# Replacing hp media centre m1250 with hp A6455?? Right choice??



## Abby99 (Aug 15, 2008)

Ok, here's the thing, I'm an eejit and I dropped my hp media centre m1250 down the stairs and its obliterated! You can't buy the m1250 anymore (I bought it about 3 years ago for £660 base only) and I dont know where to start looking for a fair replacement instead of getting something inferior. I dont want to lose my card reader slots or front ports or if I'm honest anything else. They have offered me the A6455 please help me compare....

Here is the spec of the one I killed...
*General*

MPN: PS261AA
Type: PC
Recommended Use: Home use
Product Form Factor: Tower
Width: 19 cm
Depth: 42 cm
Height: 38.5 cm
Weight: 13.2 kg
*Processor*

Type: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ / 2 GHz - 64-bit
Installed Qty: 1
Max Supported Qty: 1
Chipset Type: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200P
*Cache memory*

Type: L2 Cache
Installed Size: 512 KB
Cache Per Processor: 512 KB
*Ram*

Installed Size: 512 MB
Technology: DDR SDRAM
Form Factor: DIMM 184-PIN
*Storage controller*

Type: 1 x Serial ATA - integrated
Controller Interface Type: Serial ATA-150
*Storage controller (2nd)*

Type: 1 x IDE - integrated
*Storage*

Hard Drive: 1 x 200 GB - standard - Serial ATA-150 - 7200 rpm
*Optical storage*

Type: DVD±RW (+R double layer) - IDE
*Optical storage (2nd)*

Type: DVD-ROM
Read Speed: 16x
*Card reader*

Type: 9 in 1 card reader
*Monitor*

Monitor Type: None
*Graphics controller*

Type: PCI Express x16 - plug-in card
Graphics Processor / Vendor: ATI RADEON X300 SE
Installed Size: 128 MB
*Video input*

Type: TV tuner
*Audio output*

Type: Sound card - plug-in card
Audio Adaptor: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Sound Output Mode: 7.1 channel surround

Speaker(s): 

2 x right / left channel
1 x subwoofer
*Input device*

Type: Mouse, keyboard

*Keyboard*

Connectivity: Wireless
*Mouse*

Connectivity: Wireless
*Audio input*

Type: FM tuner
*Networking*

Networking: Network adapter - integrated
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Compliant Standards: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
*Expansion / connectivity*

Expansion Bays Total (Free): 

2 ( 0 ) x front accessible - 5.25" x 1/2H
1 ( 0 ) x internal - 3.5" x 1/3H
1 ( 1 ) x hot-swap
Expansion Slots Total (Free): 

1 ( 0 ) x processor
3 PCI
1 ( 0 ) x PCI Express x16
4 memory - DIMM 184-PIN
Interfaces: 

6 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A
2 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25)
1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45
Display / video
Audio
*Miscellaneous*

Included Accessories: Remote control
*Power*

Device Type: Power supply
*Operating system / software*

OS Provided: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Software: Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Intervideo WinDVD, Apple iTunes, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Norton Personal Firewall, Sonic RecordNow, Microsoft Windows Movie Maker 2, InterVideo WinDVD Creator, HP Image Zone, Adobe Reader 6.0, Microsoft Works Suite 2005, Norton AntiVirus 2005

I have spoken with the insurers today and this is what they have offered.....
HP Pavilion a6455.uk 

The spec is below and they have promised to fit a wireless card too as it doesnt have that capability

Processor type
AMD Phenom™ processor 9500

Operating system installed
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 32-bit

Platform
With AMD Live!™

Chipset
NVIDIA® nForce™ 430 chipset

Standard memory
3 GB

Memory type
DDR2-SDRAM

Memory slots
4 DIMM sockets

Internal drives 
Internal hard disk drive
500 GB

Hard disk controller
SATA 3G Hard Disk Drive

Hard disk drive speed
(7200 rpm)

External hard disk drive
HP Pocket Media Drive sold separately

Optical drive type
DVD writer SATA DVD RAM and Double Layer supporting LightScribe technology

System features 
Memory card device
15in1 memory card reader

Network interface
Ethernet 10/100BT integrated network interface

Video capture interface
IEEE 1394 FireWire® Interface

Video adapter
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400 HD TurboCache with PureVideo technology

