time/tiny pcs any good

[scrumpy]

m8 at work thinking bout getting one of the time/tiny pcs cant remember which one.
200 gig hd /dvd rw etc for 500 quid ,been in national press for a few weeks now,told him they aint much cop from what i`ve learnt from various sites etc.
but its his first pc and says that`ll do him for now,as 200 gig hd etc plenty for him.
anyone had any experience with these pcs
cheers
scrump

[Acheron]

Over the months I have seen a few posts here about them. Only thing I've seen people say is:

(a) They're crap
(b) Who the hell is Time?

:D

[Torby]

Used to be not too bad many years ago when they were just tiny, bought my first 486 from them....but they have gone downhill since the time takeover

[hollie.weimeraner]

Some of their machines get half decent write ups in some of the computer mags but what is universally accepted is the back up which is non existent.

Recently read about a guy who had a faulty restore disk supplied by them. He spent ages on the customer support line at either £1 per min or 50p per min and then they wanted £120 to replace the restore disk.

Personally I wouldn't touch them with abarge pole!

If your m8 is looking at something already built MESH are as good as any

[emailrob]

Yup, try Mesh or Evesham, or even Dell if you can afford it. Depends on what kind of backup service you want (on site, RTB etc).

And avoid Time / Tiny at all costs.
The ones that Aldi / Lidl sell are quite well respected and come in at around the same price. You have to get there on the day they release them though

[mobilehustla]

Well i've had a Tiny for 4 years, still going strong!!
As long as you dont buy the extra guraantees they try and string you with it'll work out cheap

[steve54]

there alright as long as you dont buy the cheaper ones.check out the spec before you buy, and try and get the ones with the msi mobo's.
dont be fooled into buying their optional extras cos they aint worth it and the back up isnt great to say the least,but if u know a little about pc's,you dont need the back up.
its also worth making a norton ghost backup when u get the pc also,as this will give u a restore disc,which tiny charge owt from 90 - 120 quid for.if u havnt got norton system works with ghost on it,and need it to make a disc image,restore cd,you can buy it for around 40 quid or less.its worth that cos its the full suite with antivirus and the lot.
one more point,just buy the base unit from them,as for monitors,printers and scanners can be bouhgt cheaper say from the net or out of micro mart,and u can usually get a better one for your money.


steve54

[Dave2986]

Their not too bad but they skimp on parts or use older models so they become hard to upgrade.

If i was to buy one first thing i would do is take it apart and look at what PSU / cooling is in it and if nesserey upgrade it, as thats whats going to go wrong first.

Looking at an ad in the back of the paper it looks ok, but at the end of the day you would find it hard to build systems like that without cutting courners for £500

HTH's

[danman]

When I used to do the reounds upgrading/repairing PC's they were the pits. An absolute disgrace. My heart used to sink every time I saw one.
Things may have changed, but the bad memories will remain.

[jase1]

There is one thing in their favour (or at least this used to be the case, it may have changed now).

They're built from standard components. One reason why I refuse to recommend the like of Dell to anyone is the lack of standardised parts. Especially on the more compact units, if things like CD/DVD drives etc croak they cost a fortune to replace.

Having said that, that isn't really that much of an advantage. You're probably better off going to your friendly local shop and get the guy in there to build a PC for you. Obviously service varies from shop to shop but most of them are better than Tiny/Time. Most shops allow you to put exactly what you want into the PC, and will generally only charge you for the bits plus a surcharge for screwing it together.

[jimmy mumu]

i wouldn't want one if they were throwing them away, bloody thing i've got is absolutely crap,

amd 2000xp
512 ram
80 gig h/d
cdrw
on board graphics ( which i no longer use )
slapped a half decent graphics card ( PNY 128MB VERTO FX5700 ) and still most pc games dont play or play very badly.
keep well away m8

[xdeity]

wheni still bothered repairing pc's the only ones i invariably could not fix without spending a bomb was tiny/time pc's, don't get one, in fact run away from there store as tho your life depended on it.

[sweep]

yeah i agree too stay away m8 ! i got stung and am currently taking time/tiny to court for failing to honour a on-site-warranty !