Buying a PC on a budget , Aldi vs Dell

Torqay wrote: »

The Medion PC, by a country mile.

While I'd probably side with the Medion as well, I don't know why you think the Medion is so much better. The i3-2120 is a better CPU than the A8-5500 The integrated graphics are better on the Medion but that is only relevant for games really. If its just for just general internet/email/office the Dell would perform better.

Torqay wrote: »

Not so sure about that:



Just couldn't find any graphics benchmarks, but I'd say, the AMD will win this as well.

And then there is USB 3.0 (can't see that in the Dell), 7.1 Audio (5.1 in the Dell) and a WLAN N controller.

Passmark means pretty much nothing. Its a terrible benchmark to compare parts by. In this case, its even worse as all they do is take the average score of computers benchmarked with that specific CPU in them, they don't compare similar systems at all.

While there hasn't been a whole lot of reviews for Trinity yet, there have been a couple:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-5800k-a8-5600k-a6-5400k,3224.html

TL: DR is that its a decent step up from from Llano, but still not as good as SB/IB. So that would place the A8-5500 solidly between the i3-2120 and the A8-3850. Benchmarks from the Tomshardware review agree with this.

USB3, 7.1 audio are just gimmicks, and Wireless N is only any good with an N router.

Edit: The dell has 802.11n as well anyway.

Torqay wrote: »

Indeed, extensive Trinity tests are scarce. That's why I said, "Not so sure about". I'm well aware that PassMark alone is not a reference, especially with only very few benchmarks posted, which are most like brand new computers, probably well tweaked and optimized, whereas the i3 benchmark is a average of more than 600 tests, suggesting a much more "real world" picture, however, I wouldn't consider the i3 the better processor.

Also, the Medion is €40 cheaper, the slim tower Dell for €429 doesn't seem to be available anymore, only the midi tower for €469.

If you consider that the i3-2120 is about 10-20% faster than the A8-3850, and then look at the tomshardware benches its pretty easy to say the i3 is the better chip.

I don't disagree that the medion is a better all round computer, but saying its miles better is incorrect. If the GPU is irrelevant I think the Dell is a better buy.