MD98200 15.4" Multimedia Notebook

batvink

Having bought and returned a Philips X58 from PC World a couple of weeks ago, here's my opinion. The X58 was £699...

Underspecced memory at 1GB (X58 was 2GB). This is the minimum spec for Vista, when Vista apps come out over the next couple of years, you may need to add more memory - if it's possible. At the moment, you might need to budget for £80 - £100 for 1GB laptop memory. You probably won't need it just yet, and over time memory prices do come down.

It includes speakers, which get around the current issues of audible audio! PC World laptops all have a sound problem, I don't know if it's the way laptop design has gone, or if it's a Vista/driver issue. Anyway...this package gets around it.

Graphics card is shared memory, which uses your main memory. Your 1GB is reduced to 892MB as a result. This is no different to the majority of PCs (including the X58).

120GB hard drive is above average, same as X58. 100Gb is normal, with some as low as 80GB

Vista and Works 8.5 is the norm, and all you get with the X58. I'm not sure how useful Power DVD is, as you have Windows Media Center. Power Director, Producer and Media Show are entry-level apps for making and publishing movies. Nero is far superior to the Windows CD/DVD burning solution.

The inputs/outputs are very comprehensive, particularly the Firewire, which is not usually found in this price range.

The memory card reader and Digital TV receiver are a nice addition. The aerial for the TV is in the botom-left of the machine though, probably because of the position of the connectors.

Laptop bag, mouse and remote control are also a nice addition. Bag and case could set you back another £35 - £40.

gfd_2

What puts me off the laptop from aldi is that the graphics is onbaord, how easily can graphics be upgraded on a laptop? My previous gericom laptop from aldi has just died on me, that had 128geforce graphics but that had trouble coping with some newer games. lasted me 3 years though with no upgrade apart the battery. The firewire is really good though. Does anyone know whether its intergrated wireless or is it a card, bcus obviously thats not very good if you wana watch tv at the same time

Warnie

I was seriously thinking about getting this a few weeks ago but the fact that other lappies have beaten this spec and the medion isn't out I think I'll wait just a little bit longer. Shame it's not a higher spec.

batvink

99% of laptops have integrated graphics. They tend to be Intel-based, or the better option (in my personal opinion) is ATI-based Radeon mobile.

A big factor is whether the memory is shared or not. In this case it is, meaning it takes from the main memory pool. Better solutions have their own dedicated memory.

The full specification is here, but remember it's Intels market-spiel.

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/index.htm

The biggest problem I see with buying a laptop right now is that DirectX 10 is one of the big changes in Vista, and these cards won't support it. Even high-end desktop graphics cards aren't compatible, because DX10 is a completely different implementation to DX9. There's only one compatible nVidia card on the market right now (8800). So future games written for DX10 won't be compatible. But you are probably looking 2 years or more down the line, when your CPU is probably too slow anyway

Having said all of that, I would still buy this machine.