[Stormy]

I am thinking about buying the eMachines 330 Desktop for a friend. Can you tell me if the shared memory on this is upgradable? Can a TV be used as a monitor?
Can it use generic memory?

This would be for a disabled person and she wants to be able to hook a pc up to her 32 flatscreen TV and work music and pictures. I am worried this package would be limited for her.

Also if we bought this for a teenage boy who is currently playing everquest and halo on another pc, would the upgrades at max be enough to run those games on this machine?

Excuse my non clear communication on this because ive been web browsing this thing all morning and im looped lolol. thank you

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Well as for the shared memory you must be talking about the Intel Extreme Graphics sharing the system memory right? It is just normal ram, mine came with Samsung memory. I believe you should be able to use most any PC2700 DDR SDRAM in it. There should be one more DIMM you can install another stick in it. The main drawback to this computer is the Intel Motherboard it uses. The main reason this board is a big drawback is there is no AGP slot to put an AGP graphics card in it. I believe in order to plug into a tv you must have a Video Card that has TV outs on it. Also if you want to upgrade the Video Card you must buy a PCI video card. The most common video cards are AGP that is newer than the old PCI cards, and the AGP are faster too. There is a brand new type of card out now that uses PCI express slots. You need a new motherboard that has a PCIE slot on it though, and there aren't alot being made yet. So in my honest opinion if you want to plug into a tv screen this pc may be ok with an old PCI card with tv outs on it. For playing Halo and Everquest I wouldn't recommend it because your son will most likely want an AGP graphics card and unless you replace the motherboard (which is what I did) this will not be possible, and PCI is just becoming obsolete for video cards. I hope this helps.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Well as for the shared memory you must be talking about the Intel Extreme Graphics sharing the system memory right? It is just normal ram, mine came with Samsung memory. I believe you should be able to use most any PC2700 DDR SDRAM in it. There should be one more DIMM you can install another stick in it. The main drawback to this computer is the Intel Motherboard it uses. The main reason this board is a big drawback is there is no AGP slot to put an AGP graphics card in it. I believe in order to plug into a tv you must have a Video Card that has TV outs on it. Also if you want to upgrade the Video Card you must buy a PCI video card. The most common video cards are AGP that is newer than the old PCI cards, and the AGP are faster too. There is a brand new type of card out now that uses PCI express slots. You need a new motherboard that has a PCIE slot on it though, and there aren't alot being made yet. So in my honest opinion if you want to plug into a tv screen this pc may be ok with an old PCI card with tv outs on it. For playing Halo and Everquest I wouldn't recommend it because your son will most likely want an AGP graphics card and unless you replace the motherboard (which is what I did) this will not be possible, and PCI is just becoming obsolete for video cards. I hope this helps.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[Stormy]

I thank you very much jonny....awesomeeeeeeeee...and very helpful!!!.....happy holidays ))))))

Well as for the shared memory you must be talking about the Intel Extreme Graphics sharing the system memory right?  It is just normal ram, mine came with Samsung memory.  I believe you should be able to use most any PC2700 DDR SDRAM in it.  There should be one more DIMM you can install another stick in it.  The main drawback to this computer is the Intel Motherboard it uses.  The main reason this board is a big drawback is there is no AGP slot to put an AGP graphics card in it.  I believe in order to plug into a tv you must have a Video Card that has TV outs on it.  Also if you want to upgrade the Video Card you must buy a PCI video card.  The most common video cards are AGP that is newer than the old PCI cards, and the AGP are faster too.  There is a brand new type of card out now that uses PCI express slots.  You need a new motherboard that has a PCIE slot on it though, and there aren't alot being made yet.  So in my honest opinion if you want to plug into a tv screen this pc may be ok with an old PCI card with tv outs on it.  For playing Halo and Everquest I wouldn't recommend it because your son will most likely want an AGP graphics card and unless you replace the motherboard (which is what I did) this will not be possible, and PCI is just becoming obsolete for video cards.  I hope this helps. 

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Merry Christmas to you and yours too. If you have any further questions then feel free to ask

-=jonnyrotten=-

[Julio]

You could get something like this, though:

http://cgi.ebay.com/...5150483536&rd=1

I've never used it so I can't vouch for the quality. You could search the web for reviews of different brands, though:

http://www.google.co...G=Google Search

You can get the specs for your unit here:

http://www.emachines...oduct_info.html

Edited by Julio, 23 December 2004 - 09:32 PM.