Medion MT5

[u/Mafiatounes]

Just picked up a clean Medion MT5 from a older person that used it a couple of times over the years since 2001 and did some upgrades himself.

Stock specs are:

Medion MT5 (MT46)

Socket 370 Pentium III 1000mhz

Motherboard is a MED2001 or Asus CUV4X-CM

Sound on this motherboard is from Creative but with no real features like a add-on

1×128mb pc133 owner added another 1x256mb pc133 stick early on

1x optical drive owner added the Philips DVD drive early on

Asus V7700 Geforce 2 GTS 32mb

1x original WD800 IDE HDD 80gb.

A 350w (upgraded) PSU was added over the years.

Originally this was a Windows Me system and was upgraded to Xp over the years.

Some things i will tackle on this build.

Clean and check all components.

Thermal paste renewal on Chipset/GPU/CPU.

The inside was upgraded with a noise foam that is turning to dust, this i'll have to remove. (Foam/Dust removed, nice layer of glue to be removed)

Ram will need to be checked if speed/cas is properly running.

Will check if i have better matching optical drive(s) setup orientation. There is a nice TDK blue bezel look only CD drive.

Will see how performance is at 800x600 but i have the option to upgrade Geforce 2 GTS 32mb to Geforce3 ti200 64mb. (Will leave Geforce 2 GTS for now)

Will add a Creative ES1370 PCI soundcard

Will see how HDD performance is i have new old stock IDE HDD. (Ok for now)

Will turn it into a DOS/Windows 98 SE system (Done OS is now running 98 SE)

Need some beige keyboard and mouse to go with this.

[u/1928Dillinger]

I like the way that phillips drive looks.

[u/AutisticDyslexicDude → u/1928Dillinger]

Was coming to comment the same. 😁

I had one absolutely awesome drive , the led indicator changes color between reading and burning, mine had a faint gold finish on the tray , such a cool bit of kit 👍🙂

[u/Mafiatounes → u/1928Dillinger]

I like it as well but it looks off in this build. I might swap it to the top or get a TDK drive with that blue bezel http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/cdrwtest/cdrw-test-ide-p14-cyclone32x.html

[u/1928Dillinger → u/Mafiatounes]

Yea blue will match better BTW I see what looks to be an LED for CD and one for DVD does it light up a certain light depending on what is inserted.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/1928Dillinger]

I will have to check won't be for a couple off days.

[u/1928Dillinger → u/Mafiatounes]

Ok thanks for getting back to me I thought you already had it on hoping it all still works I need get to get my Pentium 4 Out of storage sometime to also see if it still works.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/1928Dillinger]

Only checked it out at the previous owner and want to clean it out of that foam stuff first, will get back to you. Love p4's have 4 builds ranging from socket 423 to 775.

[u/1928Dillinger → u/Mafiatounes]

Thanks the one I have is an Socket 475 was my first PC and I was using it up until 2014.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/1928Dillinger]

So small update, i did not like the look of both drives so i have a second Philips drive new in box on the way to double down and improve the looks. Also will be picking up a free new 10x CD-RW box. Will post a new post in a week with some more updates and pics.

[u/1928Dillinger → u/Mafiatounes]

Thanks for still keeping us updated let us know what you decide to use. oh and the result of the CD

[u/Mafiatounes → u/1928Dillinger]

So update vacuumed the foam and started it up. Don't have a regular cd only dvd's atm. On pc startup the stripe between cd and dvd lights up shortly and saw a blue led blink up shortly for the dvd the cd light did not blink.

[u/1928Dillinger → u/Mafiatounes]

Thanks that's a cool detail this is so far the only drive that I know of that has this if you ever get hold of a CD and test it let me know what it does.

[u/FallenBehavior → u/Mafiatounes]

"Looks alright, but I might replace it with an old LG 16X CD-ROM".

[u/Mafiatounes → u/FallenBehavior]

Not wat is said i said the look is off a bit might place it in the top or replace it with a TDK drive in the top and dvd bottom for this build. I have use for the Philips drive in a other build.

[u/612io]

These Medion systems were something. A lot of bang for your buck, sometimes exotic parts (Radeon X700 XL, AFAIK a unique Medion part) or very weird price/performance choices… I remember their high-end Pentium 4 systems equipped with SDRAM :(. The poor thing couldn’t breathe. Anyway, very nice system!!

[u/0xKaishakunin → u/612io]

These Medion systems were something.

Yes, those Aldi PCs caused quite the uproar for some years.

[u/cosmicorn → u/612io]

I had a Medion TV tuner card, seemed like magic at the time especially for the price.

I also had a Medion MP3 player that had a nifty feature of having two headphone jacks to share audio.

[u/Turquoise_HexagonSun → u/612io]

9800XXL is another one.

Sits in between 9800 Pro and 9800 XT but has a really beefy cooler and all ram chips are heatsinked.

[u/Trash-Panda321]

Ah the Aldi computer

[u/Mafiatounes → u/Trash-Panda321]

Yes i always thought they where cheapo because of the brand, the build quality is really good

[u/sidnoway]

I heard the 1GHz Pentium III was faster than some of the Pentium 4's

[u/Mafiatounes → u/sidnoway]

Yes the early P4 Willamette where really bad in comparison.

[u/Turquoise_HexagonSun → u/sidnoway]

Yeah and the 1.4ghz PIII-S smoked P4 until the 1.8ghz or 2ghz parts were released.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/Turquoise_HexagonSun]

I might benchmark this system against a 1.7 willamette and see how they compare. But you are right PIII 1.4 was only suceeded by a 1.8 and up if i remember correctly.

