Cheap hardware on the web

IF YOU know of any good value IT sales (auctions, rebates, one-off, clearance, surplus, classified ads) going around in the United Kingdom, France, USA or Singapore, don't hesitate to contact me, at least 24 hours before the sales end.

UK
Just one week after Aldi came forward with its Medion Power PC, its German alterego, Lidl, brings out its chosen competitor. The Targa Visionary PCX3200 is £100 more expensive than its counterpart at £799 and is not as much exciting as the other one. It is powered by an Intel Pentium IV processor clocked at 3.2GHz, with a 800MHz FSB and a 1MB cache and is covered by a specially designed EKL silent copper-aluminium cooler. The motherboard used is a special edition limited to Targa only of the Asus P5GD1 which has garnered some awards for being a stop gap between the previous P4 generation and the forthcoming one. It sports an Intel i915P chipset and has loads of features included. One of these, the NOS2, allows the processor to dynamically overclock itself when submitted to heavy load. Of course, it can be disabled. The ATX format board comes with one PCI Express X16 and six PCI slots - half traditional PCI and the rest PCI Express x1. The P5GD1 also has four DIMM slots allowing it to accommodate up to 4GB of memory. Other features include four SATA ports supporting Intel's Matrix RAID - allowing RAID0+1 using only two similar hard drives. You also get a PATA connector to connect traditional optical drives.

Targa has included a huge 250GB hard disk drive from Maxtor which comes with a 16MB cache memory as well as a SATA connector and spins at 7200rpm. Memory from Swissbit is used - a single 512MB DDR400 module - should be enough for all mundane tasks and just a little taxing for everyting else. A Toshiba DVD ROM and a 8x Dual Layer Philips DVD Writer are also included. Sound is handled by a Realtek ALC861 Codec sound module - it is Dolby and 7.1-speakers compatible. As for the graphic card, you get a X600Pro Radeon All in Wonder. It is nothing more than a PCI Express version of the ageing 9600Pro, it should prove no more powerful than a 9500Pro and will certainly not be suitable for the most recent games like DOOM III or Half Life 2. With 128MB DDR memory and support for DirectX9 though, it is an ideal partner for older DirectX8 games for example. As a multimedia card, the X600Pro comes with a remote control and the ability to watch capture teletext as well as FM radios. Interestingly, this model allows time shifting which makes it the ideal partner should you want to use your PC as a PVR.

Other bits and pieces include a wireless multimedia keyboard and mouse with four rechargeable NiMH batteries. The mouse comes with its own rechargeable stand. The silvery white mid tower casing has five 5.25-inch external bays but no floppy disk drive. You do get one filled with multimedia outputs which we will cover later. A pair of minute desktop speakers is provided but not worth the listening if you're planning to enjoy the 7.1 sound outputs. The 350W PSU should be sufficient in most cases. An 8-in-1 multimedia card reader including a SIM card reader is provided in lieu of the floppy disk drive. Networkers, rejoice, the Visionary PC comes with a 56K modem, a Wireless PCI Card supporting 802.11g transfer protocol and most importantly a Gigabit onboard network controller. As you might guess from the description above, the PCX3200 provides with a bewildering array of IO connections that guarantees that you'll have a heck of a headache when trying to figure out which cable is for what. You get six USB 2.0 ports and two Firewire ones, S Video I/O, Composite I/O, FM/TV antenna connector, RJ11, SPDIF Out CINCH/Optical, Line I/O, DSub, VDI etc. The computer comes with a 36 months warranty and loads of software - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2, Works Suite 2005 including Word 2003, Pinnacle Studio SE, Hollywood FX and T-Rex, Ahead NERO 6 OEM-Suite, eTrust Antivirus and SIM Manager Pro.

USA
Tigerdirect is giving away, two A HREF="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1162836&Sku=K24-93282" target="_blank">Kingston Technology 64MB Secure Digital Memory cards. About the same size as a postage stamp, the SD memory card crams in as much capacity as 48 floppies. It features a write protect switch to prevent accidental data loss. It has a data transfer of 2MB/sec and has a low power consumption which renders it ideal for digital cameras and the likes.

The retail price approaches the $30 and be aware the item includes multiple rebates which all expire on the 5th December 2004.
ECost is certainly not the most loved e-tailer around, at least if you look at the number of negative mails about Ecost that I receive regularly after directing potential customers to their websites. Freedom of choice shall prevail though. I will let our readers decide for themselves whether Ecost's promotions are worthy.

The first free offer is another Free After Rebate (FAR). It is a 4-port USB Hub from PC USA Corporation which normally retails at $5.99. The ports accept up to 100mA per port with over current protection and truly PnP and automatic system configuration. There are two activity LEDs like on some network card and the only critic is the short length of cable that connects it to the rear of a computer. Another FAR is a Yamakawa 10-pack 4.7GB DVD-R Media which supports 4X writing. With high quality organic dye as its recording layer materials, Yamakawa has ensured reliable recording and playback function. Yamakawa DVD-R is therefore highly recommended for write-once massive data storage, publishing and video pre-mastering, etc. These normally retail for $15 per pack. µ

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