Computer shops, once the domain of the over-zealous and ill-informed, have all but been replaced.

The Internet was the first to stick the boot in, now it seems that big-name supermarkets are going to finish the job. We've previously looked at Medion's 8800, a veritable beast of a media centre.

This particular machine defies the usual Germanic business model, though. Whereas you'll need to be quick on your feet to grab a 4518, made in limited numbers and sold until it's gone, Tesco has put in a substantial order for the 6486.

In our experience, these machines aren't always pretty, churned out en masse and often built using proprietary parts or simply by grabbing the cheapest parts available.

Our experiences with the Medion 8800, which used a non-standard Nvidia graphics card, a non-standard quad tuner, and a preposterous 'media bay' built into the top of the case, were actually pretty good considering its cheap price.

On the other hand, we've had nightmarish experiences outside of the office after family members bought questionable laptops from Somerfield, with noisy fans, shoddy screens and tendon-tearing weight to contend with.

And this? This is somewhere in between. In terms of its standing as a media centre, it's moved on from the days of the 8800, offering an HDMI port on the back and, naturally, Vista Home Premium for all your media consumption needs.

But in many ways, the 6486 has regressed. There are none of the multitudinous media ports, no (admittedly mostly useless) quad tuner to be seen, and the smaller case makes the slapped-together internals look even scragglier than usual.

There is a moderately cheap feel to the case: it's pretty bog standard, with only a bespoke front panel, and a lack of any sound dampening means the vertically mounted hard drive crackles away when it's working.

At least the cooling's kept quiet; only the tiny fan of the graphics card contributes any significant amount of noise, since there's a huge fan looking after the processor.

If anything, there might be slightly too little cooling; the CPU is certainly catered for, but there are no front or rear fans to ensure a good flow of air over the motherboard, which is just odd.