Product Reviews

Not only has Time put together a corker of a system, it has also decided to just about bury us in free software as well. And the good news is the software is actually pretty decent.

Features

If you glance over at our feature table on page 54, the thing that immediately slaps you in the face about this system is the sheer amount of free software you get. Titles such as 'Become a Human Body Explorer' or 'Eyewitness Encyclopedia' are worth twenty quid apiece. What's more, the 'Explorer' titles are specifically designed to fit in with the key stages of the English and Scottish school curriculums. So this isn't just tatty free software, you're getting something of real value. Of course that wouldn't be worth much if the PC's core specification was a pile of poo, but it isn't. The obligatory 40Gb hard drive and 256Mb of RAM provide you with a beefy enough spec to be getting on with. To top everything off Time have also thrown in Star Office 5.2, a great productivity suite that lets you do just about everything you can with Microsoft Office. What's even better, Star Office also lets you save in Microsoft file formats: so there should be no problem working on your dissertation at home and at college.

Ergonomics

The Samtron 76DF monitor that came with this system was all right, but nothing to break into song over. Its power shielding was distinctly wobbly, which could cause the screen to flicker or change colour when using graphics-heavy multimedia programmes. What's more, the focus was only so-so, and there was noticeable misconvergence at the edges of the screen. The keys on the Samsung keyboard are large and well spaced, making them easy to type with, but they're also a bit too light to the touch, so you never get the feeling you've

ADVERTISEMENT

given them a good, satisfying hammering. The Logitech M-S48A mouse isn't one of the company's better know parts, but it's accurate and comfortable to use, which is what matters.

Expansion

With four free PCI slots for adding devices such as network cards and TV cards to your PC, this system does really well on internal expansion capacity. And the good news doesn't end there. You also get space for every kind of internal and external disc drive you could want to install. For those of you who don't want to fiddle around inside the PC's case, there are also four USB ports to connect printers, scanners, cameras and pretty much any other kind of external device.

Performance

This PC isn't built for maximum speed, but then it's not meant to be. Despite this, it still gets some cracking scores in our 2D tests and is easily the best performer this month in both 3DMark 2000 and 2001. That's because all the parts in this PC are finely balanced to work together for optimum performance. In many systems one part lets the whole side down - for instance, you get a fast processor and a fast hard disk, but a slow graphics card; or a fast graphics card and processor, but slow memory. This isn't the case here: a slower graphics card would have badly hobbled the performance of this PC, while anything faster would have been overkill. A fast graphics card, however, isn't much use without the parts to back it up, and that's where the DDR memory, the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ and the 7,200rpm Seagate hard disk come in. Together they're quite a team.

Overall

This PC almost succeeds in being all things to all men. It performs like a champ, has decent features and comes bundled with some cracking software. If you're buying this PC for your school-age child, these programs are a real bonus. On the other hand, if you're doing a Pure Maths degree with the Open University they might not swing you in favour of the Time.

On the downside, this system suffers a little due to its relatively poor ergonomics. Things aren't dire, though. You're unlikely to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and epilepsy after using this PC: it's just not as good in this respect as some of its competitors. Don't let this put you off too much, however. When all's said and done, this is a well-built PC that packs a real punch and has some great features.