Another POV on eMachines $399 offering:
The Almost-Free PC
By Alexei Oreskovic, PC Computing
March 15, 1999
Don't let the eTower 300c's $399 price fool you: This is no bare-bones closeout box.
The eMachines eTower 300c is a full-featured multimedia system (monitor not included) packing a 300MHz Cyrix M2 processor with 512K of L2 cache and 32MB of RAM, upgradable to 256MB. There's a 4MB ATI 3D Rage IIC AGP graphics accelerator, a sound chip, a V.90 modem, a 4X CD-ROM drive, a 2.1GB hard drive, and even two USB ports, one of them cleverly located at the front of the machine.
Setup is a cinch thanks to color-coded cables. And the eTower 300c even offers a little room for expansion (two free ISA slots, one free PCI slot). Of course, it won't set any speed records: The eTower 300c trailed Tagram's $969 300MHz Pentium II PC by 39 percent. Still, it's more than adequate for basics such as Web surfing and word processing. Also watch for the 300k, featuring an AMD K6-2.
eMachines eTower 300c
Rating: Four Stars
Verdict: No, that's not a typo. This is a full-featured PC for just $399.
Pros: Lots of extras at an astonishing price.
Cons: No speed demon.
$399 est. street price / eMachines / (877) 566-3463
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