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by eMachines
Specifications
EMachines tries hard to ensure that they can provide some of the best prices available on the market for desktop computers and the T2460 is no exception. For the price of the system it offers very good performance but has a mix of good and some not so good technology mixed into it. On the pure specifications, they provide very competitive parts when it comes to processor, hard drive and optical drives. The areas where the system fails to be truly competitive are in the chipset, memory and graphics. Each of these parts is below average compared to competing solutions. The good news is that the money saved compared to other similar systems can allow one to upgrade this computer with more memory and a better video card. The one part that can't be easily replaced is the chipset. It would be nice to see eMachines switch to the VIA KT333 chipset that offers improved performance at little cost. Another area lacking on this system is in the expansion ports. While the system does have 6 USB ports, they are all USB 1.1 and not the newer 2.0 standard. Also, the system fails to have any IEEE1394 Firewire ports so that might be an important consideration for those looking to use the system as a digital video editing platform. Quality of Construction / Aesthetics The overall construction of the T2460 is very good. The black and silver case is based on a steel frame with plastic only being used on the front face of the computer system. The plastic construction feels sturdy. A nice touch is the sliding panel on the bottom of the front panel to hide 2 USB ports and audio ports. This is very nice for those who plan to periodically use headphones or a microphone with they system and don't want to have to craw around the back to hook them up. The black and silver keyboard and mouse match the colors of the computer system well, but they seem lack the same sturdy feel as the plastic used for the computer case façade. The keyboard is particularly light which might be of concern to heavy typists who may end up wearing out the keys quickly. The mouse uses the older mouse ball drive technology that is a bit of a disappointment since the cost of optical mice is not much more and they are much easier to use and clean. The system runs at fairly low noise levels. There is only one external fan on the back of the power supply and this does not make a very noticeable level of noise with even extended usage. The DVD drive was fairly quiet during movie playback but did have a slight high pitch whine that could be distracting if the computer is close to the user during playback. CPU, Memory and Drive Performance The AMD Athlon XP processor is an excellent value for performance to price and is no surprise for an eMachine system. The performance scores were on-par with similar systems but slightly slower. This is likely the result of the reduced memory or the older chipset. It should provide more than adequate power for today's computing tasks.
The memory on the system is a bit below normal compared to similar systems. This can be attributed to two primary factors: the chipset and the amount of RAM. While PC2100 DDR memory should run fine when paired with the Athlon XP 2400+ processor, the VIA KM266 chipset seems to not be running as effectively as more recent chipsets. If they upgraded the chipset to the VIA KT333, it would boost performance. In addition, the limited 256 MB (32 of which goes to the on-board video processor) will cause additional virtual memory swapping when multitasking on the computer or using memory intensive applications. It would be best to upgrade this system to at least 512MB of memory.
The performance of the hard drive in this computer system was a bit of a shock. Overall the performance indicates that eMachines is using a very high performance 7,200 rpm ATA/100 hard drive, something you wouldn't expect from a value system manufacturer. Drive performance should be more than adequate for most computer usage including desktop video work.
Graphics Performance If there is one major Achilles heel on the eMachines computer system it would definitely be the video processor. The use of the S3 ProSavage processor is a very low cost solution but it has very limited performance capabilities. Its use of 32 MB of the systems general RAM also restricts the performance of the overall system because it removes over 10% of the total system memory from use by the processor. It also lacks many 3D acceleration features that is evident in its benchmark scores:
It even lacks even some of the most basic 3D functions in use now by game manufacturer's including those required to run the DirectX 7 test from FutureMark's 3DMark2003. The system does have an available AGP 4x slot available for expansion that is welcome because the computer will not be able to play pretty much any current 3D game without a different video card. With the cost of the system overall, the money saved can be used to get a current video card and still come out at or below the cost of comparable systems. The 2D graphics capability of the card is acceptable for high resolutions and refresh rates, but it did show some problems with DVD playback. Resizing the window or moving the window during DVD playback caused a very noticeable drop in the frame rates of the movie. Part of this can easily be attributed to the low overall system memory, but most of the blame has to do with the overlay capability of the graphics processor. If you plan on using the computer for DVD playback, definitely upgrade the memory and video card. Software Bundle Software included with the system included the following:
Overall the software applications that come with the system are very limited. Many of the applications are free on the Internet and the productivity software is very restrictive. While Microsoft Works contains all the basic programs, they are very limited compared to other inexpensive productivity suites such as WordPerfect or Star Office. One glaring piece of software that is missing is one that would take advantage of the CD-RW drive included in the computer. There is no one single piece of software that can be used to store data onto blank CDs. Even a small package like Roxio's EasyCD Standard would be a welcome addition.
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