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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Sharp new design; affordable, powerful-enough Windows Vista configuration; DVD burner and 15-in-1 media card reader give you lots of removable storage options.
The bad: An equivalently priced AMD chip would likely deliver more bang for the buck; gaming is not an option with the integrated 3D chip.
The bottom line: It has a sleek new look and it runs Windows Vista as well as you'd want, but we wish Gateway had taken more risks with the new eMachines T5224 desktop. This system delivers respectable budget performance with most of the features you'd want, but we think you can find a better PC for the money if you shop around.
Specifications: Processor: Intel Pentium D 820 (2.8 GHz); RAM installed: 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM; Hard drive: 250 GB Standard; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/05/2007
- Released on: 01/30/2007
Before we even knew about HP's Pavilion a1750e, we looked at the eMachines T5224 and its Pentium D 820 chip and thought that a similarly priced PC with an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ chip would be a better idea. We showed a while ago that the Athlon is faster than Intel's old-school dual-core chip, and knowing that Dell had used AMD to give its
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Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
That said, we were pleased with the eMachines' overall performance. We've reviewed only $800 and up Vista-based PCs thus far, so we don't have benchmark results for anything approaching an apples-to-apples comparison. Still, you can take heart that the eMachines was consistently faster than a laptop CPU-powered Shuttle, and it came within striking distance of the unimpressive but significantly more expensive WinBook PowerSpec T470 on a few tests. The eMachines wouldn't play Quake 4, and on our most forgiving F.E.A.R. 3D gaming test, it turned in 3 frames per second, an unplayable score that doesn't even warrant a comparison chart. Given its integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 chip, we're not surprised that its gaming score is so lame. So it's not for gaming, but it should get you through most day-to-day tasks and light digital media editing with little effort. Still, we're anxious to take a look at that new HP system for comparison.
Alongside the Intel chip, eMachines includes a 250GB hard drive and 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM. As our tests showed, that's an adequate amount for Windows Vista and even Vista's AERO visual effects, but we think photo editors and others will benefit from at least doubling the memory. Thankfully, there's room inside for more. Additionally, extra hard drive and optical drive bays let you expand the T5224's removable and internal storage space if the default 250GB hard drive isn't enough.
We're happy to see a DVD burner and a media card reader on this system, as they seem to be near-universal accessories at this point. There's also room inside for a few expansion cards, including a PCI Express graphics slot, should you want to turn the T5224 into a more capable gaming system. A 300-watt power supply will let you upgrade to only a low-end or a midrange 3D card, but any improvement over the integrated graphics chip will have an impact.
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- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 reviews
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