Top tips to save money on tech
Tim Danton, David Fearon, Steve Cassidy, David Bayon, Barry Collins, Darien Graham-Smith, Jonathan Bray, Zara Baxter, Matthew Sparkes, Mike Jennings
|
Nov 11, 2008 4:10 PM
Our full guide to saving cash-saving secrets is here, from how to get discounts on PCs, to SIM only phone contracts, the best DSLR cameras deals, and discount licensing from Adobe, Microsoft and others.
Over the following pages, we’ve detailed the best ways to save. We won’t waste your time with the blindingly obvious money savers, such as running open-source software instead of commercial packages (although if you want to read our guide to the 50 best free downloads). Instead, we’ve used our years of real-world experience to offer practical money-saving hints that you might not have considered before.
BUY NEW PCS AT THE END OF THE MONTH
We once conducted a blind-buy exercise, where we called up the sales lines of major PC manufacturers. We feigned interest in a $2200 Dell laptop and parted with our mobile number during the call. We didn’t buy the laptop but, over the next few days, were badgered by calls from the salesman, offering us greater and greater discounts on the laptop simply because it was month-end and he had sales targets to meet.
In the end, he dropped the price to $1850 – a $350 saving on the same PC online – and we’ve heard of other similar cases.
The moral? Always attempt to negotiate a discount before buying online. Especially if it’s month-end.
Save: $350 off a $2200 laptop, by holding out for a better deal
OVERCLOCK A MID-RANGE PROCESSOR FOR TOP-END PERFORMANCE
The bleeding-edge performance on offer from the latest quad-core or Extreme Edition processors can also be obtained by buying a cheaper part that can be overclocked.
Intel’s latest Pentium Dual-Core processors, for instance, are based on the same architecture as the Core 2 Duo parts, they’re just branded differently. The 1.8GHz E2160 costs only $60, yet it can reach speeds approaching 3GHz with some fiddling in the BIOS. Our sister publication, Atomic, has a Beginners Guide to Overlcocking in Issue 93.
If you’re not comfortable with that degree of overclocking, then a low-end Core 2 Duo part is just as happy to be overclocked. AMD’s Athlon parts are worth considering, too: the Athlon X2 5000+ costs $75, and can punch far above its stated weight.
Save $130, if you buy an E2160 for $60 and match the 3GHz performance of a $200 Core 2 Duo E6850
BUY HARDWARE A GENERATION BEHIND THE CURVE
Don’t always buy the latest models. Nikon’s D40 cost $921 in April 2007 but, having been surpassed by the D60, it’s now $700 on www.mwave.com.au. The Zotac GeForce 8800GT is only $190 on [www.techbuy.com.au], but was double that a year ago. Or try Dell’s outlet store , for refurbs. We found our A-Listed laptop, the XPSM1730, for $400 cheaper than at the main store.
Save: Up to $400 on older or refurbished models at outlet stores
UPGRADE AN EXISTING PC RATHER THAN BUYING NEW
The processor is one of the most crucial parts of the PC, but new, top-end components are still cheap compared with a new system. Most AMD Athlon X2 and Intel Core 2 Duo parts are more than capable of any task you care to throw at your computer, and cost less than $250. Just make sure your motherboard is compatible with the new processor.
Graphics cards can be crucial for adding performance, especially if you’re a keen gamer or video enthusiast. Luckily, plenty of mid-range cards have recently been released that raise the performance bar without breaking the bank. ATI’s new Radeon HD 4850 costs around $200, and will play every modern game. If you’re willing to compromise on quality, then an older GeForce 8600 GT still offers plenty of grunt.
Other areas of your PC can also be upgraded for cheap performance boosts. A couple of gigabytes of RAM costs less than $50 for an instant speed hike. Laptops aren’t bereft of upgrade potential, either: if you’ve got a spare SODIMM slot, you can buy a 1GB stick of memory for around $25.
Save: $1800, by purchasing a new processor for $200 rather than a $2000 new PC
Buy new low-cost netbook devices
The world is abuzz with ultraportable laptops. Mini-models used to cost more than their regular-sized counterparts, but the Eee PC – and its competitors – cost less than $800. They’re perfectly capable machines, with recent models running XP and using Intel’s new, low-power Atom processors, which make them ideal for working and surfing on the road.
