new PC available at Aldi this week

globalds

Tony if you are the type who gets joy out of building your own machine ,then this or any other medion is not the way to go.
But as machines stack up against comparable machines .And for thismachine it would be a Dell or a PC world box ,then this is probably as good a machine to invest in.
There will be no conflicts and the components will all be able to support each other.It is not good for upgrading or experimenting with ,But with good quad processor and a fair graphics card it will make many kids much happier than if there parents had spent the same cash at PC world or Currys.
And again for this kind of consumer a 3 year warranty is the right option to get thrown in with the price ...Even if the fluff doesn't get blown out of the box for 2 years and the thing turns into an oven ...The warranty will get it back running.

DatabaseError

globalds, I agree, for the money it's a good deal, better than similarly priced from major retail outlets.

cowbutt

tonyhague wrote: »

cowbutt, in many ways you are right, at stock speeds the quad will perform tasks faster than the dual, but not, to most people, noticeably.

It's swings and roundabouts, though, Tony. It's not unreasonable for even a non-technical user to be running multiple CPU-bound processes simultaneously (e.g. video playback, CD/DVD ripping and encoding, anti-virus). Claiming 'better' with only a dual-core CPU requires some caveats that a Q8200-or-faster CPU wouldn't.

And, as this is a moneysaving forum, overclocking (getting more for the same money) has to be a consideration/good thing.

It's fine for hobbyists, but aside from the issues regarding warranty, there's also the risk that it'll cause instability and/or silent corruption. If the machine's only used for games, that's no big deal (just reboot and continue from the last saved game), but if the machine is being used for anything rather more important, then it's probably not a sensible risk to take.

the half sized disk is not much cheaper than the larger one, but 1tb is overkill for my kids (crikey, i only have 800gb over 2 drives, with 300 or so free).

Again, a 500GB disc is never 'better' than a 1TB disc. :-)

whoever told you that a 9600GT is faster than an 8800GT is thinking newer is better, apparently they are mistaken "gaming performance was only 12% below the 8800 GT on average"

My mistake. My thinking was exactly that; I don't play contemporary games, so my fastest VGA card is either a Radeon 9250 or a Geforce4 440MX. Generally, I buy the cheapest that'll fit the motherboard, providing it's from a half-decent manufacturer. :-)

there is no OS in my price, but there is a monitor, vista home from amazon is £64, and there is a cheaper, honest way of getting it (can't find the link).
oh..and office software, i can add microsoft office ultimate 07 for £38.

I'm perfectly happy leaving it out of a self-build system for myself, as I routinely use Linux everywhere. The money I save can be spent on a better-quality, more futureproof motherboard. But for the audience at which a ready-built ready-to-use desktop PC is aimed, Windows pre-installed is almost certainly a requirement for a fair comparison.

...and I love screwing bits together

I have done too; I've built my last three machines, but it takes a while, and the likes of Dell and Medion can usually do an acceptably-good job these days, and for less money. Indeed, some things (e.g. noise levels, case aesthetics, ease-of-servicing) can sometimes be done better by Dell and friends.

Enjoy building your own PCs whilst it lasts! :-)

DatabaseError

cowbutt wrote: »

Enjoy building your own PCs whilst it lasts! :-)

Hopefully next bit of building fun on friday (or tomorrow, not too sure reading the confirmations). Looking for <1hr build with a bit of cable management, around 2 hrs software install + updates, i really ought to make a slipstream disk, but cba

as to overclocking instability...besides testing with the usual tools (prime95 etc) my PC folds both cpu + gpu, and nothing stresses cpu or gpu more, any instability would be shown (I also monitored temps for the 1st month, now occasionally just to check all is well. )

hemophobic

that comp looks noice - wish i didn't buy mine now

aliasojo

I've just bought two of these this morning and they come with windows vista 32 bit pre-installed with vista 64 bit included also.

I have no idea which to use. Help please?

I've been downloading both versions of drivers (32-bit and 64-bit)for our existing monitors and printers etc so I can use either but I don't really know what the difference is or which one I'd be best using.

DatabaseError

4 gb ram, go vista 64

samhale

To use all the ram, go for 64.
However there are compatibility issues, and personally I'd use 32.

DatabaseError

samhale wrote: »

To use all the ram, go for 64.
However there are compatibility issues, and personally I'd use 32.

compatability issues? more relevant info, please (using vista 64 on 2 machines, adding a 3rd soon as I find a dvi>d-sub adapter)

feesh

oooh this looks promising - we are desperately in need of a new computer, as you can probably tell by my typing errors!

I really wanted an iMac, partly because of the beautiful design (not for the label!) but also because my only use on the computer is photo processing and web surfing.

But now I am tempted by this. Is it the best deal going, can't be beaten by the likes of dell etc?