Aldi PC on sale 4th Feb

Slick50 · 28-01-2010 10:38pm

dxhound2003 wrote: »

I was wrong about Sterling, link here from Aldi UK has it for £400. They managed to use the £ sign, I wonder why the Irish one doesn't use €.

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/offers_week05Thursday10.htm

Maybe they're just not very observant?, or don't have the technology?

iamskippy · 28-01-2010 10:55pm

It's a typo, it says 499 in the white on red, but says 449 directly below in black and white.

actually you are right well spotted. At http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2827_11844.htm it has just the 449e

Fnz · 29-01-2010 2:32am

madmoe wrote: »

Exactly lads. The 802.11 N support would make up for no USB 3.0 but it would be nice to have at least one USB 3.0 in there....

If I'm not mistaken, there are currently no USB 3.0 motherboards at retail. You can buy an expansion card with that functionality but I think it's fair to say that it's not mainstream enough to reasonably expect it to be included on pre-built PCs.

alastair_doom · 29-01-2010 3:02am

Zonda999 wrote: »

Still looks like €499.99 to me! bu that obviously is just a mistake!

(aldi UK price) 399.00 GBP = 461.899 EUR according to xe.com.

Cant believe aldi would actually give us a better deal than the UK stores, and thats even before the VAT differences. I wouldn't be surprised if the €499 is going to be the actual price they retail at.

madmoe · 29-01-2010 10:23am

There are a number of new external HDD's coming out that are using USB 3.0. Although with a 1TB internal HDD in this machine I doubt you would need an external HDD for a very long time!

I'm just thinking of future proofing it. By the end of this year USB 3.0 will be everywhere.

nellyshark · 31-01-2010 4:49pm

How does this pc compare spec wise to the previous pc on sale in jan. Ddr3 ram and i3 procesor any good?

iamskippy · 31-01-2010 5:45pm

nellyshark wrote: »

How does this pc compare spec wise to the previous pc on sale in jan. Ddr3 ram and i3 procesor any good?

It is discussed at http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/594326/medion-i3-530-desktop-on-sale-at-al?page=2

Alse see Medion won PC PRO service and reliability award in 07 and were high commended in 08

A friend of mine swears by PC PRO opinions

The_Conductor · 31-01-2010 7:46pm

The March issue of CustomPC has a review of the i3-530 (and all other new Intel processors). Its the budget- lowest price OEM processor- dual core (+2 logical), does not support turbo boost, 4Mb Level 3 cache, 733Mhz GPU core, TDP 73W. Depending on the motherboard used- you should be able to overclock this to 3.6Ghz- and as such its recommended as a good processor for someone building a gaming rig on a tight budget. If you are overclocking- note: do not change the vCore voltage.

If I was looking at buying a new computer at the moment (I'm not), I'd consider getting this one, replacing the graphics card and exhaust fan and adding a bluray reader (or writer if I could pick one up at a reasonable price). The software package and warranty are really the icing on the cake with this offer.....

iamskippy · 31-01-2010 8:52pm

smccarrick wrote: »

If I was looking at buying a new computer at the moment (I'm not), I'd consider getting this one, replacing the graphics card and exhaust fan and adding a bluray reader (or writer if I could pick one up at a reasonable price). The software package and warranty are really the icing on the cake with this offer.....

Is it for gaming you would replace the graphics card? And why would you replace the exhaust fan? Do you think it is noisy?

The_Conductor · 31-01-2010 9:47pm

iamskippy wrote: »

Is it for gaming you would replace the graphics card? And why would you replace the exhaust fan? Do you think it is noisy?

According to some of the reviews elsewhere- the motherboard is upside down in the case- add the i3-530 into the equation (the main selling point of this processor is its overclocking capabilities)- the net result is more cooling wouldn't go astray.

Re: replacing the graphics card- it would be my intention to use the PC as a Media PC (among other things) and HDMI outputting is far better on an ATI card, than on nVidia (though if you're planning on doing some folding etc- of course the nVidia beats it hands down).