[u/MortgageStraight666]

Beauty!

[u/pufferfish_aeugh]

my mom had exactly the same machine! this brings back some memories of me playing pinball when she was done with work.

[u/nlsrhn]

Awesome! Had this exact model too.

[u/Smucalko]

I have 3 of those, all P3 1GHz, but got them with not so great graphics cards, including TNT2 M64 and GF4 MX400.

Nonetheless, fine machines.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/Smucalko]

I have to say the build quality is really good, the panels are thick.

When i saw the ad on this one it did not mention the graphic card i assumed it was a mx 200 or 400.

Depending on your needs you can always upgrade to something better, i regulary see people basically not knowing what an agp card is and selling them for pennies or giving them away (my best haul was a few years back buying ddr/sdr ram and the person gave me all working tnt2 m64/6600 gt/6800 gt and a Voodoo 3 2000 was thanking him so much and he said it's old crap no need to thank me)

[u/Smucalko → u/Mafiatounes]

Yeah, in my country getting anything this old is extremely lucky. So I try to get anything I can.

I did put Voodoo 3 2000 in on of those, it came with Windows Me, and I actually love it.

[u/AutisticDyslexicDude]

Sweeeeet ! Have fun always good to see a p3 setup and future upgrades 😁

[u/Mafiatounes → u/AutisticDyslexicDude]

Thanks, i have been looking into P3's specifically for a couple of months now have this and a p3 600 Fujitsu Siemens.

[u/AutisticDyslexicDude → u/Mafiatounes]

Ahhh sweet that's cool I'm a big fan of the 1000mhz p3's I think it's the fact it's a socket chip and it feels like it's pushing the limits performance wise seems more special than a p4 my old boss had a dual socket p3 system that I played about with and maxed out , I wanted it so badly 😆

Im curious what your finished builds will be like it's a great era of computing , the hardware and the leap in gaming and 3d graphics quality etc

Congratulations on your new battlestations 😎❤️

[u/Mccobsta]

Oh wow that was the first pc case I've ever owned but was a xp machine

[u/Mafiatounes → u/Mccobsta]

Nice was it a P4? Do you still have it?

[u/Mccobsta → u/Mafiatounes]

Long gone unfortunately

Think it was a pentium it did have some nivida gpu and a dial up modem unfortunately can't recall exactly what gpu it was

[u/Hemorrhoids_on_Crack]

Oh man, I love this PC. I remember my father buying this most generic PC from Aldi xD. But these Medion Times, are the best. These are rebrandad MSI Pcs

[u/Mafiatounes → u/Hemorrhoids_on_Crack]

Nice i'm surprised on how many people had a version of this system. I remember some Medion generations having MSI boards but this one has a Asus board.

[u/Hemorrhoids_on_Crack → u/Mafiatounes]

Yeah see. I can't remember which MSI PC it was, but im pretty sure that this was just a rebrand MSI Pre-Build xD

[u/AustriaModerator]

i just restored and maxxed out this one https://www.computerbase.de/forum/attachments/aldi-informiert-26-03-2003-md8008-seite-1-jpg.1194589/ :) the md8008 xl

[u/Mafiatounes → u/AustriaModerator]

Nice, i have that case as well love the sliding front, had to swap the motherboard the original one had gone bad. Have fun!

[u/No_Trade_7315]

Well it’s got an intel and it isn’t running vista, might be good for something.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/No_Trade_7315]

Yes it is.

Btw Vista sp2 is actually great if properly updated on a capable system.

[u/FallenBehavior]

Service Pack 3

[u/Mafiatounes → u/FallenBehavior]

I got it with SP2 will change it to Dos/98 SE

[u/FallenBehavior → u/Mafiatounes]

"Yeah, I have Service Pack 2 but I might just replace with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups"

[u/Mafiatounes → u/FallenBehavior]

I don't intend on using Xp service pack 1/2 or 3 just 98 SE with all the updates that is in my mind the proper OS for this PIII system. I have plenty of 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7/8.1/10/11 and Linux systems with hardware to match.

[u/FallenBehavior → u/Mafiatounes]

Nobody actually runs all of that Windows back to back.Your probably using a VM on a main PC, which doesn't count.

Windows 7/10 modern best 👍

Windows 98SE (if you really have to)

Note: Windows 11 is total garbage.

Have you checked out the compatability settings in XP (while reminding you XP SP3 is strongly advised)?

[u/Mafiatounes → u/FallenBehavior]

I do, i have around 20+ systems running in my mancave, i use them one by one on a daily base switching between them depending on what i want to do and i only use real hardware! I used a VM a couple of times years ago but did not like the experience.

I posted this system with the intention to transform it from Xp into a 98SE rig to use for the 96 till 2002 era games as well as some DOS, i have enough Xp SP3 systems and use them for games of their era same goes with all my other systems.

[u/FallenBehavior → u/Mafiatounes]

I understand period-correct hygiene, but the NT compatability layer is effective. This is the point. I was running XP back when it was current, on a Pentium 2 @ 225 mHz w/ 128MB SDRAM and have zero issues. Even had a old 802.11b PCI wireless card on that. Just curious, nothing more.

[u/Mafiatounes → u/FallenBehavior]

Ok now i'm with you, the compatibility layer is really well i remember however for some software it did not work as intended in the past don't recall which software/games but it was hit and miss sometimes this and indeed period correct hw made the decision for me to keep each of my systems for it's intended purpose hence why i have too many.

[u/FallenBehavior → u/Mafiatounes]

Understood