Get your cheap hardware 'ere

USA
The reconditioned market is the best place to find very good deals at affordable prices. At Buy.com, we found a Compaq Athlon XP 3000+ for $561.95. The model is most probably the S4500NX and the specs list is very impressive for the price. It comes with an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ processor running off a 333MHz front side bus, it has 512Mb DDR memory, albeit only PC2100. It also rus a DVD Writer and a CDROM drive as well as a 7200rpm 120GB hard disk. The rest is pretty conventional. Windows XP Home edition with SP1 is the Operating system.

A Realtek AC97 audio chip is used as is a Lucent v90 modem for analog communication. Four USB 2.0 ports and one Firewire port are also present on the list. The system uses a nForce motherboard and consequently, the it uses the onboard Geforce 4 MX motherboard. The system is served by a PS2 optical mouse and a Multimedia PS2 keyboard. Buying the parts separately probably would cost more than buying the system itself. It will serve most home users well and a quick upgrade for the graphic card - a Radeon All in Wonder for example - can make it become even more compelling for the price.

Still at Buy, you can find a powerful Acer laptop for damn cheap at $1190.99 . The Travel Mate 2502LM features a desktop replacement P4 processor running at 3GHz, 512MB memory PC2700 and a DVD+/-RW writer as well as a 15-inch TFT panel. Unlike many of its competitors, it comes with a dedicated graphics controller.

The Mobility Radeon 9000 powerts a 15-inch TFT panel. The rest is fairly casual - stereo speakers, sound card, battery and network connection. The Li-Ion battery holds enough charge for about two hours. µ

UK
Retekdirect has redesigned its website recently and has reduced prices across the board. One of the most noticeable items is a £149.99+VAT colour laser printer. Yes, ladies and gents, a workgroup, fully fledged colour laser printer is available in UK for less than £180 all inclusive.

The Epson Aculaser C90 has granered rave reviews from all over the world. The printer came out early last year and immediately made an impact. It is destined mainly for budget buyers in the SoHo and SMB market. Although corners have been cut, the price is too good to be ignored. The C900 is no lightweight contender with its 29Kg making it slightly larger than a 21-inch television. It churns out a maximum of 16 black pages per minutes and up to four colour pages in the same period. It has both parallel and USB interfaces so older computers will connect to it easily. It comes with 16 MB memory onboard and a 64MB memory module bundled in.

Compatible with both Windows - from 95 up - and Macintosh, the C900 doesn't come with any physical literature though. The C900 has a 200-sheet handling capacity and accepts a variety of media. The price of the cartridges though are on the expensive side, so much that it would definitely make sense to ditch your older C900 and buy another one. As for the quality of print, it is very much up to expectations with little banding and good colour coverage. Do not expect photographic quality though. All in all, a very good bargain colour printer which, even if it has some rough corners, makes it very easy to live with. µ

France
The Typhoon Powernet might be the cheapest Athlon XP3000+ computer in Europe. With a 80GB hard disk and 256MB memory onboard, it sits squarely in the entry-level category even though the 8x DVD Writer and the 16x DVD adds some oomph to the configuration. The motherboard used is surprisingly a proprietary one with an integrated graphic chip. I presume that it is the lowly KM266 chipset since up to 32MB - and not 64MB memory is shared. Sound part is fairly straight forward with AC97 support and two speakers.

The hard disk runs at a speedy 7200rpm and 2GB have been earmarked for Windows XP restore point. The DVD is only a +R/+RW model but again is quite speedy at 8x. We do not have any information about the number of free PCI slots and it seems that there is no free bays available for any upgrade. Four USB 2.0 ports are available as well as one PS2 port. LAN and Modem connections are also available. Windows XP home edition is provided as well as a standard keyboard and ball mouse. At €499, equivalent to £287+VAT, it is not as attractive as the HP model reviewed above but it still provides good value for money for Europeans. µ

Singapore
Hardwareplace is proposing a 17" LCD monitor for the price of S$ 555, slightly more than £150+VAT which makes it the cheapest LCD monitor of its category. With a viewable surface equivalent to a 19" CRT, it offers plenty of space. Th Chimei CMV CT-722D weighs a surprisingly low 4.3Kg and offers both DVI and D-Sub inputs, allows resolutions of up to SXGA - 1024x1280. The screen is bright 400cd/m2 and has a good contrast ratio of 450:1. Viewing angles are satisfactory as is response time at 16ms, which makes it fast enough for games and watching DVDs.

The CT-722D has a stand alone adapter which might displease some since it means carrying a bulky black box around. The model has a fairly rigid stand and comes with two tiny speakers. The bezel around the monitor though makes it feel a little bit dated and as such it won't compete into any LCD beauty contest. The CT-722D controls are straight forward and buttons are well placed. PCauthority says of it that it is still "Another fantastic display from Polyview - Chimei's OEM, its attractive housing and pixel response matches that of even the top manufacturers without having to pay premium prices. For the gamers and price-conscious office users looking to jump onto a TFT, your prayers have been answered." µ