I know you can upgrade XP Home to XP Pro, but you raise a good question about using the full XP disk...No harm in trying it, it should tell you if it doesn't like it and you can just abort setup at that time.
I know you can upgrade XP Home to XP Pro, but you raise a good question about using the full XP disk...No harm in trying it, it should tell you if it doesn't like it and you can just abort setup at that time.
CherryBOMB
Senior member
- Nov 12, 2002
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I've been waiting to hear from people who actually bought this computer. How much they like it or dislike it. Are you guys still setting it up or did you not buy it at all or are you already in the Aldi return line? 
Ed (even though you diss'd me before) I just got done upgrading their copy of XP home to Pro from the Pro CD, I just chose the reccomended option which was upgrade.
Of course I did that AFTER I uninstalled all the crap they had pre-loaded I didn't want (and that was a bunch of the stuff!)
I also pulled the modem out which leaves me with a question... Why is that last PCI slot blue? One thing they don't provide is a manual for the motherboard which sucks.
Also no HD LED (which I really likeas an option). I did noticed the mobo has pins for the HDD LED which I may just use to add an LED onto.
I LOVE the dual monitor out on this video card though! That was an unexpected surprise!!
That's all I have to report for now.....
Of course I did that AFTER I uninstalled all the crap they had pre-loaded I didn't want (and that was a bunch of the stuff!)
I also pulled the modem out which leaves me with a question... Why is that last PCI slot blue? One thing they don't provide is a manual for the motherboard which sucks.
Also no HD LED (which I really likeas an option). I did noticed the mobo has pins for the HDD LED which I may just use to add an LED onto.
I LOVE the dual monitor out on this video card though! That was an unexpected surprise!!
That's all I have to report for now.....
I noticed that Aldis also had a few other computer related items for sale in addition to this PC. I noticed they had a Medion wireless Joystick/Gamepad combo for $39.99. Did anyone here purchase that? If so, did yours come with a cdrom included with the drivers for it? The reason I ask, that evening I just happened to stop by an Aldis and seeing this I was curious about it and decided to purchase one just for the heck of it. Anyway, when I got home and opened it up the CDrom with the drivers was missing. Seeing as how this is a USB wireless joystick and gamepad and the manual mentions the driver disk and warns that you should install the drivers from this disk before connecting it to your usb port, it was immediately obvious to me that they left out the driver disk when they packaged this item. So, I immediately rush back to return it and they ask me if I'd like to exchange it for another. So, I do but ask if I can go ahead and open it to ensure that there is a driver disk in the new one I get. Lo and behold there is no driver disk in that one either. So, it seems as though the manufacturer must have forgotten to include the driver disk with these items when they packaged them. I don't know if this is true for all of these wireles joystick/gamepad combos at all aldis or whether it was simply isolated to the ones at my local aldi, but if anyone purchases this item at your local Aldis be sure and open the box before you leave and look for a CDrom. Also before anyone suggests looking at the Medion website for drivers, I already thought of that and if I could have downloaded a driver for the Joystick I wouldn't have bothered returning it, but alas there seems to be no reference whatsoever to this item on their website and no drivers available for download.
I picked one of these up at about 9:05am this morning. It was one of the last ones there. They were already out of the LCD's and mice, but had a bunch of 19" monitors. The store I stopped at had 40 pc's and the store my grandma went to at 4:30pm got 38 in and still had a bunch left when she bought her pc. They were also out of mice and LCD's.
So far I like the machine a lot. It is super quiet and is lightning quick. I think the only problem I will have is that my grandma heard me talking about it so much that she went out and bought one! I have no idea what she was thinking!
Anyway, the packaging was great and so far I have had no problems reading anything at all. Everything is in German and English. I think the thing that surprised me most is that on the microsoft mouse that came with it there is a medion logo. Same goes for the Windows xp disk and packaging. I guess its weird because you would think you would have seen more reviews of this things in english if theyt are so big that Microsoft is brading mice for them. I'm happy, and wish that I bought more of these things.
