DS Lite £79.99

Argos have come up trumps for this deal on the latest DS (until the next one) with a sub-£80 offer on this black DSi.

With normal prices of £119 online and €149.99 in Irish retail stores, you can't really go wrong with this one.

Argos don't do delivery to Ireland from the.co.uk site, so it looks like you'll have to collect in person or arrange some alternative method of collection.

Komplett Weekly Offers 10/10/2008

OCZ DDR2 PC6400 4GB KIT, Reaper X HPC, 2x2048MB, Heat Pipe, (CL4-4-3-15), E.P.P

€ 93.00

-11%

My €0.02
I'm pretty sure those heatspreaders would be a nuisance. I'd go for these instead.

Samsung 32" LCD-TV LE32A430

€ 477.00

-6%

My €0.02
Does anyone else actually sell this model?

Netgear ReadyNAS Duo RND2150 500GB

€ 305.00

-9%

My €0.02
I get the distinct impression that most people would be better served by a low-end PC from DC running linux. Cheaper than play.com.

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5,PCI-Express 2.0, DVI-I/HDMI/HDCP

€ 285.00

-5%

My €0.02
Hah. A good price for this expensive space heater. Still, cheaper than a Quadro 5800.

PS3 is €299 in Tesco today, nationwide

Plus some other consoles are reduced too...

• DS for 119.99 ( from 159.99)
• Wii for 202.46 (from 269.95)
• XBOX 360 for 179.99 from 239.99
• Sony PSP for 134.96 (from 179.95)
• Sony PS3 for 299.95 (From 399.99)

25% off DVD's music cd's and games too.

Komplett Weekly Offers 21/10/2008

NZXT ADAMAS Black, Full Aluminum chassis, 4 chassis fans 120mm, No PSU

€ 59.00 (-34%)


My €0.02: A decent case. Price is ok too. But may be a little pricey to ship... perhaps the 'plett are offering an incentive for people to try the pick-up point?.

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA232MB 7200RPM

€ 127.00 (-15%)


My €0.02: Cheaper at Dabs. Cheaper at Misco. Used to be cheaper at Elara! I think I'm starting to understand how Komplett's product managers work (previously I had assumed that a ouija board was involved)

Western Digital Elements 500GB USB2.0

€ 65.00 (-6%)


My €0.02: 500GB. Big whoop. At least it's not a Seagate.

Gainward Radeon HD 4850 1GB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI, "Golden Sample"

€ 169.00 (-6%)

My €0.02: As usual, graphics card equals ripoff but this is an ok price for what it is.

Komplett Weekly Offers 06/10/2008

Sony Bravia 40" LCD-TV KDL-40W4000 Full HD, DVB-T, DVB-C

€ 1,157.00

-15%

My €0.02
An extremely good TV at an extremely average price, assuming you use the new collections facility. You could find it cheaper through private sales.

Western Digital My Book Home Edition 320

€ 80.01

-8%

My €0.02
Meh. Old stock?

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB GDDR3, PCI-E 2.0, 2xDVI/HDCP, 448bit

€ 255.00

-6%

My €0.02
Ok price for Europe. The yanks get it far cheaper, of course.

Corsair Dominator TWIN 2X8500C5D 4096MB, DDR2,2x2GB(KIT), DHX, E.P.P, CL5-5-5-15-2T

€ 99.00

-9%

My €0.02
15 yoyos cheaper than dabs.

Play.com, up to 85% off

Of course, your mileage may vary. Usual electronics restrictions and free shipping apply.

DVDs from €4.49


CDs from €4.49


Books from €4.49



Games from €11.49

Komplett Weekly Offers 22/07/2008

K time.

OCZ nVIDIA SLI DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT,XTC, w/two 2048MB, CL5-4-4-15

€ 75.00

-12%

My €0.02
Hey the Yanks get this for $82, and $52 after a rebate! WHY? No fair, but that's life eh? Actually, 75 is not a bad price at all if you don't want to gamble on ebay.

Canon Pixma MX850 31/24ppm printer/copier/scanner/fax USB

€ 237.00

-3%

My €0.02
Yay, a printer. Defile the corpses of some dead trees, and get ink all over you hands to boot. As this printer goes, it is cheaper than the alternatives.