If you’re not going to use every feature available in a $3,000+ ultraportable, scan around the low end of the market. Laptopsdirect.co.uk will sell you an Eee PC for less than $600 or an Acer Aspire One for $620. HP and MSI have also released their own netbooks, and the bandwagon isn’t slowing down – so it may be worth jumping aboard.
Save: Around $2000 if you swap a MacBook Air, Lenovo X300 or VAIO TZ-Series for a netbook
Buy multifunction devices
There’s little point in shelling out for a separate printer, scanner and copier if you can buy a single machine to do the job just as well. Each component can cost upwards of $150, so when the Canon Pixma MP610 is available for a fraction of the combined price (at $186), it makes sense to save money and energy.
It’s a quality machine, too, taking the crown in this issue’s All-in-one Labs test. Sharp, clear printing, detailed scanning and efficient copying make this the only machine you’d need.
Save: $350, by buying a cheaper all-in-one instead of individual machines
Wipe your PC and reinstall Windows to boost performanceBefore you buy, think how clogged up your existing PC has become from years of constant use. A simple defrag and disk-cleanup session can reorganise everything on the hard disk and make it far simpler – and quicker – to access, giving your PC an instant performance boost.
A more drastic measure is to re-install Windows. Make sure you’ve backed up important files to an external hard disk or memory stick, then give your PC a fresh start. Without the extraneous software, long-forgotten documents and pointless Registry entries, even Windows Vista will feel zippy.
Save: $2000, by using the Windows disc that came with your system to reinstall the OS instead of splashing out on a new dual-core CPU, or spending even more on buying a new PC
Sell old kit
Just upgraded your PC? Don’t let your old components go to waste – stick them on eBay. If you’ve just upgraded to a quad-core processor, for instance, your old Core 2 Duo could still fetch a decent price online: a couple of examples we found on the popular auction site were going for $150 and $57, with over a day still left to bid.
Other components are equally capable of generating cash. GeForce 8800 GT graphics cards fetch more than $150, and the burgeoning market for motherboards, hard disks and other components means you can profit on every part of your old rig.
Save: $200, if you sell your processor, GPU, motherboard and hard disk
Virtualisation
Virtualisation software is completely free, and you have several options. Plump for the industry standard VMware Server , the excellent VirtualBox or Microsoft’s Virtual PC.
Not everyone can save money this way, but there are many circumstances where virtualisation can help. If you’re still running two PCs in parallel because the old machine has a software setup you don’t want to (or can’t) replicate, use the (also free) VMware Converter to virtualise that PC into a software image. You can transfer its entire state to more modern hardware as a single file that you bring to life inside your virtual machine software. You’ll save power (and money) against having both physical PCs running at once, and might make a bit of cash selling your old hardware. Alternatively, give yourself the warm glow of donating it to a charity.
Virtualising an existing PC and running it from within a virtual machine sounds complex but it’s ridiculously easy. See our feature on page 85 for a full walkthrough.
Save: Around $100 to $500 if selling freed-up hardware, plus
energy savings
Keep your old monitor
These days, monitors aren’t changing much with each iteration. We’d hazard a guess that your three-year-old TFT has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 or more, and a display that’s perfectly up to the task of editing in Word or browsing the net. So when you upgrade your PC, don’t waste money on a new screen – keep your existing one.
Save: $280 on a 19in TFT that could be excluded from your new PC
Repurpose old hardware
Hold your horses before buying a hardware firewall or a new network-attached storage (NAS) drive. For both these devices, you probably already have the hardware available in the form of an old PC in the cupboard.
All it takes is some free, easily installed software to turn your old, general purpose PC into a dedicated computing appliance. Pop over to www.smoothwall.org to download a special Linux distribution that will turn your PC into a seriously good firewall, or visit www.freenas.org for an easy-to-install operating system that will produce a working NAS appliance with little fuss. Keep an eye on the power consumption to make sure it won’t be a false economy in the long run, but for zero setup costs you’re home and dry.
Between $300 and $800, compared with buying new, dedicated appliances
Kit form
While we look for the best prices on our A-list systems, one reader recently wrote to tell us that, after shopping around, they got one of our branded A-list systems as an unbranded custom build with a $100 saving. Custom-builders generally only charge $50-$100 to put a system together, and you can save money thanks to the volume discounts they can get on hardware, compared to building it yourself.
