Desktops forum: eMachines ET1331G-03W Video Upgrade

I got one from Wal Mart and it scored a 3.4 out of the box on performance test. I added a ATI 4670 1G ddr3 video card for 65 bucks. and score went to 6.00. I have yet to load a game it's won't play at a decent speed with graphics set to high. The 300w power supply ran the card find but I put in a 500w for 35 bucks just to be safe and have some headroom. Also the motherboard will handle a quad core. No DDR3, Raid or extra PCI slot for SLI only drawback for upgrading. But for 400 bucks and with windows7 home premium I'm very pleased.. I've had this unit for 3 months now and have not been able to make it crash.. Can't say enough about how much I like Window7, but that's a different review.

i got the emachine ET1331G-05W and changed out the power sorce with a coolermaster 650w i have now tried 3 video cards 2 Nvidia galaxy 9500gt's and now the Nvidia GT220 and after windows 7 reinstalls the drivers these cards do not work after contacting emachine support i am told they do not cover issues like this then i contacted microsoft and they told me to contact the people at emachine (anyone noticing a pattern yet?) so yes upgrading the card is possible but it would seem i (an aggressive computer builder since 1997) am missing something anyone have any pointers before i pay someone to fix this or return this PC

Go to the Invidia Site. Those Drivers for this Card (GT220)....You should have no problem with windows 7 and this card. I have been running the gt 220 Galaxy card on this machine and It works Great.....

how do I add a 500w power supply to my emachine ET1331G?

Replacement for my ET1331G-03W eMachine? I'm a bit scared I'll miss something on the specs of the power supply I"m looking at and it won't work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339025

If not can someone link a me a fairly cheap yet good power supply (500w at least) that will work with this machine.

Thanks!

The other day I called technical support because I was having software issues on my "E-Machine ET1331G-05w". While I purchased this computer because of the reputation that "E-Machines" used to have for being very easy to maintain I have always been worried about the fact that there was no backup or restore disk for the software that should have came with this machine. The particular problems I was having, and am currently having with this PC have really made me re-think the reputation that "E-Machine" as well as "Acer" should have in today's market. After all, when I spent my hard earned money for this machine not even 6 months ago, the only tech support that I received was to help me register this computer. So far even by following the instructions for making a backup disk using blank DVD's I have gone through at least 4 packs of approximately 30 -60 of these and as I found out the other day apparently, their business practices of making a product that doesn't have a very high standard of consumer responsibility to profit at the expense of the people. I have taken some steps and even spent money that I couldn't afford to go out and try to buy a program that would remove some of the issues that I am currently having .
I am quite aware of what it takes to put programs onto a computer. Although the other day was my first technical issue that I had to call for assistance on, I was shocked 1st at the below level of technical standards the first person I talked with and I was just as equally shocked at how little they put a value on someone who has spent the amount of money on their products in the past. I feel for all those poor people that I have recommended their products to as well in the past.
I will be telling those who I speak with as well as the BBB about, how thier company deals with people who can't afford to pay for things that where supposed to be and should have been included with the merchandise they purchased for around $400.00 plus $100.00 for a new monitor; this might not sound like alot to some people but its an extreme amount for someone on a VERY limited budget. This could of kept the household running for around 2-3 months. In today's economy I would think that they would want to keep their customers at least where they would buy their products in the future. I know that they care little about the public. I'm just letting you know that with this type of customer care they will not see any profit from me and I will make it a point to tell as many as I can just how this company does business.

I have the exact model, i have done extensive upgrades, i added another 80GB HDD that i had from a PS3 a while ago. i read up in TomsHardware forums that this is a perfect machine for gamers who are inexperienced in building their own rigs. basically all it needs is a CPU, PSU and graphics upgrades. That being learned, i threw in a VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 5670, a 700W PSU, and a Phenom II 555 BE 3.2Ghz CPU. i now play COD:Black Ops at max details (medium online thanks to WiFi lag).

The MoBo is capable of 800Mhz RAM and accepts up to 89W power draw from a CPU, hence the 235e Stock CPU.

so, upgrade the Graphics to your desired card, remember you cannot do SLI/Crossfire since the MoBo only has one x16 slot. There is plenty of space for even a huge Graphics card, someone put a huge one in theirs on TomsHardware.com and it works well for them. the MoBo is awesome too, its an AM2, but since all AM3 CPU's are backwards compatible to AM2/AM2+ its not a major issue. it comes with 6 gigs of RAM but goes up to 8 gigs. and i haven't even noticed a significant increase in the RAM temps.

i do however worry for the GPU, it reaches 62C which is freakin hot. Which is why i'm going to invest in a Water Cooling system soon.

