Bargain Alerts/Adverts Discussion Thread

Solitaire · 26-02-2010 7:53pm #1

Okay, we've had a lot of chat on the BA and Personal Sales Links thread of late, and even the constructive posts really need to be merged into the Alert they relate to. As a result I'm setting up a non-sticky (we've already maxed our allocation

) sister thread for all the extra stuff from BA and Ads to go into:

- Important info about an Alert or Sale that may affect its validity (positive or negative)
- Responses-in-turn to the above info
- Constructive chat about an Alert/Sale
- Discussion of the rules on the BA/Sale threads themselves

As more people use this thread I may begin to phase even the "important info" out of the official no-chat BA thread as hopefully we'll have it all in here and anything earth-shatteringly relevant to an Alert can be copied from here into the Alert by the OP or passing Mods (most likely myself).

Anyway, to start the ball rolling I'll regurgitate a nice waste of space I posted myself earlier to clear some stuff up for any who didn't see it on BA before I edited the post in question:

Solitaire wrote:

^ Maybe this needs restating/clarification:

Yes, I posted a joke up there, it was a quiet day and not likely to happen again anytime soon. And pretty much all of the above rules were relaxed slightly (dependent on good conduct!) long before I became a Mod here. But maybe its finally time to tighten some of it up...

b) The exact rule regarding "zero chat" is relaxed so long as all discussion is immediately related to the bargain at hand and is kept as succinct as possible. That includes both the contents of the OP and any subsequent posts relating to the item(s) discussed. Bear in mind that while such direct discussion is permissable in small volumes multiple posts related to the one OP can be marked at viewers' discretion even if the individual posts are short and concise. This is not for knuckle-rapping but mostly to allow a Mod to refactor pertinent info down to just the original post and little else.

Chat such as "lol I like that, must get one of those" is not pertinent or permissable no matter how well-meant and will be removed. "Nice, but-" is fine so long as the issue at hand is kept short and sweet (see above).

e) Posting of complete systems is only permitted when in the context of B&U; namely the use of incomplete or extremely inexpensive systems to act as the basis of an "ultra-budget" build where the cost of even an OS or monitor becomes a major issue.

f) This too was relaxed a while back. However, if the levels of chat do not decrease soon I will be forced to bring this practice back. Of course, posts deleted in good will (i.e. requests and refactoring useful information) will be ignored. Stuff like "lol I'd like one of those" will not.

Apologies for any typos, all out of batteries and I haven't had a chance to filch a wired keyboard off my sister yet...

Bear in mind that some of the stuff above will start to become obsolete if we can pull off this thread and shift the focus a bit.

Also bear in mind that this is a discussion thread, not an off-topic thread!

Please keep them "LOL THATS A CRAP PRICE!1!" and "AMG I WANT 1 2!!" comments to a minimum!

cherryghost · 08-03-2010 7:03pm

that 5770 you linked isnt much of a bargain tbh

Solitaire · 08-03-2010 7:05pm

Asus versions are always more expensive (€150 and up for a 1GB HD5770) as they cover overvolting in the warranty. That one I linked was one of their higher-end ones down from €190 :P

cherryghost · 08-03-2010 7:09pm

still think its expensive anyway, i dont like the current pricing of the mid-high range of the 5xxx series atm

Solitaire · 08-03-2010 7:18pm

Think of it like this: you can OC that one higher than your average HD5770 without losing warranty cover and it has a butcher cooler than the cheapie models for under a tenner less. If you don't like it being put that way bear in mind you can try to boost the memory bandwidth this way to get it closer to a HD4890/HD5830/GTX275 which are priced a good €60-100 higher! Even a dubious GTX260 (does it even have 216 cores??) will cost ~€30 more at the moment! :eek:

cherryghost · 09-03-2010 12:30am

Solitaire wrote: »

Think of it like this: you can OC that one higher than your average HD5770 without losing warranty cover and it has a butcher cooler than the cheapie models for under a tenner less. If you don't like it being put that way bear in mind you can try to boost the memory bandwidth this way to get it closer to a HD4890/HD5830/GTX275 which are priced a good €60-100 higher! Even a dubious GTX260 (does it even have 216 cores??) will cost ~€30 more at the moment! :eek:

what?! the 4890 is about 150 online... surely thats far better value

EDIT: if you can find it anywhere :P

Solitaire · 09-03-2010 1:18am

That's the problem

Same happening to the HD4770 - if ever there was a time to buy a graphics card, this ain't it.

darconio · 11-03-2010 4:22pm

I was really looking for a 24'' LED screen and I was about to go for this BenQ from OCUK (BTW I really hate the fact that the prices are different once you log as a irish user: damn VAT!)
Anyway the final price included delivery would be around 195 euros (So basically the same price as the monitor posted above).

