New Aldi pc good deal?

Icyseanfitz

Hey all i am just wondering wether the Medion Akoya X7330 D pc going on sale in aldi next thursday is any good?
Specs:
Intel Quad core processor 2.5Ghz
Nvidia Geforce G210 512mb
4gb ram ( 2x2gb )
1tb harddrive
Windows 7 home premium

This in not for myself but for my parents who havnt changed their pc in 5-6 years (pentium 4 ,xp ,1gb ram ,nvida 5600 ) im pressuming this will run faster than that semms like a pretty good deal for 400 euro

ED E

Beware the drives, I know somebody who had a Medion which had 3 drive failures in 18months(yeah, took them that long to dump it).

sold

Medion are great!. have had one for 5 years. Bought a new one recently, would not boot on a sunday, I called their customer service and was answered and they sorted it over the phone. You made a good buy, plus it has 3 years warranty.

Only thing you sould get is a power surge unit.

Icyseanfitz

you mean the Hdd right? if so it seems alright its got the 1 tb S-ATA drive and two hot-swap bays for S-ATA hdd's in the front, it also has a 3 years manufactures warrenty which my parents deffinatly wouldnt be voiding haha

congress3

Looks quite good. Do you have a link or where did you hear about it.

Icyseanfitz

ya i saw it on a aldi flyer il try and find a link for ye if i can

dermonola

I hace a medion computer for last 5 years. No problems. However, like the current offer, it did not have a firewire socket. I had to install one myself. A firewire card cost around 50 euros and everything worked fine after installation of card.
I'm tempted by this offer - but no firewire !!!

danjo-xx

Its a special buy and starts tomorrow.

ooooops
edit: its Thursday.

Icyseanfitz

on the flyer it says thursday the 7th, sorry couldnt find a link for it these are the exact specs:

windows 7 home premium

intel core 2 quad processer q8300
nvidia geforce g210
4gb ddr2 ram 2 x 2 gb
1tb hard drive
dvd/cd burner
network controller gigabit lan
multicard reader
ps2/2 keyboard & optical usb mouse, connections front 2 usb, 1 microphone, 1 headphone, 4 in 1 memory card readerr
rear 4 usb, 2 ps/2 1 lan, 1 front line out subwoofer /centree out, 1 rear line out, 1 surround sound, 1 line in, 1 microphone
software package oem versions and /or cd/dvd or recovery dvd

Mike Litoris

Is it true that the gfx card is a bit cack for games?

game4it70

Mike Litoris wrote: »

Is it true that the gfx card is a bit cack for games?

Extremely cack imo.;)

roberthurley14

u could just buy a good GFX card seperately if need be and bin/burn/piss on, the crap one they give

dogpile

Plenty of views on it here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1287131.html ...some good and some not so good, downside seems to be apart from a decent processor and HD storage alot of it is very basic parts, notably the graphics and motherboard (4 gig ram is max :rolleyes:) and no IDE connectivity, only 1 PCIe and 4 Sata, 350w PSU.....so not very future proof

you could probably build the same unit yourself with the same parts for 100 quid less, tho Windows 7 installed and 3 year warranty are big plus points

game4it70

roberthurley14 wrote: »

u could just buy a good GFX card seperately if need be and bin/burn/piss on, the crap one they give

That may not be a easy thing to do because of the PSU.Its probably not very powerful plus poor quality and it may not even have pci-e conections.

Icyseanfitz

I am good when it comes to games ( got a dell xps m1730 laptop) just trying to figure out if this pc will be good for people who arnt into heavy gpu apps mostly internet browsing etc, from what ive got out of it 400 euro seems pretty grand for what your getting (the cost of a good GPU )

Bob_Harris

dogpile wrote: »

(4 gig ram is max :rolleyes:)

Are you using the roll eyes in the sarcastic sense, implying that the 4gig limit is a silly thing to complain about? If so, kudos.

If not, then :facepalm:

The only people who need 4gigs + RAM are users who have multiple virtual machines running (and doing actual work) and those who do heavy video editing.

Standard users, gamers, and "power" users will struggle to find any benefit to more than 4gigs of RAM for some years yet.

lmimmfn

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

I am good when it comes to games ( got a dell xps m1730 laptop) just trying to figure out if this pc will be good for people who arnt into heavy gpu apps mostly internet browsing etc, from what ive got out of it 400 euro seems pretty grand for what your getting (the cost of a good GPU )

well at the end of the day you get what you pay for, there are rarely any bargains when it comes to PC's, if its cheap its because it uses cheap and crap components for everything but whats spec'd on a sheet, i.e. cpu, harddrive size and loads of stuff you'd expect anyway( DVD, USB ports, KB+mouse ) being the main ones and more than likely you could build the same for less in most cases, good gpu is around 130euro btw :P

dogpile

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Are you using the roll eyes in the sarcastic sense, implying that the 4gig limit is a silly thing to complain about? If so, kudos.

