Introducing George, my Tiny baby (Tiny - 5-3500 PCI Express System) (Tiny Computers)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Tiny Computers
Date:	19/04/05 (980 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast , Quiet , Handles video conversion exceptionally well

Disadvantages: The file system it comes with

Let me introduce you to my Tiny baby, George, the most powerful computer system I have owned, and at the time of purchase (about 5 months ago) just about the most powerful computer you could buy for under a thousand pounds. Now I can't tell you much about expandability, as I have never opened the case up, but I can you about the specifications and how it performs out of the box. Again I can't tell you how well all of the particular functions work (as I have no need for some of them), but I can tell you how well the functions I do use work, along with the improvements I've seen with the various different types of software I regularly use.

* Before I start, I should explain that I do NOT use this as a gaming system, but mainly for working with video files along with surfing the web and a little word processing.

As this is a complete system there's a lot more to it than just the computer, so I've decided that I'll start with the extras I got first before getting into the details of the base unit.

---The monitor---

The system came with a silver 17" TFT monitor, which has integral speakers (this particular model is no longer supplied and you get a monitor and separate speakers). The monitor is of excellent quality and everything looks very sharp when using a resolution of 1024x768 pixels. I'd previously used a 15" monitor, and the difference in size is absolutely amazing. Sound is also fantastic, and I can hear different sounds coming out of each of the integral speakers, whether playing movies or music. I'm not saying it's home cinema quality, but it is certainly good enough for most purposes and better than the cheapo speakers on my previous system.

---The Mouse/keyboard---

The system came with a wireless multimedia keyboard and mouse, which are both black. The mouse is of the optical variety and has five buttons (I'm not sure what the extra buttons are for), is fairly comfortable to use, but uses up batteries at an amazing rate. I've ended up using rechargeable batteries and they need to be replaced weekly. The only good thing about it is that it goes to "sleep" if it's not used for a certain amount of time and then has to be "woken up" by clicking a button. This was a little confusing to begin with, but seems a good idea now I've got used to it.

The Keyboard is wonderful and has more buttons than I could ever imagine using. There are a row of buttons at the top for controlling some internet functions such as refresh, home, back and forward. Another set for media player and yet another set that brings up my computer and the calculator. However, even with all these extra buttons, it's really only the volume ones that I use. The keyboards battery life is amazing and I'm still on my first of batteries after 5 months of use.

---The Base Unit---

The base unit looks very stylish and modern in black and silver, with a lovely row of blue lights on front (which I'll come to later). The question is however do the internal workings of the computer match up to the looks, well I'll tell you this, I'm personally very pleased with how it performs the pretty resource hungry tasks I set it.

So lets look at the separate parts :

--Processor--

The 5-3500 system comes with a Intel Pentium 4 530 LGA 775 HT Processor which runs at 3000Mhz. Now if you're like me this probably means nothing to you, but at the time it was one of the fastest processors you could buy, and it shows. I carry out a lot of video conversion, and the difference in speed over my previous computer (Athlon 2600+) is amazing, a conversion that used to take two hours now takes about one and a half. Basically you should always try to buy the fastest processor that you can afford, which is what I did. I can't tell you how it compares for games for the simple reason that this was not bought as a gaming computer and I don't use it to play many games with. I have however run Tomb Raider : Angel of Darkness and it seems perfectly satisfactory.

--RAM--

A fast processor is no good without a decent amount of RAM (Random Access Memory), and this system came with 1024MB of the stuff. RAM is where programs store little bits of information that they need to use while running, as it's quicker for the processor to access data that's stored in RAM than the hard drive, the more you've got the faster your programs will run. Actually this computer has the same amount of RAM as my previous one, so I can't actually say that it's responsible for any improvement in performance, but I do know from an even older computer that more is definitely better.

--Hard Disc--

As I work with video files, I needed a computer with as large a hard drive as possible, and this came with two two-hundred GB drives. However, due to how the manufacturers work out size (they times by 1000 instead 1028) you don't actually get 400 GB, in fact after you take the operating system into account, you're looking at closer to 350GB, which is still plenty enough. There was however a problem with the way the drives were formatted, they were using the FAT32 system which doesn't allow for file sizes over 4GB so I had to re-format them which led to problems later when my OS was destroyed by a virus.

To give some perspective to just how much room there is on the hard drives, when I create a DVD the folder is normally about 4GB, which means that I could (in theory) store over 85 complete DVDs, not that it would actually be a good idea to actually do this, as I need the hard drive space for temporary files while converting and for the actual "raw" files. In fact I've found the more empty space on the drives the better for the sort of work I do. Or I could store 38,000 MP3 tracks on one drive alone, so as you can imagine there is plenty of space to do whatever I want. One thing I will say is that it's also true that you can never have a big enough hard drive, I have already found I have to be pretty ruthless about which files I keep.

I find moving files between drives is a quick and easy process, and I don't hear any strange noises coming from the drives even after extended use.

--Graphics Card--

The supplied graphics card is a 256MB ATi X600 Pro PCI Express which is in the Radeon range, provides crystal clear graphics and handles video playback extremely well. I find DVD (and AVI) playback is smooth, glitch free and looks better than ever. I can't really say any more about how it performs, because as I said this is NOT used as a gaming machine.