I was about to go for it but then I read about the bad reviews OCUK received (thanks to this great community) and I found a good balance of price, seller reliability and latest technology

Look out for this Acer 24'' LED backlight, 8,000,000:1 :eek: contrast ratio for 178£ delivered from Amazon

178 British pounds = 195.895145 Euros

You can't currently find any better deal on any online shop for a 24'' LED monitor

bazery · 12-03-2010 9:09am

IS that acer 24 inch a good monitor? Or should I keep looking it's not that pretty either, I think

digme · 12-03-2010 12:05pm

Solitaire wrote: »

That's the problem Same happening to the HD4770 - if ever there was a time to buy a graphics card, this ain't it.

Supply and Demand,People are Broke.

darconio · 12-03-2010 12:20pm

darconio wrote: »

I was really looking for a 24'' LED screen and I was about to go for this BenQ from OCUK (BTW I really hate the fact that the prices are different once you log as a irish user: damn VAT!)
Anyway the final price included delivery would be around 195 euros (So basically the same price as the monitor posted above).

I was about to go for it but then I read about the bad reviews OCUK received (thanks to this great community) and I found a good balance of price, seller reliability and latest technology

Look out for this Acer 24'' LED backlight, 8,000,000:1 :eek: contrast ratio for 178£ delivered from Amazon

178 British pounds = 195.895145 Euros

You can't currently find any better deal on any online shop for a 24'' LED monitor

bazery wrote: »

IS that acer 24 inch a good monitor? Or should I keep looking it's not that pretty either, I think

I will let you know once I receive it but it looks promising.
LED Backlight technology, 8,000,000:1 contrast ratio, full HD (1080p) it hasn't certanly a stilish design but who cares?

It is not top of the range either but that is the best 24'' with LED under 200 euro

Grandmasha_Yoda · 12-03-2010 1:17pm

Lads, whats Pixmania like if things go wrong?

Am looking to get the card Soltaire mentioned above and they are the only lot that have the 1gb version.

bazery · 12-03-2010 4:04pm

They can be painful to deal with cos you can't ring them. The process can be slow if it goes wrong. But if things go grand they can be great.

54kroc · 12-03-2010 4:28pm

Grandmasha_Yoda wrote: »

Lads, whats Pixmania like if things go wrong?

Am looking to get the card Soltaire mentioned above and they are the only lot that have the 1gb version.

I'd avoid them if I were you,I've had a few things I bought from them go wrong and found them awful to deal with.

Grandmasha_Yoda · 12-03-2010 5:15pm

Thanks lads for the headsup.

Have to keep an eye out for that card elsewhere.

bazery · 12-03-2010 7:36pm

darconio wrote: »

I will let you know once I receive it but it looks
It is not top of the range either but that is the best 24'' with LED under 200 euro

Very True, let us know how it goes, next week might be a good week maybe

TheDoc · 13-03-2010 3:21pm

Howdy.

Guys looking for a new gfx card.

Deciding to go Radeon Hd range.

Have about €150 to spend.

Currently run a Nvidia 8800GTS, mainly play World of warcraft and want to beef up the fps.

Heard some good stuff about the HD 4770 and the 5770.

So any advice would be lovely

Also was going to go with saphire as i hear only good thing,s but input on brand welcome

yomamasflavour · 13-03-2010 3:33pm

TheDoc wrote: »

Howdy.

Guys looking for a new gfx card.

Deciding to go Radeon Hd range.

Have about €150 to spend.

Currently run a Nvidia 8800GTS, mainly play World of warcraft and want to beef up the fps.

Heard some good stuff about the HD 4770 and the 5770.

So any advice would be lovely

Also was going to go with saphire as i hear only good thing,s but input on brand welcome

Whatever you do, don't buy one of those 5770s.
At least not till ati release some fixed drivers.

I bought one of them and I've since been plagued with giant mice:eek:.
Oh, and random artifacting and shutdowns and all sorts of bother.

Seems its a common thing with the 5770 and quite a few have reported it.

Solitaire · 13-03-2010 3:35pm

Asus are good too, with some overvolting support included in the warranty terms

MSI have the best software. If you're looking for cheap and cheerful Sapphire and Club3D are good. Keep an eye out on Pixmania for cheap HD5000 GPUs if its a one-off purchase - over there the HD5750 512MB hangs around the €95 mark

TheDoc · 14-03-2010 7:38pm

I'm running with an 8800gts, and was thinking, maybe I'll just buy another and run it sli, since its very cheap to buy a second one, 40 euros on ebay.

Solitaire · 14-03-2010 9:05pm

Only if you have the PSU overhead to take another card

TheDoc · 15-03-2010 8:55pm

Solitaire wrote: »

Only if you have the PSU overhead to take another card

It seems 8800gts are just not available, cant get an ebay seller to ship to me.

