Special cheapo hardware deals

LOOKING FOR a true desktop replacement computer, then dump your PC and choose the Gateway M675, available at Computergeeks for $1329. Although it is refurbished, it still carries a lot of punch for the price. For example, the laptop comes with a Pentium IV 3.2GHz with Hyperthreading technology running on a 800MHz system bus thanks to the i865PE performance chipset. It is equipped with 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM. The rest of the notebook is equally impressive. The ATI M10-P is the mobile Radeon 9600 and comes with 128MB dedicated video memory. The output is a wonderful 17.1in active panel matrix which can display up to 1440x900 pixels.

We also find a 80GB hard disk, a DVD-RW combo drive and a floppy disk drive. A full sized keyboard with a touch pad will allow you to comfortably type in your documents. Oddly, instead of the usual Realtek sound modules, we have a sigmatel soft audio six-channel on offer but which outputs only to two smallish speakers in front. The notebook does not have internal microphone but does have SPDIF output and various audio jacks. Communications include a 56K modem, a Gigabit LAN as well a Broadcom 802.11g network card allowing up to 54MBps data rate.

Other IO ports include the usual suspects, one firewire, four USB, S Video etc. The refurbished pack comes with Windows XP, Intervideo DVD player and Works Suite 2004. Back in November 2003, almost one year ago, it was sold at twice its actual price. But actually, it is not the cheapest large screen power DTR available in the US. With a little luck, you can get some under the $1000 barrier.

Outpost is selling the cheapest CPU/Motherboard bundle available without any rebates or whatsoever. It is selling an AMD Sempron 2500+ processor with what appears to be an ECS motherboard, the K7VTA3 v8.0, for the sum of $69.99, around £40+VAT. The processor is a retail one meaning that it comes complete with the heat sink fan. The motherboard is a non integrated one and features a VIA KT333CF chipset. The latter supports only AGP 4x and the rest of the specs is pretty rudimentary. Up to six USB 2.0 ports, five PCI slots and one CNR one, a 2-channel Audio codec and only two DIMM slots. Even then, it is an adequate base to build an entry level gaming platform. Note that it supports 333MHZ FSBs but is already being phased out.

Thanks to Freddy and David for their contribution to this one. Bananapc is selling a 2GB USB 2.0 flash drive for only $107. The Kaser Jumbo has the form of a smallish armpit roll-on perfume. You remove the cap to show the USB conenctor. With the USB 2.0 connections, file transfers are pretty fast - read operation and write operation runs at 7Mbps and 2.5Mbps respectively. As you might guess, the reason why it is so cheap is that it has a 1in hard disk inside, rather than flash memory. If you still want flash memory - because it is still lighter, more rugged and consumes less power, then check this 1GB Apacer pen drive in its retail pack. Apacer is famous for its memory module range - à la crucial. But it has now expanded into MP3 players or Photo CD burners. At $79.99, it is still the cheapest way to get large amount of information moving around.

Lastly, software and stuff, alias surplus computers is selling the DVD OEM version of MS Works Suite 2004 for $27 only. For that low price you get Word 2002 word processor, Works 7.0 SoHo suite, Picture It! Photo Premium 9.0, Encarta Encyclopedia 2004 standard, Money 2004 standard and Streets and Trips 2004. All of which are absolutely first class software which could each be sold for that $26. Additionally, you get 500 professional templates which can be used in the business environment. Bear in mind that these templates are from MS Works, not office, so the risk of seeing similar templates is much less. Anyway, you could still buy Corel Wordperfect 11 suite for the same price if you want at Softwareoutlet.com. But then someone else may tell me to test OpenOffice instead.... µ