If not, then :facepalm:

The only people who need 4gigs + RAM are users who have multiple virtual machines running (and doing actual work) and those who do heavy video editing.

Standard users, gamers, and "power" users will struggle to find any benefit to more than 4gigs of RAM for some years yet.

Standard motherbaords now that cost 60-80 euros all have a min 6 gig ram up to 16 (DDR3 in some cases) in a year or 2 there's no room for expansion so you'll be buying a new motherboard....everything on this is lowest spec, you don't need to be a serious user to see you'll need a better graphics card, more powerful power supply....LG rewriter costs about 40 quid to buy

Tintee

It`s a damn good deal.Someone i know asked me before xmas to build them a pc in the new year because this is what i do ( build and fix pc`s)
Take a look at the parts..cpu 121 euro..gpu 37 euro..mobo, approx 38 euro..1tb hd 75 euro..dvd rom 24 euro...ram, 2gb X 2 sticks or ddr2 your looking at 80 plus euro..keyboard n mouse you get away with 15 euro..case 15 euros...psu 46 euro (corsair)
Add that lot up and your looking at 450 euros and that`s without win 7 or any os and doesn`t take into account my labour or postage costs for the parts or the 3 year warranty ( plus all the associated hassle)
Bottom line is i told the guy to go buy it because of these reasons.Sure i missed out on a quick earner from building it but i like to be honest with my customers and not rip em off.

Icyseanfitz

ya i know you get what you pay for (lg cookie mobile just went bang on me thats what i get for buying cheapest touchscreen last year:) and no money to buy new phone:( damn you christmas) but to be honest my parents dont use computers for anything but general use and seing as their old computer is pretty crap as in takes bout 10 mins to boot up this cannot be a step backwards:)
you can get plenty of good gpu's for under 200 euro but i was thinking of the ones that could max games out for the next two years as in the GeForce GTX295 which go for bout 450 euro:eek:

congress3

Sure if it's just for your parents and normal pc usage then it will be a flyer for them and great value to boot.

Midiout

Note : on the Aldi leaflet it says helpline calls charged at 7c per minute.I thought the Medion computers were covered by a free 3 year warranty? Is thius 7c / pm a new thing? It stinks because you could be 45 minutes on the phone with a problem.

derra

So can anyone come up with a better deal from Dell etc before i purchase this machine from Aldis ?
Same price or less, no monitor required but be great to get one with it !
I have a ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP graphics card, decent Soundblaster sound card and a PCI card with Firewire.
PC i have now is Optiplex 280 ,P4,2GB ram, components mentioned above.
Applications users in house would use are Fruityloops, Secondlife(being the only gaming), general everyday surfing etc and converting of movies etc.

Tintee

From past experience i would say forget dell.By past experience i mean that one time for a laugh i went and tried to find a similar rig to one i was building for myself.It was a top end gaming rig with the fastest available gpu at the time.To get this rig i had to "upgrade" certain options (gpu etc).When i clicked the gpu upgrade they actually added double the price of me going out and actually buying said gpu.Talk about insulting to the intelligence.Yes, i laughed loudly when i saw it after a moments disbelief.
Having said that, i just had a quick look at the dell site and for the same money as the medion you will be looking at a pc with half the drive size, less memory and a dual core rather than a quad.If your encoding then i would suggest going for a quad.For another 76 euros or so you will get the same quad cpu at dell, a better video card, less memory and less hd size.Like i said above, the medion is a great deal and not easily beatable.Now i know you don`t know me and my experience in such things but rest assured that i know my pc`s.Do yourself a favour if your in the market for one then go get one bright and early before they are gone.:)

derra

Cheers for reply Tintee.
Had a good look around too and failed to find anything either.
Have just sold a laptop for €100 and close to selling another PC for €100, can't use that to increase my spending power so am looking at getting that Medion for €200 really.
So all in all if i manage to get one, i be happy enough.

Farcear

Tintee wrote: »

From past experience i would say forget dell.By past experience i mean that one time for a laugh i went and tried to find a similar rig to one i was building for myself.It was a top end gaming rig with the fastest available gpu at the time. [...]

For low-end computers you are better off buying from Dell.

For high-end computers you are better off building yourself.

---

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

just trying to figure out if this pc will be good for people who arnt into heavy gpu apps mostly internet browsing etc, from what ive got out of it 400 euro seems pretty grand for what your getting (the cost of a good GPU )

If anything, this is overkill for a machine that is just going to be running Firefox and doubly so if you use Chrome!

