Page 1 of Aldi Medion PC next Thursday - 499.99

I`m sure the regulars here check the Aldi Thursday weekly specials out, but since no-one seems to have posted up about it, I`ll point you to the Thursday 4th August Medion PC offer.

No monitor, but it is 64-bit (Intel - I`d have preferred an Athlon 64), supposedly quiet, ships loads of extra hardware/software (including a digital TV card) and comes in at a penny shy of 500 quid. It looks a reasonably good deal, but no doubt someone can match it Toys`R`Us/Lidl etc. Nice to see someone ship a branded PC with an optical mouse for a change (who on earth uses the ballache-based mice nowadays?).

This item was edited on Friday, 29th July 2005, 17:22

Quote:
NVIDIA® GeForce® 6200 TC graphics card with TurboCacheTM Technology2 supporting 256MB DDR

This is actually a 64Mb card which pinches large lumps of system RAM.

Performance is bobbins.

my local aldi still have a few and the higher spec £750 model, which seems good value,

has anyone got any of the above for opinion as they are in my price range and do not expect the best performance but good value?

Hi all,
I have had the "higher" spec model since it was released and can only praise its performance. I do quite a lot of graphic design and find it excellent. The kids also use it for gaming and it literally ran all summer (our kids are back at school now) without a break. It plays all games and I am currently working my way through Colin Macrae 4 and the graphics are stunning.
With regards to noise, this is my third Aldi PC and I can not complain about the noise because there is none.

Great machine, great performance, great price.

Big Ron

If you plan on playing 3D games your money would be better spent on a Athlon 64 machine. An average spec box could be built for £500 ish. Lots of socket 754 motherboards + processors on ebay currently, allowing you to use cheaper AGP cards.

no difference between AGP and PCIe yet its just where the technology is going.....

www.ebuyer.com or www.ebay.co.uk

OK S754 Motherboard = £50
Keyboard Mouse = £25
3000+ CPU = £67
1Gb RAM = £60
80Gb HDD = £45
400w PSU = £40
Graphics = £120 (eg GF 6600)
DVD RW = £35
Floppy = £3
Case = £40

= £485

+++

There is a difference between PCI-Ex16 and AGP - twice the bandwidth. This does allow for faster transfer rates. Also Socket 754 boards are slower than 939 albeit only slightly.

The Athlon 64 is not faster than the Intel equivalent but it is cheaper. Its advantage, however, is that its 64-bit instruction set has been ratified whereas Intel`s hasn`t and they make no bones about that by NOT marketing it as a 64 bit processor.

I agree about building one yourself for less, but what swung it for me was the software and warrenty. Normal PC World style warrenties and clinic check make me shudder Aldi has a non nosense approach to returns keep the reciept.

Your budget build doesn`t include a copy of Xp and Works which would bump the cost up, and sometimes its nice to have a legit copy.

In my experince the Aldi computer I brought is great and chock full of named compents, the only person to really turn thier nose up will be someone who wants `dell`/`Packard bell` on the Mouse Keyboard Monitor and Mousmat.

I think high speed gamers generally know which GFX cards suck, I spotted the achileas heel soon enough but as a family PC or Silver surfer PC, It can`t be bad, can it?

I wish they would start doing components I need a new AGP card, and could do with a bargin price.



.

Head in sand with regard to Intel vs AMD.

AMD are faster not just cheaper in most independant performce test. Both in single and dual core testing. Dou you want me to provide links?

Most AMD64 motherboard can also be upgraded to dual core CPU`s without binning them due to incompatability.

They also require less power to run. All AMD CPU`s are designed for standard ATX cases and DDR1 memory. Remember Rambus!!!

From an upgrade point of view INTEL are behind.

Would you acknowledge a competitor`s IP with regard to 64 bit extensions.

Intel said this wasn`t necessary for desktop. Had to eat there words.

Do you also believe P4 will reach 10GHZ.

ps. You wouldn`t happen to believe Michael Dells retoric as well?

ps. I am not an AMD fanboy just a realist. Infact I bought DELL 8400 last year. Not so much for the 3GHZ P4 inside but for the ATI X800 GPU that came with it! Before that a Celeron 300 I O/C to 500 MHZ.

In reply to your comments, I stand corrected and that overall the Athlon 64 is much quicker than the P4 in most departments.

However, in reply to your other questions:-

I don`t know what you are talking about regarding DDR1 memory but both Intel`s and AMD`s offerings handles DDR1 and in fact the P4 is optimised for DDR2. The Intel P4 EE blows the Athlon 64 away when accessing memory due to a 2MB Level 3 cache on die.

You also say all AMD processors are designed for standard ATX cases? The fact is NO processor is designed for ATX cases - it is the motherboard that fits into an ATX case.

No I don`t believe the P4 will reach 10GHz. It`s theoretically impossible with the current architecture to reach these speeds and the same applies to AMD. This is why clock speeds have been decreased and speed improvements been gained from other factors such as DDR2 memory access, increased L2 cache and so on.

Why are Intel behind when it comes to upgradeability? Socket 754 boards for AMD are slower than Socket 939 and cannot handle dual core processors.

And no I am not an Intel fan - I am an AMD fan and have used AMD processors for years as they are great value.

This item was edited on Saturday, 27th August 2005, 15:33

Mike, AMD processors are not specifically designed for ATX cases, are you off your trolley?

This item was edited on Saturday, 27th August 2005, 15:27