# Aldi PC - is this good value?



## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

http://www.medion.com/ms/aldi/md8339/uk/?refPage=aldi

lacks a wireless card by the looks of it, but otherwise it seems reasonable to my untrained eye. Is it good value? Thinking for my 10 yr old son's room, as I have a screen already so thats no issue.

Can anyone in the 'know' advise me please.


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## SBerlyn (Nov 9, 2008)

Yep; getting two for family members when they're in stock 

S


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## trebor127 (Aug 13, 2009)

IIRC the medion brand has won quite a few ''best computer'' awards etc from the PC mags...Id say for £350 its a good buy but i'm no pc person haha...

Rob


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## beany_bot (Oct 6, 2008)

Pretty damn good dude, wireless card = £15 tesco so no probs there

I paid £400 recently for much the same if not less. and i really really searched about.


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## robj20 (Jan 20, 2009)

Yes they usually are pretty good value because it looks to people to be a cheap brand they put better bits in to compete with bigger brands.


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## SBerlyn (Nov 9, 2008)

Also, Damon, I'd not bother with Wifi. I'm tech savvy and hate it with a vengance. If it's not going to be moving around much (assuming this, as it's a desktop for a kid's bedroom..) I'd go for a set of HomePlugs - around £35 from eBuyer and give you a wired ethernet connection by using your mains sockets. Set contains two units; plug one in to socket near router, connect ethernet cable from router > plug. Same again at socket near PC, and you're good to go!

S


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## rtjc (Apr 19, 2009)

Agreed, homeplugs are great


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## INWARD123 (Oct 28, 2007)

That is a serious spec computer for the price - and it isn't mail oder which is a plus. Medion has always put good components in their machines this looks no different


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

It isn't great brand, but it is superb for the price.

I don't know what their cases are like, I expect they will be cheap plastic and easily flimsy aluminium chassis, but will do what you want.


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## MARKETMAN (Aug 22, 2006)

Bought a similar machine bout 18 months ago, great spec for the money , never had a problem, puts a lot of the "bigger" brands to shame ... would definately buy one again ...


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## Ducky (Mar 19, 2007)

Saw this too and from what I can see most people say it's good for the money...tempted myself but have other things to buy!


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## alexf (May 23, 2009)

That looks pretty damn good, I need to get one for my mum. 

I'm writing this on my medion laptop which I got 2 years ago from Aldi, (500 quid with 3 year warranty) and its been great. 

They really are a good make:thumb:


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2010)

Looks like a display (LCD) would be an additional cost, if required.

IMHO, brand is unimportant as any PC maker will just be bolting together components sourced from other suppliers.


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## chrisc (Jun 15, 2008)

sberlyn said:


> Also, Damon, I'd not bother with Wifi. I'm tech savvy and hate it with a vengance. If it's not going to be moving around much (assuming this, as it's a desktop for a kid's bedroom..) I'd go for a set of HomePlugs - around £35 from eBuyer and give you a wired ethernet connection by using your mains sockets. Set contains two units; plug one in to socket near router, connect ethernet cable from router > plug. Same again at socket near PC, and you're good to go!
> 
> S


i have them aswell very good they are and easy to set up


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Phisp said:


> IMHO, brand is unimportant as any PC maker will just be bolting together components sourced from other suppliers.


How they are treated when they are put together and what components they use make them all very different. A lot of brands put the cheapest they can get in bulk.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2010)

jamest said:


> How they are treated when they are put together and what components they use make them all very different. A lot of brands put the cheapest they can get in bulk.


Very true, but I bet they are still pretty good machines. Unless you have exacting requirements, most modern PC's are going to be far more powerful than you actually need.

Most PCs consist of only around 5 or 6 components stuck in a case : Motherboard, RAM, Processor, Hard Disk, CD/DVD Writer and possibly a graphics card (cheaper PCs will use motherboard based graphics). Functionality like LAN, USB, Audio etc is usually supplied by the motherboard itself.

