Hardware buys of the day

Singapore
A 20GB MP3 jukebox for $399 is on sale at TopUni. Manufactured at Godot, it decodes MP3, WMA and OGG format. Also interestingis the Digital Voice Recording via Line-in and from the inbuilt FM tuner. The latter has ten preset channels. The large backlight 160x160 points monochrome display will enable you display essential information on what you are listening to. The large 1.8in 20GB will house up to 5000 MP3 files as well as computer files and others, including newer firmware, that can be uploaded via the speedy USB 2.0 port. The battery provided is a rechargeable 1400mAH polymer enabling up to 14 hours of playing time. A 16MB anti-shock buffer memory is also provided although its use will be limited in this case.

Interestingly, hardwarezone mentions that it can also serve as an organizer, an electronic book and has some games included. The jukebox weighs in at only 180g and comes with a four-way directional button and an easy user interface.

UK
Who would think of High street store Argos as a bargain seller? Not many. However, they are offering an AIO printer - All in One - from HP for only £49.99, half its price one year ago, a full £25 below the price of ebuyer for example. The PSC1205 is the entry level model proposed and is a 4800dpi optimised printer combined with a 600x1200dpi scanner. It can print at up to 10 pages per minute colour and 12 pages for mono. The scan resolution is 600x1200 and as you might guess, it is a USB only multi function. Its twin ink cartridges system is what you can expect at this price while its footprint is just slightly larger than an A4 sheet.

Print quality is generally excellent if you put aside the price of the print-out. It does not have any print output tray while it is an efficient standaline photocopier according to reviews. If you want something even cheaper, then you might go for the Dell A920 multifunction inkjet for £47 which is a slightly better model all in all but depends on Dell for its consummables - though it is a rebadged Lexmark X1150.

France
Abit deliberately chose the i865PE chipset to built an entry level LGA-775 motherboard. The i865PE platform offers the best value for money when compared to the newer ones - 915, 925 - and to its elder brother, the 875. The Abit AS8 is on sale for €131, less than £75+VAT. It uses the ICH5R southbridge and has four DDR memory banks supporting PC2700/3200. Funnily, while the motherboard image shows that the motherboard has four PCI ports while the description mentions five. The rest is pretty standard - an AGP port, two SATA ports supporting RAID 0/1 by Intel, onboard LAN from Realtek RTL8100C, three Firewire ports, eight USB 2.0, AC97 5.1 audio with optical SPDIF I/O.

Furthermore, Abit bundles in its own overclocking-friendly technology: Softmenu, EQ, OC Guru, Flash Menu and Black box. That kind of card is perfect for those who would like to keep their memory and graphic card investment intact while moving to another processor platform. The Prescott family is bound to overtake and eventually make the old Northwood one redundant soon. LGA775 is here to stay, so better prepare yourself!

USA
Scanners have become a commodity in today's world. The Sharpwin Opticpro LS-600 is a perfect example of it. It is available from dumpinggoods for $4.99. Dubbed "the only legal size 3-D scanner" available, it can scan up to 8.5" x 14" offering a 600x1200dpi resolution at 36-bit color depth. Unfortunately, the parallel port may slow the scanning time to some extent in a world of USBs. The software provided is Micrografx Picture Publisher, now owned by Corel and the OCR is Textbridge. The scanner was on sale worldwide under the name OpticPro or Black Widow in UK. The manufacturer however does not provide Windows XP drivers though you may try Windows 2000 drivers. Plustek also appears to have drivers for that model. µ