Kitz Forum
Computers & Hardware => Hardware - Deals & Bargains => Topic started by: oldfogy on February 08, 2008, 05:33:17 PM
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Just on the off-chance that you do not get the Aldi special offer newsletter, here is an offer from Medion on the 14th February for what seems like a nice cheap £400 PC with lots of spec to go with it.
Actually, I would really like your thoughts on it (even though it is Vista) as I'm tempted to buy it.
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_5061.htm
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If you are switching to Vista make sure that drivers exist for all your peripherals, printers/scanners etc. Nothing more irritating than buying a new PC and finding that you have to buy a new scanner as well. I speak from experience !
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Just as a follow up to OF's post, Aldi do some pretty good offers on computer tackle but, sometimes, they are very limited in quantity available at each store and it pays to know in advance what will be on offer.
The newsletter is a very handy early warning of what will be available with about one weeks notice. You can subscribe here:
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/newsletter.htm
and just delete any that do not have anything of interest to you.
NO, i don't get commission but I do get the newsletter and quite a few times I have been into my local store and bought the last of a specific item for the bargain price, on the day that they went on sale.
dave
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I havent had chance to look into the exact specs yet properly.. but over the years I have bought a couple of their PC specials.
Bear in mind that I was a previous "build your own" type person.
The only reason I bought the first one was a kind of "need it now" ... problem with my old machine occurred 2 days before the deadline for handing in a pile of final assignments for my foundation degree and I didnt have time to mess about.
Mum helped come to the rescue with an early b/day pressie... and although that PC is now 5 year old - its still up and running as kims pc with a few added extras I put in such as upgrade RAM and 2nd HDD etc.
The 2nd one is this machine Im using right now - again I was going to do a build
- but the specs of the PC they offered meant that I couldnt even attempt to buy all the parts for what they were offering.. which at the time was a top spec PC.
I did have a problem with the graphics card.. but Medion support were excellent and replaced it without any qualms.
Again over the years Ive added more stuff to it... but this machine is on 24/7 and has been for over 3 years.
Its still a half decent spec.. but I do have concerns over the HDD situation right now.
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Thanks Mike, but it's more of a spare more than anything else.
At the moment I am still using the Medion MD 8008 XL of which was also an offer some years back, although it has had some "considerable" upgrades since then but still find it very reliable.
As Dave has pointed out, yes, if you want one of the offers badly, then be prepared to be there at opening time as most offers usually sell-out by lunch time (then again it comes in handy having a quite word with the manager the day before-hand) well I am a regular customer. ::)
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
I did have a problem with the graphics card.. but Medion support were excellent and replaced it without any qualms.
Yes likewise, they had a bad batch of graphics cards at one time.
But like yourself, support sorted it out very quickly.
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That does look like a pretty good spec for the money.
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Agreed the spec is very good. Vista certainly won't be too much of a problem performance wise (though if you loaded on XP it would be lightning fast)
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Just as a matter of interest should any one be interested, here is the Main-board spec for the "MicroStar 7366 MB"
I just phoned Medion and that is what they quoted.
http://www.msicomputer.co.uk/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1329&maincat_no=1
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Yeah that looks all good.
fully loaded media center but i didnt see any mention of a monitor??
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There is no monitor supplied Paul.If you have a look on www.pricerunner.com. you can find a 19" for around £100.
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ahh right ... saying that, if you are gonna use it as a media centre then you'll be using the tv anyway !
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Thats actually one of the things I do like about the aldi specials in that you buy the monitor and PC separate which gives you the option of getting what you want - or you may already have a decent monitor.
I normally discard their mouse and keyboard - since Im a bit of a logitech fan..
To me such things as the mouse/keyboard and monitor are really what you interact with the most - therefore I dont mind paying a bit extra for decent stuff.
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The newsletter is a very handy early warning of what will be available with about one weeks notice. You can subscribe here:
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/newsletter.htm
and just delete any that do not have anything of interest to you.
Has anyone done this successfully recently? I've tried a couple of times, but the confirmation link which they emailed me just gives an error when I try to use it (same in any browser).
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I've not registered recently, Eric. I did both Aldi and Lidl about twelve months ago and get emails usually twice a week and an extra one when they have other specials.
All I do if interested in a particular item is click the picture in the email and it takes me to their site and a full description of that article.
I have just tried the link again and it gives you a choice of receiving mail in html or text.
dave
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Eric,I get a weekly newsletter from Aldi without any problem.I use Yahoo mail and IE7.
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>> I have just tried the link again and it gives you a choice of receiving mail in html or text.
