Tiny.com & Time Computers close to collapse [consumer advice]

and buy a mac

Why did you decide to buy a PC from them? Everyone I know who has ever bought one has had loads of problems, they're total rip-off merchants.

Oh and not-goodwin, I can smell your smug glee from here. Twat.

Simon, yeah, if it's only £40 then it's not the end of the world. If it's ok I'm gonna email you later with some qus about macs and work experience and stuff (you should start charging me for this).

And thanks to the other people with the credit card info, big relief that.

And in other news, just rang credit card people to cancel this direct debit but it was a guy who didn't seem to know much about anything so I'm not sure if it will have been cancelled. Rang Tiny.com people and I'm waiting for a call back. As I only sent the letter late on Monday I think (hope) my order will just be nixed. I won't get any charges for cancelling my direct debit will I? The agreement thing says:

"you may cancel the credit agreement during the period of 14 days after it is made (when you sign the credit agreement). To cancel you must provide notice in writing or by facsimile or email. You will then have to repay the amount of credit advanced, interest up to the date of repayment, and any other charges which have become payable under the terms of the agreement."

which is just a bunch of jumbled jargon to me, does it mean these muppets will still be entitled to suck £££ out of me?

(cheers Simon, I'll mail you either tonight or tomorrow, everything is GO re: the course and whatnot, just wondering about a few other things)

i'll come along, imagine top shop security dragging me from those young women, i can see it now.

Goodwin, I wouldn't expect anything less.

Buy the box from someone and get the monitor seperatley.

Local PC shops vary massively some are decent others sell cheapo no brand motherboards and think that any video card with Geforce written on it is a super gaming card.

If you go down this route ask for the makes/models/names of all the components before you pay and list them here we'll tell you if its worth it or not and what you should be looking for.

I've heard decent things about this one.

http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hardware/monitorsanddisplays/productView.htm?quicklinx=3JWZ

Dabs are okay but sending stuff back is a bitch as with most web based places.

Rough guide: Socket 939 mobo, Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD, 16x dvdrw, 256MB X700 Pro pci-x gfx, 19" TFT monitor = £883 inc VAT.

CRTs also have the advantage of looking great at all resolutions where as TFTs are bad at scaling unless the resolution is a exact fit to the native such as 800x600 on a 1600x1200 display.

They are however great at text (clear type) and saving space and looking neat.

* Promise 378 SATA/IDE controller and Maxtor SATA drive.

I shouldn't have posted that - the computer just crashed. Gah. OK, don't buy MESH.

The Sony X-Black range are a lot better at this. At least mine is a lot better than the £200 17" LG one I bought as a replacement for my old CRT which stopped working, or the Dell TFT which I use in the office.

*this maybe a really abd thing but my old crt just blew up and i really need a monitor quick and dont have much money

So I’m going to go for this one, details below. The cost is £599 but I can feasibly go up to £800 though would prefer not to. Will this do the job or will I have to buy any extra bits for it? The one thing I’m bothered about is the graphics card, the spec says ‘integrated intel extreme graphics’ and I don’t know much but that don’t sound too hott to me. Do I need a better one? What’s a good cheapish (around £100) graphics card that’ll play new games, and are they easy to install?

Dell Dimension 3000
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor with HT technology (3.0GHz, 800fsb, 1MB cache)
1024MB Dual Channel DDR400 (2x512MB)
160gb Hard Drive
16x max. DVD +/- RW with dual layer write capability
Dell E193FP 19" Value Flat Panel Monitor
Integrated Audio

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=ukdhs1&kc=NPIUK5&oc=D08306B&x=0&y=0

In other words, there *isn't* a graphics card, just a chipset on the motherboard. They're fine for just running Windows and office-type apps, but don't expect games to perform very well.

They are *normally* easy to install. However, this does not apply if you're buying Dell. Dell desktop/home boxes are bastards if you want to upgrade the hardware.

Athlons are more "bang for the buck" and better for games than P4's but that P4 is fine.

1GB RAM is good.

£100 :( too little for a "last 2 years" video card.