So far I like the machine a lot. It is super quiet and is lightning quick. I think the only problem I will have is that my grandma heard me talking about it so much that she went out and bought one! I have no idea what she was thinking!
Anyway, the packaging was great and so far I have had no problems reading anything at all. Everything is in German and English. I think the thing that surprised me most is that on the microsoft mouse that came with it there is a medion logo. Same goes for the Windows xp disk and packaging. I guess its weird because you would think you would have seen more reviews of this things in english if theyt are so big that Microsoft is brading mice for them. I'm happy, and wish that I bought more of these things.
Originally posted by: BigEdMuustaffa
Hey, sorry if you thought I was busting your chops, I didn't mean it as a diss, I just thought we were having a bit of fun going back and forth, If you took it as a diss, It was not meant that way.
Anyway, I agree with you on the HD light, maybe the case is in line for a little modding....I might do that to put one in. I haven't opened the box yet cause I'm not sure whether I should keep it yet. I have so many parts laying around that I could build another one from them....albeit not to the looks or specs of this system.....
Is that big round button like thing the power button? Is ther a reset button?
I noticed that there are drive covers, covering the cd drives so you can't get at the volume controls or the headphone jacks, but I guess everything is sofware driven or thats what the connect XL thingee is for.
I think the modem is one of those CNR slot modems, so the blue slot you are referring to might be a CNR and not a PCI slot. How many PCI slots did you count? I think I read on a german website review that the MB has 1 AGP, 3PCI, and 1 CNR slot(which until now, most people , including myself...
I have the full version of Pinnacle Studio 8 and I hear it's better for video editing than what they give you so I might install that.
Since you took all the crap off and reinstalled what you wanted, did you not use the recovery disc at all? I wonder if you add software or hardware like another drive say, if it voids any warranty? I can see the help desk guys (If I ever need to call them, other than if something dies) getting really confused if I were to change a lot of things around...
I didn't mean to be so verbose here, but the more questions I asked, the more I thought of......
Cool band Thin Lizzie.....did "The boys are back in town" didn't they?
For all common purposes there are two or three differences between home and pro. Most of these are mostly irrelevant in a home environment and in context of the ALDI machine.
1 - PRO can log on to Win2K domains (only relevant in some business environments and possibly some college campus networks)
2 - PRO supports 2 processors and Hyperthreading (irrelevant for home users unless you use a dual server or applications that take advantage of hyperthreading (are there even any out yet?) and the ALDI box is single processor and likely not HT enabled (supposedly only 3.06GHz chip supports it though there are rumors that other do too).
3 - PRO machines can remotely manage other XP machines (a la laplink).
IMHO it's not worth time and money to upgrade to pro unless you need the domain log-on. Given that it's $200 for pro upgrade for this task there may be other tools available too.
Yo
1 - PRO can log on to Win2K domains (only relevant in some business environments and possibly some college campus networks)
2 - PRO supports 2 processors and Hyperthreading (irrelevant for home users unless you use a dual server or applications that take advantage of hyperthreading (are there even any out yet?) and the ALDI box is single processor and likely not HT enabled (supposedly only 3.06GHz chip supports it though there are rumors that other do too).
3 - PRO machines can remotely manage other XP machines (a la laplink).
IMHO it's not worth time and money to upgrade to pro unless you need the domain log-on. Given that it's $200 for pro upgrade for this task there may be other tools available too.
Yo
Originally posted by: BigEdMuustaffa
Originally posted by: BigEdMuustaffa
Hey, sorry if you thought I was busting your chops, I didn't mean it as a diss, I just thought we were having a bit of fun going back and forth, If you took it as a diss, It was not meant that way.
Anyway, I agree with you on the HD light, maybe the case is in line for a little modding....I might do that to put one in. I haven't opened the box yet cause I'm not sure whether I should keep it yet. I have so many parts laying around that I could build another one from them....albeit not to the looks or specs of this system.....
Is that big round button like thing the power button? Is ther a reset button?
