Have I been ripped off by Time Computers

drive007 · 2 July 2005 at 3:03AM

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a Time computer (Optima 380S Media centre) from Makro which clearly states on the box 256mb DDR Ram memory.
When I looked in the system information in My Computer, it states 192mb ram.
I am definately no computer whizz, but does this mean I have been ripped off, and "TIME" (sorry about that) to call trading standards, or am I looking at the wrong thing. perhaps there is another way to check my DDR ram memory.
Any help or advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

NERRAD_4 · 2 July 2005 at 3:38AM

Your memory will be correct I think. Your system sounds like it has onboard graphics. These share your system memory and sounds like it is set to 64mb (192 + 64 = 256). You can probably change it in the bios to 8, 16, or 32 to free up some memory.

owey · 2 July 2005 at 3:43AM

If you go to https://www.belarc.com and download there free program, it will tell you everything that is in you P.C. I know that a hard drive that is say 70 gig will only be about 68 gig, but not sure on the ram. But if you download the belarc advisor program it will tell you all you need to know.

rogerramjet · 2 July 2005 at 9:40AM

As NERRAD mentioned, it will be that the onboard gaphic card shares the system memory. Nuff said.

boogiemaster · 2 July 2005 at 2:36PM

You will have two 128meg sticks of DDR memory. Two sticks at 128 = 256meg DDR.
I would buy a graphics card so it won’t share the system memory.
I would also buy a sound card so it takes the pressure off the CPU.

Cheap computers sometimes have onboard graphics and sound? And will affect the pc performance unless you buy a separate graphics card and soundcard.
I noticed this when I first bought my home computer, once I bought a new soundcard and graphics card my computer seemed to be a lot faster and didn’t seem to struggle as much.

Your operating system uses a lot of the memory? If you have Xp press ctrl alt Del and click on performance and you will see the memory and CPU usage.
I would advise on getting some more memory because it will improve your computers performance 100% memory is really cheap and I can buy 512 meg of ram for £30 in my local shop.

I know its cheap but for people that only use it for basic computing? It’s ideal and its DDR ram as well.

MoneyWastingMe · 2 July 2005 at 2:44PM

I think its wrong as people go to time/tiny in trust and purchase their systems, but they usually dont get the best of deals, (no offence, and i dont want to push you off your purchase) but they usually use very poor components that are fairly cheap to source, they save by using combo motherboards that have everything built in. (sound/vga/lan) and usually the vga will just take a portion from the main memory, if you are lucky and are not a gamer, certain systems will allow you to alter the amount of Memory the built in VGA will use by simply changing the value in the bios, but this varies from system to system.

Let me know how you get on. (I recommend a minimum of 512 these days)

shrek101 · 2 July 2005 at 2:49PM

Theres nothing wrong with built in lan and sound, I get some great sound from onboard motherboards as good as my live card the only really cut back is connectivity. However having said that is false ecomy to have the built in graphicd card that many companies ship like Time, Pc world etc. Usually that have no AGP port so the only way is to shell out for a pci card which are getting rarer to source these days.

MoneyWastingMe · 2 July 2005 at 3:16PM

True say, and some of the very good mainboards with built in sound/vga and I have used some, espically ones with the nForce Chipset are excellent! Like 3Com Gigibit Lan built in and some excellent 5.1 Soundcards with S/PDIF outs. but some you get from econ mainboards are just pointless, poor lan cards like RealTek that i know have issues and sound cards that are not very good and dont do much. Little / Next to nothing PCI slots and that MiniATX form factor.. So only if you get top brand mainboards you will get a decent package.

blinky · 2 July 2005 at 6:08PM

Onboard sound is generally okay - but for if you are going to record then it's worth paying for a decent sound card such as an Audigy 2 ZS.

On board LAN can be better than an additional card because they don't use the PCI bus e.g. The Intel CSA Gigabit LAN controller on some boards and the Nvidia NForce 4 (sadly let down by poor drivers).

On board graphics is generally a no-no. It actually slows the computer down as the graphics bit needs to access the memory quite a lot (actually depends on the refresh rate) and when it does this it stops other things accessing the memory.

Having said that the Radeon IGP on board graphics is supposed to be quite good but certainly the AMD64 boards with it have been a bit shonky.

The worst is the VIA KMxxx on board graphics which use the ancient S3 Savage graphics controller which wasn't up to much when it was new.

On board graphics is acceptable in laptops as discrete graphics solutions bump up the price significantly and eat the battery life.

hollie.weimeraner · 3 July 2005 at 10:23AM

boogiemaster wrote:

I would buy a graphics card so it won’t share the system memory.
I would also buy a sound card so it takes the pressure off the CPU.

If you are not computer literate I would suggest you consult someone who is before you go down this route as some motherboards with built in sound and graphics will not have the slots available to take the extra hardware.

Even if the mobo does have a graphics card port you will need to identify the type before splashing out or you may also discover it's not compatible with your mobo.

Another consideration is that by opening the back up on your computer you may invalidate the warranty unless the manufacturer does the upgrade.

criminal_smile · 3 July 2005 at 1:26PM

It all depends on how the comp was advertised to you. Did it state that there was 256Mb 'shared RAM, or did it simply state 256 Mb RAM?
One of the UK's largest computer largest retailers recently received a written warning from Trading Standards about just this thing. The original advert which prompted the consumer to buy the PC had stated that it came with 256Mb RAM, and had onboard 32Mb graphics. It didn't say they were shared. The consumer contacted Trading Standards to say that the advert was misleading, and they investigated.
As a result, the company were given a formal written warning about misleading advertising, and the consumer got extra memory free from the retailer. If you feel that you were misled about what was in 'the box', then you should contact your local TRADING STANDARDS , and lodge a formal complaint.

Have I been ripped off by Time Computers

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