The only thing you might want to do is look at getting a second HDD or external drive so you can backup and important files / photos.

Tintee

Farcear wrote: »

For low-end computers you are better off buying from Dell.

For high-end computers you are better off building yourself.

---

It seems that your implying i suggested buying high end from dell.I did not say that.Please read again and understand that i was purely stating this to show dells practices.The term "for a laugh" is the indication of this.
That is not my only experience of dell as i`ve been dabbling with computers since the early 80`s, which is before there even was such a thing as a dell pc and i have fixed many of their products over the years since.

stateofflux

dogpile wrote: »

you could probably build the same unit yourself with the same parts for 100 quid less

im not being sarcastic but id like to know how i could build this spec for 300 quid (even without postage)as i need a new computer...i go into maplin and cringe at the price of things most of the time....:)

reunion

ok first off, i built the pc on komplett (no operating system) cost 411.91 (i may ahve forgotten the psu, which would be another 36 (buts its a better psu))

so its a good buy for the value for the parts, however i think that is due to the nature of these parts, they dont sell well so get a higher price tag. (also last time i checked dabs.ie were even cheaper (when i built my pc anyway) but they suck with credit cards processing and what not)

Anyone thinking of getting this as a gaming pc, do some research first... like a quick search on toms hardware the comparison charts for both processors and graphics cards neither appear on the list...

bascially for a gaming pc this would do you about a half a year with things on low(ish medium at a stretch) this is my reference go to conclusion to skip boring info). for gaming i would (personally pay the extra 100 or so and get a pc with the case i want and the components i want.

processor is (fine)

obviously money is a factor but think before you buy, what do you want this computer for?

if gaming then no, waste of money in the long run (imho) as you will have to upgrade sooner or later (very much sooner), when you could build a better pc (hell even the same pc) but with a better case and psu so you would have the option to upgrade in the future...

for web surfing and generic tasks then this is perfect really cheap (note dell site would not be able to build a similar pc cheaper), so for your parents its fine but then again id say even a netbook would do.... (only 250-300ish)

if your on a budget like, then check ebay and what not, but all in all, this is a great pc for playing older games and current games on low-medium

*edit* also maplin are expensive but they stock everything, so if you need like a sata to ide converter or something they would be your best bet to find it

the_syco

dogpile wrote: »

no IDE connectivity, only 1 PCIe and 4 Sata, 350w PSU.....so not very future proof

Gah. Was hoping that'd not be the case. Ack, an IDE-SATA converter will only cost a tenner, so I can still throw in my old harddrives from the current family machine into it.

According to http://www.medion.com/ms/aldi/md8335/uk/ the graphics card has 1GB. Also, it's an actual seperate card, not some inbuilt PoS.

Also, this is a family machine, for someone who can't be arsed building a machine. For a gaming machine, look at the Komplett Competition thread. Sure, for under €300, you could get a machine that could play MW2. Also, gaming machine breaks, you have to RMA each part separtely. Buy an Aldi machine, and you give the entire machine back to get it fixed.

Bob_Harris

the_syco wrote: »

According to http://www.medion.com/ms/aldi/md8335/uk/ the graphics card has 1GB. Also, it's an actual seperate card, not some inbuilt PoS.

The amount of RAM on a graphics card means nothing if the GPU itself is weak. Even in top end cards you'd see no drastic difference between a 512mb model and 1GB model of the same GPU.

the_syco

Bob_Harris wrote: »

The amount of RAM on a graphics card means nothing if the GPU itself is weak.

Aye, but I'm thinking this will be better than the GeForce 4200 that's in the family machine now.

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Even in top end cards you'd see no drastic difference between a 512mb model and 1GB model of the same GPU.

Aye. What my point was meant to mean is that as it's a seperate card, the 1GB is on the card itself, and not "loaned" out from the RAM. That, and the Aldi site lists it as a 512MB card.

Making It Bad

Do Medion make their own PSU/Mobos? The 350w sounds pretty nasty, you could always replace it I guess... But if you're willing to do that you might as well just build yourself.

chisel

dogpile wrote: »

Plenty of views on it here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1287131.html ...some good and some not so good, downside seems to be apart from a decent processor and HD storage alot of it is very basic parts, notably the graphics and motherboard (4 gig ram is max :rolleyes:) and no IDE connectivity, only 1 PCIe and 4 Sata, 350w PSU.....so not very future proof

you could probably build the same unit yourself with the same parts for 100 quid less, tho Windows 7 installed and 3 year warranty are big plus points

As far as I can see, that is a different PC, and I can't find any details anywhere on what the mobo is.

ccording to http://www.medion.com/ms/aldi/md8335/uk/ the graphics card has 1GB. Also, it's an actual seperate card, not some inbuilt PoS.

this is also a different machine, the aldi ad clearly states that its 512mB in this case.

dogpile

chisel wrote: »

As far as I can see, that is a different PC, and I can't find any details anywhere on what the mobo is.



this is also a different machine, the aldi ad clearly states that its 512mB in this case.

