Wacom Bamboo Spark with Tablet Sleeve $79.99
Take notes on the go, jot down ideas and save them all at the press of a button with the Wacom Bamboo Spark, which includes a Tablet Sleeve. The Bamboo Spark connects your paper notes to your digital records, letting you save handwritten notes to the cloud so you can access and edit your pages wherever you are.
Medion Desktop $799.00
- Intel i5-7400
- 240GB SSD
- 2TB Hard Drive
- 8GB DDR4 Ram
- Keyboard
- Mouse
Canon Pixma MG3060 $39.99
- WiFi
- Wireless
Cat not out yet, will take some pics.
More info now online:
ALDI Website: https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/special-buys-wed-25-…
MEDION Website: https://aldi.medion.com/md8879/au/?refPage=aldi
You could put together a similar build at MSY for $870:
Based on this package: http://www.msy.com.au/SYSTEMS/INTELAMD-UpgradeValue.pdf
$560 for i5-7400 build
+$35 for 8GB RAM upgrade
+$40 for 2TB HDD upgrade
+$140 for Windows 10 Home addon
+$95 for a 240GB SSD (http://www.msy.com.au/wa/cannington/pc-components/17815-tran…)
'———'
$870
So the ALDI deal is good value, but only if you're actively looking for a new PC. Saving $71 isn't enough for an impulse upgrade when your current PC is doing everything you need it to do.
I wonder if this pc would support a gtx 1080/70 in terms of internal space..?
I recently got one but think it's bottlenecked by my current pc (i5 760).
From the website description (180 x 360 x 400 mm) and the pictures it looks like an mATX case. So it will depend on the size of your graphics card. The other big question mark is the PSU output and if it even has the correct power connectors for a graphics card. So unless they have a demo model which you can open up and inspect I'd probably lean toward no.
Did you get a GTX 1080 recently? The i5 760 would definitely be a bottleneck in most games. Heck, even the i5 7400 in this build would be considered insufficient other than the most GPU demanding titles.
You'd want to stump for at least an i5 7600k (so you can overclock it) to get the most out of a GTX 1080. I've got a GTX 1080 paired with an i5 6600k (OCed to 4.4ghz) and I still hit 100% CPU usage a lot of the time in BF1 multiplayer.
Why my CPU is at 100%? I'm playing at 1440p/144hz. GPU usage is around 90-95% in multiplayer and I cap at around 110fps with the CPU at 100%.
BF1 is very good at utilising all available cores / threads, so I'm getting a very slight CPU bottleneck.
I would give it a shot. I know they don't tend to pricematch with places like costco because they deem them as "warehouses"
They're certainly not a warehouse, but the fact they they often carry limited stock would mean you may need to prove to them it is available in the store to get straight away.
I swear Officeworks must have some kind of internal blacklist consisting a big long list of retailers and a reason for not price matching with them.
MSY - no pricematch because they are 'grey importers'
Fluidtek — no pricematch because Eddie is a jerk
Costco - no pricematch because they sell in bulk and are warehouses
Centrecom — no pricematch because they have crappy returns policy and OW has great change of mind returns policy
Mwave — no pricematch because they charge a restocking fee and OW doesnt
Nice list. That deserves a wiki page on its own!
Often it comes down to how accommodating your particular sales person feels like being. I get different answers every time.
I have price matched MSY many times at my local Officeworks (Fitzroy), never had a issue. My girlfriend monitor, my Logitech mousepad, my friends have done their Gaming Mice their as well, brother on his Chrome sat. Don't think I have ever paid officeworks price without first checking msy, cpl or another store.
@jlogic: it graphs her mood swings, way cheaper to import one (monitor, not girlfriend), so lovely when they price match.
@dexx: And even store, I found that whoever I talked to at the Prospect SA store was happy to match MSY provided they had the item in stock, no questions.
Managed to pricematch MSY via phone on a router and was able to pick it up. No issues. The rep was crazy friendly @ OW though this particular time.
I have had no problems pricematching MSY or MWAVE at Five Dock OW
Local OfficeWorks has told me that they'll match pretty much any Aussie retailer (online or bricks and mortar) so long as they can confirm stock and not a typo. Hell, I've even managed to get them to match Amazon once or twice.