I'd even go as far as saying that the cheapest component makers will just follow reference designs to get a product out the door as quickly as possible. Companies such as NVidea/ATI will supply these so that third parties can produce graphics cards using their chipsets. I'm sure Intel and AMD do the same. As would RAM chip manufacturers.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2010)

The largest giveaway with budget computers is the PSU, followed by mobo.. A cheap PSU can shorten the life of the motherboard very quickly.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

sberlyn said:


> Also, Damon, I'd not bother with Wifi. I'm tech savvy and hate it with a vengance. If it's not going to be moving around much (assuming this, as it's a desktop for a kid's bedroom..) I'd go for a set of HomePlugs - around £35 from eBuyer and give you a wired ethernet connection by using your mains sockets. Set contains two units; plug one in to socket near router, connect ethernet cable from router > plug. Same again at socket near PC, and you're good to go!
> 
> S


cheers matey - that seems to have come on a long way since I last looked at it, and would do me well, although my router is a pretty long way from a socket for various reasons  Might be able to get a very long cable though...


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Phisp said:


> I'd even go as far as saying that the cheapest component makers will just follow reference designs to get a product out the door as quickly as possible. Companies such as NVidea/ATI will supply these so that third parties can produce graphics cards using their chipsets. I'm sure Intel and AMD do the same. As would RAM chip manufacturers.


RAM is an open market where as CPU's and GPU's are not. If you want performance out of either GPU or CPU you are stuck with AMD(ATi)/Nvidia or AMD/Intel respectively.

As G220 said, the PSU is often the first item to be extremely budget. Just because it isn't specced out doesn't mean it isn't important.

Motherboard as well is important for stability and to get the correct driver support you expect which you will get from the likes of Gigabyte, Asus etc.


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## a15cro (May 13, 2008)

Had a Medion from Aldi a few years ago and it was a great machine. I would have another one no problem.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

Looks good for the money, to buy direct from Medion it is £500

Someone at work has just purchased one and asked us to put some software on for him, if anyone wants to know anything about them (motherboard, PSU make etc) then let me know and I will find out.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Silverberry said:


> Looks good for the money, to buy direct from Medion it is £500
> 
> Someone at work has just purchased one and asked us to put some software on for him, if anyone wants to know anything about them (motherboard, PSU make etc) then let me know and I will find out.


I would be interested to what RAM, Mobo and PSU they are using. Also the quality of the case.


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## Cullers (Sep 29, 2009)

I'd love to be able to criticise it as the spec is superb. I'd love to be able to say how its made with cheap materials, and old technology just to make myself feel better about how much it cost me to build my own computer..... but, the truth is, it looks to be great!

For the money you can get it and upgrade the bits you want to when you want to. Better to buy this and change up bit by bit than save up for the kit that when, you finally get it, is ancient.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

jamest said:


> I would be interested to what RAM, Mobo and PSU they are using. Also the quality of the case.


When I am back to work either tomorrow or Monday I will have a look and take some photos if I can :thumb:

If it's of good quality components I might get one my self as that's a lot cheaper than building one.


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## Penfold101 (Nov 12, 2009)

Always build my own - nothing worse than deciding to upgrade something after a while and discovering the motherboard is the cheapest, nastiest and most basic one there is. Selected all the components individually after a lot of research and a lot of Custom PC magazines and enjoyed sticking it all together too...

Having said that, mine is watercooled just for the fun of it...










And yes, that's the reservoir on top...


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

Penfold101 said:


> Always build my own - nothing worse than deciding to upgrade something after a while and discovering the motherboard is the cheapest, nastiest and most basic one there is. Selected all the components individually after a lot of research and a lot of Custom PC magazines and enjoyed sticking it all together too...
> 
> Having said that, mine is watercooled just for the fun of it...
> 
> ...


:lol: looks like something that fell of the millennium falcon.no offence but thats a shocker.how much was it ?


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## Penfold101 (Nov 12, 2009)

silverback said:


> :lol: looks like something that fell of the millennium falcon.no offence but thats a shocker.how much was it ?


