Chicago (IL) – Bargain hunters may have found two especially interesting products in last weekend’s newspaper: Discount store Aldi is selling a desktop PC with triple-core processor for $399 and Best Buy is offering a Blu-ray player under its house brand Insignia for $230, which isn’t that far away from the most expensive upscaling DVD players anymore.

Aldi’s triple-core PC may be another sign of AMD’s aggressive strategy to push its triple-core processors, basically quad-core CPUs with one defunct core, into the entry-level PC market. The desktop system, sold under the Medion brand, comes with a Phenom X3 8450 CPU, an AMD 780G-based motherboard, an ATI HD 3450 graphics card, 3 GB memory, a WD 640 GB hard drive a DVD burner and Windows Vista Premium.

The system can be purchased for $399, which, however, excludes optional speakers ($10), a keyboard and mouse ($20) and a 19” LCD ($150).

Aldi carries PCs for brief periods once in a while, using a strategy that has been very successful in Germany for about 12 years. Aldi typically relies on Medion products in these campaigns (they also build gadgets such as digital cameras) and has made the Germany-based manufacturer one of Europe’s largest PC manufacturers. AMD’s triple-core processors are also a relative bargain for DIY PCs: A quick check on Pricegrabber.com reveals that the average retail price of the CPU was $102 last Friday.

Best Buy has dropped the price of its Insignia NS-BRDVD Blu-ray player from $250 to $230, which should make high-def a much more interesting topic for mainstream buyers. Slowly but surely, we are talking about prices that compete with the high-end range of upscaling DVD players. The player is available through the retailer’s website only and includes a $100 coupon for Disney Blu-ray movies.

Traditional brand-name Blu-ray players are also dropping in price, but remain substantially more expensive, Samsung’s BD-P2550 is offered for $400; the BD-P1500 as well as Sony’s BDP-S350 sell for $300.