Hey Scrimshaw,
We don't match Costco because you need a paid membership to buy the items.
The other stores you should have no problem pricematching; pretty much the only criteria now are:
1) Must be an Aus store, with ABN, selling Aus stock with Aus manufacturer's (NOT retailer's) warranty
2) Item must be in stock, no clearance/runout items
3) Price must be publicly advertised and available to anyone (no coupon codes etc)
4) If no store in the area, must add shipping, My store limits a reasonable range to the whole state - if it's interstate, add shipping.
The old "restock fee so won't pricematch" policy has been officially repealed a few years ago; your pricematch experience should be much better these days.
-OW Tech Sales TM
Wow! Fluidtek still around!? I remember buying stuff from his garage in North Rocks over a decade ago. Probably closer to two decades.
@Zerko: I remember the sausage sizzle whilst waiting for Logitech Z-5500s! Damn, that must be nearly a decade now too… ;)
Price matching with Officeworks will most likely not work because Aldi notoriously will not confirm stock numbers or product availability in store. Their mantra is that you have to come in store and see for yourself. If Officeworks is happy enough to go off the catalogue then yay, if they need to call and verify with the store then you are screwed. But Aldi have an amazing return policy of 30 to 60 days complete refund return no questions asked, so if you are unsure, buy it and try it for a few weeks, if you don't like it, just take it back and get your money back. I've "trialled" quite a few of their products in the past out of curiosity, some stuff I've kept, some stuff I've taken back.
"Aldi have an amazing return policy of 30 to 60 days complete refund return no questions asked"
Are you certain? I thought it was 60 days for everything providing you have the receipt.
I'm pretty sure I've been told by the people at my local Aldi that they don't actually need the receipt if you've paid on credit card, but they do need the card number so they can look up the transaction and confirm the purch date.
But I've not had to test if that's correct or not, yet.
And, yeah, it's 60 days for everything.
Yeah, and then hand them out back to new customers. I got a new (used) tablet, got home has been on and the screen was like someone used some steel wool on it. Dodgy as.
Sell it to me. Why do I want this?
Actually stuff it. I'm getting one. Not sure what for.
Cos you can
i so relate to you.
Do I need the Bamboo Spark? No. Do I want it? Hell YEAH!
thanks for convincing me to buy one
totally loving my spark that i got from jb hifi deal. only bugger is to remember to press the button after finishing the page!
Does the paper run out? Reading the description sounds like it scand your notes?
basically the pen and paper both are ordinary ones but the back plate registers the pressure of the pen against paper, once you finish writing it syncs the notes to the app
OMG really sheesh this would be awesome. Might get one for work.
Really hate typing notes.
Does it have OCR?
basically the pen and paper both are ordinary ones but the back plate registers the pressure of the pen against paper
The paper is ordinary but the pen isn't. You must use the special EMR pen included with it. That's what Wacom are known for - their EMR technology.
yes thats why its my ideal gadget for taking office notes..wish it was released years ago..
so, the Spark is just a pen, right? no actual Wacom tablet is involved.
the 'tablet' is the area where the ordinary paper rests and it registers the pressure from the pen, hope this helps
also if it helps the battery on mine consumes around 30-50% a day but I can recharge easily with a micro usb cable
I feel I'm going to be suckered into getting one of these Sparks - even though I haven't yet managed to get the Bamboo One working properly I bought a year ago from Aldi.
What's not working with your One? The latest drivers for Bamboo tablets for Windows or Mac are all you need, and a spare USB port.
Thanks for your help, Lupiter.
In truth I haven't had much time to figure out what is wrong. I may simply need to spend more time setting it up, calibrating the pen, or something equally simple.
In it's current state it's very unpredictable: it is sensitive enough to register the pen movement slightly before it makes contact with the surface, yet it doesn't track well nor steadily. It's inaccurate just navigating the screen, let alone attempting anything artistic.
Really, by my comment, I meant that this is the kind of deal that appeals to my heart above my head as I'm tempted to buy something even though on past evidence I don't have time to set it up nor have much use for it.
