Special Offers – Week of January 25th

Good afternoon all, hopefully everyone’s managing the return from the weekend at least reasonably well. For those who aren’t long-time readers, we generally do a post about what we have on special offer on a Monday afternoon, with the intention of having it up on the blog as early in the week as possible… it gives you guys as much of a chance to have a bit of a think about whether or not you’d really like something before it goes out of our Special Offers next Sunday.

This week, we’ve got some nice bits and pieces on offer, so we’ll get straight into them.

Netgear Stora:

Netgear’s Stora is a network attached storage (NAS) setup, for those of you who don’t know what a NAS is, don’t worry, it’s not complicated, and it’s unusually useful.

Click through to check out our page for Netgear's 1TB Stora 🙂

Essentially, a NAS box is a device that houses some storage and sits attached to your network so that the volume is accessible to all of the machines connected. It’s a relatively simple concept, but it tends to be one of those things that a lot of users simply haven’t encountered. Netgear’s Stora boasts a 1TB drive, with space for another 1TB drive if you feel the need to expand it.

For those who haven’t used a NAS before, it’s an ideal way to keep media (whether music or movies) on a centralised drive that’s accessible to every machine on your network. Moreover, as long as you’re not too fussed about having all of your media accessible when you’re out and about, it’s also an excellent way to keep your PCs’ drives free of clutter.

Thanks to the fact that the drive is easily accessible via your local network, you’ll also be able to run backups of your notebook via your wireless network (software permitting), which is probably the closest you’ll get to a totally hassle-free backup experience.

You can also use the option to add another drive to the mix to make your backup that bit more reliable. Since the Stora offers RAID1 support directly, you can generally rely on your backup (or whatever you care to store on it) to be very well looked after indeed, unless there’s some totally catastrophic failure… or a fire.

Netgear’s Stora is down to €164.32 this week, with a 1TB hard drive already in there.

If you’d like to throw in an extra 1TB hard disk, then you could always pick up Samsung’s SpinPoint F3, which will set you back around €77.

Sub-€500 PC Competition Build

In December, we ran a competition on Boards.ie to see who could build us the most impressive PC without going over a budget of €500. When I asked if we could do an example post, Ryan had boasted before his first attempt that he could “easily” fit in a copy of Windows, but after several builds not quite affording a hard drive, he gave up on it.

Still, that wasn’t enough to deter Boards.ie member, and eventual competition winner, Orcrist666. As we’ve said above, the whole point of the competition was to build a PC for under €500, but this one goes a bit above and beyond…

We’ll take it from the top…

Power Supply:

Since this is a build that’s being put together on an absolutely minimal budget, it’s not going to be using a phenomenal amount of power.

Click through to see our page for the AXP power supply 🙂

Not using too much power means not having to spend a tremendous amount on a high wattage power supply. Orcrist666’s build uses a fairly simple 500W AXP power supply, which has been well reviewed by just about everyone who has bought it. It’s a little noisy at times, but overall it’s a solid piece of kit.

Considering the fact that the AXP Power Supply ATX weighs in at just €34.86, it’s not a bad old deal at all. A solid base for a budget machine.

Special Offers – Week of December 14th

Good afternoon all, hopefully everyone’s week is off to a good start. For those of you who are regular readers, you’ll be pretty familiar with the structure of the blog by now, but for those of you who are new to it, we generally tend to post on Monday afternoon to point out some of the products that we’re offing discounts on for the week.

This week, we’ve got offers on a lovely set of speakers and a solid Wireless N router.

Logitech X-230 2.1:

Logitech’s X-230 is a solid set of speakers; it boasts two speakers and a sub, as anyone who’s familiar with the “2.1” in the name will already have noticed. They’re small, pretty elegant and tuck out of the way neatly… that said, they’re also some lovely speakers.

Click through to see our page for the Logitech X-230s 🙂

Logitech’s X-230 provide a full and solid sound that’s genuinely very impressive indeed considering the fact that they’re so very cheap. Moreover, you won’t find that the bass eclipses the treble too much, as is sadly common on other speakers in the same price range. The subwoofer isn’t massive, but it does the job. Obviously enough, at €44 you’re not going to be getting professional quality sound out of them, but if you’re just looking to add a little something visceral to your desk then you could certainly do a lot worse.

The user reviews confirm that with some fairly quotable snips, including, “Deep full bass, very clear sound. So cheap. Was hard to believe how good they sound was for that price, just wanted any old speakers hooked up for parties to play music over; all agreed; sound was fantastic, I’m very impressed.” It’s hard to argue with that kind of positivity, especially with other reviews echoing similar sentiment.

Logitech’s X-230 will set you back the entirely reasonable sum of €44 this week, which isn’t bad at all considering what you get out of the whole affair.