I noticed that there are drive covers, covering the cd drives so you can't get at the volume controls or the headphone jacks, but I guess everything is sofware driven or thats what the connect XL thingee is for.
I think the modem is one of those CNR slot modems, so the blue slot you are referring to might be a CNR and not a PCI slot. How many PCI slots did you count? I think I read on a german website review that the MB has 1 AGP, 3PCI, and 1 CNR slot(which until now, most people , including myself...
I have the full version of Pinnacle Studio 8 and I hear it's better for video editing than what they give you so I might install that.
Since you took all the crap off and reinstalled what you wanted, did you not use the recovery disc at all? I wonder if you add software or hardware like another drive say, if it voids any warranty? I can see the help desk guys (If I ever need to call them, other than if something dies) getting really confused if I were to change a lot of things around...
I didn't mean to be so verbose here, but the more questions I asked, the more I thought of......
Cool band Thin Lizzie.....did "The boys are back in town" didn't they?
Ed, no problem.
Yeah the bug globe button is the power button.
Also yes, you can restore the entire rig from either that CD or they have all the same files backed up on a 5.8gb partition called RECOVERY.
If I need to take advantage of the warranty I will just pull my 512mb stick of RAM, the 75gb IBM drive (noisy as hell I now notice!!) and recover from that CD. The way I see it if I have a problem all the components are warrneted through their respective manufacturers so I would go that route anyway.
Yo2 is correct on the Pro vs. Home deal. I host a big LAN party and remotely administer servers so I have to be using pro.
Ed - thanks for the info on the CNR deal. Your right, 3 PCI (geforce card takes 1) and one CNR. I pulled that modem because I share my 56k on a router (broadband not yet available here, go figure!).
Thin, is the geforce in a PCI slot or an AGP slot? If its in the AGP slot there should be 3 pcis AND the CNR.....I can't find any info on the mb, the german website says it's an msi-6701, but msi website doesn't list one of those.
It is definitely a Micro Star 6701 MB, and the video card is in the AGP slot, then there are three PCI slots, one of which is blue. It is labled PCI3 on the board so why is it blue? Is it only something special for modems? The manual that came with this thing is probably the best manual I have ever seen. It covers everything really well.
Picked one up this morning.There were about 25 people in line .All the the computers and flat screen monitors were gone in a matter of 10 min. The machine is super Quiet and really quick.Ive spent the better part of the day tweaking .So far Im very impressed.The only downside would be that the slide down door on the connect XL seems a little flimsy.Nice panels over the drives so if I decide to throw my lite-on 52x24x52 in it doesnt matter that its not black.The sony drive seems fine though.Overall im very happy.
Crap! Your right Ed... The geforce is in the AGP slot. My bad, too many hours staring at this thing.
What I need to know is if that CNR slot will also work as a PCI slot. I would seem to think so given there are only 2 other PCI's in there.
Personally, I think the mouse was the sweetest deal.
I would compare it to the new Logitech wireless.
I'm using it already.
There are deals out there, bundled with flat panel monitors that rival the PC, but I haven't seen a decent, 5-button wireless mouse for anywhere near $25.
The store near me had three PCs, one monitor, one mouse (now mine) and a whole bunch of the joysticks available around noon.
I would compare it to the new Logitech wireless.
I'm using it already.
There are deals out there, bundled with flat panel monitors that rival the PC, but I haven't seen a decent, 5-button wireless mouse for anywhere near $25.
The store near me had three PCs, one monitor, one mouse (now mine) and a whole bunch of the joysticks available around noon.
I might be wrong, but from what I've read in reviews, reviewers always lament a MB with CNR cause they feel it's a waste, the space could have been used for another PCI slot. So according that, the CNR slot can't be used for a PCI device, only a CNR device (mostly a modem) However, the description of the modem is PCI, so it's anyone's bet.
Ed, no problem.
Yeah the bug globe button is the power button.
Also yes, you can restore the entire rig from either that CD or they have all the same files backed up on a 5.8gb partition called RECOVERY.
