Latest ALDI PC offer - and it seems like a good one!

billius

Finally, a PC offer from ALDI worth mentioning -
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2867_4336.htm

Specs are roughly -
BLU-RAY Disc, HD-DVD, DVD + CD Playback

INTEL® VIIV™ TECHNOLOGY with CORE™ 2 DUO PROCESSOR E6750

NVIDA® GEFORCE® 8600 GS graphics card with HDMI connection

500GB S-ATA Hard Disk
8 MB, 7,200rpm.

2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM
667 MHz 64 bit, dual channel memory.

Integrated WLAN IEEE 802. 11n

3-in-1 TV Tuner, DVB-T, DVB-S and analogue TV including remote control (subject to digital service availability in your area).

Windows Vista™ Home Premium Operating System

8-channel High Definition Audio


Shame the grfx card isn't a 8800, but with the Bluray/HD DVD combo drive it seems like a good enough offer. Decent enough processor too! Might be wortha punt!!

po0k

The ram is slow. It's a dualcore not a quad core. Crap case.
Possibly crap PSU.
A DVB card isn't much to write home about.

It's a bit expensive really, the Blu-Ray drive being the hook.

tred

SyxPak wrote: »

The ram is slow. It's a dualcore not a quad core. Crap case.
Possibly crap PSU.
A DVB card isn't much to write home about.

It's a bit expensive really, the Blu-Ray drive being the hook.

would u get a quadcore for 900?

kendragon

Thats strange... I doesnt come with a monitor but they dont seem to be selling a monitor separate either. That would be a bit of an upset Xmas morning

Oracle

That PC seems expensive to me, especially without a monitor. On the other hand this graphics tablet looks stylish and good value, and these cute PC speakers: http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2867_4343.htm

Sqaull20

I think its a good deal....A hddvd/blu ray combo drive is €300 minimum plus very good cpu,decentish graphics card,good amount of hard drive space etc

flogen

kendragon wrote: »

Thats strange... I doesnt come with a monitor but they dont seem to be selling a monitor separate either. That would be a bit of an upset Xmas morning

I don't think they've ever sold a PC with a monitor - part of making the deal as cheap as possible.

po0k

tred wrote: »

would u get a quadcore for 900?

At OEM prices, yes.
The graphics card is laughable.

Aldi PC's are basically whatever stock is lying about that they get cheap, can slap together into a system and flog to people who don't know any better.
They're decent systems, but hardly what you'd call bargains, compared to what's available through regular German system builders.

Not knowing the exact specs, I'd put money that there is a low-end/old/budget chipset gluing it all together.

jonny72

tred wrote: »

would u get a quadcore for 900?

You can get a quadcore for 500..

www.ankermann-pc.com

900 euros is too much for this aldi PC

TerrorFirmer

Doesn't look great. Crap graphics card (though fine for media center, the point being that when you're paying that much, you'd expect better). Probably a weak power supply. Cheap generic ram. Not worth the money, especially when you consider there's no monitor. Drive is nice though, probably what'll rope people in. Though if their definition of integrated Wi-Fi does in fact mean it's a feature of the board, would be a good board. Case looks OK to me. Nice and roomy looking at least.

BaZmO*

kendragon wrote: »

Thats strange... I doesnt come with a monitor but they dont seem to be selling a monitor separate either. That would be a bit of an upset Xmas morning

They're not really supposed to be used with monitors. They're mainly for use as a Media Centre PC so you'd be hooking it up to an LCD or Plasma.

tred

SyxPak wrote: »

At OEM prices, yes.
The graphics card is laughable.

Aldi PC's are basically whatever stock is lying about that they get cheap, can slap together into a system and flog to people who don't know any better.
They're decent systems, but hardly what you'd call bargains, compared to what's available through regular German system builders.

Not knowing the exact specs, I'd put money that there is a low-end/old/budget chipset gluing it all together.

We have a german contractor in here and he said Tevion and Medion are well known PC makers in Germany..but in saying that some of the spec above is under achieving compared to other parts of it.

AlmightyCushion

tred wrote: »

would u get a quadcore for 900?

Even pc world were selling a quad core pc with a monitor for a grand not too long ago. It didn't have a blu-ray drive though.

shoutman

jonny72 wrote: »

You can get a quadcore for 500..

www.ankermann-pc.com

900 euros is too much for this aldi PC

They all looked like dual core there.

I am looking for a cheap quad core system if anyone knows of one. No monitor neccessary.

bk

shoutman wrote: »

They all looked like dual core there.

http://www.ankermann-pc.com/en/cpu_configa26.php?artikelnr=10711

Actually great deal, nice spot jonny72

shoutman

That looks good bk, what do people reckon about upping it to 4gb ram, the 250gb 16mb cache hard drive?

Also which would be the best value DVD RW burner? I wouldnt be using it all that much.
Oh and I dont have a clue about cases so would the bog standard one be ok?

podgeandrodge

but they don't include Windows...interesting though.

bk

shoutman wrote: »

That looks good bk, what do people reckon about upping it to 4gb ram, the 250gb 16mb cache hard drive?

