We have a bunch of Emachines at the school I work at.
Total garbage.
Power supplies die regularly, and while you can get them from other places (they are standard micro-ATX), it's cheaper to just replace the whole case with a real PS.
They are horrible for upgrading, as any new parts you put in will likely go over the limit of what their POS power supplies can handle.
Their sound and video are extremly difficult to make work right if you ever upgrade the OS to anything other than whats on the recovery disks. Forget ever updating drivers.
The comparison to Compaqs is an insult to Compaqs. While I hate those too, I'd take one any day over an Emachine.
They are buggy, unstable, slow, difficult to repair TRASH.
You get what you pay for...and when you pay the lowest price, you get the lowest quality.
Friends don't let friends buy Emachines
