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With the highest overall score in our latest Reliability and Service survey, EMachines is a good vendor to consider for a starter PC. But this particular model is not the finest of the company's lot.
Its performance was unimpressive. The T2984 scored 67 on WorldBench 5, about average in our roundup of cheap PCs. And like others in its class, the T2984 had poor graphics performance, producing 14 frames per second in Unreal Tournament 2003 running at 32-bit color depth and 1024 by 768 resolution. Also, the colors washed out on the bundled 17-inch EMachines 786N flat-screen CRT monitor. Worse yet, the PC lacks an AGP slot for a dedicated graphics card that could help improve gaming performance.
Other hardware upgrades are possible, though. The system has two open PCI slots for add-ins such as a dedicated sound card. A drive bay is available if you want to expand beyond the system's 80GB of storage. The unit also has a free RAM slot, which--unlike those on many PCs--is easy to reach. In fact, the entire interior is tidy.
Users will also appreciate the T2984's handsome case design, consisting of black sides and a silver front panel with covers that hide the media card slots, USB 2.0 port, and ports for a headphone and a microphone. You also get Microsoft Works and Microsoft Money.
Upshot: If you're looking for an inexpensive, low-frills PC backed by a company with a good Reliability and Service record, consider the T2984.
Seán Captain
