eMachines 330 Review

Overall Rating

Good value all round computer system for beginners to intermediate users.

The speakers produce a very tinny sound.

The emachines 330 pc system is an excellent starter pc for people on a tight budget. the pc came with windows xp home edition, microsoft money 2002, microsoft works preinstalled. The only downside i have encountered is the rather tinny sounding speakers, but obviously these can be replaced for minimal outlay. The built in cdrw and dvd player are excellent.

Members' Comments onkrypton12.'s Review

• ElceyOwen. on 21st Nov 2002

  Agree with most points already stated but only bad point being that motherboard is virtually non-upgradable as it holds only 256MB Ram.

• Die Grinder. on 30th Apr 2003

  Yes the motherboard is a pile of rubbish :)
  it lacks seriously in the AGP section being that there aint a slot !! so its on the down side for ppl who like faster graphics cards :( but you can still up grade through the 3 pci ports (what r also poor only 3) and of the 3 pci ports 1 is already taken with a 56k modem :( only 2 usb ports, and it over heats, the case is not very good cant even do owt with the 2 puice set :( i got 1 at the mo but am getting a brand new top notch with over 1GB ram, and 2 120 GB HDD :)

• Simon Roth. on 29th May 2003

  This computer seemed like a perfect solution to a budget crisis.How I was wrong!
  
  The motherboad supports barely any ram. You can't upgrade the video abilities. You can't run most modern games on it.
  
  The parts are slow and bottom of the range, The hardware is installed badly and the installation is very messy.
  
  The cooling is poor, and you can expect the processor to burn out in a few years.

• John Thompson on 6th Dec 2003

  Golden rule no. 1
  
  If you want to play modern games on a PC, look for brand name Video and Sound, with plenty of RAM and a fast processor.
  
  This sort of low end system will satisfy office workers for many years, and browse the 'Net in style!
  
  Any geek knows that Gaming is the hardest task most PC's will ever do...

• IceManUK on 12th Apr 2004

  I'm sorry, but I've just got to comment on all the wingers on here, I've had my 330 for 2 1/2 years now, yes it is a good basic computer, but is more upgradable than people are saying, I've added a 64Mb PCI graphics card, and a 2nd HDD with 60Gb, ok there is no slot for it, but there is plenty of room inside the case for it to sit there comfortably, I've also upgrade the memory to 256Mb, which can be further upgraded to 512Mb, all for a little over £150.
  As for gaming, it copes easily with all the latest games, I frequently play online games and find the upgrades well worth there money.
  If the other buyers had thought a little more about what they wanted there system to do, then perhaps they wouldn't have chosen the 330.
  At the time of purchase, the 330 was ideal for for my needs, as my needs changed, I simply upgraded, it doesn't have to cost the earth.
  the ONLY let down is the CPU chip, the M/board can only take a 1.4Gb chip (max) so booting takes a little longer, as your HDD expands.

• 9064jd on 25th Aug 2004

  IcemanUK. Thanks for the comments but how do you disable the onboard graphics when installing a new PCI graphics card?

• IceManUK on 26th Aug 2004

  9064jd, disabling the graphics card is very easy, from control panel, select performance and maintenance, select system, then hardware tab and finally device manager, from here select the display adaptors, right click your onboard graphics card, and select disable, if your new graphics card has a red cross on it, right click and enable it. Click OK to close everything, and restart your computer.
  Your new card is enabled now, good luck.