PC From Tiny....Worth The Money?

[daz1701d]

I'm thinking of buying a new PC base unit only, and spotted this one from Tiny on p168 of the October edition of PC Pro. Is it worth the money?

Tiny 5-3500 PCI Express

Intel P4 530 3500
Intel 915P PCI Express Chipset
1024Mb Micron DDR 400
400 Gb Seagate 7200rpm HD
ATI X600 Pro 256Mb PCI Express graphics card
NEC 16x DVD re-writer
NEC DVD ROM
802.11 WI-FI
Wireless keyboard and mouse
Digital PC-TV system
Digital radio
Multi format card reader
8 channel surround sound
Gigabit LAN
Coolermaster Musketter monitoring
two Firewire ports
56k modem
1.44 drive
MS Works
Cyberlink DVD,Power Producer 2, Power To Go

[gazhowell]

Well, how much is it?

[daz1701d]

oops, that would be the important bit of info!!

£799, plus £40 courier delivery

other option would be product code 00956 on the Winy website for £769

Daz

[jamcunn]

**** gfx card

[Cheatman]

Well the spec for that price is very good, unfortunately it's a tiny/time.....I think that's enuff said.

[kanjar]

time/tiny have seriously improved their pc builds... i actually work for one of their sister companies, and we get a chance to test quite a few of them... they have seriously improved their quality...

[DJBenson]

I only ever bought 1 machine from Time, about 5 years ago and it was superb. It still works to this day as a backup machine if my main one goes boobs up.

[sjg1]

Tiny manage to get their prices down by abolishing almost all support and seeking to rip you off along every step of the way if you do need it.

Take a look at the support options and compare the cost with the likes of Mesh - last time I looked you'd need to spend £150+ to get on even terms. On Tiny's standard support option (ie. the one you don't pay extra for) you have to pay £1 a minute to speak to anyone. You don't get any system restore disks (they're a £60 option) and, after the first month, you bear the cost of returning a faulty system to them. So the cost of getting a warranty repair on a faulty system can be £50+ in phone calls and carriage fees. The modem is deliberately cripped so it will only dial Tiny's own ISP - you have to ring up (again, at £1/min) for it to be "de-optimised".

They have some very dodgy business practices, one of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings and yet still find customers who just look at the cheap initial price. Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

[daz1701d]

could I build a similar spec myself for the samae money? If so, where would be the best place for components? Not too fussed about the tech support, as my last PC was self-built anyway.

Daz

[[HB]RugRat]

they have seriously improved their quality...

Not hard though, relatively speaking.

Don't touch them with somebody else's barge pole.

[Ravenger]

Avoid

[Ds3]

I'll second the avoid. £1.50 a minute help line to speak to a student on a summer job who knows as much about PCs and my nan. PC is not bad for the spec but could be built for the same. The graphics card is a bit of a let down, it's not awful but it's only middle of the range, and if you are spending a lot you want something better :)

[daz1701d]

so who would you suggest forsupplying the components?

Daz

[Mark B]

ebuyer tend to be amongst the cheapest but if you have faulty items you have to pay to return them. Not really ideal. Dabs generaly have a good rep but are a little pricier. The major issue you will probably have is that there won't be the one shop that will be cheapest across the board so you may want to get components from lots of different retailers.