Aldi Medion pc coming back on closeout?

[thinlizzie]

Originally posted by: insite
Those of you who have this PC- how is the motherboard? I assume that it is a Medion board... which chipset? Any overclocking options or special features? Any info on specs? Their website has no info that I can find...

It's an MSI motherboard but don't waste your time trying to find it on the MSI site. I haven't seen where anyone provides more info than what you see on the Medion site. I don't overclock anything anymore so it really didn't matter to me.

Biggest drawback I could see when I bought it was that it only had 2 available PCI slots. The modem is in what appears to be a CNR slot at the bottom of the board. This hasn't been an issue though since I don't mind using the onboard AC'97 sound and the onboard ethernet connector.

The only issue I have had was that it does provide 5 USB ports but only 2 of them are on the back. I added a PCI USB 2.0 card with 2 more ports. I am good and like the machine. I am the first one into all Battlefield 1942 games (fast load times and good ram) at my LAN.

VIdeo card is an excellent performer too. 8x AGP ti4200. The front connectXL thing is kick butt too! I like that since my video camera uses SD/MMC and my digicam uses memory stick.

 

[cmv]

[posted to other thread on this, posting here too]

Flyer at the local Aldi had it priced at $699 for the PC, $99 for the 19" monitor, $29.99 for wireless kb/mouse package, $19.99 wireless joystick/joypad combo, and $29.99 USB 2.0 4 port hub.

PC looks the same as before but I don't remember the specs:
P4 2.66 GHz
533 Mhz FSB
Ti4200 8x AGP w/ 128mb SDRAM
Seagate 120GB HD
256mb Samsung 333 MHz
Sony 40x CD-RW
16x DVD
yadda yadaa

 

[MarthaLynn]

Any idea what chipset is on this mystery MSI mobo?

This seems like a good deal. Home made equivalent would be something like....

$100 case/psu/fans
$224 P4 2.66 533FSB
$75 mobo (probably more like $95 and that's still low)
$30 256MB PC2700
$80 120GB HD (assuming you hold out for a pretty hot deal)
$20 lite-on cd burner (same assumption)
$20 16x DVD (same assumption)
$80 nvida ti4200 w\8x agp (assuming you got the uber hot deal that ended yesterday)
$30 6-in-1 reader
$100 XP home oem
------
$759 total, excluding preloaded s/w other than winxp.

 

[Zepper]

Hey Martha Lynn et al,
. Hard pressed to get a 120GB for less than $100. Also there's one thing on there that seems to be made of unobtainium... that multimedia front panel that everyone seems to be hot for - it's not just a 6-in-1 reader. I've looked all over and you can come close, but no cigar.
.bh.

 

[MarthaLynn]

According to this thread in a resellerratings.com forum, it's a SIS-648 chipset.

Thinlizzie - you say you put the whole thing in a new case - is the mobo regular ATX size?

Is it possible to swap motherboards and keep the contents of the disk? Seems to me like the question is whether it would boot or not...

This is a very tempting deal. You'd be hard pressed to get a Dell with all this even when they go dirt cheap.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Looks like this is still going on: Linky (towards bottom of page). They also have the wireless KB/Mouse for $29.99

This is reasonably hot, especially with that spiffy front panel connector. FWIW, I'm still going to build my own... picking your own mobo/ram is a lot better than taking a bargain basement board.

 

[Karsten]

So another week from today. I'll have to take a look.

 

[DrPizza]

Thank you Martha!
I was just about to figure out what it would cost to build from parts bought at deal prices.
I didn't look too closely at the case, ps, fans, but I suspect you could get them for less than $100.

And, I agree with you on the price of the HDD... less than $100 for 120 GB works out to 83cents per GB. That price per GB can very easily be found. If one's willing to wait a little while, $80 can be found. Using the nifty search tool in hot deals, anyone in doubt can verify this.

edit: Darn it!!! Now I have to really think this over... I didn't notice that you included the $100 for WinXP. I get that free from school if I want it. Aaarrrghhhh, I thought this was going to be an easy decision, vs building a new computer from parts. Let's see... no rebates to wait for, but have to pay tax.... But, have to get *that* motherboard. And have to go to the trouble of uninstalling encarta, etc.

