Review: Time UltraStation XP3200

I covered performance earlier, so I won't cover it here. It's fast when you put the timings to what they should be, excellent.

Price. This is where things get scary, it's just shy of £1600 including VAT, delivery and basic 12 month return to base warranty. All repairs, parts and labour are covered in that 12 months, so it's not too bad. They are keen to sell you extra warranty cover, both in terms of duration and features, including things like on site repair and a reload CD. Erk. Why don't all systems, even the cheapest boxes, come with a CD and instructions for reloading the system from it? Why does that cost £99 from Time? I'm slighty perplexed that a system should have to go back to base, with all the costs and downtime that entails, when for the price of a pressed CD or DVD and sheet of paper, the user can happily do that themselves.

With their other warranty packages costing the wrong side of £200, although the cover is quite impressive, you could easily blow nearly £2000 on the UltraStation that way.

I decided to test out my theoretical 12 months warranty and support, by giving the Time helpline a ring. My first stumbling block was going to be identifying my system as a Time PC, and without an order number or anything like that, I could have been denied at the first hurdle. But, after playing dumb and telling the guy on the other end that I didn't have my order details to hand, he decided to give me a hand anyway. I'd faked a problem whereby the IDE cable had come loose and the hard drive wasn't being detected any more and the system wasn't booting.

Sure enough, after asking me what I saw on the screen at boot/POST, he asked me to remove the correct case side (the left), using a screwdriver after removing the power cord, pointed me correctly to the hard drive (describing it properly), and asked me to check the cable between that and the motherboard. I played dumb throughout, making the guy work as hard as he should have, but the problem was fixed inside of 10 minutes. He even asked me to make sure I wasn't statically charged ("can you touch a radiator?") and to even have a quick glance over the rest of the components, to make sure all the other cables were OK. A quick call back to confirm I was OK again and they passed that test with flying colours.

Overall, I had very little to complain about. The price for the spec is good, try pricing up the same hardware on your favourite online retailer and see, before you shout that £1600 is a rip off. It's a little pricy compared to other vendors, for the same hardware, but nothing too bad.

Only the case and no reinstall media, a real let down for the money you will spend, the mouse issue, and the shipped memory timings, were anything to point a finger at. A quick chat with Time convinced me that disasters, while not completely eradicated (everyone ships a dud every now and again), are down to as much of a minimum as they can manage. They aren't the Time of old, something I think they'd like to stress.

A thumbs up all round, I have to say. Providing they look into the memory timings issue (or you change them yourself) and you don't get a horrid mouse like I did, the UltraStation XP3200+ is about as much of a powerhouse PC as you can buy in this country at the moment, for under around £1800. Steep, but the components are top of the range.

The monitor, speakers, and general usage were all highlights, thumbs up to Time for the effort, especially with the faked support call.

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