2GB should be sufficient for most things, unless you are planning to install Vista, when 2GB will work fine, but 4GB is better.

HDD, depends on how much you normally use. 250GB should be plenty for most normal people, unless you store lots of video and pictures in which case more is obviously better.

One thing with HDD, if you don't think you will fill it for over a year, then there is no point in buying a much bigger one now, prices of HDD's go down very fast so better to wait until you actually need it.

shoutman wrote:

Also which would be the best value DVD RW burner? I wouldnt be using it all that much.
Oh and I dont have a clue about cases so would the bog standard one be ok?

If you don't use DVD RW much, then the cheapest should do just fine, not all that much difference between models.

Warning yes these systems don't come with an OS installed, you need to do that yourself. Either get a free linux OS or buy Windows XP OEM for about €100

Oracle

bk wrote: »

http://www.ankermann-pc.com/en/cpu_configa26.php?artikelnr=10711
Actually great deal, nice spot jonny72

....and Suse Linux 10 installed for free! Get's the thumbs up from me!

shoutman

I have never used linux or indeed anything other then windows or mac before, stupid question but can you get a windows emulator for linux which allows you to play games made for windows and other software...
Also I already have a 250 external hard drive at the moment I was just thinking about the 8mb cache as opposed to the 16mb cache, do these make much of a difference?


Am i better off just posting about this in the computers forum lol.

cheers guys.

vms7ply9t6dw4b

Wow surely that link to the quad core is better then anything dell have price wise?

bk

shoutman wrote:

I have never used linux or indeed anything other then windows or mac before, stupid question but can you get a windows emulator for linux which allows you to play games made for windows and other software...

There is something called wine that can play some games under Linux, but to be honest not most modern new games.

What most Linux users like myself who are also gamers do is so up a dual boot system with both Linux and windows on it. However you will still need to get a copy of windows to do that.

shoutman wrote:

Also I already have a 250 external hard drive at the moment I was just thinking about the 8mb cache as opposed to the 16mb cache, do these make much of a difference?

Not really, not that you would really notice.

bk

Abraham Long Termination wrote: »

Wow surely that link to the quad core is better then anything dell have price wise?

I would certainly think so, but don't forget that it comes with Linux, not Windows. So you will need to get a copy of Windows if you want it.

kaizersoze

That Ankermann case looks very like the Dell 9200 case.

tadgh

Will the Aldi Medion be able to write BluRay and HD-DVDs in addition to normal DVD +/-R ones?

azzeretti

No this will only write to standard DVD's not BR/HDDVD.

Not too sure what everyone is knocking this for. The processor is reasonably good and the video card if perfect for HD playback, for what it is. The real clincher is the BR/HDDVD drive, which are still fairly pricey. For a decent HTPC with multiformat playback and for the non gamer, the spec ain't too bad. Its not as if they're ripping people off!

conzy

Its a great system, the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives are worth 500 euro alone....

Integrated N wifi, decent graphics card with HDMI, 2 gigs of decent ram and a very good CPU

Buy Now!

unklerosco

Thats what I was thinking...

Ankermann Pc + 500gb HD €597..
BR + HD add say €250... Ave price
Add vista prem €110
Add remote €40
Add wireless €30
Add Tv card €50

That comes out at €1027, and u cant get all that off ankermann so you'd have to pay postage from at least 2 sites... Add another €30-50.... Makes the Aldi PC quite the bargin

old boy

lots of people recon that if its aldi or lidil its crap, but the make your mind up line has to be 30 days return, plus 3 year warranty, i cannot see any pc maker giving you that, ask dell for the same, ahh go on, go on, go on.

TerrorFirmer

conzymaher wrote: »

Its a great system, the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives are worth 500 euro alone....

Integrated N wifi, decent graphics card with HDMI, 2 gigs of decent ram and a very good CPU

Buy Now!

I can't remember what it was but someone linked to a reputable site selling BR/HD drives for 180 sterling....the card as well is probably a glorfied g86 and not based on the g84 core despite the name, probably just an 8500gt with hdmi...

How do you know what make the ram is? And what's the power supply...

Lord Deco

HavoK wrote: »

I can't remember what it was but someone linked to a reputable site selling BR/HD drives for 180 sterling....the card as well is probably a glorfied g86 and not based on the g84 core despite the name, probably just an 8500gt with hdmi...

How do you know what make the ram is? And what's the power supply...

Has anyone told you your posts are quite annoying?

You seem to be in the my word is "Gospel" camp

Anyway the card is passively cooled and is perfect for hd playback and light gaming.....The psu and ram might no be top class,but not everyone wants to build there own pc :eek:

Its not like Dell,Hp etc have class psu's and ram at that price point....

Like unklerosco pointed out in the above post,a pre built pc from sellers like ankermann,dell etc cant compete with this deal....