What's everyone else think about the value?

 

[MarthaLynn]

I am really torn in general right now about building versus a deal like this or one of Dell's deals. I built my last one 3 years ago and once again the bottom line reason was that I wanted to pick my own motherboard. But honestly in the end, it's not like I ended up using any of the "advanced" features of the motherboard that I purchased before they weren't advanced any more anyway.

Also not included in my list above is the fact that it comes with a TV tuner.

Can somebody who has one of these tell me about the video capture h/w on this thing?

Decisions, decisions.

 

[thinlizzie]

Originally posted by: MarthaLynn
According to this thread in a resellerratings.com forum, it's a SIS-648 chipset.

Thinlizzie - you say you put the whole thing in a new case - is the mobo regular ATX size?

Is it possible to swap motherboards and keep the contents of the disk? Seems to me like the question is whether it would boot or not...

This is a very tempting deal. You'd be hard pressed to get a Dell with all this even when they go dirt cheap.

No, it's a much smaller mobo than the standard atx style. Same width, just subtract enough board to take away 2 PCI slots. I can measure for you when I get home. What was good was the mounting holes all still lined up with what was in my case.

Yes you could swap mobos and keep the contents of the disk. That would apply to any boot drive and mobo. Seriously I have always built my own and this one uses quality parts throughout. Someday I will replace the mobo, but for now it meets my need well. Look at my sig, I put this thing through the paces everyday - I am an avid gamer.

 

[thinlizzie]

Originally posted by: MarthaLynn
Also not included in my list above is the fact that it comes with a TV tuner.

Can somebody who has one of these tell me about the video capture h/w on this thing?

Decisions, decisions.

Uhh, no TV tuner. At least mine didn't come with one - maybe they added it since thanksgiving. It does have video capture, I never tried it because I use my other machine for that, it has an ATI Radeon AIW card (that does have a TV tuner). I will know in the next two weeks though since I am buying a MiniDV camcorder with firewire support. I will try it with this machine.

 

[thebruiser]

It comes with powerdirector and powervcr, both of which are video capture programs. With powervcr, you can program your pc to record whatever shows you want to from your incoming tv signal. I don't use this, but I have used it to transfer vhs tape to video cd.

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

I was looking into files on my Medion hard drive ( I got one of the computers from ALDI last November) and I came across a fold or file called TV TUNER. Anyone who has one of these know if this means you can watch tv on this thing? If so how? I have a pinnacle pc tv pro on another computer, but I didn't know this one let you watch tv too.

Also, I was talking to tech support, and trying to pick their brains about reformatting the hd and making one big partition. He said something about wouldn't be able to install certain driver files etc. because the recovery disk would look for them on the HD. Then he said the recover disk is the Windows Home XP disk. Couldn't I just burn a CD of the HD directory with the drivers on it, and everything would be good to go? It seems all the software programs have their own disc anyway. Any thoughts from those who already did this?

Thanks....

 

[MarthaLynn]

I stopped by our local Aldi for the first time yesterday - what a strange little store. Why in the wide world of sports are they selling this machine there???

Anyway, if the Aldis PC is the same as this one, then it does have TV Tuner capability. Here are the specs from that page - is this the same machine? Looks like it to me from looking at the flyer (hard copy flyer from Aldi has more details than the online ad which has almost no details).

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.66 GHz 533 FSB
Motherboard: MSI Ms-6701
Chip set: SIS 648, SIS 963
Bios version: Award v6.00PG Rev. 1.14 of 11.09.2002
RAM (installed/maximum): 256/2048 MB DDR 333 sdram
Non removable disk: Seagate 120GB 7200RPM
DVD ROM: Lite on Ltd-165h (DVD/CD: 16-/48fach)
CD burner: Sony CRX210E1 (CD-r/cd-rw/cd-Rome: 40-/12-/48)
Video: Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200; 128 MT GDR sdram (MSI Ms-8889)
Card slots: 3 x PCI, 1 x AGP

Other equipment
ergonomic keyboard
Mouse
Net functions on the motherboard
Sound functions in the chip set (AC97-Codec)
4 pits for memory cards (1 x Compact Flash/MD Card; 1 x MEMORY stick; 1 x SD/MMC; 1 x Smartmedia)
TV Tuner /Modem Kombikarte Medion TV tV-Tuner 7134 Cretix V.9X DSP DATA/FAX modem CTX908 V3