If I need to take advantage of the warranty I will just pull my 512mb stick of RAM, the 75gb IBM drive (noisy as hell I now notice!!) and recover from that CD. The way I see it if I have a problem all the components are warrneted through their respective manufacturers so I would go that route anyway.
Yo2 is correct on the Pro vs. Home deal. I host a big LAN party and remotely administer servers so I have to be using pro.
Ed - thanks for the info on the CNR deal. Your right, 3 PCI (geforce card takes 1) and one CNR. I pulled that modem because I share my 56k on a router (broadband not yet available here, go figure!).[/quote]
TL, so you installed a 2nd drive? (the 75 IBM) I was thinking of doing that too, installing a drive for the OS and some programs, and using the 120 for maybe video or other data. Also, I have a couple of PNY pc2700, 256k sticks I was thinking of putting in.
Anybody else out there modifying this rig?
Yeah the bug globe button is the power button.
Also yes, you can restore the entire rig from either that CD or they have all the same files backed up on a 5.8gb partition called RECOVERY.
If I need to take advantage of the warranty I will just pull my 512mb stick of RAM, the 75gb IBM drive (noisy as hell I now notice!!) and recover from that CD. The way I see it if I have a problem all the components are warrneted through their respective manufacturers so I would go that route anyway.
Yo2 is correct on the Pro vs. Home deal. I host a big LAN party and remotely administer servers so I have to be using pro.
Ed - thanks for the info on the CNR deal. Your right, 3 PCI (geforce card takes 1) and one CNR. I pulled that modem because I share my 56k on a router (broadband not yet available here, go figure!).[/quote]
TL, so you installed a 2nd drive? (the 75 IBM) I was thinking of doing that too, installing a drive for the OS and some programs, and using the 120 for maybe video or other data. Also, I have a couple of PNY pc2700, 256k sticks I was thinking of putting in.
Anybody else out there modifying this rig?
See that's another thing to consider...The case does look really cool, and I don't know how else you could get one w/o buying the rig, so that's another plus for the system you can't really compare by price... Some have said, "oh yeah like $50 for the case", but if you really like it and must have it, it's worth more than the actual price to you...
Some have said, "oh yeah like $50 for the case", but if you really like it and must have it, it's worth more than the actual price to you...Ed... Yep, I stuck one of my 2 IBM's in there. The only drawback is that now the system is noisy. Right out of the box with it's passive cooling system you can't hear it when it's powered up! Now I have that typical deskstar whine.
I also added a stick of 512 PC2700. Ate that like a champ.
On the drive install that was bizarre. I installed it on the same IDE channel as thr 120 and it appeared in the post-up screen, and it even showed up in device manager but it never showed in "my computer" or in windows explorer. I took a look in the "computer management" thingie inside the disk management section and saw it there but it sais it was "foreign drive". I right clicked it and one of the options was "convert drive" or something like that (I can't remember and that option is gone now). I did that and it worked perfectly. Now the issue was it was like drive j: or something. Inside that same disk management thingie I was able to re-arrange drive letters to get the layout I wanted. (All of those connect XL slots appear as drive letters too, so I had to work around those.
Someone else asked about the case... steel. Heavy compared to the Aluminum case I just moved out of. Plastic front bezel though. Took me a while to figure out how to get inside it too. As an FYI when your inside if you need to remove drives or anything there are only screws on the side you are looking in. Once you remove the two screws for ther CD-RW (for example) you just slide the drive out. It uses some sort of pressure flange on the other side. I must have wasted 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get the panel/roof off the other side of that case.
For now I will stick with this case. Power supply seems to work well but I think it's only a 250 watt job.
Ok, here's the low down on the case and insides. I haven't actually hooked this puppy up yet, but here's what I can tell you based on unpacking it and taking a look see inside and out:
1) 250W Power Supply, I believe it said FORTRAN. Anyone heard of this brand? 250 seems a bit skimpy considering all the power items inside.