The G210 graphics card- is pretty poxy for gaming tbh- you're probably talking about a card the equivalent of an 8400GS- a good all-round card, however its almost 3 years old. It may be the new 40nm range- however if you've got a larger sized monitor- you will really notice the limitations of this card- esp. if you try even a few older games such as CoD4.

The video card is a massive improvement on Intels onchip effort- particularly with hardware support for video decoding- helpful if you want to play blu-ray etc- but other than for general tasks- it really doesn't cut it.

M cebee · 31-01-2010 9:48pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

I love the use of "Massive" & "Powerful" in the advertisement, marketing guru who ever came up with that.

seems to be common practice

iamskippy · 31-01-2010 10:02pm

smccarrick wrote: »

According to some of the reviews elsewhere- the motherboard is upside down in the case.

Do you know if the i3-530 has a FSB or QPI. I understood it was QPI but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking says it is only in i7 that has QPI

The_Conductor · 31-01-2010 10:17pm

iamskippy wrote: »

Do you know if the i3-530 has a FSB or QPI. I understood it was QPI but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking says it is only in i7 that has QPI

According to Custom PC- it does indeed have a QPI interconnect, rather than a FSB- with a ratio of 32. Stock frequency is 22 * 133 and max overclockability is 22 * 159 (3.5Ghz). QPI is very handy- as you can overclock the processor- without impacting on peripheral devices- however something to consider with this processor is the voltage lock (which is why your max overclock is the 22*159 and not higher).

Not bad for an £92 quid chip!

iamskippy · 31-01-2010 10:24pm

smccarrick wrote: »

According to Custom PC- it does indeed have a QPI interconnect, rather than a FSB- with a ratio of 32. Stock frequency is 22 * 133 and max overclockability is 22 * 159 (3.5Ghz). QPI is very handy- as you can overclock the processor- without impacting on peripheral devices- however something to consider with this processor is the voltage lock (which is why your max overclock is the 22*159 and not higher).

Not bad for an £92 quid chip!

Is the the March issue of CustomPC with review of the i3-530 available online? i could not find it

Mister Man · 01-02-2010 12:25am

I think i see another rush outside Aldi :P

The_Conductor · 01-02-2010 9:07am

iamskippy wrote: »

Is the the March issue of CustomPC with review of the i3-530 available online? i could not find it

I got a hardcopy in Tesco a week ago- so it should be available in Easons or any larger Newsagent?

Lunabu · 01-02-2010 1:21pm

I'm toying with the idea of purchasing this Medion PC from Aldi on Thursday, but I'm not sure about the graphics card. I'm not a big gamer but enjoy playing World of Warcraft, Age of Empires III, Jade Empire, Alone in the Dark and some other games. If I buy a new computer, I wouldn't like to go out and buy a new graphics card straight away.
Or would it be easier and cheaper to upgrade my Dell Dimension 8400 which runs Windows XP? If so, can you please point me in the right direction? I've already upgraded the RAM to 2GB.
I use my PC for general tasks but would like to be able to play some new games as well.
Your opinions would be most welcome. Thanks!

01-02-2010 1:58pm

Anyone fancy earning themselves €50 and pick me up one on thurs??

Tea_Bag · 01-02-2010 2:14pm

MsAragon wrote: »

I'm toying with the idea of purchasing this Medion PC from Aldi on Thursday, but I'm not sure about the graphics card. I'm not a big gamer but enjoy playing World of Warcraft, Age of Empires III, Jade Empire, Alone in the Dark and some other games. If I buy a new computer, I wouldn't like to go out and buy a new graphics card straight away.
Or would it be easier and cheaper to upgrade my Dell Dimension 8400 which runs Windows XP? If so, can you please point me in the right direction? I've already upgraded the RAM to 2GB.
I use my PC for general tasks but would like to be able to play some new games as well.
Your opinions would be most welcome. Thanks!

the graphics card in this PC is poor, but it should handle WoW/AOE era games fine on a standard 1280x1024 monitor, probably even on highish settings.

jimogr · 01-02-2010 2:34pm

Effluo wrote: »

Yeah just to add to all those people going on about sound over hdmi.