--Optical Drives--

There are two optical drives, a basic DVD-ROM drive, which works perfectly well and reads DVDs and CD-ROMs without difficulty. But the extra special drive is the 16x DL Sony DVD Rewriter, that can write to both + and - formats of DVD-R (along with their re-writer equivalents) at speeds of up to 16x (depending on the disc). I personally only have DVD-R discs that are rated as 4x and it can write them in 15 minutes, which is a fast improvement on my previous drive that could only manage 1x and would take an hour to do the same disc. But all is not good with the drive, as it is unable to read the DVD-RAM discs I use in my DVD-recorder, which is a disappointment.

--Monitoring System--

Remember I told you about the blue lights on the front of the case, well actually they're a monitoring system and consist of little dials that tell you how hot it is inside the case and a couple of other things that seem pretty useless. There's no real function for these, except that they look pretty.

--Connectivity--

There are countless connection options with this computer, so many in fact that there's no way I'd ever use them all. For connection to the internet there is a 10/100 NIC card, along with wireless LAN and a telephone modem. At the moment I'm only using the NIC card, but I can see myself using the wireless option in the near future, to allow a notebook to access the internet.

As well as the standard serial and PS/2 ports there are a total of six USB ports (four on the back and two on the front) along with a handy firewire port. I have so far been unable to fill all six USB ports, and find the two on the front especially handy for temporarily attaching cameras and camcorders.

The final extra special touch is the multi format memory card reader on the front of the base unit, which I find extremely handy for not only reading camera memory cards, but also as a method of transferring data between computers.

--Extras (I've not used yet)--

Also included is a PC-TV system that allows you to record TV much as a PVR, but unfortunately I've been unable to use this due to the fact I have terrible reception and use a Sky+ box. I have looked at the program and supplied remote control though and it does look very fancy.

--Included Software--

Software is included to allow you to carry out the basic functions of the computer. These include, Windows XP/SP1 (the operating system), Power DVD (for watching DVDs), PowerDVD To Go (DVD burning software), Office 2003 60 day trial and Works 7. I found all the included software too basic for my needs and just installed my favourite programs instead, but I would say that they would be suitable for the less advanced user.

--Setting Up--

The system was actually very simple to set up, although I must say here that I do have quite a lot of experience in setting computers up. Everything was colour coded, and I can't imagine anyone having any real difficulty putting the right plugs in the right holes (and there weren't that many connections really).

--Noise Level--

This computer is remarkably quiet when running, even when it's been on for a long time doing processor intensive work. The fans can only be heard when there is absolute silence in the room, which is actually a big improvement on my previous computer.

--Tiny Support--

Well Tiny by name definitely means Tiny by nature as far as support goes. They do not provide a restore disc free of charge, so if you're OS gets corrupted you're going to have to pay through the nose, and their help pages on the web are somewhat scarce to say the least, and consists of a list of premium rate telephone numbers and a few drivers. Not what I'd call comprehensive, would you?

--Problems--

I've had one major problem with my system and a couple of minor niggles. I'll start with the minor ones which are that I could not open Internet explorer until I had registered with their ISP of choice, which I was not going to do. You see I didn't even plug the modem in as I already have a perfectly good broadband supplier. The other minor niggle was the fact that a registration pop-up appeared every time I switched the computer on.

The major problem that I had however, cost me an awful lot of money. You see the computer came supplied with the hard drives formatted in the FAT32 system, which meant that I couldn't use files above 4GB. As I do a lot of work with video files, I needed to go above this limit, so I re-formatted both drives using the NFTS system. But them disaster struck and a particularly nasty virus hit my OS and rendered it unusable, I tried the recovery disc to find that my computer was no longer recognised as being suitable to restore. This meant I had to go out and buy a new copy of Windows XP at a very high cost. Saying that at least I got rid of that annoying registration message.

--Cost--

A slight variation of my system is presently on sale at Tiny.com for just under a thousand pounds plus delivery. The only difference is that you now get separate speakers (although it does say that the amount of memory and hard drive space is a special offer and will soon be reduced by half).

--Final words--

I love my computer and he is my baby, I've even given him a name "George", he's fast, quiet and other than the problem I had with a virus, extremely reliable. As I've already said I use this computer mainly for video processing and create a lot of my own DVDs, and I've found that I can carry out these tasks using the same software as on my previous machine, but in only 2/3rds of the time. I also love the speed of the DVD burner, that seems very compatible (I've only had one dud in over 100 discs), so all in all I'd say this is the computer for me. I do, of course, also use the computer for surfing the web and writing reviews, which it also does perfectly well. I know you can get computers with an even higher specification for a similar price, but this does every thing that I actually need.

Now, before recommending this, I should perhaps warn that I had severe issues with the time it took for Tiny to deliver, but that is a completely different review, this focuses on the actual computer not the shop, so I haven't taken any stars off for that. I have however taken a star off for the lack of after care (unless you're willing to pay through the nose).

So am I recommending this computer? You bet !! I find it ideal for working with video, and basic functions, and, from what I can tell, it's of high enough specification to be able to handle almost anything that games will throw at it (if games is your thing). It's also a reasonable price (my first computer was 700MHz, 40GB HDD, 128MB RAM and cost more) for what you are getting. I know there are much cheaper computers out there, but they just will not perform as well.

So I'm recommending this for the power user, who needs the higher and faster specifications in order to deal with vast amounts of data.

Summary: