Well, the e-machines look OK to me except the operating system. Still...

How about Dell / Gateway despite the prices? They might be worth the extra couple hundred. For example, Dell has great service / warranty stuff, and I think they can even ship you a computer with Linux installed.

How does the reliability of an e-Machine compare to other brands? That's more important than pretty much anything else; one day of down time will obliterate even the few seconds gained by a super-fast processor. Since these e-Machines don't exactly stack up against CRAYs, reliability seems that much more important.