Same deal in different clothing, you think they'd sent out a completely different machine a few short months later

the_syco

chisel wrote: »

As far as I can see, that is a different PC, and I can't find any details anywhere on what the mobo is.

It seems you are correct. The one on the site is the E7330 D (MD 8335) but theone on sale this time is the X7330 D (MD 8339).

The front is different, with the 8339 having two bays for hot-swappable SATA drives. Also, this one comes with Windows 7 pre-installed, which ensures no need to spend an extra €20 to get your free Windows 7 upgrade disc.

dogpile

the_syco wrote: »

It seems you are correct. The one on the site is the E7330 D (MD 8335) but theone on sale this time is the X7330 D (MD 8339).

The front is different, with the 8339 having two bays for hot-swappable SATA drives. Also, this one comes with Windows 7 pre-installed, which ensures no need to spend an extra €20 to get your free Windows 7 upgrade disc.

The case is different with a larger HD, that's the only difference in the spec I see....the guts of the thing would be identical I reckon ie processor(obviously) board and psu

chisel

Well, we will see in the morning (if I manage to make it through the snow to my local aldi)

derra

Anybody manage to get their hands on one ?
Store in Arklow, Co.Wicklow had the grand total of two units to sell :rolleyes:
Brother was down there at 9am and was couple people ahead him only to be told there was only two allocated to that shop.
There is 70 shops in Ireland according to Wiki, they may have had 300 to sell, with alot of potential customers going to their stores to see if they got lucky as well as other items , good marketing me thinks to get people into their stores.
Gonna check the Dell outlet later when that site is back in operation, other than that i might just build me own.

dogpile

Was in Aldi in Fonthill this morn on the off chance I might be tempted, not a sausage! only had 6 and they were swiped before 10 o'clock.....and I didn't buy their sausages either

Mister Man

so no one managed to pick one of these up then?

EvilMonkey

Good unofficial support site for anyone that got one.
www.medionsupport.com

Zeouterlimits

Mister Man wrote: »

so no one managed to pick one of these up then?

Yours truly has .
Lined up at 07:45, luckily actually because the queue started soon after. When we finally got in, much to the dismay of every single people save me and one other - they had only gotten 2 units (Tralee).
Really happy with it. Swapped in my Corsair 450w PSU and am ordering a HD4770.
SIW reveals the SATA is 7200rpm, the RAM is Samsung DDR2 800.

Only problem I'm having is trying to Install my Marvell Libertas 8335 wireless card, but I think the problem is Windows7 .
Currently running 32-bit but it comes with the discs for both 32 and 64.

dogpile

Zeouterlimits wrote: »

Yours truly has .
Lined up at 07:45, luckily actually because the queue started soon after. When we finally got in, much to the dismay of every single people save me and one other - they had only gotten 2 units (Tralee).
Really happy with it. Swapped in my Corsair 450w PSU and am ordering a HD4770.
SIW reveals the SATA is 7200rpm, the RAM is Samsung DDR2 800.

Only problem I'm having is trying to Install my Marvell Libertas 8335 wireless card, but I think the problem is Windows7 .
Currently running 32-bit but it comes with the discs for both 32 and 64.

Oooh you're one of those rather annoying people who's first in a queu??


2 windows disks as in istallation disks or just recovery?

that's gotta be worth close to 150 quid alone (if not more)

Zeouterlimits

dogpile wrote: »

Oooh you're one of those rather annoying people who's first in a queu??
2 windows disks as in istallation disks or just recovery?
that's gotta be worth close to 150 quid alone (if not more)

Sorry, just recovery. Will hopefully be getting Ultimate Ed when I return to college at the end of the month.

the_syco

Father went to the one in Celbridge. All 3 were gone by then. They were gone two minutes before the shop even opened :mad:

Feck it. Will probably put this together to replace the current rig.

marco_polo

the_syco wrote: »

Father went to the one in Celbridge. All 3 were gone by then. They were gone two minutes before the shop even opened :mad:

Feck it. Will probably put this together to replace the current rig.

Link is to edit the shopping list so can't see it

the_syco

marco_polo wrote: »

Link is to edit the shopping list so can't see it

Uh. Fixed :P