Yes Dave, your link works OK, and I've tried both HTML and plain text options, but the confirmation link in the email which they send doesn't work.
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You could always bookmark the site for future reference.
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Oh yes, no problem there of course, but the email notification would be quite handy.
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Oh yes, no problem there of course, but the email notification would be quite handy.
Have you checked your email blocking settings, just on the off chance you have blocked them in the past.
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>> Has anyone done this successfully recently?
Not recently Im afraid I did mine several years ago too
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Have you checked your email blocking settings, just on the off chance you have blocked them in the past.
There's no problem with the email, but the link in it doesn't work.
Here's the link, see if it works for anyone else:
http://newsletter.aldi.com/inxmail3/url?vbj2q400000000d255a11
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I just signed up with a test email from http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/service/newsletter.htm
that seemed to go through ok
Edited to add - got confirmation of sign up which included a confirm link which I did
and I now have the following message in my browser window
"Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter!"
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Eric,
Your may not be working for some people as it is being blocked by PG2. (Bertelsmann Server)
May I suggest people use my original Aldi link post, then on the right-hand side is their link to sign-up for emails.
(if it works, only like wise I signed-up a long time ago and have no problem)
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
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Having just gone through the sign up process it perhaps looks like the url sent out in the confirmation mail is the one that isnt working for eric.
eg from this email you get
Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.
To activate your subscription please click the following link
* http://newsletter.aldi.com/inxmail3/url?vxn1234567etc
Simply delete this message, if you do not want to activate your subscription.
ALDI UK
You then have to click on that link to activate - mine went through ok - so all I can perhaps suggest is try the sign up process again from step1.. to see if the new confirmation link they send out is valid.
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Thanks for all the help folks, and apologies for dragging the thread off-topic. :-[ I borrowed a Windows box and tried from there, and received an email confirmation link which DID work, but I still can't for the life of me understand why it didn't work from Linux. ???
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Probably not using a German Penguin!
>:D
dave
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Certainly not. Linux penguins are the genuine antarctic article. 8)
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Just noticed a nice spec laptop at Aldi for £499. www.aldi.co.uk
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Admin
edited url @ request of Aldi as prev link was returning a 404
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Did you get one of the PCs in the end OF?
If so me is jealous..
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Did you get one of the PCs in the end OF?
No....... sorry.
After looking and thinking about it very hard I decided not to bother.
The main reason being the removable docking bay on the top of the PC which is not displayed on any of the pictures, (this time) this bay can only be used with the Medion docking drive/s "and no other" at a rough cost of £65 inc a 500GB HDD, so basically to me it was useless and I would be paying for something I would never use.
So as said, I decided not to bother as it was only basically going to be a spare, so will wait a little longer and see what they bring out next.
OR when the DDR3 RAM comes out along with a quad processor, make my own up.
(That should keep me happy for a day or two) :no:
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I've just noticed that they've got the same PC on the same offer again this Sunday, as well as this rather snazzy looking laptop (http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2867_5160.htm) for £499 - not the cheapest laptop out there, but wow, it's well-specced for a desktop, nevermind a laptop!
Where's the drool smiley? ;)
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I was severely tempted by the desktop machine. The only thing which always puts me off buying ready-made machines (apart from the fact that I'd be paying for Windows, which I don't want) is that there's no way of knowing whether the components are of good quality. In particular, they're quite likely to skimp on the power supply, which is exactly what failed after a year in the one ready-made PC which I bought in the last 10 years.
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Medion PCs usually have fairly ok power supplies... and a replacement doesn't cost THAT much.
They usually use MSI components inside, and the last offers they had Western Digital hard drives inside.
Unless they've changed, they don't use totally budget-end components - but unfortunately as you say there's no way of telling, as they don't give specific details anymore (which perhaps begs the question - why not! :-\ )
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... unfortunately as you say there's no way of telling, as they don't give specific details anymore (which perhaps begs the question - why not! :-\ )
Complacency?
All it took was a phone call to the Medion tech guys and they told me everything I either asked or wanted to know, including the make and model number of the MB without any problems.
If you go to buy a new car, do you not,
1) Take it for a test drive.
2) Look under the bonnet (regardless of what we know) not forgetting to give at least one of the tyres a good kick.
3) Make sure the boot is big enough for what we want.
So why would I not be entitled to know what's either inside by make or model of my possible new PC.
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edit:
Just received the latest email from Aldi/Medion.
If you scroll to the bottom of the Medion PC page, there is a further link to a few more specifications of the unit, although I don't really think they are that much more informative.
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>> as they don't give specific details anymore (which perhaps begs the question - why not!
