Singapore Expo is a long way away for most people, other than folks living in the east, so before you head down to Sitex, Singapore’s last quarterly IT bazaar for 2011, check out some of the standout deals that people have been putting up on brochure sites.

Yes, in the past, you had to squeeze your way through the halls for some small bargain, collecting loads of brochures on the way. Today, you can check out what’s on offer online before heading down for a more targeted trip.

Here are some great deals so far at this weekend’s show. We’ll update this page as we get more info.

D-Link’s DIR-825 router and DNS-320 network attached storage (NAS)

These are some of the best bang for buck gear that you can hook up your home with if you are looking for both high performance and value for money.

A great router for homes, the DIR-825 (S$129) supports dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi and comes with four gigabit ports that are necessary for today’s fast PCs and large file transfers. Not too long ago, similar routers cost a whole lot more, likely closer to or more than S$200.

The DNS-320 is another favourite NAS of home networking buffs because it’s not only good looking but also extremely speedy and feature-packed. Supporting two hard disks, it even lets you convert the backup device from a non-RAID to RAID 1 configuration easily, so you can mirror your hard disk content for safer backups.

Needless to say, it also comes with a bit-torrent client that you can use to download to your heart’s content, especially with that S$39-a-month M1 fibre plan offering 100Mbps to homes. At S$109, the DNS-320 is a definitely worth checking out for folks looking to set up their own NAS for the first time.

>> Download the brochure.

Pay S$48 for an Apple Magic Trackpad and memory upgrade with an Apple iMac

Buy an iMac at nubox’s stand, one of several offering Mac computers at the show, and you can pay just S$48 for a double memory upgrade (usually from 4GB to 8GB) and have an Apple Magic Trackpad to add to the style of your Apple computer.

The offer goes with several models of the iMac, from the entry level 2.5GHz version with a Core i5 chip and 21.5-inch screen costing S$1,648 to the top-end S$2,748 version with a 3.1GHz Core i5 chip and 27-inch screen.

Also noteworthy to folks opting to run Windows on a Mac: Parallels Desktop 6 and Windows Home Premium (OEM) are being bundled at S$238 (usual S$298). The package of software lets you run your Windows programs right on your Mac desktop as if they are Mac programs.

>> Download the brochures.

Print anywhere with an HP printer
Printers are a mainstay at each IT show in Singapore and this Sitex expo is no different. One interesting all-in-one machine worth checking out is HP’s Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One, which lets you print remotely using the Internet. It also comes with all the useful features expected these days, like Wi-Fi support, so you can share the printer at home easily without worrying about wires.

The S$369 printer is going for S$299 at Sitex, so it may be worth checking out.

>> Download the brochures.

Buy Microsoft Office, get a wireless mouse free
This is the type of deal that will be welcome news to new PC or laptop owners. Microsoft is dangling a free Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 (usually S$39.90) as part of a deal with its Office 2010 productivity software, which will be nice to install on a new PC.

The Office packages you can buy at the Microsoft booth include Office Home & Student Edition 2010, which costs S$199, and the Office Home & Business Edition 2010 which retails for S$298.

>> Download the brochures.

Nokia N9 at S$98 at StarHub

Nokia’s neat-looking N9 is going for a nice S$98 at StarHub’s booth, along with other Android favourites now like the Samsung Galaxy S II (S$218), HTC Sensation XE (S$198) and Motorola Razr (S$48), if you sign up with a high-end mobile plan.

Worth queuing up? Well, if you plan to spend a day at Singapore Expo anyway, no harm doing so!

>> Download the brochures.

Share with us other great Sitex deals you have spotted in the comments here!

Who cares how your home router looks like? That is what many broadband users would think until they see Cisco’s new US$179.99 Linksys E4200.

With a svelte frame hiding all the antenna and other networking goodies inside, it is surely one router you won’t mind placing next to your designer furniture in the living room. Linksys already has slim, UFO-shaped routers before this, but the E4200 in its new lineup just looks a lot more streamlined and sleek.

Under the hood, you can expect the works as well. The star here is the promised 450Mbps you can expect on your Wireless N connection, though your mileage will vary depending on how many pillars your apartment has and how many neighbours are fighting over the bandwidth with you, for example.

You can fight back with the E4200′s powerful 3×3 MIMO antennas that are now common on high-end Wireless N routers, though the good thing (at least for aesthetics) is that these are built into the Cisco router’s frame instead of jutting out awkwardly.

Like its previous high-end E series cousin, the E3000, the new router comes with the simultaneous dual-band feature that lets you run a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz network at the same time – one for video streaming and one for Net surfing.

Completing a stellar list of features are four gigabit-capable LAN ports – a must these days for streaming HD videos – and a USB port that you can run as an uPnP extension for streaming movies and songs to the rest of the home network.

I’ve got a Buffalo Nfiniti WZR-HP-G300NH serving as an access point for streaming and Net surfing in the living room and a D-Link DIR-855 in the bedroom now, but I won’t mind swapping one of them for a E4200, if only for its looks!

One of the questions I often get from friends coming up to Hong Kong is if stuff is cheaper here or in Singapore. In many cases, the answer is “not really” or “just a little” – but in the case of the Synology DS210j that I bought for my bro recently, it was a helluva lot cheaper!

At HK$1530 (which is about S$278 at 1S$:5.5HK$), you’d be paying almost 50% more if you bought one from Synology’s dealer in Singapore (Memory World) which has priced it at S$408. Plus according to the Synology forum (post dates back to 2007 though), Synology does provide international warranty.

So why the DS210j? Only the Qnap TS210J II comes close to the DS210j’s transfer rates, but is more expensive. The rest of the 2-bay NAS competition, like the D-Link DNS-323 are generally slower. Oh, and its DLNA compliant too, so fits in with the plan of adding those ‘media extender’ devices to stream video and audio later.

And so far, the DS210j – paired with 2 x 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS HDD – has proven to be a great buy. No nasty surprises – it runs quietly, was easy to hook up to the network and does what it’s supposed to do.

The installation process could have been a tad better documented though. During the initial install, the installation wizard asked for the latest firmware file to flash the NAS, which left me for a sec wondering where to find it. After digging through the install disc, it turns out that the firmware files were in a directory labelled “patches”. In any case, geeks need to stay on top of firmware revisions so I went on down to their website and found a version that was newer than that on the disc.

Mac users will also be happy to know that the NAS popped right up in the Finder (I’m on OSX10.5.8) – leaving nothing to muck around with.

So unless you want to venture the DIY NAS on FreeNAS route that Alfred had shown previously, the Synology DS210j is the best bang for buck in the RAID 1, 2-bay NAS scene – especially if you get it here in HK!