Terabyte drives ahoy!

Finally, those 1TB drives are hitting the sweet spot. That's TB as in the unit of capacity, not the disease. Now if only people would ditch FAT32 for a file system that makes sense. Seriously, why should I even care about how the bits on my disk are arranged? Grumble grumble blame microsoft grumble!

scan.ie
HDT721010SLA360 - 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B, 3.5", SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, HDD
£72.38 + £6.99 shipping (I guess, not clear from site)

komplett.ie
Hitachi DeskStar 7K1000.B - hard drive - 1 TB - SATA-300
€79.00 + €12.50 shipping

And...

dabs.ie
Buffalo 1TB DriveStation Turbo USB2 3.5"
€92.51 + €12.66 shipping
For the record, I'm all in favour of the "naked" drives. I had a seagate 500 crash and burn on me for no particular reason other than the case was possibly a bit suspect. So from now on, I'm buying a good quality case with eSata + NAS and popping in drives as needs be. Instructions are widely available on how to do this and it is simple.

Komplett Weekly Offers 08/12/2008

Let me save you the bother. Nothing interesting this week. Tv, speakers, printer, graphics card. No bargains.

Komplett Weekly Offers 01/12/2008

NETGEAR ProSafe Switch 8P gigabit

€ 39.00

-34%

My €0.02
It's cheap, but who needs an 8 port gigabit switch? If the answer is you, this is cheaper than any equivalent products at misco or pixmania. That said, for a little more you could get a much better product...

Logitech MX Air Rechargeable Cordless

€ 95.00

-13%

My €0.02
I have one of these. They rock. Cost 15 euro this time last year.

Samsung 22" LCD Syncmaster T220HD

€ 273.99

-9%

My €0.02
There must be something seriously wrong because elara want 440 for this. Pixmania are selling it for 269.

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H, GeForce 9400

€ 139.49

-7%

My €0.02
Not a bad price but only buy if you want the GeForce 9400. Which I find unlikely.

Komplett Weekly Offers 24/10/2008

Epson Projector EMP-X5, 1024x768, 2200 ANSI, 400:1

€ 469.00

-6%

My €0.02
This projector must be nearing the end of it's life cycle by now. I would go for a newer model, which would deliver more bang per buck. Or a Infocus IN1 for less than €200.

Creative Zen 4GB, SD/SDHC slot, MP3/AAC,2,5" LCD screen, DivX/XviD/WMV

€ 65.00

-12%

My €0.02
Why? All I want is an iPod Touch with an SD cart slot. And who watches video on a 2.5" screen?

Canon IXUS 80 Silver 8.0MP 3x opt.zoom

€ 148.00
-0%

My €0.02
Beats pixmanias €159. Any good? Dunno.

Samsung 19" LCD-TV Syncmaster 932MW, Widescreen, TV-tuner, DVI, 5ms

€ 189.00

-5%

My €0.02
19" LCD TV again? It's still pointless.

Komplett Weekly Offers 17/10/2008

D-Link DSL-2740B Wireless N ADSL2/2+modem and router

€ 109.00

My €0.02
Great router, bad offer. Actually, isn't this the regular price?

Samsung 19" LCD-TV Syncmaster 932MW,Widescreen, TV-tuner, DVI, 5ms

€ 189.00

-5%

My €0.02
19 inch tv? Really?

Samsung 26" LCD-TV LE26A330-

€ 379.00

-13%

My €0.02
Wouldn't it make more sense to get one of these?

Western Digital Passport Elite 320GBTitan, USB 2.0

€ 99.00

-29%

My €0.02
Still a bad deal, just like last time...

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.

Komplett Weekly Offers 03/10/2008

Nothing happened last week.

Really.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 199.00

-17%

My €0.02
I would rather a PS3 for 299... seriously, who buys a low-end Blu ray player that ISN'T a PS3? Kindly explain the logic of that one.

Sony DCR-SR35E, 30GB HDD recorder

€ 296.00

-13%

My €0.02
Another hard disk camcorder. They all cost around 300 beans and all have 20 - 40 gigs of memory. The only differentiating factor is battery life and this pissed off guy says it drains rapidly in standby mode. Not ideal when the stated charge life is 110 minutes..