You'll need to supply the list of parts. If you'd rather build it yourself, don't forget that many parts of an old system, from case to keyboard, can be re-used in a new machine. Start by planning your new motherboard and processor, then work out what else still has value.
Save: Up to $1500 on a new $2000 computer, if you retain your old kit
Free Games
There’s no need to spend $90 on the latest titles, the internet has loads of fantastic free games. TrackMania Nations Forever is a free online arcade racing game with leaderboards full of thousands of players and is horrendously addictive.
Action fans shouldn’t feel left out, either: try America’s Army and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, both professional-quality first-person shooter titles. For addictive flash games, see www.popcap.com for Peggle, and www.kongregate.com for plenty more. See our top 10 Flash games.
Save: Around $40 to $70 per game
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DISCOUNT LICENCES
Before stumping up the full retail price for software, check you don’t qualify for a discount-licensing scheme. There are massive savings to be made for people who are in, or who have children in, full-time education. Adobe CS3 Design Premium Student Edition costs $419 on www.citysoftware.com.au, for example, while the full version is a stonking $2265. Don’t be tempted to cheat, though – Adobe requires proof of student ID before dishing out the licence key, and it can’t be used for commercial purposes.
Manufacturers also offer enormous incentives for repeat custom via upgrades. Professional design software AutoCAD LT 2009 costs $2190 from www.pressdigital.com.au, while the upgrade costs $960.
Some upgrade versions of consumer software are less enticing – McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 is no cheaper than the full version. And remember, such software usually comes with three licences, so you don’t buy new versions for every PC you own.
There is also the thorny issue of OEM software. It’s intended for system builders, and Microsoft officially discourages end users installing it, but such software is freely available. The Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit OEM version costs $235 on www.itsky.com.au, while the full retail software costs $379.
Save: Up to $1850, by buying the student licence of CS3
USE WINE 1.0
WINE is an application that can ease the transition to Linux if you’ve decided to save money by abandoning paid-for Microsoft operating systems. Standing for “WINE Is Not an Emulator”, it allows you to run Windows applications on a Linux system.
Now’s a good time to start using WINE since, after being in development (and common use) for around 15 years, version 1.0 was finally released in June. The drawback is that most Windows applications have some problems running on WINE. Microsoft Office 2007, for instance, is on WINE’s “silver” list for application compatibility – it runs with “minor issues that do not affect typical usage”. But if you use Photoshop CS2, you’re in luck: it’s rated as platinum – it runs flawlessly.
Save: $349, if you run your Windows apps on Linux rather than buying a copy of Vista Home Premium
SIGN UP FOR MICROSOFT’S ACTION PACK
For IT professionals, the $699 Microsoft Action Pack is seriously good value. It includes regularly updated copies of most of its professional software, including Office 2007, Vista Ultimate, Exchange Server 2007 and Server 2008.
There are provisos: the software can only be used within your business, and you’ll need to take an online training and assessment program to ascertain your suitability for the pack. This is intended for bona fide professionals, after all. Full details at https://partner.microsoft.com/australia/program/managemembership/actionpack
Save: With Windows Server 2008 costing $1979, Vista Ultimate weighing in at $499 and Office 2007 Professional priced at $758, you would save more than $2500 on those three alone
USE ONLINE ALTERNATIVES
Although we’d rather use Microsoft Office than Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), it’s difficult to justify the price. Google’s offering covers the basic features that casual users will need, and with Google Gears in beta testing you can use it like a desktop app.
And, just to prove online apps aren’t only here for the boring things in life, give Adobe Photoshop Express a whirl. This innovative free program takes many of the best features from Photoshop Elements (which costs around $170), so you can quickly enhance pictures by cropping, removing red-eye and adjusting settings such as saturation. Where it falls flat is when you try to make advanced changes, for example to levels and curves, as Express simply doesn’t offer such features.
You can also edit your videos online: head to Jumpcut to
save $150 on Adobe Premiere Elements.
