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Entered CNET Catalog: 07/02/2003
SKU: emachinesT2625
Manufacturer: eMachines
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/18/2003
Priced at $749 (not including monitor), eMachine's top-of-the-line T2625 stands tall among its budget-minded competitors. It bundles an Athlon XP 2600+ processor, 512MB of memory, and--perhaps most unbelievably--a multiformat, DVD-recordable drive. But the system's performance on our tests was poor, and it lacks some useful accoutrements to its high-end features.
Like its other T-series models (including the T2341), eMachines houses the T2625 in a compact silver-and-black case. Removing two thumbscrews gets you inside, where you'll find a fair amount of expansion room: two free PCI slots, an open 3.5-inch drive bay, and an unoccupied AGP slot. The rest of the T2625's bays contain the aforementioned 4X DVD-recordable drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and a 120GB hard drive.
The T2625 serves up good connectivity with two USB 2.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks on the front panel. You'll find four additional USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet jack on the back. The system lacks a FireWire port--an especially odd decision considering the system's recordable DVD drive.
eMachines' extends the case's color theme to its peripherals. We looked at the company's new 15-inch E15T flat panel, which costs an extra $400 (or $300 after a rebate that's good until October 15, 2003). It's fairly sharp and clear, though a little dark around the edges, at its native 1,024x768 resolution. The bundled roller-ball mouse and multimedia keyboard work fine, but we definitely recommend upgrading to an optical mouse. While you're at it, upgrade the eMachines' two-piece speaker set, which is usable for only the most casual listening. For software, eMachines provides copies of Microsoft Works, PowerDVD, and Roxio EasyCD Creator, but it doesn't include a DVD-burning app.
The T2625's benchmark performance was its biggest disappointment. Despite its Athlon XP 2600+ processor running at 2.12GHz and 512MB of DDR memory running at an admittedly poky 266MHz, the system posted a SysMark2002 score of just 157. This is the first Athlon 2600+-based system we've seen, but systems using a 2GHz Pentium 4 processor outperformed it. As for graphics performance, the T2625 relies on 32MB of integrated S3 ProSavage graphics, which even amateur gamers will find inadequate. To its credit, in our hands-on tests, we were able to edit captured video smoothly--but slowly.
The T2625 ships with a standard one-year warranty, which is extendable to three years. Phone support is available every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and chat is available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. The eMachines Web site is chock-full of service information. Although onsite service isn't an option, the company does have a depot repair program and an End-User Replaceable Parts program.
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User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 User Rating: 
9/10
Great Computer
Pros: After more than two years, it still works as well as it did the day that I got it.
Cons: I think it hates iTunes and my iPOD.
User Rating: 9/10
Affordable Quality
Pros: This system has everything you could ask for: large hard drive, good processor, dvd rom and separate burner, etc. What more could you want?
Cons: Most newer computers don't provide empty bays in the front as everything is now being connected via USB externally.
User Rating: 
8/10
Great machine For The Money!
Pros: 120GB Hard drive - Fast DVD Recorder (4x) - Good software package - 512MB memory. Great machine for me because I am not a computer gamer. Bought it for the hard drive space and 4x DVD Burner. Well worth the money. Has not given me any problems after 4 mon
Cons: Slower then a comparable Pentium 4 system
