Gadget Purchase of The Week

As discussed in last week's gadget purchase post, I'm assembling the necessary components to make my ASUS eeePC more desktop friendly. When I started this mini-project, I believed I had plenty of PC parts in my basement to cover the basics: monitor, keyboard and mouse. My monitor is an old 17" MAG (I'll get to my issues with it later), but it turns out my mouse and keyboard combos are all PS/2 type instead of USB. That just wouldn't do.

I did a quick search to see if it would be worth it to get a PS/2 to USB converter and the short answer on that is NO -- the converter is as expensive as a brand new keyboard and mouse set! I'm all for bringing old equipment back into service for new and creative uses, but I'm not going to pay a lot extra to do it. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

I took a trip over to Staples to see if they had a wireless keyboard in stock and I found an unbeatable deal on the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 2000 (pictured above). It's a fully wireless keyboard and mouse. The set was marked down from $99 to $54.99 and also had an instant $25 coupon, making the total price $29.99! This offer expires today, so if you want a very nice wireless keyboard and mouse for your PC, head down to the store or pick it up online NOW.

In general, Staples isn't the best place to go for a bargain ($20 USB cables come to mind), but I've found they have some pretty amazing deals from time to time. When they have markdowns combined with instant rebates and such, they're basically paying you to carry their merchandise out of the store -- good stuff!

Regarding the monitor: I'm using it right now and its flashing an flicking all over the place. This ol' MAG has seen better days. Perhaps next week we'll be discussing my new flat panel! These big ol' CRTs are oh so 1998.