2) Three external 5 1/4" bays, all filled, 1 burner, 1 DVD/Rom, 1 Connect XL panel.
3) 2(maybe 3 but looked like 2) 3 1/2" bays, 1 internal has the hard drive in it, 1 externally accesible for a floppy, or zip drive , or an 2nd hard drive (just leave the external cover plate on)
4) There is no rear exhaust fan, although there is a place to mount one. This system apparently exhausts heat via the power supply fan. There is a huge fan (80 mm?) and a heat duct which if it's blowing cool air onto the CPU, it pulls cooler outside air in via the side vent. Or it may exhaust that way, any one who has theirs running, is the air blowing out the side or being sucked in?
5) You can only remove one side panel, the other side is one piece with the top, so as another post mentioned, the drives are only attatched to their bays with screws on the one side, the other side has some kind of locking mechanism I would presume.
6) The front bezel is plastic, and it's painted to compliment the excellent paint job of the heavy metal case. You push a little rectangular button thingee to have cover panel drop down to expose the Connect XL panel. I don't recall seeing a reset button, so I'm wondering how does one do a hardware restart? (Or is one even necessary with the new XP?)
7) The inside looks like living quarters on a WWII submarine, cramped yet functional. Others have stated that this system runs very quiet and cool, so being cramped isn't a problem. You reall don't need to ad anything to this system, and if you did, you really can't, other than your choice of a floppy, zip, or a 2nd internal hard drive.
8) The mother board looks like maybe a mini atx, it sure is smaller than most, with only 3 pci slots, but it's got most of the stuff you'd add want to add via a pci slot already onboard.
If I missed anything, maybe you guys who already have yours up and running can jump in here... I'll post an update once I set mine up and start tinkering...
1) 250W Power Supply, I believe it said FORTRAN. Anyone heard of this brand? 250 seems a bit skimpy considering all the power items inside.
2) Three external 5 1/4" bays, all filled, 1 burner, 1 DVD/Rom, 1 Connect XL panel.
3) 2(maybe 3 but looked like 2) 3 1/2" bays, 1 internal has the hard drive in it, 1 externally accesible for a floppy, or zip drive , or an 2nd hard drive (just leave the external cover plate on)
4) There is no rear exhaust fan, although there is a place to mount one. This system apparently exhausts heat via the power supply fan. There is a huge fan (80 mm?) and a heat duct which if it's blowing cool air onto the CPU, it pulls cooler outside air in via the side vent. Or it may exhaust that way, any one who has theirs running, is the air blowing out the side or being sucked in?
5) You can only remove one side panel, the other side is one piece with the top, so as another post mentioned, the drives are only attatched to their bays with screws on the one side, the other side has some kind of locking mechanism I would presume.
6) The front bezel is plastic, and it's painted to compliment the excellent paint job of the heavy metal case. You push a little rectangular button thingee to have cover panel drop down to expose the Connect XL panel. I don't recall seeing a reset button, so I'm wondering how does one do a hardware restart? (Or is one even necessary with the new XP?)
7) The inside looks like living quarters on a WWII submarine, cramped yet functional. Others have stated that this system runs very quiet and cool, so being cramped isn't a problem. You reall don't need to ad anything to this system, and if you did, you really can't, other than your choice of a floppy, zip, or a 2nd internal hard drive.
8) The mother board looks like maybe a mini atx, it sure is smaller than most, with only 3 pci slots, but it's got most of the stuff you'd add want to add via a pci slot already onboard.
If I missed anything, maybe you guys who already have yours up and running can jump in here... I'll post an update once I set mine up and start tinkering...
On 4) Air is likely sucked into the case. Rather than old designs that had a heatsinkfan that pushed already warm ambient air onto the cpu this seems to bring in fresh ouside air. Very clever, and this design is obviously independent of cleaning up the inside for airflow reasons ( as long as the cpu heated air can rise to the P/S and be exhausted. 80mm fan or bigger (may be 92mm) can be run at very low rpm yet be effective - I like it.
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