine is set to enabled. Is this what you are referring to?

I don't know - mine sez 6.00 GB (5.75 GB usable). I am using the stock configuration right now...no video card upgrade or anything else added so far.

I found a discussion elsewhere that quotes from Microsoft saying:

"When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed.

For example, consider a computer that has a chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration."

In that same thread someone posted: "Difference is shared memory with video card in some instances. Bios update has slight chance of making it use all."

There is a bios update (not related to memory usage) - I haven't applied it to my machine since I'm not having any problems. The description is:
ET1331G bios update
BIOS eMachines
P01.A2 1.6 MB 2010/01/19
1. Fixes S3 Keep Lighting, PS2 KB/MS cannot wakeup issue.

Anyway, your usage seems high, doesn't it?

I think you just solved my "problem". I upgraded the card to an NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1 GB http://review.zdnet.com/product/gr [...] ntent;col1 and maxed out all of the settings. I didn't realize that would affect available physical memory. Thanks.