What with our current economic climate, cutting costs is not so much a choice as it is a necessity—whether it’s buying groceries in bulk, weekends out at 7-Eleven or selling off old furniture, we’re all saving where we can. But when it comes to your toys, who says you can’t have your media and play it too? Here we present cost-cutting methods to manage your geek lifestyle.
1. Instead of an LCD TV, get yourself an...
LCD monitor
The specific differences between an LCD TV and an LCD mon vary depending on the manufacturer, but here’s the quick and dirty: TVs have a TV tuner, monitors don’t. But what with Hong Kong’s astounding selection of two terrestrial stations (ATV and TVB, for those who’ve never bothered), who needs it? Just slot your nowTV box into the back and you won’t even notice the difference—sure, the black levels aren’t as pitch black as they could be, but at these savings, who cares?
Samsung 40” TV averages: $15,000
Samsung 40” monitor averages: $10,000
You save: $5,000
2. Instead of a 5.1 speaker system, get yourself...
5.1 wireless headphones
Let’s be honest here—if you’re going to get a speaker system, you can’t just settle for a crappy pair of noisemakers. You have to go full-on with a 5.1 system. But why waste the money, the space and the possibility of external noise ruining your setup? Buy a pair of noise-canceling 5.1 wireless headphones and never again will you have to deal with anything but the sounds being pumped directly into your brain. Worried that the significant other will be left out? At that price, you can get one for him and one for her.
Bose 5.1 speaker system averages: $4,000
Bose noise-canceling headphones average: $2,000
You save: $2,000
3. Instead of a Blu-ray player, get yourself an...
External combo drive
Sure, everyone might tout the Playstation 3 as the be-all, end-all when it comes to Blu-ray players, but since the format wars ended, ordinary player prices have bottomed out. So what should you do? Turn your computer into your hi-def media player—not only does an external drive save you half the cost, but it’s hooked up directly to your computer, so there’s no hassle when it comes to updating the firmware. And it has an HD-DVD drive built-in, meaning you can grab discs in the now-dead format for dirt-cheap prices at secondhand stores.