Acer eMachines EL1600: Entry-level Desktop

Acer eMachines EL1600 Desktop [Review]

Roydon Cerejo, Jun 30, 2009 1700 hrs IST

A basic PC for a great price

Price, stylish design, desktop hard disk, silent operation, low power consumption, 8 USB ports, keyboard/mouse bundled, low maintenance cost

No Wi-Fi, average multimedia performance

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EXPERT REVIEW

eMachines is a very popular brand in the U.S. that is sold through retailers and e-tailers alike. They are well-known for providing cost effective solutions to the end user and that's exactly the kind of solution we'll be reviewing today. Acer has launched the brand in India with a small palette of products to begin with. Today we'll be taking a look at an entry-level desktop or Nettop as Asus calls it. Inspired by the Eee Box, the EL1600 too is based on the same idea but irons out some of the shortcomings of the EeeBox making this a lot more practical.

The PC is powered by Intel's Atom processor, so you can expect a typical Netbook configuration with 1GB RAM and a 160GB HDD. This time around Acer has thrown in an optical drive as well.

Before we get started, as always let's go through the bundle first.

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USER COMMENTS

I have just bought this machine from Croma, Rohini, Delhi and have not opened the bundle yet. The difference between this review and the machine is that mine is with Windows XP SP 3 and costed me Rupees 12999/- instead of Rupees 10,000/- as indicated. Can someone throw some light on it??

by Rajiv Chaudhary, Delhi, on Sep 15, 2009 01:21 PM, Report abuse Reply

In Croma Chennai, it is priced Rs. 13,499. I bought it from another dealer for Rs. 10,000 but it does not include Windows XP; only comes with FreeDOS

by Danesh, Chennai, on Oct 10, 2009 10:09 PM, Report abuse

The pricing in croma chennai for EL1600 is 13499 as rightly said by Danish. Kindly let me know the vendor from whom you got it for 10000. Thanks in advance. I am also looking for acer revo 3600 for a good catch .

by Anand, Chennai, on Oct 10, 2009 11:07 PM, Report abuse

i really inspired using atom based system, i dint know why ppl say it garbage size of this sys is marvellous

by bhoops chauhan, bemetara, mumbai, on Sep 12, 2009 01:52 PM, Report abuse Reply

Lamington Road Prices. Atom Processor with Mother Board Rs 3200. 160 GB Western Digital HDD Rs 1650. Casing with Power supply Rs 900 to Rs 1200. 1 GB RAM Rs 590. DVD Writer Samsung Rs 1050. Intex Keyboard Rs 175/- Non Branded Optical Mouse Rs 150/- Assembling & installing (Pirated XP) Rs 250. 3yrs Warranty on MB, HDD & RAM. 1 to 3 years on Power supply. Total price: Rs 8265/-.

by Raju, Mumbai, on Jul 01, 2009 02:12 PM, Report abuse Reply

So you're just saving money on the Vista copy, for which I would consider a very very aggressive pricing by Acer

by SimKill, Mumbai, on Jul 04, 2009 01:23 PM, Report abuse

then u won't get the low power consumption of below 50W. Now the standard SMPS is around 500W which ll alone consume about 50W.

by sujith, Cochin, on Jul 09, 2009 06:33 PM, Report abuse

it's the best pc ever made

by utkarsh sinha, bhopal, on Jul 06, 2009 05:18 PM, Report abuse Reply

Acer looks sweet and compact. Besides there would be power saving with Atom platform. Ideal for kids computer? Agree. AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU and 1 GB RAM would be better VFM option at similar price. Don't know why MBD still has parallel/serial ports as they are useless these days.

by Madan, pune, on Jul 04, 2009 09:57 AM, Report abuse Reply

Add to that PS2 ports can be phased out as Mouse & KBD can use USB port.

by Madan, Pune, on Jul 04, 2009 10:04 AM, Report abuse

They could have provided new dual core Atom processor which can add extra life to system, also Nvidia ION platform seems to be nice option which have good graphic performance. However some one who dont want to go through hassle of building their own system and specially who dont stay in Mumbai its a good system. However I will recommend cheapest AMD process mobo combo to build a system for more expansions and VFM.

by Harsh, Pune, on Jul 03, 2009 12:31 AM, Report abuse Reply

haha what garbage is this. it should be worst on tech-tree rather than first.

by sandeep, mumbai, on Jul 01, 2009 04:08 PM, Report abuse Reply

Absolutely marvelous.. I love Acer for their right approach towards the common Indian population.. still trying best to provide the full package..!!

by Jas, Delhi, on Jul 01, 2009 01:07 AM, Report abuse Reply