Video RAM
256 MB dedicated memory, up to 1535 MB total available graphics memory as allocated by Windows Vista®

Internal audio
High Definition Audio 7.1

Audio connectors
2 front audio ports, 6 rear analog audio ports & 1 rear digital audio port

Keyboard
PS/2 keyboard and optical mouse

External drive bays
2 external optical drive bays, 2 internal HDD bays, 1 Pocket Media Drive bay

External I/O ports
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front); 1 FireWire®-IEEE-1394 ports

Expansion slots
1 PCI (1 free) and 2 PCI-Express 1x (2 free)

Software 
Software - Productivity & finance
Microsoft® Works and Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 60-Day Trial Version

Pre-installed software
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0; Windows Mail; Adobe® Reader 8.0

Optical drive driver software
HP Total Care Advisor ; Photosmart Essential, Windows Photo Gallery ; Windows Media Player ; Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker ; CyberLink Power2Go 5.5 ; Muvee AutoProducer

Software - education / reference / entertainment
Windows Media Center

Software included
Recovery partition (including possibility to recover system, applications and drivers separately); Optional re-allocation of recovery partition; Recovery CD/DVD creation tool; Symantec™ Norton Internet Security™ 2008 (60 days live update)

I THINK that overall its a better machine, would really appreciate some opinions though?! (especially as I have to decide tomorrow if its acceptable to me!)

Thanks!


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## Abby99 (Aug 15, 2008)

Not really sure why I am updating this as there arent any replies but it may be of some interest to some? 
Well, here I am again, just thought I would update the situation. Not to go into dull detail but they had 2 different departments confusing each other on this one and in the end they sent me a credit note/card for £799.00 to spend at PC World which is much more than the previously described replacement would have cost?!?! So, finding myself with more than I expected I spent £699 buying the one detailed below with a 20" monitor. It left me another £100 for bits n bobs so its all good news. The whole thing, even with their messing about was settled from claim to replacement in 13 days complete with a bank holiday. Pretty good going I think!



Processor type
AMD Phenom&#8482; processor 9550 

Operating system installed
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit

Platform
With AMD Live!&#8482;

Chipset
NVIDIA® nForce&#8482; 430 chipset

Standard memory
4 GB

Memory type
DDR2-SDRAM

Memory slots
4 DIMM sockets

Internal drives 
Internal hard disk drive
1 TB (2 x 500 GB)

Hard disk controller
SATA 3G Hard Disk Drive

Hard disk drive speed
(7200 rpm)

External hard disk drive
HP Personal Media Drive and HP Pocket Media Drive sold separately

Optical drive type
DVD writer SATA DVD RAM and Double Layer supporting LightScribe technology

System features 
Memory card device
15in1 memory card reader

Network interface
Ethernet 10/100BT integrated network interface

Video capture interface
IEEE 1394 FireWire® Interface

Video adapter
ATI Radeon® HD 3650, with Avivo

Video RAM
512 MB dedicated memory, up to 2303 MB total available graphics memory as allocated by Windows Vista®

Internal audio
High Definition Audio 7.1

Audio connectors
2 front audio ports, 6 rear analog audio ports & 1 rear digital audio port

Keyboard
PS/2 keyboard and optical mouse

External drive bays
2 external optical drive bays, 2 internal HDD bays, 1 Pocket Media Drive bay

External I/O ports
6 USB 2.0 ports (2 in front); 1 FireWire®-IEEE-1394 ports

Expansion slots
1 PCI (1 free) and 2 PCI-Express 1x (2 free)

Software 
Software - Productivity & finance
Microsoft® Works and Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 60-Day Trial Version

Pre-installed software
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0; Windows Mail; Adobe® Reader 8.0

Optical drive driver software
Windows Photo Gallery ; Windows Media Player ; Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker ; Cyberlink DVDSuite Deluxe; Muvee AutoProducer; EasyBits Magic Desktop

Software - education / reference / entertainment
Windows Media Center

Software included
Recovery partition (including possibility to recover system, applications and drivers separately); Optional re-allocation of recovery partition; Recovery CD/DVD creation tool; Symantec&#8482; Norton Internet Security&#8482; 2008 (60 days live update)

So... I am perplexed by their logic but it turns out I have ended up with better than their original offer simply because they didnt seem to know their arse from their elbow! Am looking forward to setting things up tmrw and finding everything lightning fast.


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