eMachines ET1161-03

The eMachines ET1161-03 is a low-maintenance desktop PC for light users with a budget on the brain. The $400 price tag will net you get a dual-core AMD Athlon processor with integrated audio and video, 3GB of RAM, a single 320GB hard drive, and 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium. Unfortunately, its performance numbers don't match up to other similarly priced systems that actually include higher-grade components. If you're shopping around for a desktop and can only pay $400, check out the Compaq Presario SR5610F. If you can save up, you'll get more mileage handing over an extra $50 to Acer for the Aspire AX3200-U3600A, another low-budget PC that benefits from a triple-core processor, more RAM, and a more robust set of onboard ports.

The Compaq Presario SR5610F is a direct competitor to the eMachines ET1161-03 in both price and features. Both systems cost $400 and have a similar setup, but with several differences that give Compaq the upper hand. First, let's take a look at the two systems in a side-by-side comparison chart.

The eMachines ET1161-03 is about as basic as they come. The exterior is a mundane grey and matte black with no exciting lights or panels to speak of. Below the dual-layer DVD burner and expansion drive slot, you'll find a digital media reader for direct transfers from a variety of storage formats including SD/MMC, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, and SMC. The front panel also gives you two USB 2.0 ports as well as a stereo mic and headphone jack.

After undoing two screws, the eMachines' side panel pops right off to reveal a very tidy interior. It's easy to move around inside and there are even labels next to each card slot and port. All four DDR2 slots are already occupied by memory sticks, but there is plenty of room for other expansion through two 1x PCI Express slots, one PCI card slot, and four SATA ports, two of which are taken by the hard drive and optical disc. If you don't need a dial-up Web connection, you can also replace the modem inside with an aftermarket sound card down the line.

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Multiple CPUs

Rendering Single CPU

Dell Inspiron 530

6,219 

3,192 

Acer Aspire X3200

5,034 

1,862 

Dell Inspiron 530s

4,451 

2,360 

Compaq Presario SR610F

3,910 

2,029 

eMachines ET1161-03

3,626 

1,874 

You'll notice that although both systems are the exact same price, the Compaq Presario's 200MHz increase in processor speed and a more aggressive CPU produce consistently higher performance marks across all of our benchmark tests. The eMachines takes a significant hit in the Photoshop and iTunes tests that place more emphasis on processor speed. Despite using both cores, the eMachines still falls into last place in the multitasking test due its slower CPU.