Save: Up to $500 for Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition, Photoshop Express and Premiere Elements alone
Shop around before buying direct
Downloading software directly from the manufacturers’ websites often costs the same as a boxed copy or, sometimes, may even cost more (we’re looking at you, Adobe). You’ll often find better prices if you look at wholesale retailers such as www.shoppingsquare.com.au. For example, at the time of writing Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 cost $179 from Microsoft, but just $117 from www.itsupply.com.au; while Vista Home Premium was $294, down from Microsoft’s $349.
Save: $55 off the cost of Windows Vista Home Premium
Become a beta tester
Becoming a beta tester not only gives you access to the latest software, but can prove financially rewarding as well.
Manufacturers provide beta software free of charge as quid pro quo for roadtesting their software and reporting bugs. Admittedly, most beta software will eventually time out, but there are perks. Microsoft, for example, gave every beta tester who filed at least one bug report a free copy of Vista Ultimate, saving them $499. Others, including Symantec and Quicken, have reportedly done likewise.
Microsoft’s MSDN Evaluation Center will be the place to find the early betas of Windows 7, Office 14 or any of the software giant’s forthcoming products. You can sign up to become an Adobe beta tester .
Save: More than $499 on a free copy of Vista Ultimate
Update your office phone system to VOIP
Businesses of all sizes are starting to replace rusting analogue PBX boxes in favour of all-digital systems, and the motives are obvious: they already own servers that can do the job, so updating to a VoIP system is as 'simple' as installing appropriate software (much of it free) and buying suitable phones. But its real power lies in its scalability. To demonstrate the timeliness of the idea, contributing editor Jon Honeyball talks about his experiences with 3CX in Advanced Windows.
Save: Hundreds less than an eight-user analogue PBX system
Fly to the United States to buy software
It may seem drastic to fly to the US for your software, but while companies such as Adobe and Microsoft persist in charging us Aussies twice as much, it can make financial sense. Especially with Virgin’s new V Australia starting a price war with Qantas from October onwards.
Consider: a November flight to Los Angeles, with three nights at a four-star hotel, costs around $2100 per head. Office 2007 Professional costs $759 in Australia and $500 in the US. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium costs $3205 in Australia and $1800 in the US. Let’s say you buy two copies of both: it adds up to $7928 in Australia and, at today’s exchange rates, $5000 from the US. Find a fellow traveler, and you’ll get the retail boxed versions of the software in your suitcase with some spending money left over. Of course, it may prove simpler to persuade a jet-setting friend to purchase software for you, but where’s the fun in that?
Save: $700 in our example, including flights and hotelFREE ONLINE BACKUP
Maintaining an offsite backup is essential, but online backup services that charge by the MB or GB of storage can easily run up costly bills. If you’ve got tens of gigabytes of data to backup, then an eat-as-much-as-you-like service such as Carbonite, which offers unlimited backup for $60 a year, is well worth exploring. There’s a free trial on site, but beware that uploading gigabyte upon gigabyte of data is a horribly slow process on your average ADSL connection, and could exceed your ISP’s data cap.
However, there are free alternatives out there. Dropbox and Microsoft’s fledgling Live Mesh services offer 2GB and 5GB of easily synchronised online storage respectively, although both are currently only in beta- testing phases.
The popular Firefox Add-on, GSpace, allows you to cheekily turn the dormant gigabytes in Gmail accounts into backup vaults. Spideroak also offers 2GB of free backup storage for personal users.
Sign up for a Sim-only mobile phone contract
We’re all used to the bonus of a “free” handset upgrade at the end of our annual mobile phone contract but, in reality, there’s nothing free about it. That new handset is what makes your monthly line rental as high as it is, so next time, ask yourself if there’s anything wrong with the phone you’ve happily used all year.
We’re all used to the bonus of a “free” handset upgrade at the end of our annual mobile phone contract but, in reality, there’s nothing free about it. That new handset is what makes your monthly line rental as high as it is, so next time, ask yourself if there’s anything wrong with the phone you’ve happily used all year.
Some networks offer SIM-only deals, which remove the unnecessary cost of a handset and provide the network you desire – some aren’t even contracts at all. At the end of a recent 12-month contract, one PC Authority writer recently switched to another vendor's matching SIM-only alternative. The result: a monthly bill that dropped by half, the same 200 minutes and 400 texts, and the ability to walk away at a mere month’s notice. For that we’ll gladly keep our perfectly usable year-old handset.