For those who like the price and description then you can check out Logitech’s 5.1 surround arrangement built from similar parts, the Logitech X-530. It’s what I’m using in my gaming/music setup at home and I’m loving it 😉

Special Offers – Week of December 7th

Good afternoon all, hopefully the weekend treated you well, though judging from Twitter over the course of the morning it seems that last night might have gone a little too well for some of us 😉 Anyway, we generally tend to kickstart the blog on a Monday afternoon with a post just to go into some detail on exactly what you guys can get out of our special offers during the week.

This week, we’ve got offers on a Logitech all-in-one remote, some Sennheiser headphones and an iPod dock. Without any more delay, we’ll just get stuck into it.

Logitech Harmony 525:

Logitech’s Harmony series has long been seen as a kind of holy grail for those of us who can’t resist the urge to adding “just one more” device to a media centre, and the resulting mountain of clutter that the remotes for the various hardware we acquire constitutes.

Click through to see our page for the Logitech Harmony 525 🙂

Logitech’s Harmony 525 has been around for a fair while now, but it still boasts the combination of a wide range of buttons, a decently sized LCD and relative ease-of-use that made it such a temptation when it first launched. Of course, it tops out at 15 devices, so for those of you who’ve really gone overboard on the media centre, you might not quite fit everything in there. Otherwise, you should be just fine.

Moreover, the fact that it boasts support for single options to control multiple devices means that you can, with a little tinkering, set it up so that you can come home from work, press one button and have everything come on at the same time, already on a channel you’re happy with and at a volume you can appreciate… sometimes it’s the little things.

Of course, there are newer versions of the Harmony available, but they’ll set you back by some seriously hefty sums by comparison. The only issue we can see with it for now is that it won’t control a PS3, if you’re using it as a Blu-Ray player, since it doesn’t boast Bluetooth connectivity, though we imagine that isn’t likely to be a deal-breaker at this stage.

For this week, Logitech’s Harmony 525 is down by 20% to the €39 mark, which is hard to argue with really.

Special Offers – Week of November 30th

Good afternoon all, hopefully we find you well this practically arctic afternoon; it’s nice that it’s at least cleared up a little. Anyway, for those of you who read the blog regularly you’ll already be aware, but for anyone new we tend to post our special offers for the week on a Monday afternoon. It gives you guys the most time to consider picking something up while it’s priced down, or to try and persuade the husband/wife that you need a new GPU for work… so it works out best for all concerned.

All that aside, this week we have some nice products knocked down, including a mouse, a GPU and a really excellent Razer gaming mouse mat.

Logitech MX518:

The Logitech MX518 is a solid mouse, with a hand-shaped moulded body boasting an array of buttons (totalling eight). While most will be pushing for laser mice, for all their enhanced accuracy, this is optical, meaning the DPI will be a little lower than most higher end lasers.

Click through to check out our page for the Logitech MX518 🙂

Don’t let the fact that it’s optical discourage you though, it boasts a resolution of 1.6k DPI, so it should be more than accurate enough for most of us, bar the more competitive gamers out there. It’s also very well reviewed, which is always nice to be able to say, because our own recommendations will never speak as loudly as those that come straight from people who’ve bought a piece of kit and felt strongly enough about it to come back and put a comment on the page.

Even the review headings are overall lovely, including, “Just bought a second one… and it’s still a winer,” Excellent Mouse,” “Fantastic Mouse,” “Great mouse,” and “What a mouse!” I don’t like to harp on too much, but I do love seeing feedback from customers on an item like this 🙂

Logitech’s MX518 is a solid mouse, knocked down by fully 20% this week to €28, which is always nice to be able to say.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770:

I tend to say this a lot when it comes to special offers on GPUs, but it bears repeating, when it comes to graphics cards, most people are shopping for something specific, or have something in mind. So it doesn’t do too well to keep talking about them endlessly. If you’re at all interested, you should check out our detailed product tab for the card.

Click through to see our page for the Radeon HD5770 🙂

Still, there are some bits and pieces that pretty much everyone will want to know about a card they’re looking at, and those are things we can talk about here. Sapphire’s Radeon HD5770 boasts 1GB of GDDR5 RAM and an 850MHz clock speed. It’s also got an output resolution of 2560×1600 and support for DirectX 11, which is likely to be more important to those looking at future-proofing a machine than just casually upgrading. It also supports up to three displays, for those who absolutely must watch everything at once.

The Radeon HD 5770 is a solid card, and down to €138 now, so there’s not much more to say about it.

Razer Destructor:

I’ll be honest, I’ve never had to actually talk about a mouse mat here before, it’s something in which I have a level of interest best classes using terms like “sad.” Razer’s Destructor is actually a lovely mat, it measures 35cm x 28cm, which should be big enough even for those of us who like to use relatively low mouse sensitivities.

Click through to see our page for the Razer Destructor 🙂

Aside from everything else, I’m assured that there are still very good reasons to use a decent mouse mat in our modern world or laser and optical mice that track perfectly well on a good old-fashioned desk. Not least of those reasons is the fact that most decent mice will now boast elegant little Teflon feet to help them skid their way around your desk with less friction. The only problem is that you’ll fairly quickly wear down your mouse’s Teflon feet on a lot of desks, so a mat is always good for that.