Unfortunately only very few Nvidia cards support Sound over hdmi and pretty much every AMD card does.

So, I'm 90% sure this pc will not support sound over hdmi and you'd be looking to install an AMD card to do this, something like a 4350 would suffice for around€25.

The specs page on the card says it supports sound over hdmi:

HDMI 1.3a Support
Fully integrated support for HDMI 1.3a including xvYCC, Deep color and 7.1 digital surround sound.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_210_us.html

iamskippy · 01-02-2010 5:22pm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Widescreen-Centrino-processor-technology/dp/tech-data/B000X42NB2/ref=de_a_smtd

How does the Aldi pc graphic card compare to the above. I have the above laptop? As far as i can tell the graphics card is

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-X3100.2176.0.html

The_Conductor · 01-02-2010 5:50pm

iamskippy wrote: »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Widescreen-Centrino-processor-technology/dp/tech-data/B000X42NB2/ref=de_a_smtd

How does the Aldi pc graphic card compare to the above. I have the above laptop? As far as i can tell the graphics card is

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-X3100.2176.0.html

The graphics card in the Aldi PC would be a good bit better than this one- but even so- its old technology. You're comparing a DX 10 with a DX 10.1 card- when people are desperate to get their hands on DX 11 cards (totally aside from the incredibly poor performance these cards give in gaming or on larger screens).

Effluo · 01-02-2010 7:42pm

jimogr wrote: »

The specs page on the card says it supports sound over hdmi:

Too right!

I was wrong, it's a new feature for Nvidia(amd have had it for an age)

Jonny7 · 01-02-2010 7:42pm

smccarrick wrote: »

According to Custom PC- it does indeed have a QPI interconnect, rather than a FSB- with a ratio of 32. Stock frequency is 22 * 133 and max overclockability is 22 * 159 (3.5Ghz). QPI is very handy- as you can overclock the processor- without impacting on peripheral devices- however something to consider with this processor is the voltage lock (which is why your max overclock is the 22*159 and not higher).

Not bad for an £92 quid chip!

I really wouldn't touch overclocking on this PC. It will have a very fragile power supply and the cheapest motherboard on that platform.

The i3 530 chip is fine as it is for mainstream users. Unless you are into hardcore video encoding or offline 3D rendering, then this chip has many years in it, and its current clock speeds are fine.

If you fancy doing some gaming on this, well it isn't an enthusiast machine, but if paired with a low power consuming card like a 4770 or 5750 then it would run nearly all modern games very smoothly on a 22 inch monitor.

iamskippy · 01-02-2010 7:54pm

Effluo wrote: »

Too right!

I was wrong, it's a new feature for Nvidia(amd have had it for an age)

Does this mean there will sound on the Aldi 20 in monitor with this PC connected with a hdmi cable?

Murilloinf · 01-02-2010 8:21pm

does that 20'' monitor has Hdmi ?

The_Conductor · 01-02-2010 8:28pm

Murilloinf wrote: »

does that 20'' monitor has Hdmi ?

I seriously doubt it. Also- its not as great an offer as it seems- have a look online, there are plenty of very reasonably priced monitors on most websites.

iamskippy · 01-02-2010 8:45pm

smccarrick wrote: »

I seriously doubt it. Also- its not as great an offer as it seems- have a look online, there are plenty of very reasonably priced monitors on most websites.

I am going to try it and see. Samgsung 22 inch for 105e
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/1708277/art/samsung/syncmaster-2223nw-22-wide.html

slave1 · 01-02-2010 8:48pm

dude, that monitor does not have HDMI in which you may be looking for.
I have the January Aldi PC and it has the same graphics card, it outputs sound via HDMI

iamskippy · 01-02-2010 8:53pm

slave1 wrote: »

dude, that monitor does not have HDMI in which you may be looking for.
I have the January Aldi PC and it has the same graphics card, it outputs sound via HDMI

Thanks. Was the Jan PC a good deal? is it quiet?

Aldi PC on sale 4th Feb

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