Western Digital Passport Elite 250GB Titan, USB 2.0

€ 93.00

-6%

My €0.02
Passport Elite... wtf? Oh it's a 2.5" external hard drive? Nonsensical nomenclature aside, what makes this better than this Toshiba? Or WD's own Passport Essential for that matter?

MSI Radeon HD 3870 x2 1GB OC GDDR3, PCI-E, 2xDVI-I/Tv-Out/HDCP/HDMI

€ 184.00

-29%

My €0.02
Again? Did Komplett buy all the stock of these in the country or what? Old, but still good and better value than Dabs.

Looks like a solid week for Komplett. In ither good news, the new local branch is ready to open any time now. Here's the address:

Komplett.ie
2. Unit 287, Block G
Blanchardstown Corporate Park 2
Ballycoolin
Dublin 15

GMap link

Wii at iBOOD, can you do better?

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that iBOOD had a Wii for sale this week and that it sold out in about 10 minutes. The price was €214.95 with shipping of €12.50 making a total of €227.45. Not bad, but you would have to had to be quick to grab this... very quick. Then there's the matter of the 2-5 weeks until iBOOD deliver.

So can you do better on the high street? Zavvi do reasonable deals and if you are in the UK you could pick one up for the equivalent of €230. For €240 in the republic, I believe they will throw in an extra game too (from an in-store list, not any recent or AAA game).

Komplett Weekly Offers 04/08/2008

Ah, it was salmonella. Haven't heard of that for a while, what with kids today and their e-coli's and superbug whatnots.

Samsung HT-TX250 Home Cinema HDMI 600W

€ 299.00

-14%

My €0.02
It's ok I guess. Ibood couldn't do any better.

Sony Bravia 32" LCD-TV KDL-32P3000--DVB-T--

€ 537.00

-9%

My €0.02
A few people have complained of buzzing from this model. Also, I'm pretty certain it won't work with Irish DTT because it has no MPEG-4 decoder. Cheap enough though, if only the shipping wasn't so rough...

BenQ 24" G2400W, Black, 1920x1200,5ms, 1000:1, VGA/DVI/HDMI

€ 319.00

-9%

My €0.02
Apart from some people moaning about TN panels, this looks like a decent buy. Dabs have it for 338 and Misco want 336 so if you want it, go for it!

HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3,PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP

€ 140.00

-10%

My €0.02
Now even cheaper than two weeks ago. Ok, that was a Sapphire card and this is a HIS, but hey it's a 4850 at the end of the day.

Supermarket Wars: Return of the Penny

Things have been hotting up in the world of soulless, corner-shop crushing, profit-chasing and unfortunately necessary supermarkets. Tesco have announced their intentions to help beat back the recession by offering low-quality crap for less money than usual. Not too impressed with that. However, if any of you use clubcards there is a promotion giving 25% back in points on PCs, laptops, TVs, games consoles and electrical equipment this weekend. I don't believe in the loyalty card system myself so, as usual, use your own judgment. I assume Tesco are fine for returns.

M&S Dine for Two for €12.50 is back. It's cheap and very tasty.

Dunnes were selling the old Xbox 360 Pro (without HDMI) for €180 last week. Sorry, I was on holidays.

I couldn't help but smile at Lidl Treats. I'm a big fan of some of their stuff so it's nice to find an author who does good research as well as spinning a good yarn. Prices are in Euro too, unlike the now defunct the joy of lidl. Worth checking out.

Cheap and cheerful projector

Taking a break from the high end 1080p beamers this time, what we have here is the InFocus IN1 gaming projector. Ideally suited for PS2 gaming in the kids room (ahem) this is a basic projector that will display medium quality graphics from medium quality sources. In other words, don't expect to have this at the centre of your home cinema. But for a wall full of gaming goodness, you won't get better value than this!