Indeed
In the past all the specs have usually been very good or at least half decent ones. The reason Ive purchased a couple of their systems over the years is cause I couldnt even match on price of buying the parts if I was to build myself.
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The reason Ive purchased a couple of their systems over the years is cause I couldnt even match on price of buying the parts if I was to build myself.
Not forgetting the 3 year warranty with on-site repairs, which I must say have been pretty good and quick for a couple of minor problems I have had and no more than the usual run of the mill problems that any one can have with any new piece of equipment.
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And their latest next offer is a "Multi-media Quad core"
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2867_5335.htm
Coming soon from a store near you:
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Oh, dear me, I'm drooling again. It's so undignified. Here are the details:
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_5285.htm
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Judging by the spec info it would appear also to have the usual hidden drop-down cover revealing front USB, Card reader etc connections.
But Oh what a dilemma.
This is a Q6600 2.4GHz quad processor, but if you follow the links on the performance it also shows a Q6700 2.66GHz quad processor.
That means there will soon be another bigger one out in the near future (but how near) :-\
However, what is the actual TOTAL processing power? is it 4x2.4 = 9.6GHz ?
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The price difference between a Q6600 and a Q6700 processor is about £170 right now so I think you'll be waiting quite a while for the offer to change to Q6700 ;)
I'd just get the Q6600 if I was buying now. There are currently very few applications which will max out 4 cores and you should be able to plug a Q6700 into the machine later if you wanted to.
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This new PC has a few people disgruntled over on the Aldi-Medion forum, because they purchased the last one only a couple of weeks ago.
(mind you, I nearly did to) >:D
I was looking at the MB spec earlier and very impressive it is to. " MS 7502 "
6 off Sata sockets
1 off FDD
1 off Scart
4 off Memory slots (capable of holding 8 GB)
3 + 1 off PCI slots. (bit on the low side)
Is it Thursday yet! :lol:
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I was looking at the specs between the 2 the other day.. and it does seem that this latest offer is a pretty good buy with a much better spec.
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Having had a look at the Aldi/Medion forum, I've just gone off the idea. Apparently Medion PCs have locked BIOSes, which quite possibly means that you can't install Linux on them.
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Locked bios? How does that prevent you installing Linux? :-/
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I don't know, but someone on the forum asked about installing Ubuntu, and got the answer that the locked BIOS might make it not possible. I don't know why, or even if the person giving the answer knew what he was talking about. :)
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and got the answer that the locked BIOS might make it not possible.
Surely Medion "should" tell you how to unlock it.
What happens if and when new drives or equipment is installed?
Or you want to change or disable the boot sequence.?
or even if the person giving the answer knew what he was talking about. :)
Maybe we just had the same person reply to both our questions.
(Again it goes to show that points/posts are not always a measure of ones ability to give correct or even helpful suggestions)
"did you know that the amount of watts don't matter in a PSU" :lol: (well that was the reply I got to a question)
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Indeed I have never heard of a locked BIOS before...
Swapping out the HDDs and attempting to install a new OS would give a clear indication on such a machine about how the BIOS was locked, if at all (why would a manufacturer even want to do this?)
The Aldi/Medion PCs certainly offer a very good spec for the price and are ideal for those who already have a monitor and peripherals.
"did you know that the amount of watts don't matter in a PSU" laugh (well that was the reply I got to a question)
You should ask them to check this by replacing the PSU in their super-gaming machine with a 300w one and see what happens.
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You should ask them to check this by replacing the PSU in their super-gaming machine with a 300w one and see what happens.
Yes I know I should, but it's not worth arguing the point with someone who judging by some of their other replies is clearly a "hopeless case"
As for the BIOS, I'll let you know. ::)
But why people don't just phone Medion and ask is something I don't understand!
Let's face it, if I/we want to access "our" equipment, then that's up-to us.
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Update:
As for the BIOS, I'll let you know. ::)
Well so far it does not look like the BIOS is locked as the but the instructions are a little on the vague side by saying access should only b needed for major alterations to the system.
Just to excited at the moment deciding where it's going to go, that I haven't even plugged it in "yet"
Not much room for expansion inside either (yes I looked) only space for one more HDD, but with the size of drives nowadays thats not so important.
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Just a update on the BIOS (for future reference) it was not locked and one of their techies said they do not lock BIOS's.
As there is another "very similar thread" on this Medion PC topic, I would suggest using that for any further discussions, of which there are one or two to follow.
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=1632.new;topicseen#new
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Yes, good idea OF - I'm going to lock this thread in favour of the one you pointed out :)
Please feel free to continue the discussion here (http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=1632.new;topicseen#new)
I now declare this thread closed!!