If you have Facebook you can see my mods to it.
I replaced that awfully bright green LED with a dimmer red LED.

total price for upgrades and base system in the end?
ET1331G-03W MSRP = $398
AMD Phenom II 555 BE = $89.99 <from Amazon
Coolmax 700W PSU = $59.99 <from Amazon
VisionTek Radeon HD 5670 = $149.99 <from BestBuy
Total = $687.97

Doing a bit of research, putting together this computer with equal or lesser value part from Newegg (common gamer store) the results are similar but not exact in specs, i don't even know if it will work together, and yest it would be cheaper without the extra PSU and CPU, but thats what you get with the ET1331G-03W.
The price i came to with shipping is $690.98... but i tried to only get the cheapest garbage that a gamer wouldn't even look at, to mock up the stock ET1331G-03W. Then adding the price of what i upgraded. Yes, the mobo in the ET1331G-03W is worth $5 to me.

I hope this comes very helpful to many users of this Computer. Yes my review/experience is a long one, but if you read through it, then you know, its one heck of a deal. My windows Experience index is 5.9 but no one cares about the HDD rating. my CPU is 6.6, the Memory (i haven't touched) is 7.1, the Graphics are 7.0

I know this has already been answered, but for the purpose of anyone else looking at this, I've had an easy time with it. Be aware that the power supply is not big enough to really support any upgrades, so you'll have to upgrade that before anything else, but I was able to do that without a problem.

The only thing I did notice is that getting the back-panel things for the expansion slots pry-ed out was not as easy as it could have been. I've worked with easier expansion slots, but still, I didn't have too many issues with it. The machine is fairly upgradable.

I bought a new ET1331G -03W emachine from Wal-mart 8 months ago for $398. It has an AMD Athlon 2.7 GHz Dual Core processor, 750 GB Hard Drive,
6 GB DDR2 Memory, and Windows 7.
This computer has worked great for what I wanted it for. I don't play games, but I did buy the Microsoft Flight Simulator. It would play the game but only at low Resolution. So, I went online did some research on this machine and found out that upgrading the 350 watt power supply and install a video card would work well.
Once I got to Comp-USA and talked to a very helpful sales person.
I bought a new Ultra LSP 650 Pro Power Supply for $62.00 and then a Galaxy GForce GTS Video Card for $120.00 and also went from 6GB Memory to 8GB memory for $58.00 For a total of $240.00 + the $398.00 cost of the computer that makes the cost $638.00. I installed all of this in less than 20 min's, it was very easy to do. Plug and play.
My Windows experience Index went from 3.2 to 5.9 and this computer is awesome. My $1050 Toshiba Laptop with the i7 processor and 8GB of memory is only 4.9 Index.
It plays the flight simulator at the best settings and works great.
I also added a ViewSonic 22" LED Widescreen Monitor, and a Linksys AE1000 High Performance Wireless Adaptor to make my computer wireless.
Hope this helps people wanting to upgrade your emachine.
Randy in Florida

Im still using the same computer, although I upgraded the psu again to a 650w Cooler Master and threw in a EVGA GTX 570. Works great! Although the 235e is a huge bottleneck. Ive been searching for a probable cpu upgrade but am a bit confused as to what the motherboard can handle. Some say only 65w cpus, some say up to 89 or even 99 wat cpus. Ive done some research and ive found that some versions dont have support on the bios for more than 2 cores. Its all very confusing. Im not sure whether to upgrade cpu, or start getting a new case, mobo , cpu and ram.

These machines are very upgradeable. To me, they seem like kits you find at computer shows/fairs.
I upgraded mine with a new video card (GALAXY GT220) and Power supply (ULTRA LSP 550w) and It runs great. Now it may not be at gamer stage right now, but it does what I need VERY WELL. Photo editing, Streaming video with Netflix etc. This is a great deal. I wanted a windows 7 machine, and this saved me big time over the other units available with half the memory for the same price or MORE!
I reccomend these computers readily.

You make it sound easy for the next person!