Last Updated
July 30, 2010

Editor's Rating

• Compact design
• HDMI & other home theater features
• Built-in Wi-Fi

• Rather small 160GB hard drive
• Lots of bloatware pre-installed
• Single-core CPU

While a rather strange looking PC, the eMachines ER1402-05 compact desktop computer has a compact design that makes it great for home entertainment for connecting with your TV/stereo system or as a desktop computer in a compact space. Some of the feature include HDMI out, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 2GB of RAM, and a wireless keyboard & mouse.

The ER1402-05 compact PC from eMachines has a slim design with a black body with silver accenting. Without the stand, it measures approximately 8 x 1.75 x 8-inches (hwd) and adds are few inches to height and width with the stand. The computer essentially "balances" on one corner when attached to the stand and it made us a little nervous that it might tip over if bumped too aggressively. For show, a green LED light is inside the unit's base. If desired, there is also a bracket (sold separately) to mount the computer alongside your home theater system.

There are many home theater-friendly features to the ER1402-05 and they include HDMI out for connecting to a high-definition TV, SPDIF audio out for a surround sound system, built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi for eliminating cables for Internet connectivity, 4 USB ports, VGA out, and a wireless keyboard & mouse. The keyboard is compact for "portable" use as it doesn't include a numeric keypad. This system makes a great addition to a home theater system by allowing users to stream video from the Internet right to their TV and speaker system and show off other multimedia content, like pictures and music.

The specifications of this unit include an AMD Athlon II Neo K125 1.7GHz CPU, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 160GB hard drive, a digital media card reader, Gigabit Ethernet networking, and Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium as the operating system. We must admit that the 160GB hard drive is rather small for home multimedia use as it can fill up quickly with TV shows, photos, and music, but you can upgrade the drive yourself if you desire.

Some of the software included is a 60-day trial to both Microsoft Office & Norton Internet Security. There's also an advertisement-supported free version of Microsoft Works and many advertisements for Netflix, eBay, and several games. It's rather filled up with bloatware, so you'll definitely want to spend some quality time in the Programs module of the Control Panel to remove a lot of what you won't use.

Performance with the eMachines ER1402-05 desktop computer is pretty good, both with video playback from local and Internet sources, as well as everyday productivity tasks. However, more intensive tasks, like video editing, took longer most likely because of the single-core CPU instead of a dual-core CPU seen on most new systems. Don't expect to play any intensive 3D games on this computer either, but for multimedia viewing alone or with a home entertainment system, this is a great PC, especially for the low price tag.

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