WSL: Aldi PC for £499 from 04/08/05 (merged)

Bubba_Shaboo

http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/index.html

I'm sure there will be varying opinions on this but it seems something of a bargain to this layman::

Titanium MD8385 Base Station



Comes complete with

Remote control
Wireless keyboard
Optical wireless mouse
Headset with microphone

Power
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 519
3.06GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB
64-bit technology to support future computing needs
'Whisper' quiet thanks to AIRXL heat pipe cooler

Hard Disk Capacity
250 GB 8 MB Cache
S-ATA 150 Interface
Super fast 7200 RPM

Memory
512 MB DDR
Upgradeable to 2GB

High End Graphics
NVIDIA® GeForce® 6200 TC graphics card with TurboCacheTM Technology2 supporting 256MB DDR, PCI-Express x 16 busarchitecture, TV-out

Burn
16 x Multi-standard, Dual Layer DVD/CD-Writer

Software
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with SP2 pre-installed
Microsoft Works 8.0
Also comes with an amazing software package4 including Medion Home Cinema XL
AOL 9.0 and many more

Package
16 x DVD-ROM ideal for watching DVD movies

Crystal-clear TV, DVB-T digital TV - see the new free-to-air digital channels1
Analogue Stereo-TV and FM Tuner card
Watch and record TV programmes on your PC
8 in 1 USB 2.0 card reader. Reads from and writes to all common flash cards3
8-channel Intel High Definition Audio

Connect
6 x 2.0 USB 2 x front, 4 x rear
2 x FireWire 1 x front, 1 x rear

Communicate
LAN Network controller on board Fast Ethernet 10/100 MBit/s
56K V.9 x PCI data/fax modem
Telephone connection cable included
Skype Internet Telephony Software
Use the internet to make cheaper worldwide phone calls5
Includes 120 free minutes of Skypeout calls

1 Requires a DVB-T or other digital service in your area. 2 The revolutionary new NVIDIA® TurboCacheTM technology utilises the additional bandwidth of PCI-Express to reach higher levels of graphics performance than traditional video memory solutions. TurboCacheTM shares the capacity and bandwidth of dedicated 128MB video memory and dynamically available system memory for turbocharged performance and large total graphics memory. 3 Flash Cards not included. 4 OEM Version. 5 See http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/ for more information.
HTH

Bubba.

italiastar

I agree, there will be varying opinion, but as a non-layman I can say that it is a bargain if you need and are going to use such a high level machine. When you take into account the licenced software and 3 year warranty you can't beat it - you couldn't build one for this price.

redfox

like in this thread when it was on offer before

ShopperHolic

redfox wrote:

like in this thread when it was on offer before

nowhere near as good a spec as offered before. Looks a bargain on the surface but taking a closer look reveals a lot of entry level components. Granted if you only want to do routine stuff, internet, word processing etc it is an ideal machine and the 3 year warranty gives you piece of mind.

Tharweb

redfox wrote:

like in this thread when it was on offer before

Don't think it's the same machine. This one's named the 8385 so explains the lesser spec.

Worth considering though...

redfox

Tharweb wrote:

Don't think it's the same machine. This one's named the 8385 so explains the lesser spec.

ah right, ok, I didn't look at the numbers

some of the general comments made in that thread are still valid though I suppose.

Rave

italiastar wrote:

you couldn't build one for this price.

Yeah you could.

Processor £120
Board £60
Memory £35
Hard drive £80
DVDRW £30
Case + PSU £25
Graphics card £40
DVB-T card £40
Mouse and keyboard £15

That makes £420 leaving you with £80 for XP + software- doable, especially if you get Star Office instead of Works;). I used a P4 530 with HT and an 800MHz bus as the basis for mine so it should be faster. If you want to play games you could get an Athlon 64 system with a better graphics card like a 6600 for about the same price which would whip this computer.

It's not a bad deal, but IMO if you want to buy a prebuilt Intel computer you should take advantage of a Dell bargain, and if you want a fast computer and know what you're doing you should build it yourself.

Johntea

They should have included maybe 512mb more RAM and a DVD Writer

Probably been better off trying to sell it with the 17" TFT actually as it seems to be aimed at 'casual' computer users.

Bubba_Shaboo

Johntea wrote:

They should have included maybe 512mb more RAM and a DVD Writer

Dvd Writer included:

Bubba_Shaboo wrote:

Burn
16 x Multi-standard, Dual Layer DVD/CD-Writer

HTH

Bubba.

jeffers1969

Aldi are running their superb PC deals again £499 for spuerb spec base unit


http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/productnl_311.html

compmad1

How does this specification differ from the last one? I have no idea how to make a computer. This looks pretty good to me, but I do not know a lot about computers. I like the 3 year warranty. Will it play games? I want to get one for my son for Christmas. He uses mine which has a 128 MB graphics card of some sort.