I think in total it'll be not far off 1500 squid - basic components were about 800 when I bought them a couple of years ago, but I hand picked them all, motherboard especially, to last a long time. It has done too: still running the same board although most of the other bits have been upgraded (graphics, CPU, and 8GB of RAM...)

The cooling and the case was more as a project and something to do than actual performance...


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## SBerlyn (Nov 9, 2008)

Penfold101 said:


> Always build my own - nothing worse than deciding to upgrade something after a while and discovering the motherboard is the cheapest, nastiest and most basic one there is. Selected all the components individually after a lot of research and a lot of Custom PC magazines and enjoyed sticking it all together too...
> 
> Having said that, mine is watercooled just for the fun of it...
> 
> ...


Paired with a cack CRT display. Niize


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## silverback (Jun 18, 2008)

does water cooling actually serve any purpose or does it just look cool ? how come you need the fans as well as the water ? is it just colour dyed water or ? sorry about all the questions i have no idea to be honest about all the water business.


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## Penfold101 (Nov 12, 2009)

sberlyn said:


> Paired with a cack CRT display. Niize


Luckily for me, that's my dad's old display for his old computer. Mine is a 22" widescreen Samsung. As you can see, the tower wasn't actually connected up to anything at that point...



silverback said:


> does water cooling actually serve any purpose or does it just look cool ? how come you need the fans as well as the water ? is it just colour dyed water or ? sorry about all the questions i have no idea to be honest about all the water business.


The basic idea is that water holds a lot more heat than air, and is much better at cooling. This allows you to overclock the CPU much further before you hit the thermal barrier that shuts it down (about 100 degrees ish)

You still need to get rid of the heat though, so the cooling fluid (non-conductive so isn't a problem if you get a minor spillage) is run through radiators and vented out the side and roof of the tower. The fans are exactly the same as you'd find in a normal PC (120mm) but are run at a much lower voltage, and therefor much quieter. If mine wasn't overclocked and wasn't doing anything, I could probably get away with turning them off and using the fluid being pumped round purely as a heatsink...

You still need a couple of fans to draw air in and out of the case as the other components will generate heat too (note the air cooler over the RAM) but it's still a lot quieter than It would be if it was relying on air cooling only.

The graphics card, northbridge and CPU are plumbed in, but you can watercool almost anything in the PC with the right kit...


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## SBerlyn (Nov 9, 2008)

I guess if you aren't using it professionally then you can induldge your fantasies in aqua-electronic engineering.

Personally I go with passive cooling and even when running two 24" monitors @ 1920x1200, running multiple OSs simultaneously, I'm yet to have heat trouble.

Each to their own, though...

S


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## Penfold101 (Nov 12, 2009)

sberlyn said:


> I guess if you aren't using it professionally then you can induldge your fantasies in aqua-electronic engineering.
> 
> Personally I go with passive cooling and even when running two 24" monitors @ 1920x1200, running multiple OSs simultaneously, I'm yet to have heat trouble.
> 
> ...


Exactly the point...

Like I said, I didn't watercool it because of heat issues, purely as a project...


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Water cooling is unnecessary unless you want to overclock past what air will allow you.

I won't critisise though, if I had spent any more time on overclock.net I would of ended up with water cooling too.

Instead I have more expensive air coolers to bring the noise down (Noctua are amazing BTW) and still have a nice air cooled i7 920 at 3.6GHz and stays below 55C at load with an air cooled heatsink that runs at 12dB.


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2010)

Hmm, really tempted by that PC myself. I do like the look of the "hot-swap" (i'll believe the hot swap capability when I see it) drive bay. I'm getting quite fed up with the size of my antec p182 case, very difficult to work on.

May buy one of these and sell my current setup.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

G220 said:


> Hmm, really tempted by that PC myself. I do like the look of the "hot-swap" (i'll believe the hot swap capability when I see it) drive bay. I'm getting quite fed up with the size of my antec p182 case, very difficult to work on.
> 
> May buy one of these and sell my current setup.


