Just to thrown in my two cents on e-machines:  I bought one last Xmas
(300mhz), my two brothers and my wife's law office bought a total of ten
more.  So far, the only failure is one modem card and one fan.  Most of
these are used for hours every day.  For the money, they seem to be good
machines.  Besides, why spend $1500 for a machine you are gunna scrap in two
years anyway.  For the average user (word processing, personal internet
usage, games) they are just fine.  If, however, you are a developer, image
processor, or graphic artist, spend the extra money.

Just my opinion.

Randy Keefer, Consultant