eMachines T3025

The silver-and-gray minitower case has room inside for a modest number of upgrades, including an AGP slot for upgrading the graphics. Our review model had an available internal drive bay for an extra hard drive; an open memory socket for an extra module of 512MB 333DDR memory; and two PCI slots. Installing an upgrade involves undoing the three screws that hold the case cover on. To access the drive bay, you'll have to push aside the bundled wiring, but the memory socket and PCI slots are unobstructed. The T3025 we tested had no available externally accessible bays; the chassis's two such bays held the system's two optical drives, a 48X/24X/48X CD-RW drive and a 16X DVD-ROM drive.

In addition to integrated graphics, the T3025 has integrated audio that supports up to six channels of surround sound; unfortunately, our system came with a mediocre set of EMachines SP-30A speakers. This two-speaker set (which lacks a subwoofer) wheezed its way through our audio tests, delivering dull bass and brassy trebles. We had to ratchet up the volume setting to full blast before we could adequately hear the soundtrack of a DVD movie and vocal music. EMachines doesn't offer a better alternative, so you should factor in the extra cost of better speakers if sound is important to you.

EMachines' documentation includes a large, diagrammed setup poster and a concise user's manual with clear instructions and helpful illustrations for upgrading components.

Upshot: The T3025 offers home users plenty of performance in a basic machine; it would be a good buy if not for its disappointing 17-inch LCD.

Mick Lockey