I bought a P182 on all the good reviews. Horrid, heavy case and wasn't even that good at reducing sound and the temps were astronomical.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

Just had a look and it does not look so good after all, the memory is made by Samsung all the stickers on the motherboard have been removed making identifying it impossible, when you run software to find out it just comes up with Medion as the make but I think it’s a MSI motherboard, the BIOS screen is deadly simple and is American Megatrends Inc so I would say it’s a cheap and nasty motherboard.

Graphics card is cheap as well, also has the make removed and just the sticker saying Geforce G210 512MB, could not see what make the PSU was as the sticker was on the other side so without removing it I was not able to tell but I assume it’s going to be a cheap nasty one.

I did some research online and if it’s the same motherboard that was in the last computer Aldi was selling then it will be limited to a maximum 4GB of memory, there is no free SATA spaces to add another HDD as the two hot swap HDD bays and memory card reader use up all the SATA slots.

I would say the motherboard, PSU and graphics card are no more than £150 in total if you purchased them separately so the most expensive part by far is the CPU.

The good points are the CD drive and the case, the case is of OK quality with only the front being made out of plastic but still has that cheap look and feel about it but does the job its intended for.

Would I buy one?..... No

Will upload some photos when I get home from work.


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## vroomtshh (Nov 23, 2009)

Bigpikle said:


> cheers matey - that seems to have come on a long way since I last looked at it, and would do me well, although my router is a pretty long way from a socket for various reasons  Might be able to get a very long cable though...


So how do you plug your router in?

Only thing I would say bout homeplugs - to get decent transfer rates you need the 200mbps ones, and they're £100 for two


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Thanks for that Matt, very helpful.


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2010)

Matt197 said:


> Just had a look and it does not look so good after all, the memory is made by Samsung all the stickers on the motherboard have been removed making identifying it impossible, when you run software to find out it just comes up with Medion as the make but I think it's a MSI motherboard, the BIOS screen is deadly simple and is American Megatrends Inc so I would say it's a cheap and nasty motherboard.
> 
> Graphics card is cheap as well, also has the make removed and just the sticker saying Geforce G210 512MB, could not see what make the PSU was as the sticker was on the other side so without removing it I was not able to tell but I assume it's going to be a cheap nasty one.
> 
> ...


Cheap and nasty or just cheap? Still sounds fair value to me, although I've not seen one. I bet it is a perfectly fine PC for £300 and would actually provide good performance for most people. I bet the most annoying thing about it is noise - I'd imagine the CPU cooler is not that quiet.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

CPU cooler is probably the Intel retail one which will get loud if the case has poor airflow.

Considering the CPU, motherboard (I based it on a good one at £80), RAM, hard drive and graphics came to £400 alone without including the case, PSU, DVD and any other hardware they have used, I assume sound and network is onboard.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

I am sure this PC would be perfectly fine; just don’t go expecting to be able to upgrade it later down the line or play cutting edge games is all I will say, for £300 odd it’s OK and I suppose you get a 3 year warranty so if anything does go wrong you have that to fall back on.

Hard to tell how loud it was because it was switched on in a loud environment but it did not seem to be too noisy but that might be down to the fact that it does not have any case fans which is another worry of mine.

Oh and the hard drive is a Seagate so thats another plus point, at least they did not chuck a Hitachi drive in :thumb:


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## [email protected] (Jan 28, 2009)

Sorry to be the negative one here but the spec isn't that great when you consider the age and quality of the tech. inside the machine. I have been fixing and upgrading machine for many years now and have the pleasure of fixing a fair few in my time. They sell at this price because the components used are the cheapest slowest spec. wise on the market. Also the future upgrade ability of the machine is almost none since the motherboards tend to be very basic models. Also in my experiences you are likely to use the 12 month warranty at some point since one or more of the components will no doubt fail normally the Hard drive so make sure you keep your data backed up.


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## alexf (May 23, 2009)

its not a 12 month warranty though, its 36 month. For me thats what sets it apart from the usual dell sh1te.


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## [email protected] (Jan 28, 2009)

Must admit I only read the 1st page  then went back and read a few other pages and it turns out not the only one who thinks its a pile of. If you got one I would put £10 down you will use that warranty.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)




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