A shame as I had craved a graphics tablet for years, and now I've finally got one I have no time to "play" with it.
Can someone just upload the whole Aldi catalogue. I've got to wait til Saturday to get it.
Computer seems impossibly cheap for a current i5 with two hard drives (SSD and a 2tb HDD).
Considering it doesn't have even a brand name I'm not sure I'd trust its supporting components though, cheap powersupplys are never good.
I agree with cheap psu's not being an ideal option but honestly, I would think they'd at least put in 350W of decent output which means you could put in a 1050ti in this.
Assuming it'd fit, not sure on dimensions.
Keep in mind it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, and probably has a poor PSU. I mean it's great value for a ready-made PC, but certainly not impossibly cheap.
It has an Intel HD 630 iGPU.
It can do 4K @60Hz and HDR, as per the Kaby Lake launch, if I'm not mistaken.
It's powerful enough to do eSport titles like Minecraft, Leage of Legends, CS GO, and Rocket League.
Overwatch is great though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0XLqphvpQI&spfreload=10
I guess it can do 'some' AAA titles in 720p, Low/Lowest Settings, at maybe 30fps.
It's certainly more powerful than a Xbox 360, PS3, and I'd wager the (dead) Wii U.
In terms of the CPU, this is roughly equal to the Core i5-6500 CPU.
That's the CPU I recommended for budget gaming systems.
Do note that this has 8GB DDR4 RAM (2133MHz), so that could be something worth considering for the upgrade.
Depends if there are two slots or four. Or if it comes in 2x 4GB, or 1x 8GB form.
But a little update to 16GB would make it much better.
It should have a regular PCIe slot, so that you could slot in a GPU, but the limiting factor would be the PSU.
The internal PSU will probably be at least 240W, and at max 450W.
Most likely it would probably be a 350W unit (or a Manufacturer's inflated figure of 500W, which is really 350-400W).
So that's actually enough power to supply a RX 470.
You're cutting it close, but as long as the thermals are fine (and they would be, this is a big desktop unit) and you don't overclock.
The safe bet is the GTX 1050Ti, but that's close priced to the RX 470 and is much slower.
The GTX 1060 3GB/6GB, and the RX 480 4GB/8GB… I'd think they're a bit too thirsty.
However, it really depends on the unit itself and if there's any free 6-pin connections/connectors available.
If so then:
$800 - PC
~$60 - RAM
$240 - RX 470
Total ~$1,100
So it seems well priced. It's really upto you if you want a system such as this.
You didn't have to do this. But for anybody thinking about buying this system you've done a great service for them.
Thanks for your post, really helpful. Just wanted to jump in and say I've had a medion desktop for the past 7 years and its served me fairly well even running photoshop and other adobe application no problem. Probably due for an upgrade so this doesnt look too bad.
@sillywalks:
Haha, all's good.
We are a community afterall.
I was sitting on this deal for 2 days, and was surprised noone posted it. It's just been so hot and busy for me, I didn't even get to see scotty when he came over this side. I logged in to post it last night, never posted any deals before, saw that nocure put it up.
RX470 would be my pic too, would make a fantastic 1080p rig
A mate of mind has a Medion notebook. Other than the fact it's running Windows 8 and a bucketload of bloat ware, it's still running strong after 5 years.
Not bad for an Aldi computer.
It'd run a lot better if he just let me clean it up!
@sillywalks: Agreed. We've got a couple of 7yo Medion laptops in the family, never skipped a beat…well worth the money.
@Kangal, thank you for the detailed breakdown on this PC so I decided to buy one this afternoon but would like to upgrade the RAM and video card. Would like to know where I can pick up a RX 470 for $240? I've been searching but unable to find it below $300.00….
Cheers!
I don't believe the computer has a graphics card, and you do raise a valid concern about cheap PSU/ mobos
I believe this is the unit.
http://www.medion.com/be/fr/shop/pc-gamer-medion-akoya-pc-p5…
Obviously we get the bigger ssd and hdd
I didn't notice any mention of a PSU in the specs there.
Nor the mobo. Just wondering how likely it is to have a couple of expansion PCI slots for a graphics and audio cards.
I have a question, if anyone can help me, please.
