PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: GillE on November 16, 2009, 23:43
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Is the Medion (http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_11960.htm) which is on sale this Thursday good value?
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I'm getting a link to Google Mail there, Gill.
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Sorry :blush: . I think I've corrected the link now.
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:thumb:
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Unusually for Aldi/Medion this one isnt particularly good value Gill. Its gimmicky with having the touch screen, which some may like, but a lot of people are complaining about the lack of HDMI, as most of the recent Medions have had those.
A lot of people are hoping that they will bring out another PC in time for Xmas. If they follow the pattern of previous releases then they should have a very powerful and well specc'd PC out in a couple of weeks which should be excellent value for money.
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Thanks for that, Sandra :) . I'll hold my fire for the time being.
Maurice will be delighted!
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Well, you've got your lathe. ;)
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Also, they've fitted 4GB of RAM but installed a 32-bit OS, so you're paying for unused RAM.
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Tell me more about the amount of RAM and the type of OS, Rik, if you'd be so kind :) . What size RAM do you need for a 32-bit OS and what do you need for s 64-bit OS? Also, isn't it a good idea to have surplus RAM for programs running in the background?
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The most RAM a 32-bit version of Windows can support, Gill, is a tad over 3GB. The extra address space up to the 4GB which a 32-bit OS can use, is assigned to the graphics card and system (so the more RAM on your graphics card, the less RAM available for use). A 64-bit OS goes up to some huge amount of RAM, which I can't recall off hand, but in the case of Windows, it's limited to 128GB.
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I do like Medions though... my desktop back in the UK was a great find.. was so pleased I bet the other people to get one.
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Yes it's very very good value.
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Does this latest offer (http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_12578.htm?WT.mc_id=2010-01-04-12-00) seem to be better value?
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Mine is a Medion Akoya that was on offer in Tesco, September 2008. Because it was ex-display (they'd flogged all the rest), I picked it up for £219. The CPU is an Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad processor and it came with 3GB of (single channel) RAM and a 1TB drive. I wasn't thrilled about the sound, graphics and storage, so I've since added a further 1TB drive, Creative X-Fi Elite Pro sound, Gigabyte GTS250 1GB graphics and recabled throughout. Also, because it seemed to be struggling a bit after I'd stuffed all that lot up its jumper, I replaced the puny 350W PSU with a Hiper 800W jobbie which seems to be coping very nicely. Oh yes... and it now has a floppy drive too!
Modifications notwithstanding, I'd say the one I bought was a good, stable, entry-level machine, but do shop around.
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That's interesting, Rodders. I see Tesco has a Medion Akoya (http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-1665.aspx)which is only £280 although it has a lower specification.
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As you say Gill, it has a lower specification - much lower - and therefore probably best avoided, in my opinion.
You might also consider Novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/home.html), whom I've dealt with on and off for well over ten years now. Their prices are very hard to beat and service second to none. Definitely worth a shot.
Good luck! :)
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The Aldi is very good value for money Gill.
Anyone on the Aldi/Medion forum who is ready for a new pc are hoping that they will manage to get hold of one before they sell out. I recommended that one to a friend who was complaining about how slow his pc was on sunday evening.
The problem with Aldi is that for the last couple of years they dont tend to get that many pcs in stock per store. If you really want one I would suggest getting there at least an hour before the store opens, wrap up warm and take a flask of a hot drink or some brandy with you as they will sell out within 10 minutes of the stores opening.
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I'm very tempted by the Aldi Medion, but the weather is against me. As much as I need a new computer before my present machine fails, I don't anticipate being able to drive to my nearest Aldi tomorrow.
:(
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Some people on the Aldi/Medion forum are expecting a better spec pc out around march Gill, so if you cant get out for this one the next one should be even better, possibly with an i7 cpu :dunno:
I think it will be more expensive though and unless you needed something really specialised then the one tomorrow looks like a great deal, especially with the 3 year guarantee that you dont get if you buy a Medion PC from anywhere else for some reason.
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This is available tomorrow http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_12578.htm
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Shame they don't do online shopping.
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and they will be gone within 10 minutes.
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Yesterday, Reading Aldi, had 5 PC's on special offer from their last PC sale, I believe that they are these http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_7349.htm They were priced at £299.99
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I guess it depends if people can get there to buy them.
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There's just been an interesting development in the story of my Medion - in as much as I now have two.
In addition to the one I mention above there's also one of these these (http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-0483.aspx), after I went all whimmy in Tesco yesterday afternoon. Despite the relatively puny HD, it does have a Q8300 CPU and four GB RAM, which represents a bit of an improvement on the existing box. Oh, and it was heavily discounted (£277) because it was end of range, ex-display and I had a few Clubcard vouchers to fritter.
The Motherboards appear to be pretty much identical (MS-7366 v2.2), so if there's a kind Sandra listening, could you possibly please advise me whether I can do a straight swap of all the gubbins (PSU, drives, graphics, sound card, etc.) from the old box to the new one, and still expect it to work, once I've disabled the on-board display and sound from the BIOS. Both machines are running Windows 7 Home Premium.
Thanks, in anticipation,
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I should think you would be OK with that Rod, providing the older PSU is as good or better than the newer one and has the required extra connectors for the GFX card and the 4 or 8 pin one to the mobo for the CPU.
I didnt realise that you had a medion ( or now 2 ) Rod. May be worth you joining up here and asking on there :
http://www.medionsupport.com/phpbb2/index.php
I think you have to join to view the posts and need 5 posts before the filter allows most words.
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Thanks, Sandra! On the strength of that, I'm inclined to take a flyer and start swapping bits over from box-to-box then. My main worry was that Windows 7 might not recognise the new CPU/config for licence purposes and then refuse to play. At least I've now got someone to blame if it all goes the way of the pear.
