Lidl Cheap PC coming soon £299!! 26th May

kirstenrcf

Hi All,
Just noticed Lidl will be selling PC with 320GB Hard drive, 1Gb Ram Vista software - 3yrs Warranty etc..All for £299.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20070526.p.Family_PC.ar3


I'll leave it to the experts to pull it apart ....

Let's know your thoughts

THANKS.

zeke

No monitor as far as I can see, otherwise is this any good for this price?

zorber

only a single core processor,
can you not get better specs from dell???
i personally wouldnt buy from lidl as i hear of nightmares in the past when they stop working, though Aldi have a good rep for selling PCs

bobesox

Considering the Software, Hardware and the 3yr Warranty - Not a bad price at all.

Don't we hear of nightmares from Dell??

schofields_2

Lots my brothers being have loads of problems with dell about a faulty laptop. Oh and if Lidl is like Aldi and all the other German stores there are great for electricals (most of the time) by the way what make is this PC (medion by any chance)

gromituk

zorber wrote: »

i personally wouldnt buy from lidl as i hear of nightmares in the past when they stop working

Care to elaborate? Provided you take it back to the branch you bought it from, they will repair/replace.

honestDave_2

cheap price, but low grade spec so not a great bargin really.

graphics card is about as low as you can get on the market at the moment.

Athlon 64 3500+ is ok but is a 3 year old processor so again, low spec.

only other info included which is positive is the 3 years warranty and a reasonable hard drive in terms of size and speed (doesn't say how much cache though). 1 gig of ram is good, but is that enough to run Vista properly? Probably not.

Overall conclusion who be... best bit of this deal is the 3 year warranty - says something about the spec if that's the case.

GDB2222

The parts would cost
processor £30
RAM £45
Case £15
disk £45
motherboard £30
windows £50
DVD £15
keybd/mouse/card rdr £10
Total £240
Less Google Checkout savings of say £40 after allowing for delivery costs

So net cost to build from scratch is £200. The only thing I have scrimped on is the case and PSU, where you might want to add an extra £15 for a decent PSU. The £200 includes windows, but no other bundled software. Do you really have to pay £100 for the 3 year warranty and for someone to put the parts together for you? My kids would do it for a tenner.


I have assumed graphics included on motherboard.

gromituk

I'm glad your kids would do all the parts ordering for free. Good thing, as it would be illegal otherwise.

Inactive

zorber wrote: »

i personally wouldnt buy from lidl as i hear of nightmares in the past when they stop working, though Aldi have a good rep for selling PCs

Utter tosh.. :rolleyes:

Targa ( Lidl ) Helpline is fantastic, I have dealt with them, so knowledgeable .. nothing is too much trouble for them.

Targa Computers are very well engineered as well, I wouldn't hesitate in recommending them.

Sid_Harper

GDB2222 wrote: »

The parts would cost
processor £30
RAM £45
Case £15
disk £45
motherboard £30
windows £50
DVD £15
keybd/mouse/card rdr £10
Total £240
Less Google Checkout savings of say £40 after allowing for delivery costs

So net cost to build from scratch is £200. The only thing I have scrimped on is the case and PSU, where you might want to add an extra £15 for a decent PSU. The £200 includes windows, but no other bundled software. Do you really have to pay £100 for the 3 year warranty and for someone to put the parts together for you? My kids would do it for a tenner.

I have assumed graphics included on motherboard.

Oh not this argument again, please. Surprising as it may seem, people who sell PCs are out to make a bit of money.

So let's consider the DIY route. Firstly I think the £40 Google Checkout vs. delivery costs bit is a bit ambitious. On top of that you want to be sure that the parts are compatible with Vista (and a lot of stuff still doesn't have drivers) as well as each other (I mean hardware that plain doesn't like other hardware or its drivers), wait for multiple deliveries, and if something goes wrong have to undertake the diagnosis yourself and pay the returns carriage for that part, and have the time and enough knowledge to fresh-install Vista.

All of that has a monetary equivalent value in time and hassle, forgetting that OEM parts will only have a year warranty generally. If you have the interest and time to take on the above, good for you, but then you would probably not be considering buying a ready-built machine of this spec.

I think this is a great deal for a home PC bought from a retail store and ready to go out of the box. Vista with 1Gb is fine. As is the CPU, and 320Gb HDD. And you get relative peace-of-mind for 3 years.

What I'm getting at is to ask the question where can you buy a *ready built* machine of similar spec less than £299? If you can't then this is a good money saving tip. And I think it is.