Connections
1 x parallel
1 x serial
1 x PS/2-Maus
5 x USB 2.0 (3 in front)
1 x Gameport (in front)
1 x Ethernet 10/100
1 x s-video out and in
1 x Composite video out and in
1 x S/P DIF out and in
3 x Firewire (1 in front)

Software
Windows XP Home edition (installs & on Recovery CD)
Microsoft Works Suite 2003 (office program)
Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5.5 OEM (burning software)
Cyberlink power DVD XP 4,0 (DVD Player software)
Cyberlink power Director 2,1 SE (video cut program)
Picture It photo 7.0 (picture working on software)
Music match (music box often commodity)

 

[DrPizza]

Non removable disk: Seagate 120GB 7200RPM

Uhhh?? Non removable? Anyone know what this means?

Also, has anyone confirmed the price at 699 yet?
edit: n/m I checked and confirmed it myself.
Decisions decisions... it doesn't come with the monitor (although only 100 extra)

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Non removable disk: Seagate 120GB 7200RPM

Uhhh?? Non removable? Anyone know what this means?

Also, has anyone confirmed the price at 699 yet?

non removable = harddrive

yes...$699

 

[spanky]

$699 w/ 19" monitor?

 

[thebruiser]

Monitor is separate. I think it will be $99. An excellent buy for a new 19". Yes, it's the same one that was advertised before. As far as a removable hd, I called Medion support and was told it was removable. There is at least one person on this board who has removed everything from the Medion case and put it in another case. I guess he had to remove the hard drive to do that.

 

[MarthaLynn]

I'm slow so bear with me... the fact that the front panel has jacks for composite and s-video inputs would indicate that there's a video capture device of some sort involved. Yet there's no mention of a video capture device in the specs. Any ideas? The geforce4 ti4200 doesn't capture video does it?

 

[Zepper]

More info is up now on aldi's site: Aldi Specials .
.bh.

 

[thebruiser]

Originally posted by: MarthaLynn
I'm slow so bear with me... the fact that the front panel has jacks for composite and s-video inputs would indicate that there's a video capture device of some sort involved. Yet there's no mention of a video capture device in the specs. Any ideas? The geforce4 ti4200 doesn't capture video does it?

There are 3 programs with the pc you can use to capture video. Windows Movie Maker, PowerDirector, and PowerVCR. I've played around with Movie Maker some, but it formats in MVS format. In order to burn a NTSC video cd you have to convert it, and that takes to long. PowerVCR captures direct to mpeg. No converting to burn a video cd. I haven't tried PowerDirector. PowerVCR can also be used like Tivo, only you don't have to pay a subscription. For more info, go here: www.gocyberlink.com

 

[MarthaLynn]

Originally posted by: thebruiser

Originally posted by: MarthaLynn
I'm slow so bear with me... the fact that the front panel has jacks for composite and s-video inputs would indicate that there's a video capture device of some sort involved. Yet there's no mention of a video capture device in the specs. Any ideas? The geforce4 ti4200 doesn't capture video does it?

There are 3 programs with the pc you can use to capture video. Windows Movie Maker, PowerDirector, and PowerVCR. I've played around with Movie Maker some, but it formats in MVS format. In order to burn a NTSC video cd you have to convert it, and that takes to long. PowerVCR captures direct to mpeg. No converting to burn a video cd. I haven't tried PowerDirector. PowerVCR can also be used like Tivo, only you don't have to pay a subscription. For more info, go here: www.gocyberlink.com

THanks. I understand that you have to use software. My question is, what hardware device in the box is capturing the video?

 

[KDaver]

I have one of these computers. I love it. It has worked Flawlessly since the day I got it. (knock on wood)
the device does have a capture card or port. I have used it it works great.

 

[thebruiser]

I looked at the manual for both the mobo and the graphics card. Neither of them shows any video input connections, although the Ti4200 shows video out connections. Someone who has cracked the case will have to answer as to what is the device that is actually capturing the video. I just know that it does capture.

 

[Rapier]

Here is a link to the motherboard manual

MD-5000