The other big one is that anyone who moves from place to place or games in friends houses will find that their mouse sensitivity needs to be changed depending on how well the laser/optical sensor picks up the surface. While Roccat’s Kone is excellent for this (saving multiple profiles) it’s also very nice to just be able to just bring your gaming surface of choice with you.

Anyway, for this week the Razer Destructor is down by 15% to the nice, round price of €30.

Product Spotlight – Logitech Gaming Mice

Good afternoon all, isn’t it lovely to be back after lunch on a Thursday afternoon? It’s one of those pleasant little reminders that the end of the week is nearly here. Anyway, with our Crazy Week sale coming to an end we only have a scant opportunity left to get in some recommendations on discounted products 🙂

This afternoon, our spotlit product is the LogitechMX518 optical mouse. It’s one a range of optical gaming mice, an option that sadly isn’t as popular as once it was. Most very serious gamers will have moved on from optical mice to lasers, but in our experience many gamers would be better served by a durable low-cost mouse than a laser-based behemoth.

Click through to see the product page for the Logitech MX518

It’s in the MX518’s favour that it’s been marked down by 12% for this week, brining it down to €29, but that’s not all there is to recommend it. It also boasts a resolution of 1600dpi, which puts it right up there with Razer’s Deathadder (which, at 1,800dpi isn’t much more accurate at all really, though it’s more expensive). Moreover, it’s got an excellent hardware slider, allowing you to change resolutions on the fly, which is a bit of a gimmick, but it really helps for those situations where you end up needing minor tweaks from game to game.

The other thing we can happily report in favour of the MX518 is that it’s got very solid reviews in our customer review section. It’s nice to say that the headings on the reviews are, “What a mouse!” “Great Mouse,” “Fantastic Mouse,” “Excellent Mouse” and a second “Fantastic Mouse.”

That said, there will be people for whom the MX518 just doesn’t stack up, very serious gamers will take issue with the optical sensor, rather than a nice laser. In that case then you’re probably better off shooting right for something like Logitech’s G500.

Click here to follow through to the product page for the G500

The G500 is a far more accurate mouse, with a resolution of up to 5700dpi, a laser, rather than optical, sensor. It also boasts a nice set of removable weights, meaning you can fine-tune it to your own standards. This helps for those of us who play first person shooters, who’ll have a tendency to “aim from the elbow” rather than just scoot the mouse around with a wrist or their fingertips (that kind of play tends to be for people into serious RTS play). Moreover, it’s got an excellent shape, one that should suit users who like to rest the whole hand on the mouse, rather than just the fingertips.

Anyway, the G500 is only €55, which isn’t bad at all for such an exceedingly nice piece of kit.

Hopefully this has been useful for anyone out there in the market for a new gaming mouse, especially if you’ve got a bit of a taste for Logitech 🙂

Product Spotlight – Logitech X-230

Good afternoon all, nothing like a Wednesday afternoon to remind you that the week is now better than halfway through and the weekend is well on its way. As most of you will already know, we’re running a Product Spotlight post every day this week to highlight some of the best deals going in our Crazy Week sale 🙂

This afternoon our spotlit product is a small set of 2.1 speakers and a subwoofer, the Logitech X-230. With just two satellite speakers and a subwoofer, it doesn’t as impressive as some of the more expensive Logitech setups, but it’s still the business if you just want to get some nice loud, clear sound on a gaming rig without spending very much at all.

Click the image to follow through to our product page for the Logitech X-230s

The Logitech X-230s are solid speakers with a subwoofer that pushes some excellent bass. They’re also very well reviewed by those of our customers who’ve already picked them up. One opens with the heading, “superb,” continuing to say, “amazing value, I was shocked how good it was, when I switched them on for the first time, 10/10 to komplett for these speakers and I would recommend them to everyone!!”

Other reviews have been similarly positive, with recommendations for gamers all around. The only complaint has been that the on-speaker volume control doesn’t effect headphones plugged directly into the speakers themselves, though we imagine that’s not a deal-breaker for most.

For this week’s sale, the Logitech X-230 is marked down by 14% to €42. If you’re on the fence, click through and check out our user reviews 🙂

Special Offers – July 20th

This week we have three products on special offer (as opposed to the raft we had to choose from during our Summer Sale last week). That said, you can get a good deal on all three, which is always nice. The first two products are a Logitech keyboard and mouse combo and a hard drive. It’s always nice to have cheap options for both because they tend to end up being the hardware people need to buy multiples of – whether it’s to set up a RAID array or just because you’ve added an extra machine to your house.

Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710

Logitech’s cordless desktop setup is one of those things that seems like an odd idea until you realise the point of it, and once you have it all falls into place. One of the ideal situations to deploy and entirely wireless keyboard and mouse arrangement is if you’ve followed our guide to building your own home theatre PC and now need something slick and elegant (read: without trailing cables across the living room) to sit on your coffee table and let you control the whole thing without any fuss.