Digital Trends

eMachines T6212 May 31st, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Conclusion

The eMachines T6212 may not be the end-all of gaming systems, but you would be hard pressed to find a better gaming solution for under $600 dollars. Sure Dell, Gateway and others may offer similar systems, but what separates the T6212 from others is its price range is the systems upgrade capabilities. With an open PCI Express graphics slot, two available PCI slots, SATA support and two open memory slots, this system should last for quite a while.

What really holds the system back in our opinion is the plethora of software that comes preinstalled. The Norton Internet Security 2005 software that comes with the system can cause a lot of problems and will eventually have you on the phone with eMachines tech support trying to figure out how to use the software.

If you are a hardcore gamer looking for the deal of the century, the T6212 will not be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The integrated graphics put out poor performance numbers when compared to ATI X600 or X800 video cards. If you have your own PCI Express video card however, then the T6212 would be a worthy system upgrade. Multimedia enthusiasts should be happy with the number of FireWire and USB ports this system has, and casual gamers should be content with the system's overall performance. In the end, the eMachines T6212 is the best deal we have seen for under $600 dollars. Period.

Pros:

-          Powerful processor

-          Plenty of memory

-          Lots of USB and FireWire ports

-          Comes with a Dual Layer DVD writer

-          Upgradeable

Cons:

-          Poor graphics performance

-          Loud hard drive

-          Confusing software