So it looks like I'm going for a new card entirely, and probably a new psu.

So I think I'll go with radeon since they seem the best at the moment.

However which one I just dont know.

The 4890 was my original intention, then I heard the 4770 was pretty good bang for buck, now theres a 5770 out my head is just spinning.

Budget is about €150 euros. max for the card.

Was thinking essentially something with a vaporX in it.

So choices are

4770
4890
5770

Although I seem to remember the 4890 taking some wild connections or some crazy ****.

Edit:

Did some searching

The 4890 does not seem available anywhere as does the 4770.

And the 5770 stretches out of my price range, I just have had no luck with gfx cards in recent months.

Solitaire · 15-03-2010 9:44pm

No-one has, the market's imploded. And releasing a generation of cards that were weaker than their predecessors across the entire mid-range did not help AMD!!! :mad:

Solitaire · 17-03-2010 5:16pm

These things are always great for upgrading old midi-tower cases where you have three bays just sitting there not doing anything apart from turning your case into a hotbox :P

I remember not so long ago when these things cost so much - Lian-Li flogged them for little shy of €70 :eek: My naff lil' Thermaltake for under €25 was considered a bargain of the century back when I got it, buzzy fan and all!

Now we have CM doing them for barely €15 a pop! That's little more than a 120mm case fan, and CM are effectively providing a mount for it too

Solitaire · 10-04-2010 7:14pm

Weird... today Aldi actually had stock in for once! :eek:

One odd item I saw was a 21.5" Full HD screen for €249. Catch was it was a full touchscreen as well (and a generous-sized touchscreen at that!). And it wasn't any manky old 22" panel they threw in there, as the refresh is just 2ms. A real oddball but pretty nice specs if you read the fineprint!

Also saw the current Medion tower lurking there, actually physically present for once. CPU isn't bad (Phenom X4-820, plenty of speed and cache for most things!) and graphics are at least serviceable (think it was a HD5570 or HD5670 lurking in there). Add an OS, 1TB HDD and 4GB DDR3 and its not so dreadful a deal at €549 as you'd initially think.

Lu Tze · 10-04-2010 7:43pm

Solitaire wrote: »

One odd item I saw was a 21.5" Full HD screen for €249. Catch was it was a full touchscreen as well (and a generous-sized touchscreen at that!). And it wasn't any manky old 22" panel they threw in there, as the refresh is just 2ms. A real oddball but pretty nice specs if you read the fineprint!

I was in the market for a screen when these came out a few weeks back. But on the medion shop website, it was only showing a vga connection so i gave it a miss as didn't want to have to be bringing it back if this was the case!

Solitaire · 10-04-2010 7:56pm

I'm not 100% sure if it was a Medion screen but the one on their website looks similar. Pretty sure the one I saw today had HDMI though - it definitely had a 2ms GtG refresh so it may be the updated model.

Effluo · 10-04-2010 7:57pm

Solitaire wrote: »

Also saw the current Medion tower lurking there, actually physically present for once. CPU isn't bad (Phenom X4-820, plenty of speed and cache for most things!) and graphics are at least serviceable (think it was a HD5570 or HD5670 lurking in there). Add an OS, 1TB HDD and 4GB DDR3 and its not so dreadful a deal at €549 as you'd initially think.

Yeah those ALDI pc's always cause a storm over in the normal Bargain Alerts section.

If it's the same pc as the one I saw in the 'nooth then it's the 5670, which in fairness would make for a very decent rig. Good for guys with low res screens or for people who will just want the processing power and an occasional game.

Lu Tze · 10-04-2010 7:58pm

The aldi brochure at the time mentioned hdmi and dvi as well, but didn't want to take the chance.

Wouldn't mind seeing the touchscreen in action though, just to see if it is anything more than a gimmick

Effluo · 25-04-2010 3:21am

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180688

Wow what about that!

Amazing offer or misprice?

Solitaire · 25-04-2010 4:05am

I really don't know...

But it is a 720p+ model, not 1080p. I think those 1366*768 panels are actually starting to be phased out in favour of 1080p 32" panels at this point and I've seen increasingly silly offers on old lines - almost normal to see no-name 720p/720p+ tellies going for €300 but when its named LG/Toshiba/Samsung in said bargain bin you know the new lines want some room on the shelves! And the tuners for that telly are PCI, not integrated, so you need the HTPC up and running inside it before you can use them!

EDIT: Just read the reviews. The gadgetfreaks that bought them on impulse are chortling like mad... only real issue with the unit is that both the frontpanel cables and the PSU cables are mad short, so make sure you own or can McGyver up some extensions!

EDIT AGAIN: That might be because it was originally intended for a custom HP mobo - looks like these are the OEM units that form the basis of those super-pricey HP all-in-one PCs!

Bargain Alerts/Adverts Discussion Thread

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