You need to make sure that Dell has a PCI-E slot if you want a new video card (the Dell site seems to be down so I can't check)

Also check what installing a videocard does to your warranty.

Are there any other box-shifters I should check out? And what's a good video card that'll do the job for what I want at the moment?

- AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice CPU
- AMD approved cooler
- Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 PCI-Express Motherboard
- GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) DDR Value PC3200 CAS2.5 Dual Channel Kit
- 160GB Western Digital 8mb cache SATA 150 Hard Drive
- Leadtek GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Sony Black 52x/52x/32x/16x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
- Onboard 6 Channel Audio
- Black Floppy Drive
- Antec SLK3700BQE Black Quiet Midi Tower Case
- Antec 350W SmartPower ATX Power Supply

Price: £499.00 (£586.33 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Is the kind of thing you want.

That would run all new games really well, just remember no DVD Writer in that one and no monitor.

I've never bought any system from them so I have no idea about warrantys etc.

That system is very similiar to a system I built for Lynskey, it has a better video card than his and Lynskeys is good for BF2 GTA:SA etc.

You'll also be able to add a better CPU / Video card in a year or so if you wish.

Don't know about the build quality but it's certainly well specified.

does resolution matter? i dont play games or anything, but i do watch films and stuff. will that look shit? can you take things back just cos you bought the wrong thing?! i sort of think i will just get used to it but it is still pretty annoying.

(PS ambrozse, send me current address so I can send a card from sunny wales)

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7024&GroupID=458

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=8936&GroupID=458

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=10132&GroupID=458

lidl sell comupters? are they dumped on pallets too? like 4p cans of tomatos?

Targa are a german make, so I babelfished a review of a Targa PC, they seemed to like it.

http://www.pcwelt.de/tests/hardware-tests/pcsbis1150/108363/index1.html

Seems they're reviewing the March model which has a slower CPU but the same videocard.

The strange thing is the video card is a nonstandard custom model GeForce 6645 which according to my sources is closer to a 6600 than a 6600GT so it's fine for games but no mega performer.

The processor is FAST but not really matched by the videocard.

1GB of RAM is standard these days

300GB HDD is good.

All those extras are interesting, Wireless Lan, Blue Tooth Digital TV Tuner etc depends on how much you would use that though.

some guy had an issue with them here

http://www.complaint-shop.co.uk/Lidl(Targa%20Computer).htm

As for monitors, a 19" for about £200 should be fine shouldn't it? Bit worried by what Ambrose said about hers.

The video card is okay, not outstanding it's a little bit better than this one

http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=3K51&searchphrase=nvidia%206600

but not as good as this one

http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=3K53&searchphrase=nvidia%206600

Take a look at this list to see where abouts it fits in the scheme of things.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/67909965/m/844003222631

i think 200 quid is ok for a 19". i simply chose one with a low max res. i could have had a 1280x1024 17" for about 20 quid more, the cost doesnt correlate that closely to screen size. btw i dont know anything about monitors, but it sure was sweet to have a tiny light little flat screen instead of the massive lumbering crt thing

Can always upgade that to a 6600GT or 6800 later depending on warranty.

So I found this: http://www.rlsupplies.co.uk/products/product.asp?id=156637

I'm thinking of getting the RL Modula 3030 Computer System
which is that main system with AMD Athlon64 3200+ Socket 939 Processor for £505.19 incl. VAT. I'm guessing that graphics card is pitiful so I've mailed them asking if they can stick a better one in, and how much it'd cost. So is that a decent basic system for what I want? I'll post on here which graphics card they're offering, and for how much.

It looks like that system doesn't come with XP, so without saying anything incriminating, is this much a problem? I've got a *thing* off Emule, is this all I need?

Anyhow, all games are working fine (except Prince of Persia 2: SoT which has no sound during gameplay and I'm clueless as to how to sort it out!) so big big thanks to Jimmy Paker and everyone else on this thread, and a recommendation for RLSupplies (www.rlsupplies.co.uk) who were superquick and superhelpful on the phone.

I'm currently looking at Savastore/Watford who look quite reasonable but I'll check out rlsupplies as well.