Very fast cpu,blu ray/hd dvd drive,3 year warranty,hdmi graphics card,2 gigs ram,500gb,vista premium,remote,supports audio over HDMI as well as SPDIF and so on is a bargain for €950 imo....

You can always add a Ati HD 3850 or similar for €150 if you want to game on it,im sure the psu will cope...

So, did anyone get one? What's the first impressions?

I need to know what i missed!!!

conzy

Medion are very good as far as Pre-Built PCs go, I have seen a few at lans and a friend has one, and they are solid machines...

I was actually pleasantly suprised at the quality of the Heatsinks and components used....

The ram is 667mhz so its better than the crap 533mhz DDR2 that a lot of companies still use...

and its good Value...

What alternative would you recommend Havok?

TerrorFirmer

Well firstly I never said it was a terrible machine! Just that it wasn't particularly great value for money - just average, good for a media machine but not representing a massive saving or anything. That's what I meant.

I was only asking what the ram and psu were out of interest. If they're top notch parts, then great! I have no issue with Aldi or Lidl. But I'd imagine they're more inclined to be budget parts to some extent. Just because its 667mhz ram doesn't make it good, you can get 2gb of Adata 667mhz for 48 quid on Komplett...

For 950 you can get this, granted it's missing a few small extras (remote, wifi and tv, which admittedly is quite costly, but on the other side I would imagine that the Aldi machine does not exactly use high end ram or power supply and hard drive has 8mb buffer (not that mine are exactly high end either, in case anyone takes me up wrong). I could have gone for even cheaper parts though to reflect this (budget psu, cheapest 667mhz ram possible).

I didn't include a dedicated card as the board does hd fine by itself, and you'd hardly use one of the low end hdmi cards for anything but Hd.

If it turns out that the Aldi machines uses good decent parts then by all means that's great, I'm open to correction.

All in all, yes I guess it works out at good value given the extras. But I still don't think it represents 'amazing' value. But I suppose I'm going at it the wrong way though. The average person won't even care or notice what components are actually in it.....

Ok so my final verdict is that it's good value

Lord Deco wrote:

Has anyone told you your posts are quite annoying?

I know a guy called Declan. He enjoys reading the ingredients on the packaging of products and talking to himself. He seems like the sort of guy to call himself 'lord'.

bk

I've owned two Aldi PCs.

One was ok, the other (my current) is fairly bad. Extremely noisy and CPU is often overheating. Had to replace the CPU cooler with a new high quality one and it only partly helped.

IMO this PC is only of decent value if you are interested in a Blu-Ray drive, otherwise it is way overpriced for what you are getting.

Hell you could buy the Ankermann PC and a PS3 (including Blu-Ray) for the same price as the Aldi PC!!!!

Anyway I think buying Blu-Ray or HD-DVD at the moment is a bad idea, there is very few HD discs available, they are very expensive and unless you have a big, expensive HD TV they are of no benefit, certainly not on a PC monitor.

IMO you would be much better off buying a cheaper PC now and waiting until next year when HD drives will be much cheaper (probably under €100 by then).

unklerosco

I think the end result is that this is a Good Value Pc and comes with a good 3 year warranty. Its not great, amazing, sell your kids value for money. But for what your getting its good value.

Havoks Pc works out at near the same but add on the extras its missing n ur looking at over a 1k and you dont necessarily get a 3 year warranty on all the parts, and you've to build and configure it etc. For the man on the street this is a damn good pc, for anyone that knows exactly what they want... There's cheaper to be had...

Also, I think it works out cheaper to get a blue ray and separate HD drive...

bk

The thing is I don't think that the vast majority of people want or even know what Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are.

Therefore this PC may be of interest to a very, very small niche of media center videophiles, but for the vast majority of people who aren't interested in a HD PC in their living room (ouch the noise) attached to a HD TV, then there is far better value for money out there.

In the past Aldi and Lidl were rightly praised for delivering superb value for money (if not the cheapest) PC's that always came in at cheaper then building the same spec yourself.

However with this particular machine, ALDI IMO has made a mistake. They are trying to keep the prices of their desktop PC's at around the €1000 mark, while the prices of desktop PC's are falling through the floor all around them. They are trying to justify the price by including a HD drive, but it isn't something people are much interested in. I just don't see them selling well.

What Aldi/Lidl should do instead is focus on selling high quality quad core gaming machines with decent graphics card in the €600 - €700 price range. This would appeal to the gaming demographic, the demographic that Aldi PC's use to always appeal to in the past.

bazman

Got the Alid PC yesterday & I'm extremely happy with it. My previous Medion PC was a little noisy, but they seem to have a much improved cooling unit on this one.

I'm using the PC purely as a entertainment PC to connect to my LCD in the living room - for this purpose it's perfect. I'm not into gaming. My favourite bit of the PC is the way you can hook in the Medion external disk neatly with a SATA connection - super for backups or expanding your movies collection.