Daily hardware buys

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.

Has anyone modded a Dell PC to accommodate an AMD processor? Just let me know

USA
Yamakawa - they've not been very inspired to find a good name for it - has a progressive scan region free DVD player, the DVD-238, with a Dolby Digital Decoder for only $10, after rebates. Although the DVD player does not come with a LCD screen, it does come with a remote control and a slew of connectors - including an Optical audio output - found at the back of the system. The DVD-238 supports DVD-Video, Audio CD, MP3, dual format DVD/RW.

Tigerdirect has this large 120GB hard disk for $49.99 after rebate as well as a substantial $40 rebate on this gargantuan 200GB hard disk at $89.99. The first one is the Maxtor DiamondMax 16. It has a slowish 5400rpm spndle speed and an average speed of 13ms. With a 2MB buffer, it will be an ideal storage device rather than your main booting disk. Anyway, with Maxtor Quiet Drive technology asociated with the Shock and Data Protection system, you will be well served by this excellent device. The second one is the Western Digital WD2000JB Special Edition. This 200GB mammoth has a 8MB buffer and a spindle speed of 7200rpm resulting in a 9.5ms access time. All in all, if you can afford it, bypass the Maxtor one in favour of the Western Digital one. The latter has a lower cost per Gigabyte and is much quicker than the Maxtor one. Thanks to Freddy for that.

UK
Head over to CCLonline for two fantastic motherboard deals. CCLonline is clearing some returned but tested motherboards. The Epox EP-8RDA3+, on sale here, is based on the nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset and with five PCI slots and an AGP one is more than a capable socket A motherboard. The motherboard is on sale at £63+VAT at scan while CCL Online is selling the refurbished version at £28+VAT. The motherboard has three DDR DIMM slot supporting up to 2GB - if DDR 400 is used. Of course, you have support for Dual DDR architecture. Three audio jacks are supplied with headers for three Firewire ports. On top of that you will get a SATA bridge supporting RAID1/0, furthermore, you can connect up to four IDE devices. What makes the board special however is the presence of two LAN connectors, both of which come from the Realtek. As for the audio part, it supports Real Time Software AC3 encoding with SPDIF-out via the CMI 9739A module. Overclocking is quite simply stunning, which is why Hexus gave that board a 9/10.

They say that "The 8RDA3+ is still an excellent foundation on which to build an AMD powerhouse of a system. Its considerable merits outweigh the slight qualms we may have. It's fast, it's stable, and it literally begs to be overclocked." The board features many adjustments as well as a Debug LCD.

On the other hand, you can get a Soltek SL-K8AV2-RL which costs only £38+VAT. The VIA K8T800 powered motherboard seems to feature ultra-violet friendly slots and ports. The board support the Cool n Quiet technology though this is not mentionned clearly. For the rest, it is pretty standard. Integrated LAN, six channel AC 97 Audio, eight USB ports, five PCI slots, Two RAID-enabled Serial ATA connectors and two IDE ones. Oddly though, there is only two DDR DIMM sockets. On the overclocking part though the board will not surprise you, all in all a good entry level board that are better than the first socket 754 motherboards.

France
Ninety nine Euros for a colour PDA? Seems like a good deal. In fact it is... Best in New has this Jornada 545 for sale. Launched in 2000, it was one of the very first to feature Microsoft ill-fated Pocket PC replaced by Windows Mobile Edition. The Jornada 545 competed against the Palm IIIc but offers much more usability. It can play MP3 as well as WM files. You can also display MS Word and Excel files and has both a USB and a serial connection to connect to your PC via a nice cradle. The PDA comes with 16MB RAM and 16MB of onboard ROM which can be expanded using Compact Flash memory.

Since CF is the cheapest removable storage available, you could easily add a Gigabyte of memory for less than 100 Eur and convert the PDA into a wonderful multimedia system. The Lithium-Ion battery will allow up to six hours of continual use. The screen is bright and includes a flip-up cover, à la Palm. Its resolution is limited to 240x320 pixels, equivalent to ol' day CGA and a 12-bit resolution. Don't forget also that you can use Microsoft's Clear type technology to improve things. Pocket PC applications included include MPEG and MP3 viewers, Pocket Outlook as well as the other Pocket PC applications. You can even record your surrounding sound and make some nice voice memos.

Singapore
You would easily take the Aiptek Pocket DV3500 for one of those mini-DV camera. While it shares their diminutive size, it has a whole set of different specifications. It can act as a Digital Camcorder, a digital still camera, a MP3 player, voice recorder and webcam as well as removable storage. I had one of its predecessors, the mini DV2 and though the quality is not necessarily up to a VHS camcorder, it doesn't cost as much anyway. It can record in MPEG4 file format which is three times more compact than normal AVI format and enables a much better quality - 640x480 pixels. It comes with 16MB internal flash memory which can be updated using the available SD slot. The 2MP CMOS sensor has a hardware resolutions of up to 3MP, partnered 4x Digital zoom. Last but not least, you have some Versatile Image-Enhancing Tools include 5-Mode White Balance, Exposure Control, and 3 Advanced Still Image Effects. The DV3500 costs S$299 at Laser. µ