by Bazz » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:14 am
Hi Guys, I took delivery of two of these Amstrad boxes yesterday, one as a free upgrade from Sky for having my old Thompson box for so long and one I bought for 50 quid to replace a basic digibox. I had had the usual power supply problems with the Thompson and had changed the capacitors for some more robust ones but the box still hung on occasions so an upgrade seemed like a good idea.
I had also upgraded the Thompson some time back to a WD 1TB ECVS drive and found the process quite painless, I can't say the same with this Amstrad box! I wanted to swop the 500GB standard drive with my 1TB drive so looking at your pictures here I did it yesterday and I am pleased to say it works and all my recordings are still there. Hooray!
What I am not happy with is the upgrade procedure, talk about making things difficult, this box, whilst it may be acknowledged as the best of what is currently available, is a pig to breakdown and reassemble. I am particularly disappointed with the pressed steel internal case using twisted lugs instead of screws, I am sure this saves a few bob per unit but they wont stand much opening and closing, Sugar should be ashamed of himself. Also why not design it in such a way as to make the HDD assemble easy to remove and replace, you don't expect to take the whole darn thing apart to do it?! The Thompson was sooooo much easier.
I would advise anyone to exercise only gentle pressure when untwisting and re twisting these lugs. Just my two pennyworth.
Bazz.