Cheap hardware in the United Kingdom

At £39.99, VAT compris, the Samsung ML1510 is even cheaper than Ebay's second hand laser printers. It is a web exclusive however with in-store prices reaching £49.99.

The printer has a resolution of 600x600 dpi, Windows, Mac and Linux compatible and is small enough to fit just below your desk and is surprisingly easy to operate. Just push a single button to cancel printing - quite different from my EPSON Stylus for example. Its printing speed is far from being sedentary at 14 pages per minute and a first page after only 11 seconds.

While it has only 2MB of memory, it can use the host computer's resource to boost up its printing capacity. Its 250 pages capacity as well as a USB link means that it is destined mainly for Small offices with recent computers. Bear in mind that you do not get a USB cable with it.

Interestingly, to decrease prices even more, the ML1510 has a toner save mode that allows you to save on toner by controlling directly the size of each dot. But you can reduce the cost of the toner buy buying bottled toner at consumablecafe for £7.99 including VAT or delivery or if you are looking to print out loads of memos and the likes, take 10 for only £64.99. Australia's PCAuthority Verdict - "above average quality and speed, and a bargain basement price, the ML-1510 comes highly recommended for anyone looking for a solid budget mono laser". Well said.

£399 for a new laptop, including VAT, is very cheap especially when you consider that P&P is one-tenth that of its competitors at £3.80. Medion, one of the largest German computer manufacturers sells its wares in UK via LIDL most of the time but it does also have an online website. We've found two very interesting deals out there. The first one is an Intel Celeron 1.7GHz laptop with 128MB memory, a DVD ROM and a spacious 20GB hard disk. You also get a 14.1in TFT monitor, two integrated speakers, one touchpad plus the usual modem and Ethernet LAN port.

But the list of features does not stop there. You also get a Li-Ion battery, three USB 2.0 ports and a Firewire port as well. The whole is covered by a 12 months Warranty and comes with MS Windows XP Home edition, Staroffice 5.2 - get OpenOffice 1.19, much better - and Cyberlink Power DVD. Overall a very good deal even if you do not get any casing with it. How does Ebay compare? Not that bad. The http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3712&item=6721623694&rd=1 Compaq E500 for example comes with a P3 1Ghz and coest less than £370. Furthermore, it comes with a 30 day warranty, a large 15.1in TFT, an equally substantial 256MB memory and a 20GB hard disk.

The notebook is also endowed with a CDROM instead of a DVDROM and comes with Windows XP. Bear in mind when buying though that it is a second hand item.

Even more impressive is that Pocket PC PDA, the Medion MD 5951 which features an Intel Xscale processor running at 200MHz which retails for only £99 inc VAT. The cheapest Dell handheld, Axim X30, though a faster PDA, costs a hefty 50% more and does not even comes with accessories.

The MD5951 has a 65536 colour TFT display, 32MB internal memory, a SD expansion slot and is powered by Windows Pocket PC 2002. It weighs in at only 120g and comes with Windows Mobile. It is covered by a 12 months warranty and includes a docking station and a case for that price.

I am not a big Dull fan but for once they are having an interesting UK deal. For less than £300 excluding VAT and delivery and counting 6.5% discount using rpoint.com and the code W11RXZ$QF33K2M, you get a decent new desktop computer with a monitor and a colour printer. The offer expires midnight 17th November.

The Dell Dimension 3000 is powered by an Intel Celeron D 330 running at 2.66Ghz and coming with 256kb Cache. 256MB PC2700 memory is included as is a 40GB 7200rpm hard disk drive. Though you do not get a floppy disk drive, you do get a 17in CRT monitor and a 48x DVD/CDRW combo. Every other peripheral is included on the computer as you might guess. Sound, LAN and Video. A v.92 modem is also provided as is Windows XP Home with SP2 and MS works. Input devices include a dell optical mouse and a normal keyboard. You also get a free Dell 720 Printer without a USB cable - which Dell sells for £13 but which you can normally buy at Poundland for ... £1. The system is very much what most small businesses would dream of in terms of value for moneyness.

I reserve the best bit until last. Acer is one of my favourite brands as it always seems to be launching products in a fresh and affordable way and taking risks, albeit calculated ones. The Acer Power M2 is one of them and I am very surprised by the bundle. That computer is one of the first from a well known international seller to feature Linux as their default OS. At £221+VAT with a deliery charge of only £8 from web favourite Technoworld, it is a real bargain. The Power M2 features an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ - no Semp0rn - 256MB PC3200 memory, a 40GB 7200rpm hard disk as well as Linpus Linux and OpenOffice as OS and application suite respectively. Other software include Kmai, Mozilla and Knote.

The fact that this system comes from a recognised brand name and will probably sell well, speaks volume on the capacity of Opensource and the determination of Acer. I can only hope that they will also release a Windows Free Linux Laptop soon. The rest of the configuration is as follows. SIS741 chipset, CDRW/DVD combo drive, Embedded NIC controller, two DIMM socket, one AGP 8x Slot, three PCi slots, onboard six channel realtek sound chip, SIS Real256E GPU using SMA, eight USB ports and five drive bays available.