My best value PC tips (esp Currys/Dixons/PCWorld

biglugs

But at the prices MSE'ers can get Dell machines for I'd be surprised if the price differential was less than 10%. Even if it is a Celeron D a machine for £306 with a 15" TFT screen has got to be a good deal - certainly a lot cheaper than I could build a basic machine myself.

deanos

Do you know who makes the Advent PC's mentioned above ???

Its Medion the same as the one i bought from Aldi !!

There is a big difference in the spec of the T9102 compard to the £699 Medion from Aldi the main ones are

3 Year Onsite Warranty PCW charge £299 for this
Nvidia 6610XL Graphics card far better than the X600
DVB-T Digital  tuner card (freeview)
Wireless network enabled
Bluetooth enabled

So for £50 more you get loads better value IMO

George_Bray

So for £50 more you get loads better value IMO

You described the differences but I'm afraid you lost me as to which box is the winner! Which is the best machine in your opinion, please?

deanos

Sorry the Aldi one is the clear winner ;D

George_Bray

Here's a quick calculation I did for upgrading my Athlon 1200Mhz processor to an Athlon 64 3000+, which also involves buying new style memory. All prices are from dabs.com, using some of the most moderately priced parts. I also added a 128Mb video card, to replace my 32Mb ATI all-in-wonder.

1) Gigabyte nForce 250 Socket 754 ATX Audio/LAN/RAID motherboard £46.98 inc VAT (£39.99 ex VAT)
2) Athlon 64 3000+ S754 512Kb Box clock speed 2 Ghz
£95.49 inc VAT (£81.27 ex VAT) includes heat sink
3) Fan £8.50
4) Memory 512k £43.50
5) Dabs Radeon 128Mb video card £35.74
Total = £209 + VAT = £246

Ouch! £246 is a lot of money. I doubt if it can be justified. The computer does not feel slow with its 1200 Mhz processor and Win98SE. It does everything I need. How could I gain? I think I may have persuaded myself the upgrade is a non-starter!

deanos

Its not really worth it upgading, checkout the Dell outlet https://www.dell.co.uk/outlet for a base unit

George_Bray

Its not really worth it upgading, checkout the Dell outlet https://www.dell.co.uk/outlet for a base unit

Thank you for the suggestion but I fear the Dell Outlet prices look like less good value than my upgrade proposal, and for less certainty over the components used, less memory, etc, even if I did get Win XP, another hard disk, etc. Many of the Dell units use a Celeron processor which other forum members have advised is not as good as an Athlon 64. Was there a precise Dell unit you had in mind which you consider would be better than the components I suggested for a DIY upgrade?

deanos

The Dell outlet changes every few minutes you can click on a unit to see the spec.

The Athlon64 is a good processor , the Celeron is a budget CPU but is still good it all depends on what you want to use your PC for ?

statman

Is the Medion a special offer at the moment with Aldi? It sounds like those in the know see it as a good deal.
I am looking for a family PC for games, photos, videos etc - will this fit the bill?
???
(new to this so apologies if I've done anything wrong)

George_Bray

Is the Medion a special offer at the moment with Aldi? It sounds like those in the know see it as a good deal.

It is a good deal but the nature of Aldi (and Lidl) hardware deals is that batches come in from time to time and when they're gone, they're gone until next time. They may have those computers once or twice a year. Worth waiting for. Keep an eye on their website and be outside a store at 9am on the first day of advertised availability.