The PSU shouldn't present any problems , as it's a newish 800w Hiper jobbie that I paid an obscene amount of money locally for, after the one I bought on eBay from a gentleman in Bradford was DOA and its replacement blew up very noisily after only a week. It smelled of curry anyway.
With any luck, I might also end up with a free copy of Windows 7 (on the Medion install disk from the new machine), provided I can successfully reactivate the copy of Vista I upgraded from and plonk it back onto the old machine. First things first though, eh?
I'll hit the Medion forum after it all ends in tears.
Yours eternally gratefully,
Mr. Confident of Bournemouth (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv300%2FMothballs%2FSmileys%2Fflowers.gif&hash=c33c1043ca0def306413a0006b7f5e5d3df99e70)
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Is that your ring you're talking about, Rod? :o: ;)
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Do we really want to discuss Rod's ring? :ack:
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I was just checking. ;D
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Did he ask you to? :o
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No, I thought it was a service we offered members and, as you're the nearest admin... :o:
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The battery's gone in my torch. :D
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Use matches, it's twice as effective. :devil:
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Do you not think that might sting a bit? :horror:
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Not if you don't let them burn down too far. ;D
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I wasn't thinking of myself. ;D
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I realised. :devil:
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:crazy:
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Wot? Have you two been smoking mushrooms again? (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv300%2FMothballs%2FSmileys%2Fweirdo.gif&hash=4c5096cc8128f5950e36918899b3f0c860ac379d)
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Us? No, it's just the date that's got into our systems, Rod. ;)
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Oh, of course! Happy Easter!
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;D
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That PSU should be fine Rod. I have an earlier Hyper PSU in one of my PCs but I had to buy an extra lead to add a second 4 pin connector to the second rail to feed the 8 pin CPU mobo connector as the original leads only had a single 4 pin connector.
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I've just read the box it came in and it's apparently a Hiper 880W HPU-4M880-PS, with more leads than a leadery. Shame it's not one of the modular chappies you can disconnect unused leads from. Still, I suppose that's what cable ties are for.
A major problem at the moment is, my AV (Online Armor++) seems to have corrupted and is currently locked in a deadly embrace with my sound card software. I need to fix those pretty sharpish before performing the transplant. Maybe it's time to check out F-Secure that Simon kindly recommended.
Stay chooned...
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I've certainly had no hardware issues with FSIS 2010, Rod.
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Going purely on first impressions of F-S IS 2010, I'm well impressed! Thanks for the heads-up, Simon! :)
Now to re-install a trillion vegamites of Creative bloatware... :(
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I also use the same AV Rod and I'm very pleased with it. Much faster than the 2009 version and far less intrusive. I found it far cheaper to buy the CD from Amazon than renew online.
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Thanks, Clive. I'll bear that in mind when April 2010 rolls around. And thank you Sandra, for inspiring me to pursue a scheme which was clearly bonkers in the first place.
Meanwhile... I'm astonished and delighted to say that the transplant was a success! Mind you, for a short while it looked like I might have to send this from my laptop.
As it turned out, Plan B was the one that worked. If you've been paying attention, you'll know that my original intention was to simply swap the drives and cards from the old machine into the new one. However, once I set to work, I realised that the two cases (which were pretty much identical in appearance on the outside and had roughly the same MoBo) were vastly different internally.
This led to all sorts of problems, not the least of which being a lack of angled SATA leads - not easy to get hold of at 8:30pm on Good Friday - using flat leads meant I couldn't close the case. Then there was the matter of the side panel being vented differently, because of the way they had aligned the different MoBos leaving no space for a FDD. There was a ton of silly little annoyances like that. In the end, what I did was strip down both machines and swap the MoBos complete with RAM and CPUs, so I'm now using the original case still, but with new MoBo, CPU, RAM and SATA DVD-RW. Being able to lay my hands on a five-year-old tube of Arctic Silver paste was a real a bonus too.
After shuffling the MoBos, CPU coolers and funnels, it was just a simple matter of inserting and connecting all the bits again, before marvelling at the blue screen of death a couple of times until 'Repair Windows' on my Windows 7 install disk finally pulled everything together. Oh yes... and I had re-activate/re-register Windows again, after receiving a not-so-friendly greeting from Microsoft while typing this.
The new/old box containing the leftover bits still needs sorting out and upgrading with a graphics card that came with the original machine, so I may end up coming back with my tail between my legs - particularly if I can't reactivate the original copy of Vista that I upgraded from. But my real question is this...
Am I becoming Bat69?
MSI MS-7366 MoBo
Intel Q8300 CPU
4GB DDR2 RAM
2x1TB WD Caviar Black HD
2x1TB WD Green HD in (external) Icy Box
1TB Seagate HD
500MB Maxtor external HD
3.5TB external storage
Gigabyte Nvidia GTS 250 graphics
HP w2207h display
Creative X-Fi Elite sound
Yamaha MS202 Monitor speakers
Epson V300 scanner
HP 970cxi printer
APC SmartUps 700 UPS
Partridge/Pear tree
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;D The overclocking whizkid!
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Good work, Rod! I'm afraid I've got to the 'can't be arsed' stage when it comes to self building. I just want to turn it on and it works, and at the moment, haven't even got the enthusiasm to take the side off mine and give it a hoover.
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It's so hard to get the entire head into most cases, isn't it. :)
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It's the arms and legs I have trouble with.
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:rofl:
I just dive off the desk - gravity does the rest.
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;D
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But my real question is this...
Am I becoming Bat69?
Only if you upgrade to the latest bios as soon as one comes out Rod ;D
Although now that its usually done from inside windows it seem less problematical than it once was :)