PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: Sandra on March 11, 2006, 16:28
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As some of you may know I recently bought what I thought was an execllent pc from Aldi.
The Medion 8800 at a cost of £749 - 99
On paper it was a very well spec'd pc complete with twin digital terrestrial and satellite tv tuners.
It had a 3ghz Intel dual core CPU, 1 gig of DDR2 ram, a PCI-e graphics card, a 250 gig SATA hard drive and a 16 x DVD writer with Light Scribe feature.
Unfortunately the TV side of it didnt work properly, until ironically after I had arranged to return it to Aldi for a refund, and the recorded analogue audio in didnt work, that still hasnt been sorted for other users as far as I know.
I had already bought a case to build myself a new PC 2 weeks before I saw the Medion one advertised and bought that instead so I reverted back to plan A.
This is a list of the parts and prices of my new PC :
Chietec Case Mesh Series LCX-01SL-SL-B £64 ? 80
5 x 92 mm 4 pin molex connector case fans, unknown make £12 ? 98
Fan controller for 3 connections £4 ? 98
All the above were brand new from Ebay sellers.
Asus P5WD 2 Premium motherboard £135
Intel Pentium 4 660 3.6Ghz Socket 775 800Mhz 2mb Cache £208
Should have been £270 but got a good deal.
2 x 1 gig Corsair DDR2 533 ram £121
MSI NX 6800 GS 256mb DDR3 PCI-e GFX card £148
Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU £65
LG GSA-4167BAL 16 x DVD writer inc RAM £27
Liteon SHW-16H5S 16 x DVD writer inc Light Scribe £30
1 x 120mm Thermaltake LED case fan £9
All the above came from Mustafa at www.muson.com, a local store.
WD2500JS Caviar SE 250GB SATA2 8MB Cache - £65 ? 93
WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB SATA2 16MB Cache £66 ? 37
Hard drives from Ebuyer plus postage
Tv Tuner bundle from Nebula inc VAT and delivery was £135 ? 82
http://www.nebula-electronics.com/information/info.asp?Code=0601
Spare floppy that I had already say £5
Total cost of pc £976 ? 88
Extras :
Grand Hand View universal VGA/ PC to TV converter box, new from Ebay.
only necessary as my tv has a fault that wont show a good picture unless its played into a RGB enabled scart.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5863787853&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 £29 ? 95
I changed the standard Intel CPU heatsink/fan for a Freezer 7 Pro so add another £19 - 73 inc vat and postage.
This was because of what I thought was a noisy cpu fan, unfortunately it made no difference as the noise is actually the fan on the GFX card
I also bought a BTC 9019 URF wireless keyboard with the joystick for £31 - 14 inc vat and delivery.
So including the extra bits its worked out at around £1,050
A third as much again as the 8800 but a far better pc in terms of performance, storage capacity and expandability.
I have added my WD 160 gig 8mb cache IDE drive complete with all the files on it that was in my old server pc and its now running my server and working as a media centre pc mainly for recording/watching TV on, and replacing my DVD player and VCR.
I should be able to update and upgrade it for a few years to come hopefully as well :)
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:woo: :welldone: Sandra! Got any pics? It does go to show that with Aldi and the like, if it looks cheap, it probably is, but it's indirectly done you a favour, in that you now have a much better spec PC, and have the secure knowledge that you put it all together yourself. :) That said, I still don't see why anyone would want to watch TV on a computer. :?
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It's called multi-tasking Simon. Mere blokes like us cannot do that.
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Plan A sounds cool, Sandra. Let's hope it delivers the goods :) .
Gill
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Hopefully I will have some pics soon, I have spent all my spare cash on my pc and cant afford a digital camera :(
A friend has taken some pics of it a week or so back but didnt bring his cameras lead with him so I couldnt transfer them to my pc.
Hes supposed to be sending them to me but I will remind him this week :)
I wont be watching TV on the pc Simon, it will be playing DVD, downloaded films in any format, broadcast TV and recorded from broadcast TV on my TV set, not on a computer monitor.
I am hoping to buy a new HDTV later this summer, when the special offers come out for the world cup, ( there has to be some benefit of being subjected to weeks of football matches :roll: )
I already have the first series of Lost on my pc as HD Xvid and as more and more films come out in HD I will be able to get the benefits of that even before broadcast in HD becomes more common.
Hopefully I wont need to buy any more AV equipment from now on for my main viewing once I get a HDTV as any future developments such as Blu-Ray or HD DVD will be able to be incorporated into my pc at a far cheaper cost, and no extra wires, than it would be if I had to buy another couple of boxes :)
The Medion pc was verygood value for money, if it had done what it said on the tin Simon.
The TV tuner problem has been sorted by someone who got hold of some "unofficial" drivers for the TV card, even though Medion are still denying that there is a problem with it using the original drivers.
The audio in is still a problem as far as I know, but I am sure that will be fixed soon, again Medion seem to not believe people who say that it doesnt work properly :(
For people wanting an off the shelf pc and with little knowledge of a pcs innards then the 3 year gurantee is a worthwhile advantage too.
That pc was the quietest one I have heard and that is one thing that I am a little disappointed with on my pc.
Its not as noisy as this one but after the quietness of the Medion it has spoiled me a little.