Save: $1200 off an annual contract
Use free AV software
Commercial internet security packages generally charge a subscription fee
for updates. But if you don’t mind setting up a few separate packages, you can protect your system without paying a penny.
Avira Antivir and AVG Free provide virus protection for free, while packages such as Safer Networking SpyBot-S&D and Lavasoft AdAware can protect you from spyware. There are free firewalls too, from companies such as PC Tools and ZoneAlarm.
These packages aren’t always as fully featured as their commercial cousins, so make sure you understand their limitations before making the switch. But combining the right tools can give you a good level of system protection for free.
Save: $65 on our A-List security software, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Hang up on your home phone
Although Telstra et al continue to offer ever-cheaper call bundles, nothing beats free. Install Skype or other VoIP software on your PC and you can make calls to other members of the same VoIP network gratis. You can use all those free minutes you never eat up on your mobile phone for people who don’t have VoIP software installed.
Yet, even if you don’t spend a penny on calls with Telstra, you still have to pay line rental at $21 per month, on top of your monthly broadband fees. It’s possible to slash those costs by signing up for a 3G mobile broadband deal.
There are almost certainly compromises to be made on both speed and convenience with mobile broadband, but with 3 offering deals from $15 a month that explicitly permit Skype calls, there are considerable savings on offer.
Save: $300 a year, if you sign up for 3 and Skype, instead of Telstra line rental and ISP fees each month
Use voucher codes
Loads of websites have promotional code boxes on their sign-up or checkout pages, and if you leave them blank you’re missing out on free savings – from a few complimentary credits or a free bet at sign-up, to real-money discounts off purchases. We found 10% off laptops at Dell, and up to 30% off smaller devices, such as GPS systems. Go to any number of sites, including www.discountcodes.com.au, for the latest codes and vouchers.
Save: $200 off a $2000 laptop, using the Dell discount codes
Download your music
No, we’re not about talking peer-to-peer networking or anything illegal. We’re simply talking about downloading from online stores rather than in physical form. After years of a bizarre situation where downloads tended to be the same price or even more than physical CDs, the cost of downloading complete albums is now usually lower if you find the right store. What’s more, you don’t have to be tied into ridiculous DRM restrictions. For example, the CD of Coldplay’s latest album, Viva La Vida, is $22.99 on Sanity, but at BigPond Music, you can download in DRM-free, 320Kb/sec MP3 format for $16.50.
Save: From $6 per album – plus, no DRM restrictions
Buy a local SIM abroad
Call and data-roaming charges from foreign countries are still the wrong side of scandalous. For example, Vodafone charges a stonking $5 per minute for calls in Indonesia and other parts of the world, and it’s not alone. Telstra charges $15 per MB for data while roaming on a 3G phone. No wonder we regularly hear stories of holidaymakers coming home to face sports-car sized bills.
Before heading abroad, it’s worth checking your network’s website to find out what the call/data charges are and, crucially, whether your network offers any special tariffs for the county you’re visiting. If you’re planning to make lots of calls to local numbers at your destination, it might well be cheaper to pick up a local pay-as-you-go SIM, or even buy an international phonecard (such as those you see advertised in newsagents), which can often be used with your existing mobile. Check www.1st4phonecard.com for the best deals.
Save: Local SIMs can reduce calls costing $5 per minute to mere cents, saving $100 or more on even a short trip
Threaten to walk at the end of a contract
With mobile phone ownership at saturation point, and broadband not a million miles behind, it’s hugely expensive for networks and ISPs to recruit new customers. As a result, they’ll work hard to keep the ones they’ve got, which puts you in a position of strength when nearing the end of a contract.
The mobile networks and larger broadband firms have dedicated “customer retention” departments whose job it is to keep you happy, so make sure you have a chat with these people before agreeing to any new deal. Do your research: find out what your network and others are offering new customers and ask your network to match those deals. A gentle threat to fly the coup often works wonders.
One PC Authority staffer managed to negotiate a $100 discount on a new handset and a free unlimited data tariff when his contract expired recently, earning him a “free” phone and cutting his monthly bills at a stroke.
Save: $100 on a new handset and $10 per month data tariff; there may be even better deals for customers on more expensive contracts
Join FON or find free wi-fi
Paying through the nose for Wi-Fi hotspots is largely unavoidable in places such as airport lounges and coffee shops (unless you’ve got a 3G dongle in your laptop bag, of course). However, if you’re a member of the FON or Tomizone community, it’s entirely possible to find free Wi-Fi in the wider world.
