Review of the E-Machines M5310 Laptop

Update:

With a few months experience with this laptop and a desktop machine under my belt, I now know the main problem with E-Machines systems...poorly designed and constructed cooling systems. On a desktop machine, I had a hard drive head crash under Linux as a result of running some video conversions. The laptop now generates enough heat that the shift key on the left side of the keyboard begins to malfunction under heavy use.

When I heard the all too familiar sound of heads crashing in the Western Digital hard drive, I touched the drive immediately suspecting a heat problem. Sure enough, it was almost hot enough to leave a burn on my fingers.

Keep in mind, development work and/or video conversion isn't the intended purpose of this machine. It's entirely possible that customary home use (of course, I was converting video of my son from Quicktime to MPEG at the time...something more and more home users with DV cameras are doing) defined as web browsing, e-mail, word processing, and gaming would have been fine.

Let's hope Gateway's purchase can take the positives of E-Machines (power, features, price) and remove the negatives.

In the past few years, I have seen many E-Machines systems bought by students and parents for home use. Quite curiously, all of these users seem unimpressed with the product. Nevertheless, they just keep selling. If the hardware and service is really that poor, why do they keep selling? Is the low price enough of a motivation to make a consumer ignore quality and service, or have consumers been given the wrong impression of the product?

While buying the M5310, the sales associate immediately addressed the processor. He said he would prefer an Intel Pentium 4 to the Athlon, the alternative brand processor used in all E-Machines computers. Now, I do not spend a lot of time looking at performance benchmarks on processors, power consumption, heat output, etc., but the Athlon's I have used have performed perfectly well for the intended task. Additionally, you tend to get more RAM with an E-Machine than you do with most other systems. Combine that with the low price, and it is tough to resist an E-Machine. Maybe other consumers have gone through the same process and ended up with a negative opinion of their computer simply because a sales associate has bought into the Intel-Inside marketing hype.

The M5310 offers a stunning array of features in a $1200 package. Those include:

• 15" Widescreen Capable of 1280x800 Resolution
• Combo DVD / CD/RW Drive
• Integrated Broadcom 10/100 Ethernet
• Integrated Broadcom 802.11G Wireless (Not Supported by Linux)
• 56k Modem
• 1 Type II PCMCIA CardBus Slot
• Stereo Sound
• AMD Athlon XP Mobile Processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 3 USB 2.0 Ports
• IEEE 1394 Firewire Port
• ATI Radeon Mobility Video with S-Video Output
• Serial Port
• External VGA Port

Needless to say, E-Machines loaded the M5310 with features. As a software developer, seeing 512 MB of RAM in the base system was enough to get my vote. E-Machines offers what you need out of the box without an upgrade, unlike its competitors who rarely offer more than 128 MB of RAM.

With 1280x800 resolution, the screen gives me the real estate of my desktop system and makes DVD viewing on the road a joy. While not usable under Linux (shucks), the built in wireless support saves your CardBus slot and allows you to seamlessly roam your office or home without wires. With 802.11b backward compatibility, you can also access Wi-Fi hotspots offered by ISPs and mobile phone companies.

In my case, I needed a system administration and development mobile computer. With the serial port and wired 10/100 ethernet, I can easily manage machines at the co-location facility. The integrated modem provides fall-back Internet connectivity if I happen to be away from the usual, higher speed forms of Internet access.

On the negative side, the battery life of the M5310 borders on pathetic. In Windows, you may be able to use the power utilities to get more out of it, but on Linux, I rarely get beyond 1.5 hours without it keeling over. And, if you live in a colder area of the globe, you will love the AMD space heater provided with the unit. In a matter of minutes, it can grow hot enough to cook eggs at which time the somewhat noisy fan kicks on to warm those around you in addition to your lap.