I do have 6 case fans in though so it should run quite cool and reliably.
Due to the way I have connected them to my fan speed controller they are all running at a slow speed so are quiter than they would be if they were all flat out.
Its not noticeable when the TV or radio is on, fortunately and a friend said that it didnt look like a computer, its more like a speaker or a subwoofer next to the TV :)
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I wont be watching TV on the pc Simon, it will be playing DVD, downloaded films in any format, broadcast TV and recorded from broadcast TV on my TV set, not on a computer monitor.
You know to say he's my bro he comes over a bit dim sometimes Sandra.
:P :wink:
Like I said in my email....a kick arse piece of kit :D
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Photos of my new pc, not as sharp as I had hoped but better than nothing :)
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg59.imageshack.us%2Fimg59%2F1868%2Fpicture1001di.jpg&hash=7cdfb6dbf969e08a858b19220c246bd17caafa9b)
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg49.imageshack.us%2Fimg49%2F2039%2Fpicture1030dz.jpg&hash=7e7696a4e9310b7515a0247a7664cdcfad0b1f4c)
Blue insulation tape strategically placed to cut down the brightness of the LEDs showing through the front of the pc when the door is closed.
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg49.imageshack.us%2Fimg49%2F2435%2Fpicture1056fo.jpg&hash=58a56fbfc43e6dba332e276b5bf5d86bdaa987fa)
The flash has made the filter material that I added, to try and cut down on dust inside the pc, show through the top of the front panel and on the fans on the right hand side of the case.
The front panel looks the same black as the bottom half under normal lighting.
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg153.imageshack.us%2Fimg153%2F2765%2Fpicture1061eq.jpg&hash=2a43f7a20e6434e43d4f22d4782d790754be1e04)
I have since removed the protective covering from the top and bottom of the case :)
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cool, the inside looks way too neat though! :-)
also should we ask what is going on on the tv in the background :-)
the computer looks great, but what matters is "under the bonnet" and that sounds sharp.
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I noticed the tv just as I posted the pic Sam.
Looks like someones getting a hair cut but I havent a clue what was on, it was around 9pm on a sunday evening if that helps :)
The pc now sits just to the left side of the tv and has less than half an inch clearance to the bottom of the tv set :)
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What's that polythene thing hanging out of the top of the casing???
And get those dog hairs hoovered up. :wink:
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I have since removed the protective covering from the top and bottom of the case :)
Cant you read you daft old bat :P
If you can stop Charlie rolling on the floor long enough to vaccuum then you can come and clean up for me Lona, anytime that you want :wink:
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I'll send Mr. Lona, I don't do hoovering. :D :D :D
Do you think I'm daft or something. :D
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cool, the inside looks way too neat though! :-)
That's because a woman built it - what do you expect? :grin:
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cool, the inside looks way too neat though! :-)
Those self adhesive cable clips from B and Q worked really well to hold the cables in place :)
The one stuck on the 3.5 drive cage is holding the wires that connect to the 2 fans on the case door so that the wires dont flap around when the doors closed :)
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I think you've done a very good job.
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that's very nice,now you can save for a new camera! 8-)
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I bought one a few weeks back so may take some more pics soon :)
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I have upgraded my already fast pc by replacing the 660 3.6 ghz single core with 2mb of L2 cache cpu with a D945 3.4 ghz dual core with 2mb L2 cache on each core cpu :)
When I was looking at cpu options earlier this year I decided on the 660 as the D830 was £244 and that was only a 3 ghz with 1mb L2 cache on each core.
I didnt even consider a D900 series as all the D900s were well over £300.
The 660 was £270 but as I said earlier I got a great deal on it and paid £208 for it, its still on sale for £270 in most places.
I noticed recently that the D945 was on sale in various places for under £100 inc vat :o
My pc is used mainly as a media centre pc and I want to add a High Definition Satellite DVB S2 card quite soon.
The best one that appears to be around at the moment reccommends a D 820 or D830 cpu so I assumed my 660 would be fine.
However I recently read a review on that card and was surprised to see that the 3.8ghz version of my cpu worked ok with that card as long as the pc wasnt doing anything else.
If it was running any other applications then the playback was jerky. :(
So I decided I had best get the D945 while it was cheap and still available.
Before I changed the cpus I ran Si Soft Sandra and a video converting program called Auto Gordian Knot so that I could compare the difference in specifications and performance after fitting the new cpu.
I am really pleased with the results and have attached a word document showing the specifications and performance of each cpu side by side.
I cant believe that the new cpu is under half the price of the old one and is so much faster :o
Even though the word doc is in the limits of the forum it wont let me post it ?
I will try and post it later somehow.
This is the thing that really impressed me :
Converting 4 Hr 52 min mpg film 6.58 gig to 4.29 gig Xvid using Auto Gordian Knot
660 : Job finished. Total time: 6 hours 3 minutes 46 seconds
D945 : Job finished. Total time: 4 hours 25 minutes 21 seconds
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I had to convert my nicely formatted word.doc to htm and it messed it up :(
You will have to see what the figures on the left refer to by reading the text in the right hand column.
If anyone wants the pristine version of the word.doc pm me your email address and I will send it by email :)
http://www.sandrataylor.dsl.pipex.com/CpuPerformance.htm