These broadband-sharing services allows you to legitimately and securely open a portion of your connection to passers-by. In return, you can borrow Wi-Fi from thousands of other members’ connections when you’re away from home. Sadly, you can't yet buy a FON router in Australia, but there are some FON hotspots available.
There are other ways to find free wireless. As its name suggests, www.free-hotspot.com lists hundreds of free Wi-Fi venues across the country. There are more than 100 in Sydney alone. The site also provides instructions on how your business can become a secure, free hotspot – helping you to drag in extra revenue from grateful customers in the process.
Save: $60 to $70, assuming you use a Wi-Fi hotspot just once a month
Go Naked
Our online Naked DSL Buyer's Guide is one of the most popular articles here, with good reason. Naked DSL means the same fast broadband speed, without the need to pay for a landline you aren't using.
For anyone who's added a second telephone line to their home at some point for internet, the savings can be significant. For those without a second line, it'll mean making all your calls on your mobile or finding alternates – one enterprising fellow we know even orders pizza online to save phone costs. Despite the downsides, it's an option worth considering if you don't use your landline for anything except as a number to fill in for online forms.
Save: From $21 a month in landline costs
Use your PC as a room heater
PCs kick out a tremendous amount of heat, and while we’re not suggesting it’s more economical to heat a room with a PC than with radiators or heaters, you could turn the thermostat down in rooms where a high-powered desktop is running. Equally, a laptop placed on your lap could certainly help keep a chill at bay – although it may not do much for your sperm count, according to some scientists!
Save: An estimated $10 to $20 off the ever-rocketing gas/electricity bills
Buy low-power, cheaper hardware
Today’s hardware is much more power-efficient than the kit of old. Latter Pentium 4 processors consumed more than 100W by themselves, before you even start to take into account the power consumption of other components and the inefficiencies of the power supply. By contrast, the more frugal small form factor PCs consume 35W in total at maximum load, and as little as 20W when idle.
An example shows the costs involved. If switched on for 12 hours a day, an old PC that consumes 250W – which is not a wildly over-the-top figure by any means – will chew through 1095kWh of energy per year. Assuming an average price of about 10c per kilowatt-hour, you’re looking at a bill of $128 per year. With the ultra-frugal system such as the MSI Titan 700 that bill drops to $10.
If energy costs rise by as much as feared, a low-power PC becomes even more attractive. If prices rise by 40% for example, you can practically pay for your new PC through the energy saved in one year. If you plump for an MSI Titan, you’ll get savings of $165 against the cost of $212 for the PC itself.
The Titan isn’t especially fast though, with only around a third of the performance of a dual-core Pentium D. For a new PC that’s as fast as the old, such as the Dell Studio Hybrid with its benchmark score of 1.13, you’ll still be saving a fair whack, with an idle power of 30W generating a saving of $165 per year against your old Pentium 4 machine.
Save: Up to $165 a year, compared with an old Pentium 4 PC
Turn off devices on standby
It’s estimated that for Australian households, standby energy accounts for 11.5% of the total energy use in homes (and a similar amount of the electricity bill), according to the Australian Greenhouse Office. And with electricity bills widely predicted to take a sharp upturn during summer, now is the time to make sure you’re extinguishing all the unnecessary standby power.
If you don’t want to invest in the OneClick power strip, mentioned below, plug household devices grouped in one area (such as the TV, DVD player and digital box) into one power strip, and make sure it’s switched off at the mains when not in use.
It might be a tad on the cheeky side, but charging gadgets such as MP3 players or mobile phones at work – even discreetly using a USB cable – will save cash over the course of a year.
You can also encourage family and colleagues to shut down idle equipment.
Roughly $50, if you eliminate standby power from the average annual
Save: Electricity bill of around $500
Buy an energy-saving power strip
USB activated powerboards work on a very simple principle: plug your PC (or laptop) into the main socket and all your peripherals into the rest. As soon as you place your computer into standby, the strip then cuts power to the rest of the devices.
The savings soon rack up: over five years, an “average” setup with a printer, monitor and router will cost around $100 if left on their default settings (and that’s not including the PC or laptop). A OneClick IntelliPanel costs $70.
