Have I been ripped off by Time Computers

Ember999

drive007 wrote:

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

I have a Makro card and one benefit of Makro is that you can get a FULL REFUND within 28 days of your purchase, no questions asked! Take this rubbish back! Get your money back!

When I first started with computers way about 7 years ago, the first computer I bought was a TIME computer. I knew nothing about computers back then and the salesman talked me into everything. To cut a long story short, my computer was crap! and it had cost me £1,700! :eek: onboard graphics, onboard sound card, low memory, cheap motherboard. I also bought the ludicrously expensive warranty they sold at the time and it was useless. I couldn't get anything fixed, nothing exchanged. I ended up calling in 3 different computer engineers to fix/upgrade my computer etc. Had to totally re-build it! New motherboard, new graphics card, new sound card etc. I decided to learn about computers, learn to fix them myself and I did. My TIME computer ended costing me in total over £2,700! by the time I had finished.

No one was happier than the day I threw that trash out! I now have a fantastic computer and I can do more than the average computer engineer so it taught me some lessons.

Do yourself a favour, use your MAKRO 28 day return warranty and get your money back QUICK!

Ember xx

shrek101

I agree. I got a mobo with £com gigabit Lan. Must admit I NEVER buy budget mobo. I usually spend around £100 and get at least 4 years use out of it. Normally just use it for main machine, then kids have it etc.

MoneyWastingMe wrote:

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.

peter_the_piper

Just my 2 pennorth,
If you are a newish computer user, IMHO, the onboard graphics and sound are a cheap way of getting a good working computer that will do all that the average user needs. Unless you have had a high spec motherboard with flash vidoe card and top notch sound you will not notice the difference. I don't do games so graphics card is not necessary and the sound from the integrated board is more than adequate. The cheapest way of speeding up any comp is to increase the amount of memory.
Having been brought up on an x86 processor, 4 meg memory and a huge 20 meg hard disk all computers are good. (we only dumped this comp last year, the dust pile was getting too big)