Freecom USB Storage XXS 320GB USB-2

€ 89.00

-10%

My €0.02
Terrible value. Next.

Asus P5N32-E SLI, nF-680i SLI, ATX,S-775, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16 demo

€ 99.00

My €0.02
A really strange mobo with some funky heat pipes. If you buy it, make sure the bios is the latest version.

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 13/10/2008

Crucial PC2700 DDR-DIMM 1024MB CL2.5 6ns Unbuffered, Non-parity, 2.5V, 128Meg x 6

€ 26.00

-16%

My €0.02

Same price on dabs but of course the shipping is half price there. And I picked up something similar from ebay 6 months ago, for the same price including shipping. Thanks FastMemoryMan!

AXP Powersupply ATX 500W Retail, SATA, Dimension mm(163x150x85) 20+4 pin

€ 29.00

-36%

My €0.02

Dunno, but this guy is selling an aging gaming rig with a 630 Watt rated model. Maybe a little old?

WD Passport™ Essential 320GB Real Red, USB 2.0

€ 89.00

-25%

My €0.02

Under 90 seems to be a theme for this one, find it at misco for 88 and dabs for 85.

LG 19" Wide W1934-BN, 1440x900, 5ms, 700:1

€ 129.00

-10%

My €0.02

I fail to see how this is different to the W1934S-BN at pixmania. Typo, perhaps?

Poor show, big k. Only one item wasn't beaten on total price and that's because nobody else sells it anymore.

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.

Komplett: Pick Up Point in Dublin is now open

So, Komplett have finally opened their collections depot and surprisingly they are implementing a charge for you to pick up your stuff, so it looks like victory goes to elara. Full press release below.


From Komplett.ie

Komplett.ie is proud to announce that we have today, October 1st 2008, opened our Pick Up Point in Dublin 15 for business. When placing an order you will now have the option to choose Pick Up Point as the delivery method once you get to the payment screen, under delivery options. The cost of Pick Up is lower than any other method of delivery on any items, but you will really notice the difference when ordering large items such as TV’s – the price of delivering items under 10kg in weight is now €8 and over 10kg is €13.

This compares to An Post €13 for sub 10kg, and prices pushing up to and beyond €100 for big items such as TV’s depending on carrier. So we’re very happy that we can now make big deliveries a lot cheaper for you, and quicker too – if an item is ordered before 1pm it will be delivered 2 days later, which is quicker than An Post and DHL in many instances!

The Pick Up Point is located just past the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre / Blanchardstown Bypass (which connects to the M50) in Blanchardstown Corporate Park 2 – A helpful tip is to look out for the Texaco petrol station directly across the road from the entrance to the park. (Drive in the gate past the security post and take a left, not a right! And yes, we’re currently looking at signposting the route with Fingal County Council.) Full details can be found here and maps here.

Please do note that we do not sell stock directly in the Pick Up Point, it must be ordered online; and while we will be accepting payment in the Pick Up Point in a few weeks, for the moment you must pre-pay online as usual. We do not and will not accept cash in the Pick Up Point, but we will be accepting Laser and Visa debit cards when we begin accepting payment at the Pick Up Point itself.

You may also drop back RMA’s, as the returns department lives in the same building as the Pick Up Point. Please do note that you have to have an RMA number issued through the regular customer service lines (email and phone) before we can accept it in the Pick Up Point.


Komplett.ie

Komplett Weekly Offers 29/09/2008

Samsung 22" LCD Syncmaster 226BW TCO03,1680x1050, 2ms, 3000:1

€ 234.99

-10%

My €0.02
Hmm. Good quality panel, but a little too old for my liking, with questions over colour bleed. I'd prefer the 2253BW for the same money, shipped.

D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N WirelessGigabit Router, 802.11n (draft 2.0)

€ 95.00

-21%

My €0.02
Expansys have increased the price to €136 and dabs are still not competitive at €103. Reality appears to have restored itself after the aberration in July.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA232MB 7200RPM

€ 113.00

-19%

My €0.02
Seagate? No thanks.

