Eight port GigE switch means $700 savings on 48-port 10G

THIS MONTH'S Cheap Basket will bring you only a few deals, but of great quality. The first is for an eight-port gigabit Ethernet switch. The prices keep going down and while you can find an eight-port GigE switch at Amazon.com currently for $56, US seller ProVantage beats that price by selling the same model for $51.95 plus a $10 rebate until the end of the month. So hurry up, at time of this writing you have until Friday to order and qualify for the $10 discount. It claims to support "Jumbo packets" up to 9K in size which is something that not every GigE switch supports. Find the SMC over here.

You have until April 30 to mail your rebate card and until March 31 to order

Another great deal for the cheapskate at heart is the Phillips DVP642. You might remember my gorgeous review of this Divx-certified and XVid compatible DVD/MPEG4 player back in new years' eve, 2004. I have been using this player ever since and to this day I continue receiving good feedback from readers about it, some of them also asking "how to make it region free" (which is very simple, actually). The good news for cheapstakes is that while the player is selling now for about the same price of when I originally reviewed it ($59 new currently), it is also available new, but in "Factory Reconditioned" variety from Amazon.com for just $39. That seems to me like a great way to have a backup player, or to add one more to the kids' room or your bedroom.

48-port GigE switch with 10-gigabit upstream - $700+ savings

This one is proably not for the average "Cheap Basket" reader, but who knows, maybe you're a "corporate Cheapstake"... in such case, and if for some reason you need a managed, stackeable 48-port ethernet switch capable not only of 10, 100mbit or Gigabit connections on every port but also able to connect all 48 ports to a "10G" backbone (yes, ten gigabits), here's your chance to get a $700+ greenbacks lower price on the enterprise-level SMC 2748MINT.

48 port Gigabit ethernet switch with 10G upstream.... $718 less than everywhere else

While it retails for 3,400 greenbacks directly from Amazon.com, it's available from a couple third party sellers for $2152 -that is $718 dollars less than the cheapest price you can find using Google's Froogle search engine ( $2870). Find the deal here (make sure you select "Beach Audio" or "Computer Brain" from the Amazon list of providers). And for some strange reason, the 48-port version is cheaper than the 24-port version, the SMC 8724 which is selling for over 4 grand.

The cheapest price by Google's Froogle price search: $700+ more expensive than these two third party store offerings I found in Amazon.

If you're a cheapskate, now you have no reason not to move to Gigabit ethernet on the home -or even your corporate lan-, and no reason not to have a MPEG-4 compatible DVD player. Remeber Jim Munroe's wise words of wisdom: "(There's) a feeling that spending money freely is a positive quality; that shopping around is beneath one's station and undignified. But isn't it curious how both these ideas benefit a segment of the population -- namely, the sellers?" µ