What do folks think of the spec (for the price, in the UK) of this Medion PC, from Aldi?

http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/product_171.html

the only snag I can see is that:

QUOTE

Digital radio or DAB radio channels cannot be received with the included DVB-T card and software.

and it's not clear whether thats a failing of the card, or software.

Also the number of free exapnsion slots isn't mentioned - though I don't think that's as much of an issue as it once was, now everything is Bluetooth/ USB enabled.

I'd be wary my friend. Everything else that Aldi's sell is cheap stuff so the PCs may be the same.
The specification is definitely reasonable for the price.

Judging from the size of the case in the picture you will no doubt have at least 2 PCI slots for upgrades

I would recommend you go with buying from another larger name company like Dell or similar

Looks like a pretty good setup. I wouldn't get too excited about Bluetooth or Firewire. Since USB2 came out, and with the new version soon due to appear which surpasses Firewire in bus speed, both are slowly sinking into non-use. But it's okay to have them on your unit, just that I wouldn't pay any extra for them.

The only thing that I see for definite improvement is your pre-installed Operating System (OS) on a restore disk. This is a "land mine" that one day will cause you heartache. With a 320 GB harddrive, you will eventually have a lot of data and programs loaded. One day a virus, adware, malware, equipment failure - you name it - will corrupt your OS. With a restore disk you will be up a creek without a paddle. If you restore, you lose everything on your drive. I see it all the time here on the hardware forum, with folks that face the hard reality of losing all their setup proggies, data, everything. Zip. Not a nice experience.

Try to negotiate a deal with this outfit, where they will substitute a standalone XP disk (with SP2!) that you can purchase. Even if you pay a little more, believe me it is worth it. Now if you ever get corrupted OS files, you can do a repair-restore from the XP disk in the CDrom and you are on your way again.

Another thing you migh think about that isn't all that important, is having a second burner. IF you do a lot of disk-to-disk copying, Nero is great at doing fast-copy disk to disk copy. Just a thought.

Other than that, seems to be a pretty solid unit. Wish you the best!!

QUOTE (Erin @ Apr 22 2005, 05:04 AM)

I'd be wary my friend.  Everything else that Aldi's sell is cheap stuff so the PCs may be the same.

Aldi generally have a good reputation for their PCs; and Medion are also on sale at Woolworths.

QUOTE (ranchhand @ Apr 22 2005, 05:11 AM)

The only thing that I see for definite improvement is your pre-installed Operating System (OS) on a restore disk.  [...] Try to negotiate a deal with this outfit, where they will substitute a standalone XP disk (with SP2!) that you can purchase.

That's something to think about; thank you - though Aldi aren't the sort of store where you can negotiate over such issues.

Then again, everyone takes backups, don't they ;-)

Medion is a quality product and one of the largest manufacturers of electronic equipment in Europe. They have a service center in Texas that is fast and efficient. I have a Medion camera that was defective when I purchased it, and although I could have taken it back to the store for replacement, I called their toll-free number and they had a replacement FedEx-ed to me the next day, with return slip for the defective one. Aldi stands behind all their products and will gladly replace/refund anything that you are dissatisfied with (double on any of their regular grocery products). As I recall, they also have a full 1 year service/repair/replacement policy on computer products.