BLACK FRIDAY at Aldi Foods, 2.66GHz computer! $899

[Atrac]

Originally posted by: BigEdMuustaffa
Ok, couple of negatives on this machine I found out, any other thoughts?

*snip*

Tech support said that the CPU is glued to the motherboard and any HSF or cpu replacement would require sending the system back for service. They would pay for shipping back and forth but there is the "time" factor of not having it to use.

Ouch...that hurts.

 

[Royboy81]

I posted in another thread that CostCo may have these. I did see them at the CostCo in Southlake, TX. Same price and same config, as far as I could tell - Medion, P4 2.53, etc. So if you are still looking for one and you might want to check a CostCo near you, since they seem to be more prevalent than Aldi's, of which there are none in TX that I know of.

 

[Yo2]

The ones at costco are very similar indeed. (CPU speed, DVD, CDRW, etc). A couple of differences HOWEVER: The Costco version has a floppy drive and 512MB memory which is good BUT the graphics card is different - only one output. Not sure what it is but this is definitely not the same card that's in the ALDI machine

Still at $899 it apppears as a good deal to me, in particular considering Costco's no hassles return policy

Yo

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: Yo2
The ones at costco are very similar indeed. (CPU speed, DVD, CDRW, etc). A couple of differences HOWEVER: The Costco version has a floppy drive and 512MB memory which is good BUT the graphics card is different - only one output. Not sure what it is but this is definitely not the same card that's in the ALDI machine

Still at $899 it apppears as a good deal to me, in particular considering Costco's no hassles return policy

Yo

IMHO, the MD 8000 at Aldi is the better machine. Floppy drives are dirt cheap and easy to install/set up. If you shop around on these boards you can find deals for memory sticks too. I have two sticks of 256 PC2700, that I'm going to replace the one stick with.
The graphic card in the Aldi machine is a GF4 Ti 4200. Light years ahead of the card in the Costco machine, again IMHO. Medio tech support is very good if you need it and the mgr in the ALDI near me said the return policy on the computer is the same as all their products which they stand behind 100%. I don't see a problem buying from ALDI. So the no hassle return policy at Costco shouldn't be the decinding factor.

 

[Yo2]

I agree that the ALDI deal is better overall mainly because of the video card, and in particular now that you state that they would refund you no problem. AFAIK they are not that widely available anymore though, which makes the costco deal appealing. Memory and Floppy are roughly $80-$100 whereas the graphics cards are probably $150 apart.

Yo

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: Yo2
I agree that the ALDI deal is better overall mainly because of the video card, and in particular now that you state that they would refund you no problem. AFAIK they are not that widely available anymore though, which makes the costco deal appealing. Memory and Floppy are roughly $80-$100 whereas the graphics cards are probably $150 apart.

Yo

Actually if you shop around in this forum or over at FW you can find deals on memory AR as low as $15 per 256K. For example, I got 2 256 sticks of PNY pc2700 for $30 after rebate. Samsung chips. I've seen floppy drives going for as low as
$8 before shipping. The ti 4200 is $150-$200. You might not be able to find memory as cheaply as I said now, but the floppies are still available at this price though. There are still some of these systems available at ALDI's but you may have to do a road trip to find them. The mgr at a store near me offered to call other ALDI's and find one if they ran out for some reason. I got mine when they had plenty left. Good Luck....

 

[Yo2]

Careful: The PNY memory is labeled as PC2100, and thus should be recognized by the bios as PC2100. Unless your board allows for manual adjustment of FSB and memory timings you may degrade the performance of your system.

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

The PNY was mislabeled.........they are samsung chips TCB3 which according to ther website are actually PC2700 and have been recognized by BIOSs in other's machines as PC2700. The label on the package is wrong, but the label on the chip themselves is actually pc2700. BIOS should read the chip from the chip themselves, no?

 

[Yo2]

The stick has chips that are rated as PC2700. But it would be internally set up as PC2100. AFAIK only certain boards with o/c capabilities can override these settings.

Yo

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: Yo2
The stick has chips that are rated as PC2700. But it would be internally set up as PC2100. AFAIK only certain boards with o/c capabilities can override these settings.

Yo

so then are they pc2700 or what?