Beat This :)

[Vimeous]

A colleague has asked if the PC here: http://www.medion.com/ms/aldi/md8335/uk/ is good value for general home use. As part of the discussion I suggested I would hope to do better with a self-build.

So the challenge is what would you spec?

Restrictions are:

• Must be Intel - he has an inherant, unshakable (and unfounded) distrust of non-Intel.
• 1Tb of space is preferred.
• Quad is a must - he doesn't see it as comparible otherwise.

[menthel]

Quite frankly, I don't think you can, especially with a 3 year warantee! It will be a lot less hassle for you if he just buys this one!

[shadowmaster]

I think you could beat it, and at the same time throw in a better gfx card.

Its a shame he does not like AMD, as that would probably be better in this situation.

[MSIC]

Hmm, this'll be tough. Just going for cheapest parts alone:
Motherboard: Asus G31 mATX £32
CPU: Q8200 £105
RAM:4GB DDR2 800Mhz £45
Hard Drive: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB £54
Optical drive: Sony DVD £16
Graphics: AMD 4670 HDMI £58

Subtotal = £310
And then you have to get the case & PSU, which you can get for £30 but i wouldnt, and then the cost of Win Vista on top... and all that without a 3 year warranty.

I'd go to Aldi unless you're really really keen on building your own.

[shadowmaster]

Here is a screen shot of what I could do in a rush



I think if you look around though, you could get it down to £400. Also I imagine the quality of components within the Medion such as the psu, case, etc might not be as good as the above. Still though the Medion is very good value for money

[Lucio]

Points to remember is that those kind of deals often skimp on the case quality and PSU, which whilst they're not the flashiest components, are critical for long term reliabilty.

[MSIC]

I think if you look around though, you could get it down to £400. Also I imagine the quality of components within the Medion such as the psu, case, etc might not be as good as the above. Still though the Medion is very good value for money

You've got reasonable quality components, but forgot the optical drive.
All in all you're about £50 over budget.

[kalniel]

Points to remember is that those kind of deals often skimp on the case quality and PSU,

But not always. Medion are a huge player (almost like a german version of Dell, though not quite) - I have a Medion (XClio branded) PSU and it's a high quality CWT unit, like some of the Corsair ones.

[peterb]

I guess for a stock/standard machine, buying will probably be a less expensive optuion than self build - the builder has the power of discount buying,volume licensing and so on. You also get system warranty as well as component warranty and support from the builder - and no integration or compatability issues.

The down side is that you have no control over what goes into it - what you see is what you get, and build/component quality isunknown.

If you build for your friend, you will be responsible for supporting the machine, sorting out problems (even if they weren't there at build time) and are you going to do that for 3 years - or will he expect it for the lifetime of the machine (or for as long as he owns it)?

If it isn't for your use - IMHO, suggest he goes to Aldi!

[Phage]

That is a top deal...I'm forwarding that link !

Ebuyer do a similar deal. An extra £40 gets you a 9800GT instead on the GT220.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173367

[Vimeous]

Thanks Gents

Very interesting indeed.

I've been dead keen to find something else because another work colleague had a Medion I agreed the help him trouble-shoot. Many wasted hours later we concluded it had an undetermined fundamental fault. It took four months for Medion to eventually agree to refund the full £1k. The support guys were fine - the actual process was rubbish.

I think I may recommend going to Aldi but not before I've taken a closer look at the build suggested.

there must be a way ....

[scaryjim]

I really don't think you can build comparably. Even going AMD, with an Athlon II x4 and a 770-based AM3 motherboard, you're going to struggle to fit in all the components (haven't seen many card readers in the above specs) and an OS and keep to £400. Even people who've got close above have had to take a downgrade on the processor - if this guy is stuck on Quad core and Intel (indicating something about his knowledge of computing, I'd suggest) he really isn't going to accept that a Q8200 is comparable to a Q8300, because, you know, 8200 is smaller than 8300, so it must be worse.

Let's not forget this isn't just about the actual components, either: there's the software bundle (a suite of Corel Products, MS Work 9, various others), the peripherals (you get a kb and mouse with the Medion... there's another £10), and that frankly phenomenal 3 year warranty (which your home builds just *can't* match). I also note that the Medion has some form of proprietary external storage connector that lets you basically just sit one of their portable HDDs on top of the case, rather than messing with cables. All in all it's a nice solution.

Now, if you can convince him that everyday computing doesn't need *really* need a dual core, let alone a quad (tell me, which bit of typing an email is a quad core going to speed up ); doesn't need 4GB of RAM; doesn't have to be Intel-based; and can make do with the very reasonable onboard graphics provided by an AMD solution, we can start talking something that will do the job in the £300 region. But I suspect you might struggle with some of those point...


EDIT: I have now managed to spec at £402.35, including a quad core Athlon II, 4GB RAM, HD4650, 640GB hard drive (same as the Medion), Card reader, DVD multiwriter, mATX minitower with 350W BeQuiet PSU, and Windows Vista Home Premium w. Windows 7 Upgrade coupon. You can bring that down by about £10 if you skimp on the motherboard, or by about £25 if you move up to a 785G-based mobo and don't include discreet graphics. So, component-wise, it can be done if you go AMD. Just. And you still don't get the warrantee or additional software. Just send him to Aldi already....

[Vimeous]

LOL
Thanks Jim