General
Device Type	DLP Projector
Built-in Devices	Stereo speakers
Width	33.9 cm
Depth	26.4 cm
Height	21.6 cm
Weight	4.5 kg
Projector / Panel
Image Brightness	500 ANSI lumens
Image Contrast Ratio	1500:1
Image Size	1.01 m - 5.33 m
Projection Distance	1.5 m - 8 m
Throw Ratio	1.8:1
Resolution	640 x 480
Native Aspect Ratio	4:3
Max Sync Rate (V x H)	130 Hz x 69 kHz
Bulb type	UHP 132 Watt
Bulb life cycle	1000 hour(s)
Controls / Adjustments	Volume, brightness, input select, focus
Video Input
Analogue Video Format	NTSC, SECAM, PAL
Analogue video Signal	S-Video, composite video, component video
Digital Television Video Formats	480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 480i, 576i, 576p
Audio Output
Type	Speaker(s) - integrated
Sound Output Mode	Stereo
Output Power / Channel	7 Watt
Speaker(s)	2 x right / left channel
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces	1 x component video input - RCA x 3 1 x S-video input - 7 PIN mini-DIN 1 x composite video input - RCA 1 x headphones - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
Miscellaneous
Compliant Standards	FCC Class B certified, CE, UL, TUV GS, C-Tick, GOST, cUL, NOM, EN55022 Class B, ICES-003 Class B, CCC, MIC, EK, IRAM, RoHS, IEC 60950-1, EN 60950-1, WEEE
Power
Power Device	Power supply - internal
Voltage Required	AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Power Consumption Operational	260 Watt
Manufacturer Warranty
Service & Support	90 days warranty
Service & Support Details	Limited warranty - parts and labour - 90 days Limited warranty - lamp - 90 days
Environmental Parameters
Min Operating Temperature	10 °C
Max Operating Temperature	40 °C

Blurb shamelessly lifted from elara.ie

Komplett Weekly Offers 30/06/2008

Ah, my favourite day of the week. Well, not really. But I do like looking through Komplett's deals!

Sony HDR-SR10E, 40 GB HDD recorder

€ 706.00
-4%

My €0.02
Don't know much about this except that it costs £500 on amazon and €584 on purelygadgets.co.uk which are both, by my calculations, less than €700.

Garmin Nuvi 255T Europe GPS

€ 199.00
-10%

My €0.02
€178 from pixmania so much of a muchness. Not an impulse buy by any means.

Nintendo DS Lite, Turquoise Edition

€ 154.00
-9%

My €0.02
Didn't I see a new range of colours released for about €135 recently? I think I did.

Philips Aurea 42" LCD-TV 42PFL9900D-- Now with free Acer notebook!! --

€ 3,511.01
-11%

My €0.02
...what?? Oh, it's an Ambilight model. Now that ludicrous price makes sense.

Games Consoles

So you've got a HD TV or projector, now what can you do to make the most of it? Modern consoles are more than just games playing machines. They can play music, videos, HD videos, photo slideshows, browse the internet, organise your life etcetera, etcetera. Games are of course a great way of showing it off, but you might also use it for watching near-cinema quality films with the added bonus of no chewing-gum riddled, spring loaded, popcorn-salt covered, tatty velour seats. Here is what is on offer:

Wii
Nintendo
Typical price: €270, comes with bundled Wii Sports game

The market leader. Does not play High Definition discs, or any other kind of disc. Does not output resolutions higher than 480p. No internal hard drive. Has wifi. Does play video from SD card. Backwards compatible with Gamecube games and controllers. Downloadable games and retro games. Popular with all ages despite non-HD graphics.

Xbox360
Microsoft
Typical price: €200 for Arcade model, €350 for Elite model

The number 2 console. Play High Definition discs, however only in the soon to be defunct HD-DVD format. Plays and upscales DVDs. Output resolutions up to 1080p. No wifi or internal hard drive on Arcade model. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some Xbox games. Downloadable games and videos from Xbox Live!. HD-DVD discs are being sold very cheaply.

Playstation 3
Sony
Typical price: €400 for 40GB model

Last place. Plays High Definition Blu-ray discs. Plays and upscales DVDs. Outputs resolutions up to 1080p. Has wifi and internal hard drive. Has ethernet networking. Backwards compatible with some PS1 games. Built in web browser. Downloadable games from Sony Store.