Cheapest hardware on the planet

UK
Want to have something of a futuristic casing, then head your way to Aria where they are stocking the Skyhawk PSR 5619 casing at £35.24. Additionally, you can purchased the one with a side window for only £2.30 extra. The latter features a black glossy look - from the photo on the site, you can even see the reflection of the guy taking the photo. You can even identify the digital camera which speaks volume about the external quality of the casing. The Skyhawk is made out of aluminium which means that it is light and will cool efficiently. The front bays are covered with a sliding motorised panel which would make many PC users green with envy. It slides up or down, allowing you to access four 5.25in bays as well as a thermometer display.

The case even has sensors inside. The mainboard panel is removable to be able to upgrade it when you want. You also have a multimedia, USB and firewire ports. Other technical specifications are a low powered and loud 300W PSU - to be replaced if you want, six 3.5in bays as well as a fan mount which has its own little caddy. The casing is quite spacious inside and can easily accommodate all but the larger motherboards. There is enough air circulation around the critical components but it is advisable to get yourself one additional 80mm fan.

USA
These kinds of deals from the US make us Brits green with envy. The £449 HP Pavilion A330n might be a reconditioned desktop PC but it still represents fantastic value for money. With an AMD XP 3000+, with a 2166MHz real speed - not the latest Barton 400MHz FSB but most probably the 333MHz one with 256KB cache, you will be running through applications with ease. Coupled with 512MB memory and a large 120GB memory, it will prove sufficient for most software demands. Optical storage include a 48x CDROM and a DVD+RW Writer.

The A330n comes with no video card per se but the NForce2 chipset should provide with more firepower than the usual integrated chipset. Other communications and networking specs include a modem and a fast Ethernet port. A wide array of connectors is made up of SPDIF output, an AGP slot, three free PCI slots, Compact Flash, Smartmedia, SD memory and Memory stick Pro slot types. As with most HP desktop, you are provided with loads of softwre Encarta Encyclopedia, Britannica, Quicken and Norton Antivirus, Windows XP, Corel Office 11 software suite, Microsoft Works 7.0 etc.

Just plug in a decent graphic card and you will have a more than potent graphic DOOM machine. And yes, if you want to build yourself a brand new machine, it will cost you more, much more to put the components together.

France
Impress your friends and family by automatically disable and enable your computer by moving away or towards it. What would be the ideal way of protecting your computer? For materiel.net, the Guard Key KW-101 might be the answer. The Wireless PC lock features a USB dongle which goes into one free USB port.

The other part is a discrete radio transmitter. You do not have to log on and log off all the time. If you as the user move more than 2m away from your computer, your workstation will automatically block itself and display a white screen, literally. Obvisouly, removing the USB lock does nothing at all and you will still be required a password to unlock a PC if the transmitter is not present. You can have one transmitter for several PCs and the included battery should allow you to use the transmitter for an estimated 2000 hours.

You will have to install a software prior to use though and at Eur 34.99, the PC Lock is expensive, while it is available for $17.99, less than Eur 15. The operating frequency is 434MHz here in Europe. The lastest version of the KW-101 driver is available on teknoplus.com.

Singapore
With all the buzz over the new AMD technologies, it is much too easy to forget the new celerons which have been shot with some serious steroids. With new core and FSB, they are proving to be much better competitors than their forebearers. Videopro is selling a Celeron Bundle comprising of the Abit SG-71 and the Celeron D 335, clocked at 2.8GHz for only $274, much what you would pay for an Athlon XP 2600+ bundle.

Surprisingly enough, these celerons are quick enough to cause serious problem to the Athlon XP 2600+. The Abit SG-71 is not one product whose review will flow all over the web. It is one of those run-of-the mill entry level product that will happily serve their customers without needing to be put in the limelight. Based on the SIS651 plateform, it supports 533MHz FSB and comes with three PCI and one AGP slot. It has an integrated SIS315 graphic accelerator and two DIMM socket.

The audio part is handled onboard with a 2-channel Audio Codec. The SG71 also comes with an onboard fast ethernet PCI controller and four USB 2.0 ports. Now performance wise, the Celeron 335 D closes the gap between what the original Celeron was, a dumb processor and what it is now, a would-be champ. But don't take my word and do some thumbwork over the internet. The Celeron D is a formidable overclocker.

We don't know the exact overclocking capabilities of the SG-71. However, provided you get a good cooler, expect spectacular gains. Xbitlabs managed more than 25% gains with overclocking reaching 3.5GHz while sharkyextreme hit the 3.55Ghz barrier. Those kinds of overclocking allow the Celeron D to come near to the performance of its elder brothers, the P4 family.