eMachines Clings to Relevance, Launches Svelte Home Entertainment Rig
Believe it or not, eMachines is still pumping out PCs, only these bear little resemblance to the ultra-budget (read: low quality) rigs of yesteryear. These days, eMachines answers to a bigger vendor, having been scooped up by Gateway in 2004, which in turn was acquired by Acer in 2007. All this maneuvering has put eMachines in a better position to release low-cost PCs without cutting as many corners as before, and that seems to be the case with the new Mini-e ER1402.
With a sleek and glossy black diamond shaped profile and the size, weight, and thickness of a book, the new Mini-e might stand out in your home theater, but not as an eyesore as an eMachines once would.
"Today’s cost-conscious consumer will find style, features and affordability come together beautifully in the low-cost eMachines Mini-e," said Steve Smith, senior business manager, consumer desktops for eMachines. "It’s an inconspicuous, streamlined computing solution for any room of the home where consumers want to enjoy movies, photos, music and other online entertainment."
While we're smitten with the exterior, the interior is more of what we'd expect from an eMachines. This wasn't built to replace your gaming machine, and instead meshes low-cost, yet serviceable components into a respectable HTPC. Inside and around the Mini-e you'll find an AMD Athlon NEO processor, Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics, 2GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, memory card reader, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, four USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and a mounting kit for slapping the whole thing to the back of you television.
The new Mini-e is available now for $300.

Image Credit: eMachines
Comments
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only4rlinks
October 05, 2010 at 5:48am
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Deanjo
June 26, 2010 at 9:46am
"AMD Athlon NEO processor, Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics"
Odd combination. When did nVidia start supporting a AMD processor with the 9300?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9300_mgpu_us.html
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Deanjo
June 26, 2010 at 9:49am
Ahhh the article is wrong. The graphics is a 9200 IGP
http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=ER1402-05
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p309
June 26, 2010 at 7:38am
Sorry Lily, but you're wrong about Emachine's " low cost = low quality". Emachines used the same components as everyone else, for the most part. They did utilize low cost mainboards and small cases that hindered the
addition of add-in cards, but that was something that most buyers of
these machines didn't really care about.Heck, even the power supplies (which were sometimes custom sized for the small cases), ran for over 10 years in most of the machines that I've seen, and I've seen plenty. The new age Emachines, those built after the Acer/ Gateway takeover, appear to be of pretty good quality also.
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Talcum X
June 26, 2010 at 7:36am
Fugly. Don't know why this company is still around. Never made anything worth having or mentioning. Now this is something right out of the original PS1 or Packard Bell play books. Make it as propietary as possble with itnent that it will be nothing more than what it is now.
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igoka
June 26, 2010 at 6:56am
Low quality ? I do assosiate Emachines with realiable and stable PC .My first PC was Emachines back to 2000 and it still runs !!!!! All of my laptops are Emachines and I do my job on it . Cheap ? Yes . Good quality ? Hell Yes ! But look at components of this PC , AMD Neo and ION . I think it can be interesting because Neo doesn't produce as much heat as Atom .
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BuLLg0d
June 25, 2010 at 4:59pm
I have to give Emachines credit, although I'd never own one, they have always been just fine for your standard user and with the amount that come through my door for repair, they are usually at the end of a pc's normal life cycle or further. Their usually ready for the recycle heap by the time they get to me, but again, they have usually been on forever, become completely covered inside by an inch of dust, and probably only quit because it just couldn't handle the lack of heat dissipation any longer. Ugly, non-upgradable, and puny on the configuration side, but they won't die. As much as I hate to admit it, they've done well for their target audience.
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