We see little hope for the EL1300G-01w by way of upgrades, either. We don't imagine a sizable number of eMachines' target audience will crack the EL1300G-01w open, and the wisdom behind spending money to upgrade such a low-end PC is suspect at best. Those who'd still venture forth into this system's interior might be surprised to find that while the case seemingly has room for a half-height PCI or PCI Express card, eMachines left out the physical card slot. That leaves you only a single half-height 1X PCI Express slot to play with, which is currently occupied here by the modem card. Both memory slots are also taken, as is the lone hard-drive bay. Aside from discarding the extant components and swapping in new ones, your upgrade options for the EL1300G-01w are as limited as its performance.
Given its price, it's hard for us to fault eMachines too badly, either for its limited upgrade path or its spare collection of external inputs and outputs. The back panel has only four USB 2.0 ports, a networking jack, a set of analog 5.1 audio outputs, and a VGA video port. You'll find no HDMI, eSATA, DVI, or even FireWire here, but we didn't expect to. A wired mouse and keyboard come in the box, as do a set of 2.0 USB speakers. For its intended usage scenario as a low impact, second, or third PC, the ports and spare peripherals you get will suffice.
eMachines backs the EL1300G-01w with a one-year, parts-and-labor warranty. Technical support is available seven days a week from 5 a.m. to midnight (PST), and the support section of the Web site offers live chat with a technician from 3 a.m. to midnight. For $99, you can also extend the warranty for two additional years. Given the $298 price of the system itself, it's most certainly not worth extending the warranty.
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System configurations:
eMachines EL1300G-01w
32-bit Windows Vista Home Basic; 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2650e; 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 160GB 7,200rpm hard drive
Acer Aspire X1700
64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.4GHz Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2220; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) NVIDIA GeForce G100 integrated graphics chip; 6400GB 7,200rpm hard drive
Asus Eee Box
Windows XP Home SP3; 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip; 80GB, 5,400rpm Seagate hard drive
64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.5GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU E5200; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) Intel GMA 3100 integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive
eMachines ET1161-03
32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.1GHz AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor 4050e; 3GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (shared) NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 320GB, 7,200rpm hard drive.