Sennheiser Headphones HD 515, 14-26000Hz, Cable 3m, 255g

€ 52.01

-12%

My €0.02
Yeah, whatever. Have you ever seen Ferrari sell a cheap car?

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

Komplett Weekly Offers 15/09/2008

Where have I been? Deutschland! The Germans say hi, by the way. Oh, and you you know those mini satellite boxes that come in the aldi/lidl travel kits here? They cost about €30-€40 in Saturn (a retail chain like dixons or currys). My brain nearly imploded. Anyway, on to the Komplett!

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

€ 51.00

-7%

My €0.02
Did I mention that I'm sick of the sight of 500GB drives? Yes, I think I did. Cheaper than dabs but with postage blah blah blah NEXT!

Western Digital My Book2 HomeEdition 1TB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 148.00

-12%

My €0.02
Huzzah! Now take out the unnecessary Firewire and make it cheaper.

PowerColor Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2,PCI-Express 2.0, SCS (HeatSink), DVI-I

€ 30.00

My €0.02
Thirty bucks, eh? Why can't they do this one in AGP?

Acer One A110 Aw Atom N270 1.6GHz 8.9"512MB 8GB NAND HDD Wifi Linux Blue

€ 289.00

-10%

My €0.02
Walk into any PC World and pick this up for €269.

Tchuss!

Komplett Weekly Offers 08/09/2008

Acer 24" Wide AL2423WD, Silver/Black,2500:1, VGA/DVI(HDCP), 1920x1200, 5ms

€ 335.00

My €0.02
Hmm. Weren't you selling a BenQ 24" for €319 a few weeks ago, komplett? Two weeks ago if I'm not mistaken. Has there been a monitor famine in the meantime?

Nintendo Wii bundle: Wii Sports Pack with NYKO Wireless Sensor bar

€ 274.00

-8%

My €0.02
Yay! The Wii has finally come down to a sensible price! I'm lying, of course. Why exactly would I want a third party sensor bar? And pay extra for the priviledge? Pass.

LaCie Rugged 160GB, 5400RPM, USB 2.0, Firewire

€ 99.00

-17%

My €0.02
It's rugged. Want rugged? This is rugged. I don't particularly want rugged.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3, P45, Socket-775,ATX, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16

€ 97.01

-8%

My €0.02
Oh thank god, something I can actually price-match. Wow, it's cheaper than dabs!

The diNovo Edge, available to you right now

This is not a keyboard. This is a work of art.

No, really.

I quite like Logitech's stuff in general but what I really want is one of these. As I mentioned last week, I am already the owner of a diNovo Cordless Keyboard for Notebooks. Now, it's fine. It looks well, doesn't have too many superfluous buttons, is very light and doesn't eat batteries. But it doesn't impress me as much as it should. I don't feel I'm hitting a €60 piece of equipment with my fingertips when I use it. I want something a bit more solid. And rechargeable in a cradle. With Bluetooth. And LEDs.

Well, anyway, if you're on the lookout for an ubercool keyboard in a reasonably sane price-range the diNovo Edge is tough to beat. So, who is selling it and how much?

Komplett: €163.00 + €12.50 = €175.50

Expansys: €144.99 + €23.90 = €168.89

Atom: €145.97 + €10.50 = €156.47

Dabs: €133.53 + €13.50 = €147.03

Wait a second, who are Atom? And how are they cheaper than expansys and komplett? One to watch methinks. They've earned an entry in the tag cloud.

Komplett Weekly Offers 01/09/2008

Monday morning again, eh? Let's do this.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 244.00

-9%

My €0.02
Personally, I would avoid Blu-Ray players. Pixmania do this one for €209 if you are keen.

Western Digital My Book StudioEdition 500GB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 112.00

-14%

My €0.02
500GB... YAWN!

Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 14.1" T7300 2.0Hz 2048MB 120GB Vista Bus

€ 759.00

-5%

My €0.02
I couldn't find this exact model. But a lower spec'ed model was selling for ~€900 on elara.

Samsung 32" LCD-TV LE32A552 --Full HD--

€ 757.00
-0%

My €0.02
Err, dunno. Seems to be popular in Belgium. Some nice features I guess but really quite expensive for a 32" TV.