I understand that SSD is much faster than HDD but as it is much smaller how does one utilise it?
By that I mean do people typically just load the operating system and software onto the SSD and use the HDD for storing media, documents and save files?
Is it worth getting one of these and do I need one?
For a Uni student, say worth or nah?
I'm thinking the same thing. But then again my handwriting is very slow, and I take notes on my laptop, so I am not sure if it's worth buying one.
I'm thinking of getting one just for some conveniences, where your tutor assists you in something and they write it down - quick way to share. Hmm… decisions…
If it's something that's already been written down this won't help by the way. You have to write stuff inside the sleeve (there are sensors in the sleeve and in the pen that sense what's written), and then push a button to transfer that to a device.
Here's a detailed review of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9AM4F8Ucsc
@Aced21: I am not really sure, as I haven't used one myself. If you search it in YouTube (there are many review videos about it there) I am sure you'll find the answer to your question. I slightly entertained the idea of getting one (though I don't have a tablet. I think you can also use it for a smartphone), but then again I buy stuff and hardly use them, so I am gonna have to pass this one.
PS: Aren't Surface Pros larger than tablets? If you look at the video I've linked above, the guy has a tablet inside the sleeve, but I can't recall him saying that the device should be inside the sleeve in order to send stuff to it. Not really sure, you may have to Google about it, or check the reviews on YouTube. Good luck.
I would be the mate that took it off you to draw dicks on it during lectures.
Lotta penis drawings going to get uploaded to the cloud soon.
You mean, Dickbutt?
Reviews of the Wacom app for the Spark are terrible, heaps of people complain they syncing and OCR doesn't work. I was tempted, but not anymore!
Don't waste your money.
Bought a bamboo sparq before Xmas for $79 at JB.
It's very limited. The writing to text says free on the box but is a free trial with a paid subscription required subsequently.
I should have taken back as it does not meet the description on the box but left it a bit long and cbf standing in line at lunch.
For $79 get a pencil by 53 or similar for your tablet instead.
Hmm, here's a suggestion, save yourself $79 and just take a photo of your handwritten notes with your phone.
That's exactly what I've been doing for years… !!
How do you catalogue and do OCR on them?
using Evernote or OneNote
@georgedn: hmm ok, you probably don't have a lot of notes. Having a large number of notes stored as scanned images will take up a lot of space, making your onenote file huge which slows down sync. I've been using OneNote for a long time now and try to minimize the number of images I store.
Annotating an image doesn't work well compared to annotating captured handwriting too, and you can't erase the strokes that you've captured in a photo.
$79 is a great price for such a capture device if it works as well as the reviews show.
would that computer play latest games if I bought a graphics card and monitor or would it better to get something from that whirlpool computer part list for $1000?
Read the comment by Kangal above. It will be fine with something like a 1050ti, but really you'll want to build something yourself. This PC will probably not be conducive to upgrades
I'll pick my own parts and get the supplier to build it for me. I wasn't planning on doing it for a little while yet, as I wanted to have a gaming PC to kill some time during the winter months. I thought this one might have been good to save some time / effort as it's easier to just go buy it from aldi than the proposed alternative. I'll wait a bit longer and do a custom build. thanks.
Im not going to buy one for reasons but what are the chances of being able to chuck a decent or even hig end GPU in that PC? anyone know
Read @kangals post he/she just wrote an awesome breakdown
For anyone interested, Aldi's desktop from last year has a PSU rated at 450W. It has two RAM slots and comes with a single 8Gb stick.
Oh shit a spark for $80? I want this so badly! Screw writing on my HP tablet.
shit a spark?
Must be a leko
Got my Spark. They had them under the counter at checkout.
Is it still doing OCR through the trial software, or is it a more permanent thing?
Havent had a chance to check it out yet.
OCR works with free companion app (Wacom Inkspace). Works well. Recognised every character I scribbled.
Um. So I bought one. Local just had them sitting there.
I just have issues with the app not being able to sign into my account. Tried two iOS devices and Android. Just freezes on the login.
Sorry to pull the pin early, but I might return it if it won't do text conversion, which is what I need to sign in for..
Where's the direct links to the items?