Save: Up to $450, over the panel’s quoted 15-year lifetime
Duplex/economy mode printing
One ridiculously simple way to reduce the amount of paper you shell out for: print on both sides. An increasing number of low-cost lasers have duplex mechanisms built in, which will automatically print on both sides of the paper – just check the option in the printer driver before you hit the Print button. Canon’s LBP3360 and Epson’s EPL-6200 are two recent examples, and both cost only around $250. A second extremely simple option is to set your printer to draft or economy mode by default. You’ll save ink, and pages will probably print faster into the bargain. Not to mention that you can save money by using high yield and low-price cartridges, produced by some manufacturers, if you print frequently or don’t need super-sharp quality.
Save: Duplex plus draft printing saves around $5 per 500 sides printed
Don’t buy a printer – use online print services
The entry cost of printers is incredibly low these days, as you can see by turning to our Labs. But while the cost of the hardware is amazingly low, consumables can really make a dent in your bank account. A 6 x 4in photo on premium paper can cost around 40c per print.
Upload your JPEG files to one of the online print services and you can bring that down to 15c. You need to take postage costs into account: so you’ll get the biggest savings if you save up your shots and do a bulk order. Our favourite online service www.snapfish.com.au offers 6 x 4in prints for 15c.
Save: Around $25 for 100, 6 x 4in photos printed with Snapfish
Buy a laser instead of an inkjet
The majority of home users buy an inkjet printer for photos but, in practice, the majority of actual printing tends to be text documents and web pages: perfect laser-printer territory. Turn to page 54 and you’ll soon see colour lasers are no longer expensive: our A-Listed Brother HL-5240 is just $236. A replacement toner cartridge costs $100. That might sound costlier than the $30 or so you can pay to replace an inkjet printer’s cartridge; the difference is the Brother will last for 7000 pages to the couple of hundred of an inkjet.
Save: Between $150 and $300 per year for regular printing
Sign off from SETI
Donating spare computing cycles to the search for alien life may have seemed fun when electricity bills were usually in double, rather than triple, figures, but are distributed computing projects such as SETI@Home worth the bother now?
Save: Perhaps only a few dollars a year, but every little helps
Dump online storage for offline
The humble DVD may not be quite so fashionable or, indeed, convenient as a full-blown RAID-equipped NAS when it comes to backup, but you can’t argue when it comes to value. With DVD-Rs costing less than a dollar, they’re an incredibly cost-efficient tool for the home and small offices. What’s more, a burned DVD sucks no watts.
Save: Up to $800 on the NAS device you never bought
Turn on PC Power Management
By fiddling with the power settings in the Control Panel you can save plenty of energy by managing your PC’s power draw. Your processor can automatically clock itself down to a lower – and less power-hungry – speed if you’re running undemanding applications. You can also shut down your monitor and hard disk after several minutes of inactivity. Follow our online guide.
Save: An estimated $15 a year in lower electricity bills
Be a Savvy shopper
Even if you follow our money-saving tips, there's still an opportunity to save in-store.
Be spec-savvy – you'll get better kit for your money if you know what's what, and what it can add to your system. It's no use getting a cheap laptop that lacks vital ports or connectors for your needs, for example.
Set a budget before you buy, and decide what compromises you want to make.
It's not always possible to try before you buy, but department stores and major retailers often have showroom models. For phones, monitors, laptops and the like, they can provide valuable information about the navigation, ease of use and look and feel that normally takes a week or two of living with a product.
Value is more than just price: shop around and compare prices, but don't forget to factor in the service and support you'll be getting. Check our annual reliability and service awards in the January issue for more tips on which manufacturers will save you heartache.
Don't be intimidated – If you're confronted with jargon, resist high-pressure sales tactics. Get the paperwork from the sales staff and go through it in your own time.
Don't be tempted by bargain basement deals. The cheapest deals are deep-discounted for a reason. They may be underpowered, end-of-life or just not very good.
Know when to say "enough". If you don't watch DVDs on your laptop, there's no point in getting Blu-ray included, for example. Similarly, you may not need 1TB of hard disk storage if you don't store music, videos or stacks of current games on your computer.
Buy internal: an internal hard disk is cheaper than an external drive and easy to install.