From what I have researched, Medion is a European based (germany) computer company. They are a bargain based manufacturer that gets the lowest price high end products to make inexpensive complete systems. They look like a fairly large company that gets 25% of its sales from appliances and electronics, and 75% from computers and computer peripherals. I read their financial reports and they seem to be doing very well with gross sales in the 1-2 billion range. Their markets are growing really fast in sales which means people must like these machines. They don't seem to have a US branch but sell to US companies like Aldi and Costco. They make a "batch" of computers then ship them to the retailer for a sales special. Then move onto the next batch.
The systems look complete and they don't seem to buy crap components. Just bottom of the rung high end. I've been reading in forums and the reviews look fairly decent. The overall consensus seems to say that its a good deal. I haven't seem anything about how good the tech support or customer service is. I would check at the local retailer to see what the terms are for warranty. You don't want to be caught shipping this thing to germany for $200 if there is a problem. I'm sure the local retailers have a policy of some type.
I went to their corporate website which has the info about this PC for Aldi stores. I went to the US site but it didn't have info. I had to translate the German site so info is a bit sketchy. Bottom line: The listed Euro price is 1200 EU. Euros and dollars are about the same exchange so that abot $1200 for this Medion Titanium MD 8000 XL. I don't know if the Aldi price will be cheaper due to the promotion, or it will be slightly more expensive considering shipping and Tariff. I would think it's probably within 100-200 +/- of that $1200. I don't think it's going to be a sub $800 box. Now the clipping from an article below states a nice price. Considering this machine has a substantially more expensive processor that could drive up cost $60-100+, and 333 DDR based, with the new 8x AGP Ti4200 128mb video card, a $1200 price tag would seem about right considering the other comp which included a 17" monitor ($150 difference IMO).
"The superlative specs include a 2.4 gigahertz Pentium 4 with 533 mHz Front Side Bus, 512 megabytes of RAM, a 120 gigabyte hard drive, two Firewire ports, four USB ports, a ConnectX video card with both S-Video and composite in and out, a 16x DVD player and a 32x CD-R drive.
Also in the box is a 17-inch monitor. Medion executives said they expect the sticker price for this will be just under $1,000 when it goes on sale at the Costco membership-only retail chain this week and online at www.costco.com."
"For this column I tested an earlier and quite similar Medion offering taken from the shelves of a Costco store at Diversey Parkway and Damen Avenue in August.
With the exception of a major shortcoming in the composite video components, this machine performed like the racehorse promised on the box, with such included software as the full-strength version of the Nero CD burning software, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Streets and Maps, Microsoft Encarta and a very nice suite of video-recording and film-editing programs." -James Coates (Chicago Tribune) Nov/2002
Looks like a good deal but make sure you get some sort of local warranty assurance from the retailer (Aldi). Also from what I have read, past sales of Medion computers at Aldi have caused preopening lines at Aldi stores, especially considering the limited supply. I would call up the local
Aldi near you and ask the manager if they are recieveing these computers and how many. See if they know the price yet too. I think at $1200 its a good deal. If somehow it were $1000 or below, I think its a downright steal.